The day after: What Marc Guggenheim and Marvel should do with X-Men: Gold next?

[ijacksparrow]

Ardian Syaf's career is over before it has even started. The end. But where the X-Men can go moving forward? Most especifically, what should be Marvel actions going forward and how to address this going forward?

First, I'd say that X-Men: Gold should be delayed. Not a single cover drawn by Ardian Syaf, not a single page should be sold again going forward. They need a new artist to team up with Ken Lashey and they need to act fast on that regard. Regardless the damage you think it might happen to the relaunch, keeping Syaf's art in the future books would be even worse. I love Ken Lashey's art but after this whole debacle added to yet another scandal from last week regarding Marvel and diversity, keeping business as usual would be a bad move, so I'd argue that Marvel needs an A list added to X-Men: Gold. Why? To help with the book sales and more than that, which I'll explain further:

If this happened in any other giving comic, it'd be more simple. Basically delaying the book and getting someone reliable to redraw it would be enough. But that's not the case here. This is the X-Men, and this is an X-Men relaunch with a very clear editorial mandate: to take two steps backwards to move forward, like Marc Guggenheim said it. The redesigns done by Syaf need to be thrown away as soon as possible. Rachel Grey needs a costume that doesn't suck like the one she is using right now. Kitty Pryde needs a costume that look as good as her previous one at the very least, or a complete reimagination of it. I have some artists in mind that I think it should take over:

Sara Pichelli
Kenneth Rocafort
Oliver Coipel

Going even further, I honestly think that to completely clean the stain left by Syaf's actions, they should eventually address in story. I'd suggest that Guggenheim eventually adds a new mutant to the team. An Indonesian mutant boy which happens to be Muslim. I trust Guggenheim to make something out of this that instead of weakening the X-Men relaunch, elevates it. But Marvel shouldn't be afraid of delaying the book, and should workshop with their artists staple ideas about how to redesign the costumes of the X-Men: Gold characters. They need a big name to replace Syaf because the importance of the X-Men's core message, and also to make the best out of this situation, in my opinion.

[Ambaryerno]

Ardian Syaf's career is over before it has even started. The end. But where the X-Men can go moving forward? Most especifically, what should be Marvel actions going forward and how to address this going forward?

First, I'd say that X-Men: Gold should be delayed. Not a single cover drawn by Ardian Syaf, not a single page should be sold again going forward. They need a new artist to team up with Ken Lashey and they need to act fast on that regard. Regardless the damage you think it might happen to the relaunch, keeping Syaf's art in the future books would be even worse. I love Ken Lashey's art but after this whole debacle added to yet another scandal from last week regarding Marvel and diversity, keeping business as usual would be a bad move, so I'd argue that Marvel needs an A list added to X-Men: Gold. Why? To help with the book sales and more than that, which I'll explain further:

If this happened in any other giving comic, it'd be more simple. Basically delaying the book and getting someone reliable to redraw it would be enough. But that's not the case here. This is the X-Men, and this is an X-Men relaunch with a very clear editorial mandate: to take two steps backwards to move forward, like Marc Guggenheim said it. The redesigns done by Syaf need to be thrown away as soon as possible. Rachel Grey needs a costume that doesn't suck like the one she is using right now. Kitty Pryde needs a costume that look as good as her previous one at the very least, or a complete reimagination of it. I have some artists in mind that I think it should take over:

Sara Pichelli
Kenneth Rocafort
Oliver Coipel

Going even further, I honestly think that to completely clean the stain left by Syaf's actions, they should eventually address in story. I'd suggest that Guggenheim eventually adds a new mutant to the team. An Indonesian mutant boy which happens to be Muslim. I trust Guggenheim to make something out of this that instead of weakening the X-Men relaunch, elevates it. But Marvel shouldn't be afraid of delaying the book, and should workshop with their artists staple ideas about how to redesign the costumes of the X-Men: Gold characters. They need a big name to replace Syaf because the importance of the X-Men's core message, and also to make the best out of this situation, in my opinion.

The problem is changing out an art team like that is going to cause considerable delays. I don't think you realize how much lead time there actually is to get a book ready for release.

