We're getting down to the nitty-gritty on the Bad Comics I Had A Hand In feature, as I think it's going to wrap up by the time I head off to the Chicago convention at the end of the week. So here's today's sterling entry.
VENOM: SINNER TAKES ALL #5 was the last issue of my first arc as the editor of the title--a poor fit if ever there was one. But my problem with this issue has little to do with the contents, and everything to do with the cover--a situation that I'm still angry about a full decade later.
In those days, during the year when Marvel had 5 editors-in-chief, each one overseeing a different division, we in the Spider-Man offices used to have weekly cover meetings. These were grueling sessions in which the entire editorial staff of the Spidey books would get together to come up with the cover concepts for that month's books. They went on for hours, during which time nobody was getting anything else done, so they weren't terribly time-efficient. But Bob Budiansky, the Spidey EIC, liked having all of the assorted points of view at his disposal.
For this particular cover, we talked about the concept and I drew the sketch myself on a scrap of paper. In the storyline, Eddie Brock encounters his estranged ex-wife again in the course of a running battle with the new Sin-Eater, so what I proposed was a sort of faux wedding picture kind of image, with the monstrous Venom embracing his ex-wife, who would be reacting in horror to his presence--the contrast hopefully getting the conflict across. The cover concept was approved, and Kyle Hotz was given the go-ahead to draw up the cover.
Then, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #226, edited by Bob, came out.
For those who don't remember, that was a crucial issue in the clone saga, in which it was revealed that Ben Reilly was the true Spider-Man. But the specific event that pertains to this cover was a panel in which Spider-Man, driven a bit off his rocker by this revelation, backhands Mary Jane. The response was immediate and intense, especially internally. Bob took a lot of flack for allowing that page to see print. Consequently, he suddenly became hyper-conservative when it came to depicting anything that could be interpreted as violence towards women. And so, he had a problem withth Venom cover as it had been done.
Bob wanting to change the cover wasn't the issue I had with him about this. It was the way he went about it that rankled me.
See, Bob decided that, despite the fact that the entire editorial staff had seen him do it, he hadn't approved the cover sketch in the first place, and so this was all of a sudden my fault. And this also meant he didn't want to pay Kyle to do the revisions to the cover, which retroactively wasn't approved. We argued about this for literally weeks, with neither of us wanting to budge. In the end, I had no choice but to call Kyle up, and ask him as a favor to make the change to the piece.
So angry was I about this entire situation that I kept a copy of the unaltered cover in my files for years, intending to swap it back in should the issue ever be reprinted. But I finally discarded it last year when Marvel moved offices.
And looking at the printed cover, it's still actually pretty good. It works in a different way than the proposed cover, but it still works.
More later.
Tom B
Guess it's nice to know office politics work the same at Marvel as they do everywhere else.
Strange how Hank Pym hits Jan once and is forever labeled a wife-beater (with writers apparently incapable of moving beyond that). Spider-Man does it and no one seems to care. Bendis has given interviews about how he doesn't like Hank simply because of that one bit of Shooter character assassination but is still happy to use Spidey.
Posted by motteditor on 2006-08-02 22:01:06
last crappy comic well,it was fun while it lated
Posted by tarhaun on 2006-08-02 22:34:51
Venom Venom is one of my favorite Spidey villians but I have never been a fan of the tongue and teeth. Apparently it was not OK to have a cover that may show a woman in harm's way but you could use a potentially sexually suggestive cover. Food for thought.
Keep up the great blogs Tom.
Posted by glibby3 on 2006-08-03 16:02:22
Venom-ous Office Politics Well, at least she wasn't in a refrigerator.
Posted by Lonesome Pinky on 2006-08-04 18:42:25
bleh i hate comics from the 90s veomes cool though i dont like spidey that much but im dyin to see the movie x men 3 was awsome way better that supes returns and ghost rider looks sweet when are they gonna make a cap and moon knight movie!?
Posted by capman1 on 2006-08-07 07:23:59
stop hatin yourself for the Clone Saga!! Hey, the clone Saga still sits with me as having some of the best stories in spidey history... I know that's a bold statement, but it's even bolder to replace spider-man with a clone of himself, long thought dead... and somehow wrap a strong since of continuity around the whole thing... it may not be some people's favorite story, but it's one that needed to be told... just maybe not so long... it did last for freaking ever...
Posted by spblagg on 2006-08-07 13:42:39
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About this blog: Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."
About the author: Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four.
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