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MOSTLY FOOTBALL
2008-11-20 16:00:16
“It has been one month since your last post. You are officially a pathetic blogger.”
--My sister
“Your blog is hilarious.”
--Former Marvel Intern
“No it isn’t.”
--Nate Cosby
FINE! Gahhhh. No one reads this thing, and yet people around me ONLY bug me when I’m not posting. So here, I’m starting a new feature, called “Mostly Football.” This is similar to “This Week In Thought,” which was a previous feature, but I don’t feel like hiding the fact that, sorry, I’m mostly thinking about football.
MOSTLY FOOTBALL
1. BIG HERO SIX #3 - Jordan D. White, who now sits at the desk I used to sit at over in Mark Paniccia’s office, had to fill up a bunch of pages at the end of BIG HERO 6 #3, and since the issue featured a football game well-drawn by David Nakayama, he asked me to participate in a “Nate Explains Football To Jordan” sequence. Head down to your local comic shop (if they still have those) and read it in the store (you don’t have to buy. Comics are expensive these days).
One note: I didn’t want to embarrass Mr. Nakayama, but the double-page spread I’ve attached here features the two teams set up outside the hash marks. Sigh. I didn’t have the heart to explain it to Jordan; he’s too busy grooming his increasingly-scary mustache.
2. BARACK OBAMA – I’m apolitical. But MAN, did you SEE 60 MINUTES!?!?!?!?!?!? OBAMA WANTS A COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is awesome. Destroy the economy, put me on food stamps, go to war with Canada, do whatever you wanna do, Mr. President. But you get us an 8-team playoff system in January, and I’ll actually…wear a button with your face on it. Or something. OH! I know: If you make this happen, I will forever name my Fantasy Football teams the Fighting Obamas. Or the Barack Battalion. Whichever you prefer, Mr. President.
3. X MEN NOIR – Put this book to bed last week. You should read it. It’s the best book I’ve ever edited. It’s the best story Fred Van Lente’s ever written. It’s the best artwork Dennis Calero’s every produced. After this book, they’re both gonna be too big for me to work with, and Noir will become too confusing for me to play in, so I’m just gonna enjoy this one mini. There are little nods to the X(dash)Men in it, but X(no dash)Men Noir is a genuinely good story on its own terms.
4. UTAH VS. BYU & OKLAHOMA VS. TEXAS TECH – Oooooooooooooooh. Big games. The Utah/BYU one will be interesting, especially with the 7:30pm state curfew (Utah joke!!!!!)
5. NOVA – I work right beside Bill Rosemann. Good man. He has funny glasses and always eats a banana before noon and sometimes speaks like a carnival barker (“HELLO FRIENDS!!!!!”). And he asked me to read over a couple of his books in the past couple weeks, while his assistant was on vacation. I was lucky enough to read the soon-to-be-published Nova #19…and dadgum, it’s GOOD! I mean..seriously! I haven’t read a Marvel comic in about 6 months, but this was accessible, and interesting, and the dialogue was zippy, and Darkhawk was there…well done, Mr. Abnett/Mr. Lanning, and Mr. Rosemann. Best compliment I can give is that it was as much fun as the original NEW WARRIORS series by Mr. Nicieza & Mr. Bagley.
6. COLLEGE BASKETBALL – I live about five blocks from Madison Square Garden. This would be good if the NBA didn’t suck. But wouldn’t you know it…the NBA sucks. So I’m going to make a commitment this week to try and watch college basketball, so that the eventual depression I’ll enter when football’s over won’t be so painful. Sigh. I’m already getting upset.
7. PUPPY – So…I want a bulldog. My girlfriend and I have, like junkies, been heading to the same street corner twice a week to see a 9-week old English bulldog that we’ve named Winston Churchill (note, there is a hat on me, but my girlfriend put the hat on Winston Churchill with some computer program. Dunno, she’s smarter than me). We can’t afford him, but that doesn’t keep us from going and taking pictures and cuddling. Sigh. I’m trying to convince her that we need to get a girl bulldog and name her Aretha Franklin. ALSO: I forced Chris Eliopoulos to give Franklin Richards a puppy. He's Lockjaw's kid, and his name's Puppy. The life of an editor is TRULY rewarding.