And introduce a new character? Really? When people are ALREADY complaining about the enormous cast of characters that are currently going unused? If you want to bring in a Muslim character to address such relations it doesn't need to be an Indonesian. Add Dust — who has always been used as a positive depiction of how a conservative Muslim can interact as friends with people of other faiths, and can still challenge the point of QS5:51 — to the roster. People have been asking for more of her for YEARS so you have the benefit of bringing a popular member of the last truly successful X-Teen roster, on top of someone who can still address many of the same issues.

[Maestroneto]

- Syaf needs to be fired
- Make sure there aren't any other offensive references in #2 and #3
- Covers for #4-#6 need to be redrawn
- Editors need to be reprimanded. Yes, it's true they couldn't have known, BUT ultimately they're responsible for what's presented in the final product
- New designs for the book's X-Men. Even with new artists, we'll constantly be reminded of Syaf's work because they are products of his imagination

The problem is changing out an art team like that is going to cause considerable delays. I don't think you realize how much lead time there actually is to get a book ready for release.

There's still ample time to at least find a fill-in artist. Syaf at the very earliest wouldn't come back until #10, which comes out in late August.

[ijacksparrow]

The problem is changing out an art team like that is going to cause considerable delays. I don't think you realize how much lead time there actually is to get a book ready for release.

I understand that. I've did some freelance translations of comic book scrips for Brazilian artists in the past and I know how much work that entails, let alone approving it to print. With that said, something must be done, and I don't think simply releasing the rest of Syaf's issues will fly. It will get worse if they do that. Hence why I think they need to find someone fast and reliable to redraw the issues, maybe even Mark Bagley or anyone else that can deliver it fast enough and still keep the book's identity and, after that, get an A list in the book so they can redefine the team's visual identity.

And introduce a new character? Really? When people are ALREADY complaining about the enormous cast of characters that are currently going unused? If you want to bring in a Muslim character to address such relations it doesn't need to be an Indonesian. Add to Dust — who has always been used as a positive depiction of how a conservative Muslim can interact as friends with people of other faiths, and can still challenge the point of QS5:51 — to the roster. People have been asking for more of her for YEARS so you have the benefit of bringing a popular member of the last truly successful X-Teen roster, on top of someone who can still address many of the same issues.

I'd love Dust making a comeback and I do think she'd add up to the conversation, but with that said, I do think that Marvel should address this whole situation by creating a brand new Indonesian mutant character and add him to the roster. Guggenheim, maybe with the help of Indonesian folks that live there need to understand better the situation there even because Marvel Comics clearly have fans there that completely disapprove what went down, so I think that adding a brand new character eventually in the future - one to two years from now - it'd bring the whole situation some closure.

[ExodusCloak]

I think they should get a new artist remove the art that showed he attended a rally and move on. Marvel can release a disclaimer in the back of the book.

The whole point of this launch was to make the X-Men apolitical i just love how Marvel might be forced to bring back the metaphor that they've been trying to expunge from their books cause of this.

[Wiccan]

I can kinda see why the covers should be changed, but from what I've heard he's only doing issue 2 after the first one, and I think it's fine to just released it like that, with the possible meassages removed of course. I would be happy with an A-List artist, but keeping R.B Silva or Ken Lashey, who are doing the next arcs would be fine for me. That's the X-Men flagship book, it's not gonna be cancelled.

I agree there should be new designs, but that's more because of them being awful than because of Syaf. Though we should totally use that as a reason to ask Marvel and whoever the new artist is to make redesigns.

[ijacksparrow]

I can kinda see why the covers should be changed, but from what I've heard he's only doing issue 2 after the first one, and I think it's fine to just released it like that, with the possible meassages removed of course. I would be happy with an A-List artist, but keeping R.B Silva or Ken Lashey, who are doing the next arcs would be fine for me. That's the X-Men flagship book, it's not gonna be cancelled.

I agree there should be new designs, but that's more because of them being awful than because of Syaf. Though we should totally use that as a reason to ask Marvel and whoever the new artist is to make redesigns.

My point is that this being the X-Men, they can't just release another Syaf's book again. They need to delay it and ask someone else to redraw it. And they need to act fast on that because I don't see the situation getting better. I mean, it will keep escalating from this:



I agree in keeping R.B. Silva and Ken Lashey, since this book is supposed to come out two times a month. But I'd argue that regardless how much I enjoy the art of these two artists, this book now needs an A list artist to get in and help with the sales and redesigns that will be needed. The kind of attention this book is clearly not the one they were aiming for, so I can see they going for an A list to help. Maybe one of those that were going for Astonishing X-Men.

