What happened to Angela? (Guardians of the Galaxy)

[Alvarez]

Explaining what Marvel/Disney does is not difficult. Remember this: all decisions now revolve around the movieverse. Where is Angela? Not in the upcoming GoTG movie -> not in the book. They bring their books back into line when movies pop up.

She's going to feature heavily in the Thor Original Sins tie-in...
since she's, you know, the main character and all.

[Darthfury78]

Gaiman probably doesnt have the time to use her nowadays, he's mostly working on prose novels instead of comic books. Had he kept her as a creator owned character I'd bet that she likely would have wound up in a drawer somewhere in his office where he keeps the legal contracts, never to be seen again.

In that case, Gaiman should have sold the character to McFarlane. But I blame McFarlane as well because he tried to ripoff Gaiman rather than make him an offer to but his character from him. Instead, we got a legal suit that lasted for almost a decade because McFarlane wanted to be cheap.

[Geralt of Rivia]

In that case, Gaiman should have sold the character to McFarlane. But I blame McFarlane as well because he tried to ripoff Gaiman rather than make him an offer to but his character from him. Instead, we got a legal suit that lasted for almost a decade because McFarlane wanted to be cheap.

Considering the way that lawsuit went down, I highly doubt that Gaiman wants to do business with McFarlane ever again.

[Darthfury78]

Considering the way that lawsuit went down, I highly doubt that Gaiman wants to do business with McFarlane ever again.

This was way before the lawsuit began. Mcfarlane should have offered to buy the character rather than his ill-fated attempt to rip Gaiman off in the first place.

[Geralt of Rivia]

This was way before the lawsuit began. Mcfarlane should have offered to buy the character rather than his ill-fated attempt to rip Gaiman off in the first place.

Well I agree, its what should have happened; but that ship sailed a looong time ago.

[KarateXplosion]

Gaiman saw the Disney dollars and the possibility of the character's inclusion in the MCU. I am 90% sure Marvel and Gaiman worked out a contract that wouldn't turn out like Malibu Comics and more financially beneficial for Gaiman (side note Marvel and Disney should really work to get the Malibu rights cleared up with how many rights other studios have Dsiney could really use the Ultra-verse characters).

[Dark-Flux]

But whenever a new character is introduced I will google them to find out more about them. I was surprised to learn that Angela actually not only used to be the intellectual property of Image (and/or Top Cow) but was from Todd MacFarlane's Spawn, before Marvel bought her.

Angela was never associated with Top Cow. And Image dont own any IPs.

[Marduk]

Personally I didnt mind Secret Invasion all that much, it provided some fun of the dumb variety; and yeah Dark Reign was interesting even if it ran for too long IMO. But destroying the Avengers in Dissasembled the way he did just so he could clear the deck for his pet characters

Whenever something like that happens in a major comic, or even a major TV show and certain movies, my assumption is that it's the work of the executives, looking for sales/ratings, etc. I guess, from my limited understanding of the industry, all the major decisions of the main universes of "The Big 2" comics companies seem to be made in a board room. We're constantly hearing about lack of creative control, I just find it so hard to believe it wasn't Marvel's bosses' attempt and controversy rather than Brian's. The way I see it is; Bendis wasn't the killer but the executioner, the decision having been made before he was even picked to flick the switch.

I'm probably wrong.

the whole mess around the Sentry leading up to and including Siege

It went on far too long but, god help me, I actually liked the Sentry thing. (Not the way it was drawn out but the story itself).

...and specially Age of Ultron? Im still sore about spending on that pile of manure.

OK, you got me. That was BENDIS? I never actually realised, somehow never even looked into who was writing it. (I should be ashamed of myself, really). I was skeptical about AoU, going in, as I've never really rated Ultron all that highly as a villain. But it quickly won me over with a fairly compelling story, I liked the idea of how Ultron was controlling his extermination from the future and how everything already seemed to have been lost and the surviving heroes would have a monumental struggle if they wanted to beat him. But it all ended so abruptly... Beating him in the past by just having Pym write a little coding... Yeah, obviously Time Travel was going to be a pretty big deal, but it was just SO anti-climactic..

And looking into the run aside from the big events his ongoing books had so much filler in them and 'witty' banter that pretty much all of his stories could have been told in half the issues.

Maybe, but there are just so many comics you can say this for, and the banter isn't half as witty. Geoff Johns makes me want to kill somebody, I get so infuriated when I read an issue of Green lantern in 3 minutes and all the comic contained was Sinestro's diatribe about how great he is... Bendis at least gets a laugh out of me. Maybe not all the time and certainly not as much as he did on Ultimate Spidey but there just aren't that many comic writers who can do funny at all.

