The Bullpen

[Tim H]

Interesting and it certainly makes sense: Why put your absolute best into a project when you don't control all the rights?  It's kinda the "creator owned comics" argument writ large at the corporate level.

What's wrong with putting your best into a project because it is your job and you take pride in your work?  Creating new, fresh, and successful characters and story arcs is only going to propel your career and afford you being able to do more projects in the future.  This is probably a naive outlook due to a romanticized view of working in the comics industry but 

[wolfstone]

Yeah this has been Marvel's modus operandi  for quite a while look at the big push in Thor and Cap books this year to tie into their respective films. The new X-Men movie is out shortly but on the comics side it's pretty much business as usual. I'm not saying Marvel are wrong to do this but it's pretty clear to see on which side their bread is buttered.

[NeverWanderer (Joey Cruz)]

I miss the days when X-Men were the game 

Werd. 

[miraclemet]

So I was just listening to the CGS episode where Hickman was interviewed and he made a very quick statement that I found very interesting.

When talking about the inner workings of Marvel and their editorial decisions he said that the reason why Avengers is the "go to" top comic franchise (say vs. X-Men or FF) is because Marvel holds all the cards of the Movie rights with the Avengers.  Unlike X-Men or FF where the rights are shared/liscenced with other media entities.

I know it is an obvious statement yet I never connected the dots til he said it out loud.


the Tiki

thats the exact same point that I keyed in on.

that and the fact that he mentioned how cgs has frequently made FF the pick of the week (ifanboy?)... and they just kept moving...

so even within the top titles Marvel has a hierachy.. which makes sense since Bendis is on those... and he's the top dog there at M.

[steve bryant]

I don't feel it's a matter of a creator "saving their best ideas for creator-owned material."

A creator can sometimes choose to hold something back for themselves, but it's usually less a case of "keeping the good stuff and cranking out stuff for the man," and more a question of "Do I want to give this idea up, knowing that if it fails, I can't revisit it again, and if it succeeds, I'll be sharing the exploration of the idea with dozens, possibly hundreds of other creators, and it could end up going in a direction that I disagree with, or flat-out dislike?"

For me, if there's an idea that I, personally, want to explore, I save it for myself. The same goes for ideas or IPs that I've racked up hundreds of hours on my own developing.

If there are ideas that I think fit well in someone else's sandbox, I put them into pitches. I'll develop them, but not to the degree that I develop my creator-owned material. If it's someone else's IP and you're the hired hand, it's best to leave room to improvise and/or take direction within the editorial constraints of the client.

For me, those are the real differences between creator-owned material and work-for-hire. Ideas and concepts aren't a limited commodity. If you choose to hold back all of the ideas that you've developed on your own prior to getting a freelance gig, and start fresh on a work-for-hire job, it's not like you're doing less than your best work—you're not necessarily any more tapped out than the guy that's been working since 2006, or 2001, etc... If ideas weren't renewable, there would be a much faster turnover among comic creators.

Bear in mind, these are only my own personal observations, based on my experiences. Your experience with creative endeavors, or Jonathan Hickman's experiences, may vary.

[AztecLos]

I think he said in an interview that anything that is mutant in Marvel does go over to Fox for the movies so they can't be used in this new Marvel movie universe. That means we wont see Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver show up in The Avengers movie. 

[elemental]

I have heard Hickman talk about this before, I think it might have been one of his wordballon interviews. If i remember correctly Sheild was an outline idea that he had for a creator owned book this turned out to be something vaugly similar to an idea in development at Marvel (Think it was with Cornell at the time). The book is then developed within the Mutant/x-men office but moved out of this in part because of the movie rights issue.

I think if this had been a pitch that only made sense within an x-office context then they would have run with it and not worry too much about the movie rights. Marvel want the x-books to sell but if a pitch will work just as well as a general marvel-universe or avengers story then it only makes sense they would protect themselves by moving it outside of the reach of these other organisations.

The only thing that makes me sad about this is that I would love to have had Hickman working on an x-book. The thought of Aaron, Gillen, Remender, DnA and Hickman all playing around in the x-books at the same time might have been too much for my mutant loving soul to take. 

When I think about it, they have a very good collection of writters on the x-books at the moment

[leafinsectman (Dan)]

I hope Disney can pony up and pay Fox whatever they need to pay to get the mutant rights back.

[Wood]

I hope Disney can pony up and pay Fox whatever they need to pay to get the mutant rights back.

Not likely, for two reasons.

One, Fox is minting money with the franchise and is still actively making films, witness the X-Men: First Class looming and the Wolverine film due shortly thereafter.

Two, while Disney is a behemoth, it can't expand its film slate much more without raising the ire of Wall Street. Disney runs a number of studios simultaneously and the costs to develop and produce each film continue to move higher. It's advantageous to share some of the financial costs/downside risk with other studios for a smattering of its licensed characters.

[leafinsectman (Dan)]

Not likely, for two reasons.

Yeah I'm sure if it made sense financially, they'd have done it already. I guess I'll just have to dream about an Avengers/X-Men crossover.

[Dean S.]

What's wrong with putting your best into a project because it is your job and you take pride in your work?  Creating new, fresh, and successful characters and story arcs is only going to propel your career and afford you being able to do more projects in the future.  This is probably a naive outlook due to a romanticized view of working in the comics industry but 

Oh, I didn't mean to come off like that.  I'm sure all the folks working on the X-books are doing their best work. 

All I was saying is that it would make sense that the X-Men might not be the straw that stirs the Marvel U. again.  But, what the hell do I know...