[spirit2011]

Ardian Syaf's career is over before it has even started. The end. But where the X-Men can go moving forward? Most especifically, what should be Marvel actions going forward and how to address this going forward?

First, I'd say that X-Men: Gold should be delayed. Not a single cover drawn by Ardian Syaf, not a single page should be sold again going forward. They need a new artist to team up with Ken Lashey and they need to act fast on that regard. Regardless the damage you think it might happen to the relaunch, keeping Syaf's art in the future books would be even worse. I love Ken Lashey's art but after this whole debacle added to yet another scandal from last week regarding Marvel and diversity, keeping business as usual would be a bad move, so I'd argue that Marvel needs an A list added to X-Men: Gold. Why? To help with the book sales and more than that, which I'll explain further:

If this happened in any other giving comic, it'd be more simple. Basically delaying the book and getting someone reliable to redraw it would be enough. But that's not the case here. This is the X-Men, and this is an X-Men relaunch with a very clear editorial mandate: to take two steps backwards to move forward, like Marc Guggenheim said it. The redesigns done by Syaf need to be thrown away as soon as possible. Rachel Grey needs a costume that doesn't suck like the one she is using right now. Kitty Pryde needs a costume that look as good as her previous one at the very least, or a complete reimagination of it. I have some artists in mind that I think it should take over:

Sara Pichelli
Kenneth Rocafort
Oliver Coipel

Going even further, I honestly think that to completely clean the stain left by Syaf's actions, they should eventually address in story. I'd suggest that Guggenheim eventually adds a new mutant to the team. An Indonesian mutant boy which happens to be Muslim. I trust Guggenheim to make something out of this that instead of weakening the X-Men relaunch, elevates it. But Marvel shouldn't be afraid of delaying the book, and should workshop with their artists staple ideas about how to redesign the costumes of the X-Men: Gold characters. They need a big name to replace Syaf because the importance of the X-Men's core message, and also to make the best out of this situation, in my opinion.

I don't think this cover how complex is the problem at all. And better keep politics out of this, specially one that doesn't concern us at all.

[spirit2011]

I think they should get a new artist remove the art that showed he attended a rally and move on. Marvel can release a disclaimer in the back of the book.

The whole point of this launch was to make the X-Men apolitical i just love how Marvel might be forced to bring back the metaphor that they've been trying to expunge from their books cause of this.

ressurection isn't making X-men apolitical, they just changed the politics

[ijacksparrow]

I don't think this cover how complex is the problem at all. And better keep politics out of this, specially one that doesn't concern us at all.

"Doesn't concern us at all"? What do you mean by that? I don't live in the US. I live in Brazil, and I think that should be addressed, yes. And the X-Men at their very core is and always has been a political message and tacking complex problems. We are talking about a team that included a Russian character at their core books when the Cold War was still explicitly going on. Not that it has ever stopped, but the X-Men has always been progressive. This isn't stopping now, regardless how back to basics the team gets.

[Beaubier]

I don't think bringing even more attention to the Syaf situation and prolonging the conversation by putting in an Indonesian OC is the right move for Marvel. That's not what they want XMG to be remembered for. And I'm sure they want this put behind them as soon as they can. Including Dust as a supporting character is a much wiser move to promote inclusion and diversity. She doesn't have the baggage that an Indonesian Muslim OC would carry right from the beginning.

[nnelg]

I will continue to purchase the title. I'm sure most people will.

[nnelg]

.....................

[Sapfiryt]

Lol. Tell me that this is a joke. Because it's not funny anymore. Stop

[Sapfiryt]

My point is that this being the X-Men, they can't just release another Syaf's book again. They need to delay it and ask someone else to redraw it. And they need to act fast on that because I don't see the situation getting better. I mean, it will keep escalating from this:



I agree in keeping R.B. Silva and Ken Lashey, since this book is supposed to come out two times a month. But I'd argue that regardless how much I enjoy the art of these two artists, this book now needs an A list artist to get in and help with the sales and redesigns that will be needed. The kind of attention this book is clearly not the one they were aiming for, so I can see they going for an A list to help. Maybe one of those that were going for Astonishing X-Men.

fcking shame.. I can't find words to describe how close you are to marasmus.