Bleeding Cool: Tomasi on Bi-Weekly Superman

[RoyImpulse]

Technically bi-monthly can also mean every other week. My hunch, based on the Batman news, is that it means twice a month.

I took the news to mean that each week there will be a new issue of Batman or Superman released. Twice a month would mean that the months with five weeks would have a week without a new Batman or Superman.

[Ascended]

I'll see how this Super League thing goes.

Tomasi isn't the worst guy out there. I liked his GLC well enough, and what little I read of his Batman work was okay. I thought his Circe arc in Superman-Wonder Woman was passable.

I think he'd be okay writing a Superman solo. Especially if he had someone else to bounce off of, as he did with Johns and GL. I think it'd be fairly solid, safe work. A lot like what Johns does, actually, though hopefully without missing the point of the character as much.

Making him the lead writer for the line, which this appears it might be, does not fill me with confidence. He's done very little to earn that kind of trust from me where Superman is involved. But who knows? Maybe Super League will be good. I hope it is. If it's not, and if the new series and creative teams don't utterly "WOW!" me, I might not be sticking around for DC's rebirth at all.

[Tra-EL]

I'm at the point to where it's whatever. Whoever is in there, I'm just hoping for good stories. That's all I ask. Shouldn't be too much to ask being a Superman fan but obviously it is.

[C_Miller]

Is this going to be truly bi-weekly or is it going to be the 18 issues a year that Marvel seems to subscribe to? I'd prefer the latter. 24 issues a year is a lot. It's much easier to justify for my wallet's sake when I get to save 24 dollars a year per title.

That said, Tomasi is a pretty uninspiring choice. He's not bad by any means, but he doesn't necessarily get me excited either. His writing is just kind of "there" for me. I do think he's a great editor. He edited some of my favorite comics. JSA, Hawkman, the Sub Diego arc. He seems to be able to get out of the way and allow his writers to tell the story that they want to, but to point them in the right direction if need be. JSA is way better than anything I've ever seen Johns or Goyer do, which leads me to believe that he was a steady hand.

But his writing feels like everything I dislike about editorially driven comics. It feels very cold and paper thin. That said, his Requiem issue of Batman and Robin is probably a top 5 New 52 Batman story.

[DragonPiece]

Is this going to be truly bi-weekly or is it going to be the 18 issues a year that Marvel seems to subscribe to? I'd prefer the latter. 24 issues a year is a lot. It's much easier to justify for my wallet's sake when I get to save 24 dollars a year per title.

That said, Tomasi is a pretty uninspiring choice. He's not bad by any means, but he doesn't necessarily get me excited either. His writing is just kind of "there" for me. I do think he's a great editor. He edited some of my favorite comics. JSA, Hawkman, the Sub Diego arc. He seems to be able to get out of the way and allow his writers to tell the story that they want to, but to point them in the right direction if need be. JSA is way better than anything I've ever seen Johns or Goyer do, which leads me to believe that he was a steady hand.

But his writing feels like everything I dislike about editorially driven comics. It feels very cold and paper thin. That said, his Requiem issue of Batman and Robin is probably a top 5 New 52 Batman story.

I doubt even the eiditors know to your first question, shipping delays happen. But honestly, it's likely it'll be 24, DC has very good practice with weeklies, so I am sure they can handle a bi-weekly book.

[Last Son of Krypton]

Superman's main series was 50 issues of mediocrity written by uninspired writers like Perez, Jurgens and Yang (don't forget about Lobdell).
Tomasi certainly seems an improvement over the past.

[Sacred Knight]

I think Perez was actually trying to build something. His run wasn't perfect (too many same-choreographed fights in sequential issues comes to mind), but he was trying in my mind. He started the interesting idea of the Planet being bought out, of Lois changing positions and sowing the seeds of Clark's discontent that would lead to his quitting, he also had the good idea to insinuate that Lois already knew who Clark was, before it was stupidly nixed elsewhere. All this when he was rather flying blind because he didn't really know what was happening in Morrison's Action run, which was the character's origin story.

[Last Son of Krypton]

I think Perez was actually trying to build something. His run wasn't perfect (too many same-choreographed fights in sequential issues comes to mind), but he was trying in my mind. He started the interesting idea of the Planet being bought out, of Lois changing positions and sowing the seeds of Clark's discontent that would lead to his quitting, he also had the good idea to insinuate that Lois already knew who Clark was, before it was stupidly nixed elsewhere. All this when he was rather flying blind because he didn't really know what was happening in Morrison's Action run, which was the character's origin story.

IMO, whatever Perez was building was boring and his writing dated. He gave us "memorable" characters like J. Carroll and the Asian chick (I don't remember the name).

[C_Miller]

Superman's main series was 50 issues of mediocrity written by uninspired writers like Perez, Jurgens and Yang (don't forget about Lobdell).
Tomasi certainly seems an improvement over the past.

I believe Yang would have been great if he wasn't forced into crossover after crossover. American Born Chinese and his two books on the Boxer Rebellion prove he's an amazing writer. But a writer who has spent his career telling stories he wants to tell probably won't respond well to crossover heavy writing.

[TheNewFiftyForum]

It's worth noting that Tomasi's three biggest writing gigs to date have been stuff that have worked as complements to a main title. If he writes Superman as a bi-monthly title, I imagine he gets more creative freedom to do what he wants and possibly even "lead the line", which could affect his writing in interesting ways.

[Last Son of Krypton]

I believe Yang would have been great if he wasn't forced into crossover after crossover. American Born Chinese and his two books on the Boxer Rebellion prove he's an amazing writer. But a writer who has spent his career telling stories he wants to tell probably won't respond well to crossover heavy writing.

I'm not familiar with his previous work, but from the interviews that Yang did for Superman, he seemed to have very promising ideas.
I think, however, that his dialogues are sometimes awkward, and that's not the crossover's fault.

[NYCER]

IMO, whatever Perez was building was boring and his writing dated. He gave us "memorable" characters like J. Carroll and the Asian chick (I don't remember the name).

Oh yeah. Jimmy's sidekick/possible GF! Miko something...

[DragonPiece]

Superman's main series was 50 issues of mediocrity written by uninspired writers like Perez, Jurgens and Yang (don't forget about Lobdell).
Tomasi certainly seems an improvement over the past.

did you forget geoff johns wrote a few issues that were actually good?

[Ascended]

did you forget geoff johns wrote a few issues that were actually good?

Yeah.

Of Justice League.



No, I hear he did have a couple issues this latest run that were okay, but from what I hear Romita's one-shot was the best of the bunch.

[Sacred Knight]

did you forget geoff johns wrote a few issues that were actually good?

The problem is that while a few of the issues were decent, the arc as a whole was disappointing, and moreover, the changes he instituted to the status quo hurt the character in the longer run.

So while nowhere close to being the worst written on simply a pov of writing talent, I think the damage he ultimately did, from the super flare, to him going back to the Planet, to going back to reinforcing that stupid 'Man over Super" mantra, makes his run probably the worst of the entire New 52 era. Which I still don't really get because in the beginning he was doing at least decently with Superman in Justice League and seemed committed to making sure we knew he was writing a new incarnation of the character. Then he fell back into old, generic habits.