Duck and Cover
Hey Tom,

You’re the only Marvel editor I’ve ever gotten a fan letter *from* (for somethin’ I wrote in The Jack Kirby Collector a ways back), so I had to cheat a bit and reprise the pro-Howard post I did elsewhere in the labyrinth of Marvel.com once I wandered further and stumbled on your blog:

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Really well-done and unusual stuff, showing good editorial instincts I hope you’ll go with in more Ty-directed Howard stories. It sat well in the vicinity of the Ant-Man story -- the other reason I bought the book, though I enjoyed all of it and will especially look out for Omega Flight; from the way that story went it looks like USAgent will not only be Stark’s liaison to Canada but Civil War’s ambassador to the real-life political frictions CW draws analogies to –- and thus maybe succeed where I felt the character’s last book, New Invaders, went off the rails. That book turned everything into an alien plot (at least at the point I gave up on it), but ya might as well grapple with real-world issues when using these militia-like characters.

Anyway, from my enjoyment of the whole package you can tell that the variety Choosing Sides offered showed how comfortable a place there is for strips like Ty’s Howard in the darker context of today’s superheroes -- especially in the mainstream/indie mix Marvel has been doing so well this decade.

Make Mine Mallard,
Adam McGovern


Posted by Adam McGovern on 2006-11-02 19:30:28
Duck and Recover
...um, and here's that previous post I alluded too but the Marvel.com system seems to have eaten:

Forget dimension-crossing waterfowl, the real miracle is the Howard spot in Choosing Sides -- against all expected odds, I have now seen the only non-Gerber HtD story that matters. Templeton perfectly caught the strip's classic sense of satire and absurdity without descending into parody and nonsense (a balance none of Steve's other heirs ever struck). And Ty truly observed the essence of the character's existential aloofness, finding an elegantly logical reason for Howard's ineligibility for the mega-event of the minute. Crowning irony: the talking duck is too real for Civil War. The op-ed rants, the anarchic mischief, it's all there... Ty’s work on Harvey Pekar’s comic must have been a good warm-up for this curmudgeon. I'm on the side of an ongoing series!

Waaugh,
Adam

Posted by Adam McGovern on 2006-11-02 19:33:55
reply
well me personally i would choose the side of venom

Posted by kidney krusher on 2007-05-29 13:13:21