8. PIE – I like it.
9. A NEW MINI-SERIES THAT I CAN’T TELL YOU ABOUT YET – Frog Thor’s in it. That’s ALL I can say.
Growing Pains, Not Starring Kirk Cameron
2008-10-01 10:39:34
(I'm only posting a new entry because my sister's making me. Leave me alone now, Cal.)
So I got moved to a different office.
I've worked under Mark Paniccia for the (over) three years I've worked here at Marvel, and he's the absolute best boss I could've ever had, because all he wants to do is make good comics and tell fun stories.
But the higher-ups decided to make a change, and so I'm sittin' here in Mr. Ralph Macchio's office, which isn't a bad place to land. I respect the ever-livin' heck out of Ralph and am amazed at how long he's been at Marvel. Some of the greatest stories ever told here were released on his watch. Don't think I could've moved anywhere else in the office (well...maybe the mailroom. I'm good at FedEx.)
So I've taken the all-ages books with me (the Marvel Adventures line, Power Pack, X-Men and Wolverine First Class, Free Comic Book Day, Spidey Loves MJ, Franklin Richards, Mini Marvels, this new Super Hero Squad thing), and I'm the Custom Book editor (these are books that companies pay for Marvel to get makd. And there's a lot of them. And apparently they make a LOT of money. And they tell me I may get to do a 3-part miniseries on British knife crime. It'll be a love story).
And I'm going to be working on the Marvel Illustrated line (which I LOVE) and the Stephen King books.
(WHAT NATE KNOWS ABOUT STEPHEN KING BOOKS: Shawshank Redemption was based on something that Stephen King wrote. I think.)
Oh, and I'm doing a bunch of digital books, and X Men Noir, and a What If, and...I dunno, it's like 55 books or so.
To be honest, all of these changes would have affected me much more if football weren't on, but the fact that Ole Miss managed to whomp down Florida last weekend kinda put the whole comic book thing on the back burner. So I'll do my best to keep blogging about the experience of moving from one office to the other, all while being 95% focused on college football.
Meantime, here's a lil' art.
This is the best book I'm editing.
2008-09-04 13:08:30
THIS (FOOTBALL) WEEK (FOOTBALL) IN (FOOTBALL) THOUGHT
2008-09-02 14:28:07
OK! I hear Tom’s blog talks about comics. Feel free to go over there if you’re not into stuff I like.
1. UCLA vs. TENNESSEE – This is #1 on my mind, since it just happened on Monday night. DID YOU SEE THIS?!?!?!? I flew into LaGuardia late last night, so I got home with about five minutes to go in the 4th quarter. But that’s all I needed to see. What a friggin’ game. Kevin Craft does crappy the first three quarters, then gets his Joe Montana on at the VERY end. Outstanding. And I’m not even angry that UCLA beat the SEC, since Tennessee is my second least favorite team in the conference (Hi Alabama!)
2. MY MOM THE GRANDMASTER – Don’t mess with my Ma. Seriously. All she does is win trophies. Me, Pop, Ma and the Sis ran the Chick-Fil-A 5K in Memphis on Monday. We all did respectable (I came in 42nd), but I swear, Ma went and won Grandmaster AGAIN. She’s a 5-foot-3 pile of awesome. Proud’a ya, Ma! Shout-out to the lovely people at the Memphis Redwings baseball stadium for hosting a lovely race. Sorry we didn’t use the free tickets to the game you gave us after the run. But (nothing personal) you’re a baseball team.
3. OLE MISS vs. MEMPHIS – The family headed to Oxford, Mississippi on Saturday to catch the beginning of the Houston Nutt era. Blow-out game, but that’s kinda beside the point. Point of Ole Miss games is to show up in The Grove about five hours before kickoff. We’re mainly Mississippi State fans (more on that later), so we were a bit out of our element, but our friend Rod was nice enough to have us at his tent. Rod is kind of a big fan; I’m reasonably sure he could name every third string Ole Miss player faster than he could name his children.
You cannot imagine this place. Picture fifty acres of humanity draped in red, white and blue, all holding plastic cups and fanning themselves with paper plates. Tents full of every food imaginable (most of it fried). The highlights of the game were A) Watching Michael Oher play (seriously, READ THE BLIND SIDE. Great book), and B) Leaving the stadium at halftime to get cheap bottles of water, then realizing that once you leave the stadium, you can’t get back in. So I put on my best New York accent and convinced the security guard that I did not understand his strange Southern ways. He let me back in. Very proud of myself.
