Article 10: You Know, For Grown Ups!

Marvel's mature readers line is on its way, but does it bring with it the promise of a brave leap forward, or do the books on offer merit a more guarded response?
25 June 2001

Cynicism is all around us.

Now, obviously that's a good thing. There's far too much optimism, faith and trust in the world, and only by properly exploiting it with a healthy dose of cynicism are we ever going to achieve the financial bounty and copious sex that we all so clearly deserve. Here's to looking down on the sheep from our podium of smug satisfaction. Cheers.

Nonetheless, one can be too cynical. For example, in any discussion about Marvel's "mature readers" line - newly christened the Max imprint, apparently - somebody will rouse themselves briefly from their coma and grumble, "Well, I don't trust them. The corporate bastards will screw up the books. They'll meddle. They won't let the creators do what they want."

Allow me to explain, from a perspective of healthy cynicism, why this cynicism is misplaced. You are right to be cynical, but you have got the wrong target.

Marvel, as we all know, is a company, and companies are evil bastards interested in nothing but money. (Just like Time Warner AOL, which evidently finds time to publish Vertigo books in between mocking the poor and ruling the world.) In fact, even if Marvel's owners weren't evil bastards motivated solely by money, it wouldn't make much difference, because the company's nearly bankrupt for the second time, so they've got to rake in the money right now.

The management at Marvel are not idiots - or, the current lot aren't, at least. They have recognised a market in decline. And so they have come up with an evil plan to make more money.

The evil plan is to move upmarket. Or, if you prefer, "make better comics." Get innovative creators to jazz up the product. Shake off the reputation as a company that's been going round in circles for years while DC did all the important books. Basically, make a shameless bid for credibility. Hence, ex-Vertigo creators are drafted in to revamp failing icons. Grant Morrison in superhero mode is a safe bet for the X-Men. That book sells whoever writes it, so in the worst case scenario, he wasn't going to do any harm. And the mere fact of having him on a flagship title sends the right sort of message.

Getting a mature readers line of some sort up and running is just one part of the move upmarket. It's there to reassure people that Marvel is a company that has an interest in creator-driven books that go beyond their core audience. It's like the sculpture in your office lobby. We've got a soul. Here it is, it'll cost you $2.99 monthly. And hell, maybe it'll produce a freak hit, and we can make a bit of money on the trade paperbacks.

Be under no illusions. The Max imprint is not going to be a Marvel Vertigo. It can't afford to be. The biggest limitation on this thing is that, given Marvel's dire financial situation, it has to turn a profit. Take a look at that pre-order sales chart. Note the positions of the bulk of the Vertigo line.

They're further down.

Keep going.

Sales like that are not an option for Marvel. Marvel is not the National Endowment for the Arts. It will be a long time, and a much healthier market, before you'll see Marvel touch anything like DEADENDERS or CRUSADES. They have to play it safe while still delivering something that is seen to be a worthwhile mature readers line.

But it is not in Marvel's interests for Max to degenerate into public squabbles over creative freedom. That would send entirely the wrong message. And if Marvel has an ounce of sense, it can easily be avoided.

There is a scene in YES PRIME MINISTER where the PM asks his aide whether it is possible to fix a trial by bribing the judge. He is told that English judges would never consider accepting a bribe. What you do instead is find a judge who's so biased he didn't need to be bribed in the first place. And here, Marvel's approach is to commission stories from creators who already wanted to do the sort of books they want to publish. You weed out the mavericks and troublemakers at the commissioning stage. NYX nearly made it through, but they caught it in time. What you end up with is still creator-driven. You're just being picky about which creators.

So the "mature line" opens in the September solicitations with three titles, two of which are about as safe as you can get.

First, ALIAS. A book about a woman on the periphery of the superhero community, written by Brian Michael Bendis. He's a prominent creator who's done something somewhat similar in POWERS, and who already works for Marvel. They know his wavelength. They know he's not going to wake up one day and decide to write an issue in which the Pope is anally violated with a chainsaw. It sounds pretty good. The biggest downside is that it might play too much off existing Marvel properties to be as marketable in the bookstores as you might like; but that can be lived with for the sake of a successful ongoing title to lead the line in the comic stores.

Second, FURY. A miniseries by Garth Ennis about a soldier. Gee, you never know what you might get when you commission one of those. Marvel describes it as a "fast-paced, irreverent war/spy thriller laced with a strong dose of black humour." Place your bets now: how many pages into the series will we hit the first scene of touching comradeship among soldiers under fire? Ennis might well write a book about anally violating the Pope with a chainsaw, but not in his war miniseries he won't.. It sounds rather good, but it's not exactly a risk-taker.

And then there's US WAR MACHINE. Now this is an odd one. It's an out-of-continuity War Machine story, in a world with all the hi-tech stuff but none of the superheroes. And it's by some bloke you've never heard of who's going to be drawing the ELEKTRA relaunch. Again, this doesn't sound like a particularly radical idea, and since it's a miniseries, Marvel know what they're getting..

The risky bit is that it's a twelve-issue, weekly, black-and-white miniseries priced at $1.50. The shops will hate it. They'll have to order the entire miniseries blind. The sales are difficult to judge. Okay, it looks pretty, but black and white art is a difficult sell. The writer is an unknown quantity. Out of continuity stories tend not to do well for Marvel (unless you're Alex Ross). War Machine is a failed spin-off from IRON MAN, a series that isn't exactly thrilling the readers right now either. My guess would be that Marvel are hoping for a hard-to-find cult hit that will draw some hype to the line and get some good sales in trade paperback. Either that or Joe Quesada really did fall in love with the pitch and suspended his commercial sanity. This'll be an interesting book from an industry point of view, if not necessarily a creative one.

Would DC publish any of these books? Sure. In the Vertigo line? Good god, no. They sound closer to non-Code DC Universe books. It remains to be seen what sort of identity the Max imprint can create for itself. If these are still basically going to be upmarket superhero books, what exactly distinguishes them from the Marvel Knights line? Blood and tits?

This is where Marvel may come a cropper. They've avoided the "creative freedom" issue by exercising that judgement at the commissioning stage; but if the books are insufficiently different from the rest of the line, it's still going to be a damp squib. Most of the books lined up for the second imprint are along similar lines - relaunches of BLADE, CAGE, BLACK WIDOW (which Marvel Knights has already done twice) and DEATHLOK. More interesting are the two humour books - Gail Simone's NIGHT NURSE, and the apparent return of Steve Gerber on HOWARD THE DUCK - which show the first signs of the imprint spreading into other genres.

A mature readers line has to find some other point to its existence beyond having higher levels of sex and violence. If you don't have the money to go off on loss-making artistic experiments, and your mainstream books already have a licence to ignore the Code, then is there any point to the exercise other than a vague feeling that it's the sort of thing Marvel ought to be doing? That's the real question here, and it's not one that Marvel have answered so far.

At best, the opening roster is taking baby steps, but at least they're trying. The real issue is whether Marvel can make a meaningful mature readers line without the financial freedom to take many creative risks. It shouldn't be just another Vertigo, but it's got to be more than just the Marvel Knights line with bells on.

Paul O'Brien is the author of the weekly X-AXIS comics review.

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