And nope I sure didnt skip Infinity, as Im pulling both of Hickman's Avengers books and I have to say that I loved the heck out of it. But I didnt grab any of the tie ins, I noticed that a couple of the GotG showed up in a panel or two, and I just moved on.

You were right to do so. I just asked because it seemed natural to read them when the characters are so connected to the event's titular villain. I didn't understand how they could be so strongly connected but be so uninvolved.

Look, Im all for a space hero themed book heck Im a big Green Lantern fan; but honestly I can't look past the fact that a writer that Im really sick of is charge. On the other hand Ive read that DnA run from a few years back is really good, so if I feel like reading GotG after watching the upcoming movie that'd be my way to go about it via discount TPBs or similar.

Fair enough. I wasn't actually trying to persuade you of anything, I just wanted to better understand you opinions.

[Marduk]

Angela was never associated with Top Cow. And Image dont own any IPs.

MacFarlane, then. Sorry. I was aware of the legal battle but I never followed it with any particular interest.

[Marduk]

MU = Marvel Universe....

I know... My sad attempt at humour

[resipsaloquitur]

You know what I think Angela's problem is? She lacks a purpose. As a Spawn character, she was defined by Spawn. Her job was to kill him. She killed Spawns for a living. Take that away, and you've got a hot lady in armor who has nobody to kill.

I hate to see her character limited like that, and maybe somebody will find something interesting to do with her and she'll become a bigger character than Spider-Man. (Not likely, but you never know.) But it's like Marvel purchased Wile E. Coyote without getting the Roadrunner as well. Without the Roadrunner, what the hell is the coyote supposed to do all day?

[Hamdinger]

Marvel bought her not with any intentions of using this generic turd of character but with the intention of playing the 'long game' by buttering up Neil Gaimen to finish his Marvelman stories. That's where the real room for profit is.

[Lonewolf36]

You know what I think Angela's problem is? She lacks a purpose. As a Spawn character, she was defined by Spawn. Her job was to kill him. She killed Spawns for a living. Take that away, and you've got a hot lady in armor who has nobody to kill.

I hate to see her character limited like that, and maybe somebody will find something interesting to do with her and she'll become a bigger character than Spider-Man. (Not likely, but you never know.) But it's like Marvel purchased Wile E. Coyote without getting the Roadrunner as well. Without the Roadrunner, what the hell is the coyote supposed to do all day?

Maybe they should have her and Elsa Bloodstone revive the Monster Hunters team. Plenty of demons, giant monsters, vampires, werewolves ect in the Marvel Universe to hunt. That would keep her close to her original purpose or give her a comic of her own Angela, Monster Hunter.

[resipsaloquitur]

Maybe they should have her and Elsa Bloodstone revive the Monster Hunters team. Plenty of demons, giant monsters, vampires, werewolves ect in the Marvel Universe to hunt. That would keep her close to her original purpose or give her a comic of her own Angela, Monster Hunter.

Yeah, maybe...except that as you said, Marvel already has a monster hunter in Elsa. Plus, Angela has the "weird" element of being this angelic being from heaven, so she's not quite human and it makes her less relate-able, ya know? She's more like Thor than Elsa, except that Thor is based on actual (if superhero-ified) mythology whereas Angela is pretty much all made up.

Again, being a foil to Spawn was her defining characteristic. I suppose they could make her a foil to Ghost Rider, but Ghost Rider series tend not to last either.

[resipsaloquitur]

Actually, now I have an idea for how Marvel could use Angela. Here's her problem--the lack of Spawn aside. She's not very relate-able. She's an uber-powerful alpha female who shows up and smashes things. She's tough, can chop the heads off of Moombas, and has witty Bendis dialogue. She's got--so far--no fatal character flaw that would make her an interesting Marvel character, the way Peter Parker suffers from guilt, or Ben Grimm hates being a monster, or Iron Man is trapped in a suit of armor, or whatever.

So let's pull a Thor on her. Marvel should come up with an interesting-but-normal human being who becomes Angela's host. Basically, let's give Angela the "Don Blake" treatment where she's forced to assume a human identity. Maybe Odin or some other God curses her to give her some humility, so she has to learn to be human while still carrying out her monster-hunting mission. Maybe she has to deal with high school or college. Maybe she's forced to become a normal teenage girl, or a girl in a wheelchair, or a girl who already has a lot of social anxiety and now has to occasionally transform into a 6' 5" angelic warrior.

(Or we could get really goofy and have Angela turn into a teenage boy...nah, we need to increase Marvel's female readership, so let's skip that one for now.)

I really think the only way she's going to work in the Marvel U is to give her a classic Marvel "flaw" so that readers can learn to identify with her.

Oh, and let's have Cullen Bunn write it. I think he did a stellar job with female characters and tough warrior types in Fearless Defenders.