4. HOOSIERS – Watched this on the plane. Totally conflicted about this movie. Great story, awesome dialogue, beautiful cinematography, terrific Gene Hackman performance (Hackman Theory: He’s best when he plays a good guy, because he looks inherently evil. Something about a good evil-looking guy is more fascinating than watching a virtuous-looking guy playing a good guy.) But Hoosiers will be forever handicapped by that awful '80s synth score. The movie is set in 1951 and the music sounds like it’s from Tron! Same thing happened to The Right Stuff. Breaks my heart. You suck, '80s. If I wasn’t born during you, I would ask that you be stricken from the annals of history.
5. MISSISSIPPI STATE vs. LOUISIANA TECH – Well, State’s bad. This happens a lot. There’s a certain comfortable sameness that washes over you after State does well one year, then hops right back into land of mediocrity. I’m wearing my black State shirt today, in observance of what may very be a 3-win season. Thank goodness for the rest of the SEC.
6. DEATH TO CATS – Fantasy Football Draft on Wednesday night! Very pumped. This might make me care about the NFL this year! I’ll be using a drafting method I don’t want to reveal here, because at least one of the guys on my team reads my blog. But I WILL reveal: I’m NOT taking LaDanian Tomlinson. The guy wears a dark visor at all times. He looks like Darth Vader sitting on the sidelines, he’s all cocky about his abilities, then he gets a lil’ knee ache in the playoffs last year and doesn’t even go in as a possible distraction for the defense. Bleh. I hate the No Fun League. Bunch’a whiny millionaires.
7. TOM HANKS AS A VILLAIN - #4 got me thinking about this. Where in the heck is the token Tom Hanks villain performance? ("Road to Perdition" doesn’t count, he got good) He’s won two Oscars, should’ve gotten a third for Castaway and he hasn’t done the bad guy thing yet? C’mon, Hackman, Denzel, Russell, Cheadle, Pitt, Jackson, Welles, everyone but Tom Cruise has played evil (and you could argue that EVERY Tom Cruise performance is evil). Be a bad guy! (But don’t let Marvel sign you. I don’t want to see you cast as Loki in the Thor movie and get killed by an energy donut like War Monger was in Iron Man).
Back to work. HULK #6's gotta go out this week...
NATE EXPLAINS NFL SUPERPRO TO JORDAN
2008-08-28 10:01:20
NATE: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
JORDAN: All right, Nate… you’ve posted three of your trading blogs, and then took almost a week off from blogging (presumably to lay around doing nothing). And while I’m honored to have done the first “Fair Trade,” I am starting to feel neglected. I have needs! I think it’s time for another explanation. I’ve probably read a hundred comics since last time I’ve explained one to you. When are we going to get back to it?
NATE: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz(football-related hibernation)zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
JORDAN: Nate. NATE! …. Hey, doesn’t football start this week?
NATE: zzzAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(snort)
Did someone say FOOTBALL!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
JORDAN: Uh, yeah, sorry about that. It was a clever ruse to wake you so we can talk about comics. I was thinking I could explain the "Mutant Massacre," or the first trade of EXILES, or "The Death of Gwen Stacy." Sound like fun?
NATE: How dare you. How dare. No, for waking me up (FOOTBALL ON THURSDAY!!!!!), you are going to be punished. I’m going to explain one of the greatest worst characters of my youth: NFL SUPERPRO!!!!
JORDAN: Uh… do I really deserve that? Ok… well, I guess you have 100 words to tell me about the wonder/horror that is SuperPro.
NATE: Ok! So Phil Grayfield was a football player, but he saved a kid and hurt his knee. Then he became a football reporter and interviewed a scientist that had created an INDESTRUCTIBLE FOOTBALL UNIFORM. Bad guys broke in during the interview, tried to steal the inventor’s NFL memorabilia, and then set fire to the building. Phil gets tied up and chemicals and football memorabilia fall on top of him, and he somehow gets stronger. Then he steals the scientist’s uniform and fights…crime.
It’s awful. But football forgives all. (except for you, Eli Manning)
JORDAN: Ok… ok, wait… So… he get’s super-football powers from football memorabilia doused in chemicals? And, were that not lame enough, he then wears really great PADDING?!?
