There was a period at the beginning there when there was a new editor on SUPERGIRL every other issue. When Mike McAvennie settled in, I kept expecting him to disappear within a month or so. Happily, I was wrong; unhappily, not forever.

I was extremely unhappy to learn of Mike’s departure from DC Comics yesterday. When I was first looking at Leonard Kirk’s pencils and saying, “Gee, I’m not sure,” Mike was the one saying, “Trust me, he’ll work out great,” and he was absolutely right. He was always watching out for the good of the book.

People are asking me what this bodes for SUPERGIRL. I couldn’t say. I am reasonably sure that sales are not what I’d hoped for with the new storyline and the “return of Kara.” I’m seeing lots of fans who state they never read the book or dropped it now saying they fully intend to start buying it with #75. Unfortunately my guess is that they haven’t bothered to tell their retailers, who in turn aren’t bothering to increase their orders. If every single retailer had increased his order by one copy–one–that’d be a rise of several thousand right there. Hasn’t happened so far. Funny that retailers and fans complain about the CAPTAIN MARVEL circus, with the air of publicity stunts and the multiple covers. But sales tripled. Tripled. SUPERGIRL was simply publicized with a much-asked-for storyline and terrific Ed Benes art. Emphasis on substance over style. Best guess? Haven’t even cracked the top 100 yet.

I’m asked what sort of message DC is sending by firing Mike McAvennie. Answer: Not a good one. Now here’s my question: What sort of message is being sent to DC when an editor launches a popular storyline with great art and the book still can’t get the time of day?

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…and the reviews are beginning to come in for Captain Marvel. