Blogathon 48: Three Joe Casey Books Part Two

I've always been the type of person who follows a writer, not an artist. But, I wonder, were the Mr. Majestic and Adventures of Superman runs better because of the art? Ed McGuinness followed by Eric Cante and Toby Cypress on the former, Derec Aucoin and Charlie Adlard on the latter. Uncanny X-Men, on the other hand, had Ian Churchill, Sean Phillips, Ashley Wood, and a bunch of other people. Would it have been a better comic with a single artistic vision?

Or what of the use of narration? In both Mr. Majestic and Adventures of Superman narrative captions are used, while not in Uncanny X-Men. Did that have an impact? Or storylines? At the time of Uncanny's release, Marvel was shifting to storyarc-based books, "writing for the trade" as it were, while the other two books tended towards shorter, more self-contained stories. Even the five-issue art in Superman was three mostly self-contained issues and then a two-parter. Every other story either a single issue or two-parter.

I really do wonder if editorial was at fault for Uncanny X-Men just because the general quality level is SO much lower than what Casey usually produces. I mean, what are the odds that his one really shitty book is an X-book and the X-offices were known for editorial bullshit that fucked up stories, but not this time?

Some day, I may do a more extensive and cohesive piece on Uncanny X-Men, because I think it's interesting. A look at Superman as a pacifist could work, too.

Just so you know, I read nearly every comic I discussed ahead of time, from Wednesday onward. The last three Adventures of Superman issues were read tonight before I wrote about them. I never wrote anything in advance, maybe pondered a little, but even that's stretching it. Mostly, I came in without much thought and just wrote what came to me.

See you in 30 for the end.