Just Uncanny

Anonymous asked: Hello Tom, thanks for the time you spend on here answering question! This might fall in the 'Wait & See' category but I was wondering if I missed this: in a recent (New) Avengers issue it was told that the number of universes had suddenly dropped from a few hundred thousands down to something like 24 for a reason. Was it ever explained?

brevoortformspring:

It didn’t suddenly drop, the Incursions have been going on for months. And not all of those Incursions involve our universe, many of them, most of them, involve universes far removed from our own. So they’ve been steadily wiping each other out for some time now, to the point where all that can be detected at this point is around 20 surviving universes.

It was a sudden drop. As mentioned in Avengers 41, and New Avengers 29. See pictures for proof.

• 6 Mar 2015
• 4

fsfosho asked: Do you have any good suggestions on forums where comic fans share their thoughts on comics with a positive mindset? I've stopped buying physical copies and have gone full digital and with that move, I miss the discussions with fellow fans at the local comic shop. I've gone to certain forums but I find a surprising amount of negativity about the books (x-books specifically) and I don't find it adding to my enjoyment. I'd rather talk about what I like then the flaws. Thoughts?

brianmichaelbendis:

This question comes up a lot too and I wish I had a better answer for you. It does seem that the discourse on the forums has hit an all-time low. I haven’t visited them but I get so many comments about them and how unfriendly and unappealing they are to people who actually want to have a fun and friendly positive discussion. I do feel bad that so many of you are having a hard time finding a decent conversation. 

I know that the number one culprit is people just beating you up for liking something. Like it’s against the law to actually like something. And sometimes you’re being beat up by someone who hasn’t actually read the thing that you liked. Of the many things I was proud of my boards,  was that you could actually like something and find other people who like something.

I also know how funny it is that negative people bully positive people off the conversation and then they think they won something. 

Hopefully below this people can point you in the direction of some positive conversation.

It’s always easier to demonize and discredit the people that critique you than it is to actually listen to them. “They didn’t like it? Oh they probably didn’t even read it." It’s an easier narrative than actually thinking about different opinions. 

In CBR for example, there are tons of review threads that are full with people being generally positive, discussing the actual book. Avengers, New Avengers, X-Force, All New X-Factor, X-Men, among others. 

While other books aren’t well liked there, which is the case lately with UXM (ANXM can go either way). 
It’s easier to just generelize and say "they hate fun and decent conversations” than to actually deal with their opinions.

• 18 Feb 2015
• 101

Anonymous asked: Why do people only accuse Scarlet Witch of genocide for her House of M act, but neglect to mention Bishop who intentionally decimated almost the entire planet Earth in a bid to kill a baby? Bishop's body count is higher than Scarlet Witch, Cassandra Nova and even real life committers of atrocities.

brevoortformspring:

I don’t know, you’d have to ask those people.

I think everybody has characters that they like and characters that they don’t care so much about—it’s always easy to forgive the first and condemn the second.

Pretty sure most people that say Wanda commited genocide know Bishop did so too. At least that’s the case on most boards I’ve read. Beast has done some genocide himself too, even before NA. 

• 27 Oct 2014
• 4

Anonymous asked: So, you admit Wanda is also a monster then? I mean... Magnet has never killed as many people as her. She's committed genocide after all.

brevoortformspring:

People keep saying this, and I have to say, it’s a very strange form of genocide given that most all of the people that Wanda depowered are still walking around having normal lives.

Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t quite count as a genocide in my eyes.

..any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;© Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.I think she did several of those. 

• 9 Oct 2014
• 22

bishop888 asked: very upset about hte cancelation of x-factor, i know it always comes down to sales and x-factor never lit the world on fire sales wise but every month in and month out the book was super steady, with its numbers hopefully some of those characters find new books soon

brevoortformspring:

This right here is a case in point.

At the end of the day, you guys, the audience, determines what you are and are not interested in and want to support. But here was a book that checked all of the boxes of what you guys often say that you want: a consistent creative team, a regular schedule, and an affordable cover price. And yet—no-go.

So when I speak about the differences between what you guys say and what you guys do, examples like this one are what I am referring to.

Which is not to say that you’re necessarily making a wrong choice here—if X-FACTOR wasn’t your cup of tea for whatever reason, that’s perfectly fine and completely your choice to make.

