So yeah, I'm not excited about this to say the least. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Mad's work and I'll be picking up this Inhumanity tie-in, but I'm not expecting much out of this besides some awesome pencils. I'm only supporting this series because I'm hoping Marvel gets the message that it's worth it to them to make it worth Joe's while to continue penciling their comics. Also, I haven't seen much about this mini besides the creative teams, that it's the main tie-in to the upcoming crossover, and it's supposed to feature the important stuff that can't fit into Inhumanity. Based off the cover of the first issue, I expect it will focus on the new Inhumans that are supposed to be popping up during the crossover. Other than that, I have no idea what it's going to be about.
I also figure, based off the recent work Mad has done on Savage Wolverine (and Avenging Spider-man a while before that), it'll be 3-4 issues long. I like this, since it's not a huge investment on my part to get the whole thing, and it'd be short enough that there shouldn't be delays (however, I wouldn't be shocked if we still had delays). I could also see them releasing a new issue every two months, which would make for an easier schedule on Joe and it would wrap up around the same time as Inhumanity (which I expect to last around 7-8 issues). When it comes to positives about Inhuman, I've listed all of mine, which doesn't bode well.
As for negatives? Well, there's the fact that Fraction doesn't have a good track record with crossover events, to say the least (remember Fear Itself? Yeah, I've tried repressing my memories of it too). This isn't even the actual event mini, either, this is a tie-in which means it clearly isn't as high a priority for him as Inhumanity is. Now, maybe I'm biased, but when you manage to get what might just be the best artist currently working in the industry on your payroll, you don't assign him to a tie-in that will be written by a guy with higher priority projects from a genre he kind of sucks in. It's a waste of talent.
Then you have the fact that the concept for this event is pretty weak too. Basically, Fraction is turning the Inhumans into the mutants. So not only did Fraction have to have a terrible run on Uncanny X-Men that almost killed the franchise (sales for Second Coming aside; what worked about that crossover came entirely from the other writers' chapters), but he now has to steal their shtick for his event? So what will happen to the X-Men as a metaphor for minorities/oppressed/disgruntled youth now that the Inhumans will be given a big push with that as their main subtext? Oh, because the Inhumans have a royalty aspect, that apparently changes everything. Yup, totally different. If Fraction couldn't write the X-Men, how is adding a king and a queen going to change that? And on a side note, way to go Marvel, you've managed to go and undercut what should be your flagship franchise. Again.
Finally, there's the compatibility factor - what about Joe Madureira made Marvel think Matt Fraction? The fact that they've both worked on Uncanny at some point? That Salvador Larroca (Fraction's main collaborator on his Iron Man run), at one point, used to have a bit of an anime-inspired look? Seriously, I'm not sure I could think of two creators least suited for each other. Joe Madureira is an anime guy, he draws explosive, dynamic action sequences that just don't show up in Fraction's scripts. Madureira has drawn padded issues before, but they were padded with some amazingly choreographed fights (padding which, in comics, is ok). Joe can also do quiet character moments and talking heads, but he works best when he's able to write mostly action, with enough quiet moments and dialogue to keep things from getting monotonous. This is why he worked so well with Zeb Wells - he was a good writer who could make the scripts uniquely his while also writing to Joe's strengths.
On the other hand, Fraction only seems to write pointlessly dragged out conversation scenes that a) don't have any of the characters actually in character, b) they don't contribute anything to the character, and c) they don't contribute jack to the plot. Fraction may just be the worst offender of writing for the trade. Don't get me wrong, when done right writing for the trade can work, but Fraction's mainstream work exemplifies all of the flaws with that style while having none of its positive attributes. This mini is most likely going to be 90% unnecessary dialogue exchanges, 9% actually relevant/important dialogue, and 1% what Joe does best (so basically, Fraction's going to take several issues to tell a story that could be much better done in 10 pages). Now, I'm all for getting people to work outside their comfort zone as it gets them to improve their craft, but Joe already puts out very little work - why can't he just what he's good at? Fraction's the one who could stand to hone his craft quite a bit more, plus he writes multiple books a month; it's not as big a deal for him to write outside his comfort zone, since he can do one book that way and the rest of his books can be done more to his strengths.
And here's the thing - he might be doing that. Fraction might actually change his style up to suit a superstar like Joe Madureira. I'm all about giving the creators the benefit of the doubt (except Greg Land. Fuck that guy), so I'm willing to give Fraction another shot. I know this sounds like BS, but I really want Fraction to succeed with this. I don't actively wish for a creator to bomb, I want good stories, especially when they feature artwork from my favorite penciller of all time. It would be great to not only buy more Madureira drawn comics, but for those comics to also be a half-way decent read. I've listed my concerns going into this story, but I'm hoping Fraction will surprise me.
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