Settling into this thread with my popcorn now, thank you very much.
Which is why editorial and countless male writers being so baffled by - and resentful of - their popularity (even going back as early as the ‘90s) always made me laugh.
They don’t have to be to your personal tastes, but to pretend you “don’t understand” why they’re so wildly popular, both separately and as a couple… lol.
The collar gives her violent migraines, making it painful to wear for significant amounts of time. I also like Kelly Thompson’s take on it - she delves into the psychology of Rogue associating those collars and ensuing powerlessness with her assault on Genosha.
It's suspicious that KT hasn't had more X-Men work. That Rogue & Gambit duology is one of the best things to come out in the last 10 years.
I really, really think she was blacklisted by White. We know her talent or passion wasn’t the problem, making it clear it was most likely some ridiculous (or personal) reason. It’s truly the only explanation (well, that, and the homogeneous boys’ club nature of that office during his tenure overall; I am super curious to know why Ayala left, too).
And now Marvel didn’t renew her exclusive contract, and (it looks like) she’s going to DC.
She did an AMA today. I’m in the middle of editing it down for a new thread, but yeah, she basically confirms what we’d been guessing at for ages: she was getting shut out, so it’s off to greener pastures…
You know what? I think I found out where Kelly might have got into bad graces. I was hate-listening to this podcast interview of Matt Rosenberg (I hate, like, everything about his X-comics, particularly about you-know-who), from a year ago, and at one point he mentions how Kelly Thompson backed out of working on Age of X-Man after being given the job and at least to some degree starting the work on it. I feel like I have to rescind my "it's suspicious" remark. People don't often want to risk getting burned twice and if she somehow made them scramble to replace her late in the game, it's hard to side-eye that she hasn't gotten work out of the X-office again, if I'm honest.
Seems like that's how two pretty-much unknowns got to do a major X-event.
Link: https://youtu.be/aSs6EsCovgE?t=2811
Damn, Kelly.
(I wouldn't want to write Age of X-Man either though lmao)
It's not the pairing. It's that there's not much new left to do with the couple without letting them age past their 30s, and contemporary Marvel won't go there.
The other way to go would be a hard reboot that reinvents Scott, Jean, and their relationship for a younger Millennial/Zoomer audience, but Marvel won't go there either.
Anxiously awaiting for this thread to get posted. I’ve literally fallen in love with Kelly’s X-work and it’s such a shame to think she could have been a defining voice in this era and wasn’t allowed.
Oh I hope that wasn’t the reason because that seems like a very unfair split of labor. Matthew gets to go kill crazy in a grim-dark Uncanny run, Ed gets to write a forgettable X-Force run based on one dangling thread from Extermination, and then Kelly would have to be the shepherd behind an entire AU continuity not only writing her own book but also closely coordinating with all the other writers working within said AU. Considering how little impact AoXM had on anything with HOX/POX around the corner, I’m not surprised she backed down. That’s a lot of effort for what seems like very little reward and I appreciate a writer who isn’t willing to put out crap because editorial says so.
Last edited by Kingdom X; 05-11-2023 at 06:10 PM.
Big same. She brought me around to so many other non-X-Men Marvel characters I wouldn’t have given a chance until I deep-dived to read everything else she’d done.
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...-today!-(3-10)
All of your comments are beautiful and this one is no different.
(I wonder if this office politics bullshit played into Williams and Ayala leaving, as well.)
It’s been mostly subtext from her interviews. During a podcast with Rosenberg and Brisson, she seemed to realize it in real time - she said that she assumed only new writers were being given preference for Krakoa, so she wasn’t taking it personally… until she learned during that interview that Brisson and Rosenberg were both brought in to pitch. It really upset me.
Marvel really played themselves by losing her. Hope she wins another Eisner for her first DC run.
I know Williams seemed kind of burned out with how much of a mess the Trial of Magneto ended up being because of editorial.
That sounds pretty rough though. I also feel like her Black Widow run was kind of unceremoniously ended because of the pandemic, so that probably didn't help.
Thanks for posting the link and creating the thread! And thank you for the sweet comment, I’ve loved your contributions to these boards!
When it comes to Williams leaving it’s obvious that the whole X-Factor sudden cancellation + mandated ToM situation really weighed on her. What irritates me about that situation is the blatant difference in treatment. Cause you know what title was selling worse than X-Factor? Way of X. Yet Spurrier’s on his fourth title (+ 2 one-shots). Williams mentioned having a whole 30 something issues of X-Factor planned out, but they didn’t want to let her continue that story with a different name? At least she got X-terminators as a fun little low stakes series.
The Ayala situation is the biggest mystery to me. Their New Mutants run got really delayed, the two characters they were focusing on (Maddie and Magik) got handed to other writers, and then they were gone with no warning. Sales were fine enough as the book lasted another 3 issues and then quickly got a mini-follow up.
And I had not heard that podcast with Thompson, Brisson, and Rosenberg. Do you remember which one it was? I just listened to the end of the one Kitty&Piotr<3 sent where Rosenberg says he got an open invitation from Hickman to write in Dawn of X and we all know Brisson is getting another shot at Krakoa, so Thompson’s absence just stings that much more.