NATE: Yeah! He can’t be hurt, but he wears a suit that can’t be broken…THAT HAS ALMOST NO FACIAL PROTECTION. If that uniform were ever used in a real game, people’s mouths and noses would be mangled constantly.
JORDAN: So… what does he do? Just win at football a lot?
NATE: No, he keeps faking his knee injury (which has mysteriously healed), and he travels around, interviewing football players. And whenever there’s a football-related crime, he jumps into his news van, and out leaps NFL SUPERPRO!!!!!!!!
JORDAN: Football-related crimes? Like… what? Someone robs the concession stand? Someone kidnaps the quarterback?
NATE: Well, there was Instant Replay. He was an assassin that could SLICE THROUGH TIME!!!!!!!!!!! And there was a bad guy that took steroids and went insane and turned into a giant. Oh! And my favorite was Quick Kick. He was a football placekicker that turned into a NINJA!!!!!!!
JORDAN: So, he didn’t even fight Marvel villains? He didn’t get to spike a ball in Doctor Doom’s face?
NATE: You have no idea what spiking a ball means.
No, he didn’t have time to fight your “real” villains. He was too busy covering FOOTBALL!!!!!!
Hey, you’ve heard my fantasy football team’s name, right?
JORDAN: I vaguely remember something along the lines of “My Name is Nate Cosby and I am a Bad Person.”
NATE: Close! It’s DEATH TO CATS. Wanna join?
JORDAN: No. Because first of all, I love cats, and second, I don’t care about football.
I give it an RCI: read comics instead.
NATE: I’m going back to hibernation until tomorrozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
LIFE BEGINS AGAIN THIS WEEK
2008-08-26 14:56:15
I thought maybe I could blog everyday.
But I can’t. Too much work on my desk.
And.
AND.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND.
FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOT
BALLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahhhhhh. The weather’s crisp. The women aren’t wearing those stupid flowy too-short dresses (I’m the youngest prude I know. Whatever). Sportscenter isn’t as choked with worthless baseball highlights (with the exception of the Little League World Series. That was awesome. Congrats Hawaii!).
It just…FEELS like football.
Anyway. Hopefully have a JORDAN EXPLAINS for you tomorrow (he’s been whining), but here’s a little art for ya.
--Nate
FAIR TRADE - MY POP
2008-08-21 17:43:48
First:
FOOTBALL STARTS IN SEVEN DAYS WHY ARE YOU READING THIS YOU SHOULD BE PSYCHING YOURSELF UP FOR SOUTH CAROLINA VS. NORTH CAROLINA STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Second:
PHOO! I'm busy. (You don’t care.)
So my mom calls me this week. Someone told her that they liked my blog. That was nice.
Then the other night, while I was watching "Annie Hall" (and thinking about football), my dad calls me. Went something like:
NATE: Yo!
POP: Naaaaaate.
NATE: Hey, Pop!
POP: How do I read your blog?
NATE: How?
POP: Somebody told me it was good. But I’m readin’ it an’ I don’t get it.
NATE: It’s about comics.
POP: Oh. (pause) Well, I’m gonna read it anyway.
Then I tried to explain Fair Trade in football terms, and he got it, but there’s still no way he’s going to know what the heck most of my entries mean.
So I’m taking that to heart, and I now promise that I will mostly NOT talk about comics, so that my parents can understand what I’m talking about on my blog. Comics’re like kids: They should be read and not blogged. I’ll still do Fair Trade and Jordan Explains, but that’s it!
And now, in honor of Pop, I will present a Fair Trade of who I think HE would want Marvel to acquire, and what he should give away to get them:
1. RUSSELL CROWE from "A GOOD YEAR." Me and Pop love this movie. Crowe’s all snotty and British and then he goes to France and gets a hot French girl and a vineyard/villa and finds peace by living in Provence and…y’know, having 50 million dollars. Shame on all of you for watching worthless action movies when this gem’s just sitting there on the shelf, waiting to be rented. I’ll trade Daredevil for him. He’s a jerk too.
(POP: Daredevil is a whiny redheaded lawyer blind guy that dresses in a leotard and beats up people because he’s self-absorbed and can’t keep his girlfriends from dying.)
2. REESE WITHERSPOON’S DAD from "SWEET HOME ALABAMA." My parents have seen this movie at least 75 times. And they laugh hysterically every time they see it or talk about it. I think Reese’s dad is their favorite, because he’s proud of his recliner and eats bologna loaf. The dad’s not that much in demand, so let’s trade Jarvis for him.
(POP, Jarvis is the butler for The Avengers. The Avengers is a team of super heroes that stand around and talk a lot.)
3. THE MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS FOOTBALL TEAM. They’re wily and play better when people ring cowbells in the stands. They also haven’t had an offense in about seven years. So in honor of them being young, and the fact that they make pretty good money in ticket sales, and ESPN usually gives them good TV coverage, I’ll trade the youth-people platter of Young Avengers, Runaways, New Warriors, Loners, Power Pack, the original New Mutants and Cloak & Dagger. And what the heck…the Fantastic Four too.
(POP: You have no need to know who any of these people are. I’ll tell you about the Teen Titans someday. They’re very cool.)
4. THE IRON MAN TRIATHLON. My parents are the most awesome athletes I know. They run marathons and bike and swim. Ma is constantly winning her age group in competitions (but she never tells anyone). I think I could get them to read a comic if it was all about someone training to do one of the hardest competitions in the world. Tell ya what, we’ll trade Iron Man straight up for the triathlon.
(POP: They made a movie out of Iron Man recently. Robert Downey Jr. pretended to be as tall as Gweneth Paltrow for two hours, then an energy donut exploded and the movie was over.)
5. SEABISCUIT from SEABISCUIT. This is the only movie starring Tobey Maguire that I’ve ever liked. Me and Pop have watched this movie about three times while riding stationary bikes (hey, y’gotta do something on a stationary bike). The horse is the real star, though (and would probably be more believable as Spidey, come to think of it). Factoring in race winnings, book sales and movie residuals, I think it’s safe for Marvel to trade away Thor. He’s kinda popular, but just unknown enough to equal a famous horse.
(POP: Thor’s a god that controls thunder and has a hammer. Currently, he wears pajamas when he fights.)
-FINAL TRADE ANALYSIS-
1.
DAREDEVIL
for RUSSELL CROWE from "A GOOD YEAR"
2.
JARVIS
for REESE WITHERSPOON’S DAD from "SWEET HOME ALABAMA"
3.
YOUNG AVENGERS / RUNAWAYS / NEW WARRIORS / LONERS / POWER PACK / NEW MUTANTS / CLOAK & DAGGER / FANTASTIC FOUR
for THE MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS FOOTBALL TEAM
4.
IRON MAN
for THE IRON MAN TRIATHLON
5.
THOR
for SEABISCUIT
FAIR TRADE - BEN MORSE
2008-08-15 13:44:38
I'm a little worried. People are coming into the office and giving me their trading ideas. Editors, interns, marketing people...they're throwing "Goonies for Young Avengers!" and "Clandestine for two Harry Potter characters!" around. This leads me to believe that people are actually reading the blog. Which bothers me.
And now, it's getting to the point that I'm being emailed unprompted Fair Trades! Again, I'm really flattered, I'm just worried that people have nothing better to do than read my worthless blog. Shame on all of you.
Anyway, here's Ben Morse (who works over in Marvel.com):
BEN:
To save you the trouble of asking me, here’s my list…
1. First and foremost, WALLY WEST, THE FLASH is my favorite DC character, thus it’s imperative we get him over here. Now, on first glance, you might bigger the Flash is a huge DC corporate icon and we’d need to give up a buttload of characters to get him, but au contraire mon frère. Y’see, DC has about a billion Flashes, so they should be able to spare one for a reasonable price. So they don’t even have to be down a speedster, I’m willing to give them QUICKSILVER and then throw in his sister, THE SCARLET WITCH, to sweeten the pot. To seal the deal, I’ll even give two AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE kids to be named later. And heck, because I want him too, let’s grab IMPULSE in exchange for SPEED from the Young Avengers to make the swap complete.
2. Next up, because I just gave up the Scarlet Witch, we should get ZATANNA up in the House of Ideas. We’ve got a zillion X-Men so I’ll throw some of them DC’s way. Howzabout PSYLOCKE, ANGEL and JUBILEE—they were all in that third X-Men flick, right? So there ya go: three multimedia stars for one lady magician in fishnets; everybody goes home happy.
3. Continuing the girl power theme (ugh), I want POWER GIRL over here. I’ll offer up a straight blond-for-blond trade with MS. MARVEL for PG. I think Ms. M has more name value, bit I also think we could do a lot with PG, so DC takes this trade and likes it.
4. Just like Flashes, DC has way too many Green Lanterns, so I want one of them too. I thought about Kyle Rayner, because he’s the coolest, but his personality is too close to Nova, who already has a better costume and is overall more rad, so he’d be redundant. No, instead I want GUY GARDNER, who was born to be a Marvel character and get punched in the face by Captain America. I’m gonna be a gentleman and send DC’s way not only USAGENT, who is just as ornery and conservative as Guy, but all of OMEGA FLIGHT, because they don’t have any Canadian characters. And y’know what, since I just gave them like half a dozen characters, we get a MINOR GREEN LANTERN TO BE NAMED LATER as well (and it better not be one of the crappy ones).
5. Last but not least, I want a good villain, so let’s snag DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR. I’m willing to give DC a solid trade here in the form of SABRETOOTH, primed for renewed greatness since the guy with all the Tony awards is playing him in the Wolverine movie next year. It’s a risky move on my part, but since Loeb killes Sabes anyhow, I figure we’ve said our piece with him.
NATE:
1. UNFAIR! But just barely. In my completely biased opinion, Wally and Bart are WAY more valuable than your Marvel poo-poo platter.
2. UNFAIR! Marvel’s given too much. I’d drop Angel.
3. FAIR! Be interesting to see what they’d call Ms. Marvel’s book.
4. Hmmm. Could it be G’Nort?
5. FAIR!
BEN:
1. I don’t disagree with you on the inherent awesomeness of Wally and Bart, but if DC ain’t doing anything with them, why can’t we have them? Still I see your point, so let’s see what else we got…howzabout we toss in the RED HULK too? We only really need one, right? And his book sells like a gazillion copies under the brilliant direction of its assistant editor.
2. Excellent, we keep Angel.
4. It could absolutely be G’Nort!
NATE:
1. Flattery will get you NOWHERE, you beautiful, genius man. No, Red Hulk’s too much. The bald Mr. Loeb has spun red into gold, so that’s a primo commodity. Think B/C level.
2. FAIR!
4. SUPER-FAIR!
BEN:
1. Very well, lemme think…Wonder Man? Can we give them Wonder Man? And…Dazzler? Because Jim McCann would love that, so, y’know, bonus.
NATE:
Pleasure doin’ business with ya.
-FINAL TRADE ANALYSIS-
1.
QUICKSILVER / SCARLET WITCH / WONDER MAN / DAZZLER / SPEED / 2 INITIATIVE MEMBERS TO BE NAMED LATER
for FLASH (WALLY WEST) / IMPULSE
2.
PSYLOCKE / JUBILEE
for ZATANNA
3.
MS. MARVEL
for POWER GIRL
4.
USAGENT / BETA RAY BILL / SASQUATCH / ARACHNE / GUARDIAN
for GUY GARDNER / G'NORT
5. SABRETOOTH
for DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR
FAIR TRADE - TOM BRENNAN
2008-08-14 17:13:12
Awright, second episode!
Next up we have TOM BRENNAN, assistant editor to all things AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and constant inter-office champion of odd, unexplainable facial hair.
Brennan! You give me your Top-5, then we argue.
BRENNAN:
1. Agents of Atlas for Scooby Doo and the Gang
2. Fantastic Four for the Ghostbusters
3. Mini Marvels for the Muppets
4. Penance for Emily the Strange
5. Magneto for Lex Luthor
NATE:
1. UNFAIR! Much as I LOVE the AoA, Scooby’s a cash cow. You’d have to pony up more for the entire franchise.
2. Huh. Y’know what? FAIR!
3. FAIR! Love you, Giarrusso, but it’s THE MUPPETS.
4. Who’s Emily the Strange?
5. FAIR! Yeah, why not.
BRENNAN:
1. Counter point: Shut up. First of all, it’s completely even; Four humanoids and a talking animal. I guess there’s also M11, robot extraordinaire, but he’s swapped for the Mystery Machine. A robot’s waaaay cooler than a van. Also, Agents of Atlas doesn’t come with the precedent of drug humor. I’d much rather have my kids reading about Jimmy Woo and the Gang than a bunch of no-good, punk kids. (and their lousy dog). Woo for Doo! Woo for Doo!
2. Thanks. Love me the FF. Millar and Hitch remind me why it was my first favorite book. But let’s face it, they’re not intimidated by anything in the Marvel U. anymore. They’ve beaten GALACTUS like 8 thousand times. They need a fresh start. And the Ghostbusters would fit right in to the Marvel Universe, perfectly replacing what we’ve lost in the FF. Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler easily equal one Reed Richards, Dana Barrett is as motherly and tough a woman as Sue Storm – she stood up to Vigo the Carpathian, yo. Peter Venkman is as great a personality as Johnny Storm (Bill Murray played Johnny on a 1975 FF radio show!) and Winston Zeddemore is every bit as everyman a man as Ben Grimm. SOLD!
3. Yessir – no slight on the Mini Marvels. Quite a compliment, really. This is what we’d need to lose to get so great a license. Think about it: Wolverine vs. Animal. That’d be WAAAAAAY more exciting than the 700000th Wolverine/Sabretooth slapfest.
4. Rob Reger and Cosmic Debris Etc. INC.’s counterculture princess. As depressed a human being as Penance while being much more entertaining a read than his whiney white butt.
5. If I hear “Magneto’s a villain who’s point of view you can understand” one more time, I’ll clog my ears with q-tips.
NATE:
1. Counter-counter point: Go take a long walk off a short pier.
Look, like I said, AoA hold a special place in my heart. I was there at the very beginning on that. But you’ve gotta think about the money. Scooby’ll probably get another movie, another cartoon, their comics are going on forever…AoA is cooler, but DC would never give away such a huge moneymaker.
4. Shrug. Ok.
BRENNAN:
1. Alright, alright – let’s lose Namora and swap in Daredevil. Easily one more movie to get out of him (particularly if you re-boot, a la the Hulk) and imagine their animation dept.’s take on horn head.
NATE:
I worry about your sanity. You want to trade a low-selling team (WITHOUT one of its members) and the guy that had a movie that made about 15 cents…for a billion-dollar commodity that makes money from DVD/merchandise/toys/books/feature films.
You’ve got to sweeten the pot. Drastically.
BRENNAN:
Sanity is for the weak.
OK OK, take Daredevil off the table. In fact, scratch the whole AoA. We send over the original 5 X-Men AND Lockjaw. And Antonio McDyess, Frank Williams and an unprotected draft pick.
NATE:
Which X-Men?
BRENNAN:
Original 5 – Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Iceman and Marvel Girl.
NATE:
SOLD! (these are the worst picks ever)
-FINAL TRADE ANALYSIS-
1.
CYCLOPS / BEAST / ANGEL / ICEMAN / MARVEL GIRL / ANTONIO McDYESS / FRANK WILLIAMS / UNPROTECTED DRAFT PICK
for SCOOBY DOO & THE GANG
2.
FANTASTIC FOUR
for GHOSTBUSTERS
3.
MINI MARVELS
for THE MUPPETS
4.
PENANCE
for EMILY THE STRANGE
5.
MAGNETO
for LEX LUTHOR
FAIR TRADE - PILOT EPISODE
2008-08-13 17:51:03
I AM SO INCREDIBLY EXCITED THAT BRETT FAVRE IS HERE IN NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I have received a grant from the government (any government will do), I will commission a study solely devoted to the eradication of the gene that makes some people not care about football. There is right and wrong in this world. And people that do not like football are incorrect.
But! Until my government check’s in the mail, I’m going to have to deal with these poor unfortunate souls who like silly unimportant things, like “baseball” and “girlfriends.” Ugh.
And ONE way of dealing with non-footballishness is to start a new segment in honor of Brett Favre’s move to the Jets (JET FAVRE!). We’ll call it FAIR TRADE.
Simple rules: I invite a person onto the blog, and they offer trades.
What’re we trading?
Marvel characters for other companies’ characters.
For example: Spider-Man for Batman, straight up. That seems fair, right? Both mega-popular, both sell well, both have big movie franchises. Done deal.
But part of the fun of this will be the complex trades. For instance: Would you trade Blue Beetle/Booster Gold for Wonder Man/Beast? I wouldn’t. I think Marvel would have to pony up at least a member of the Runaways before DC lets Blue and Gold go.
So I’ll be bringing in guests and having them give their Top-5 Wish List for characters they want, and what Marvel characters they’d trade away to get them.
First up: My Uncle Charlie! (or, as others call him, Jordan D. White) We'll use him as the guinea pig for this first installment.