I like how he casually says that $3.99 is the new affordable cover price. Prepare for $4.99 comics, they are coming!

• 2 Oct 2014
• 12

toptopz-deactivated20150501 asked: What do you think about the recent backlash on Milo Manara's Spider-Woman cover? I liked it, although I understand why some people might get upset.

davejcarr:

brianmichaelbendis:

I do understand it. it was a mixed message and I’m glad that Marvel copped to it.  frankly, my feelings mirrored Amy Reeder’s

“If you want to know my opinion on Milo Manara’s Spider-woman cover, I’m going to have to disappoint you and say I feel super divided on it. I love Milo Manara!! It’s a variant cover…so it’s sort of an erotica variant! Of course, I’d also like to see Katie Cook do her own version…that’d make Marvel’s choice seem a little less like a systemic problem. And yes, it’s all a different story with context, but without context, it is a bit jarring and I don’t negate that because the Internet really changes our experience these days. And the image itself does remind me a lot of images by artists I DON’T respect…

“That’s not my point. My point is, it’s not an easy thing to evaluate or explain what is okay and what’s not. Some sexy drawings of women I can get behind, some I can’t. Some of that’s context. But a lot of it is what seemed like a weird intuition that I couldn’t really pinpoint, until recently.

“The word that changes everything for me is ‘personhood.’ Does this woman seem like a person? Do they have life breathed into them? A personality? Or are they an object? Do they feel manufactured or repetitive? Would guys who like this appreciate that I am a living, breathing woman? Or would they complain I talk too much?”

–Rocket Girl artist Amy Reeder,

 to add to that I find that there is a very creepy undertone of certain people trying to shame creators. I could do without that altogether. it’s creepy.

 I was more offended by the creators redrawing the cover ‘properly’  how insipid.

 if you don’t like something don’t buy it. if enough people don’t buy it just won’t exist. this creator shaming, to me, is creepier than anything you might think is wrong in this business.

 all an uproar does is put the spotlight on something and that thing ends up being waaaay more financially successful than it would’ve been without it. this is a truth as old as our culture.

 one of my kids might end up going to college because of Glenn Beck’s racist shit about miles morales :)

 sometimes I see people pulling panels out of context in a weird attempt to shame people.  like, if you showed the next panel the panel you showed would and does have a different context.

 in my opinion, artists should be able to express themselves without fear of shaming. that idea is the most important to me. I get concerned about what kind of vanilla, soulless crap we are going to end up with if everybody is subconsciously worried about being shamed.

 I was glad manara came out and defended himself and didn’t back down from his art even though I don’t think he needed to.

 if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. say it over and over.

 and now take a moment and curb your desire to yell at me because I have an opinion that might disagree with your own. thank you :-)

No. See. Quite apart the fact that

Racism and sexism (both within the comics industry, and outside of it) , are real systems of oppression.”Creator Shaming” is not

Further, if I am disturbed by the content or contezt on a comic book cover, for being a shitty, composition, for packaging book no way that seems counterintuitive to welcoming new more diverse audiences the comic books , I will refrain from buying the book and an explain the reasons why, and host of raising critical awareness, if that piece of art and xommerce seems to embody storytelling and tropes that I think are bad, that reflect the larger forces of iexclusion, hyper sexualization, objectification or whatever, I may structure my argument in such a way as encourage other people not to purchase it Publishers may hire whomever they like to write their comic books, and artists can express themselves however they see fit. But the fans, the consumers, the critics can also express thwir disdain for that art. Fans can and shold redraw art to articulate the reasons, they don’t like a particular take, especially if that take fits a wider more insidious pattern. Fans can be drawn for satire to lampoon the artist or write their own fanfiction to rectify an awful story.

Maybe some of the conversation will drive up Shitty Thung’s Ssales as you allege, but that doesn’t mean that the conversation, the articulation of the reasons why the the arts is not successful, or even bad for a person or group of people, shouldn’t take place, and maybe during the course that conversation a group of those customers decide they aren’t going to support a specific kind of art thing, that they no longer want to support that artist, those companies. That conversation is valuable, and it’s what a critically engaged fandom does: celebrate the good and talk about why it is good, articulate the bad it is present with the good, and why the bad things are bad, and talk about the things that are from concept, perhaps so intrinsically bad that there is no redeeming artistic virtue in them.. Complete consensus on these issues is impossible but that conversation is what drives the engine of art as much as the artists themselves. Artists need engaged audiences to continue being artists (and I don’t mean financially, I mean simply that artists need engaged audiences to challenge and support them as they continue making art, I want an audience for my words, or the pictures I draw, or the music I make because if there is no one out there to listen to grapple with the ideas that I present, to feel the emotions I intend to convey, if I’m not learning how to be better, if I’m not taking some cue from engaged critiques that may come across on, and I’m not listening to my audience, or thinking about new audiences, or different perspectives as I’m progressing to be better artist, then what is the fucking point?

• 5 Sep 2014
• 325

toptopz-deactivated20150501 asked: What do you think about the recent backlash on Milo Manara's Spider-Woman cover? I liked it, although I understand why some people might get upset.

brianmichaelbendis:

I do understand it. it was a mixed message and I’m glad that Marvel copped to it.  frankly, my feelings mirrored Amy Reeder’s

“If you want to know my opinion on Milo Manara’s Spider-woman cover, I’m going to have to disappoint you and say I feel super divided on it. I love Milo Manara!! It’s a variant cover…so it’s sort of an erotica variant! Of course, I’d also like to see Katie Cook do her own version…that’d make Marvel’s choice seem a little less like a systemic problem. And yes, it’s all a different story with context, but without context, it is a bit jarring and I don’t negate that because the Internet really changes our experience these days. And the image itself does remind me a lot of images by artists I DON’T respect…

“That’s not my point. My point is, it’s not an easy thing to evaluate or explain what is okay and what’s not. Some sexy drawings of women I can get behind, some I can’t. Some of that’s context. But a lot of it is what seemed like a weird intuition that I couldn’t really pinpoint, until recently.

“The word that changes everything for me is ‘personhood.’ Does this woman seem like a person? Do they have life breathed into them? A personality? Or are they an object? Do they feel manufactured or repetitive? Would guys who like this appreciate that I am a living, breathing woman? Or would they complain I talk too much?”

–Rocket Girl artist Amy Reeder,

 to add to that I find that there is a very creepy undertone of certain people trying to shame creators. I could do without that altogether. it’s creepy.

 I was more offended by the creators redrawing the cover ‘properly’  how insipid.

 if you don’t like something don’t buy it. if enough people don’t buy it just won’t exist. this creator shaming, to me, is creepier than anything you might think is wrong in this business.

 all an uproar does is put the spotlight on something and that thing ends up being waaaay more financially successful than it would’ve been without it. this is a truth as old as our culture.

 one of my kids might end up going to college because of Glenn Beck’s racist shit about miles morales :)

 sometimes I see people pulling panels out of context in a weird attempt to shame people.  like, if you showed the next panel the panel you showed would and does have a different context.

 in my opinion, artists should be able to express themselves without fear of shaming. that idea is the most important to me. I get concerned about what kind of vanilla, soulless crap we are going to end up with if everybody is subconsciously worried about being shamed.

 I was glad manara came out and defended himself and didn’t back down from his art even though I don’t think he needed to.

 if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. say it over and over.

 and now take a moment and curb your desire to yell at me because I have an opinion that might disagree with your own. thank you :-)

And here we have BMB resorting to the “slippery slope” fallacy to defend the Manara cover. Also, can we please stop saying “just don’t buy it”? The way women are represented in any media isn’t just a matter of “just ignore it”.
And did he really just compare racism to the reaction to Manara’s cover? Really?

• 3 Sep 2014
• 325

bluedragoon52 asked: Hi Brian! Just finished Uncanny Xmen 24. So She Hulk didn't know Scott killed Xavier? Did the Avengers and the Xmen keep that a secret from the rest of the world?

brianmichaelbendis:

Do you know everything that’s happening in the world right now?

Not everybody knows everything all the time. and sometimes you hear a rumor and the confirmation of that rumor is as shocking is the first time you heard it.

She was in AvX 11 though, which you also wrote. Kinda weird for her not to know.

• 4 Aug 2014
• 32