1478. Hawkeye & Mockingbird #6, January 2011, written by Jim McCann, penciled by David Lopez
So Hawkeye & Mockingbird comes to an end. I’m trying to stop worrying and getting upset about things that I can’t change in life (like not being able to read 2,010 comics in 2010, HEYO), but Marvel’s gradual shift away from ongoings towards minis is one problem that I keep coming back to. I get that this is a business and money has to be made, but the obvious desire to make money back QUICKLY at the expense of actual quality work just makes comic books seem like commercials, ways to make money. Like yanking a television show an episode into it’s run, these quick cancellations just seem equally cold. It screams “make money NOW or get out.” And I know that we’re going to see plenty of Hawkeye and Mockingbird in future issues of NUMEROUS titles and mini series, but are we going to get Jim McCann’s version? His story? Getting a specific long-lasting vision of a character by a creative team is becoming a rare thing, something that is slowly becoming extinct.
I fear that the great runs of the past are behind us. We’re heading towards a future where we’re not going to have any more Claremont & Byrne on Uncanny or Stan and Jack on Fantastic Four. We’re instead getting chopped up and truncated runs done by a million creators for short spurts, possibly disjointed and definitely not united in vision. And this is even happening with the ongoings, as Daredevil (or now Black Panther) gets it’s third or fourth different ongoing writer in as many years.
In 1998 I remember being infuriated at how little time the class of ‘97 (Ka-Zar, Heroes For Hire, Quicksilver, Alpha Flight) was given to grow, and most all of those books got 20 issues. As recently as 2005, Rogue, Nightcrawler and Gambit’s latest ongoing series all got 12 issues to find a groove before getting canceled. Now, it’s 2010 and great books like H&M and Young Allies get a brief 6 issues to find an audience, and poor S.W.O.R.D. only got 4.
So yeah, I guess we’re never going to see a successful ongoing comic book from Marvel that isn’t already past the hundredth issue. But isn’t that a bad thing? And really, why even launch this book and Young Allies as ongoing series? What do they EXPECT to happen? Editors have to know that these books have a very small chance of success, especially when success seems to be measured so harshly. It’s better to announce these as minis and then surprise everyone when they are possibly successful and get to be ongoings.
That’s just a rant. I’ll be picking up Widowmaker.
My Score: 8.4