Jordan! Hit me with your Top-5.
JORDAN:
1. You said it, we need Booster and Beetle. I think Wonder Man is a good trade for Booster, actually, but I think Moon Knight can trade for Beetle. THEN, since that is a little skewed, and you get some synergy from Blue & Gold you don’t from Wondy/Moon, I’ll throw in Vision for Skeets, which is clearly skewed for them.
2. I want the Marvel Family. It’s tough to pick something equitable… I’d LIKE to trade them for OUR Captain Marvel. Heck, all of them. But I fee like they would not go for that. How about Cap and Bucky? That seems pretty fair.
3. Jimmy Olson. Love the guy. How’s about Jimmy for… Well, let’s go with Rick Jones. Pretty straightforward.
4. John Constantine. Can we get him for Doctor Strange? I’d like to try. Constantine is just… so much more interesting.
5. How about… Promethea. Alan Moore’s psychedelic, all-encompassing, magic-explaining, woman of fiction was a complete blast. Now, she’s not that famous, but she’s really well written. So, how about… Scarlet Witch?
Whaddya think?
NATE:
1. UNFAIR! Marvel owes a little more. C’mon, it’s BLUE & GOLD. Wonder Man’s virtually an unknown, and I’ve never read a Moon Knight comic. Booster and Beetle come over here, Marvel’s gotta pony up one more B/C-level character.
2. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…that’s very interesting. I’m verrrrrrry tempted…would you throw in the Invaders (minus Namor)?
3. UNFAIR! A person on the street MIGHT know Jimmy Olsen, since he’s so ingrained into the culture. No one cares about Rick Jones (even if he is currently blue and shaped like an armadillo).
4. FAIR! I don’t care about either of these.
5. UNFAIR! I agree, she’s waaaaaaaay more interesting, but Scarlet Witch is a high commodity recently, since she’s the been the crux of HUGE stories that I haven’t read.
JORDAN:
Hmph. Ok.
1. Oh, come on. Fine. I’ll give you Ultron. Ok?
2. The Invaders? Well, Human Torch is the first Marvel Hero. So, no. But I will give you Spitfire, Union Jack, Whizzer, and the Thin Man. They can Join the JSA.
3. They are both teen sidekick supporting characters! Hmph.FINE! I’ll give you Mary jane for Jimmy Olsen. That way, it will take away this whole Spider-Marriage controversy, and MJ can break up Supes and Lois. Meanwhile, Jimmy will work at the Bugle as a competitor of Peter.
4. OK.
5. Scarlet Witch has appeared as a plot device. Promethea can do anything Wanda can do, plus way more.
NATE:
1. ULTRON!? I asked for a B/C-level character! Think smaller!
2. FAIR!
3. NOW you’re thinkin’! FAIR!
4. FAIR!
5. Whatever. I don’t know anything about either of them. And Alan Moore would make a good comic no matter who he was writing about. FAIR!
JORDAN:
Ultron is an A level character?!? Since when? Grrr. Ok, look… Booster, Beetle, and Skeets for Wonder Man, Moon Knight, Vision, and Tigra. OK? She is B level. They can have their own JLWest Coast, and we can have an Avengers International. Ok?
NATE:
Pleasure doin’ business with ya.
-FINAL TRADE ANALYSIS-
1. WONDER MAN / MOON KNIGHT / VISION / TIGRA
for BLUE BEETLE / BOOSTER GOLD / SKEETS
2. CAPTAIN AMERICA / BUCKY / SPITFIRE / UNION JACK / WHIZZER / THIN MAN
for CAPTAIN MARVEL / MARY MARVEL / CAPTAIN MARVEL JR.
3. MARY JANE
for JIMMY OLSEN
4. DOCTOR STRANGE
for JOHN CONSTANTINE
5. PROMETHEA
for SCARLET WITCH
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About this blog:
By day, he’s a mild-mannered comic book editor! By night, he’s an obsessive sports fan!
By early morning, he drinks coffee and then runs! He’s Nathan Cosby, and he has thoughts about things.
This is them.
 | About the author:
Nathan Cosby has somehow managed to become an assistant editor at Marvel Comics. He can make helicopter sounds with his tongue and edits Power Pack, Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four, Spider-Man Family and helps with all the other All-Age stuff. He is really good-looking and likes Gummi Bears.
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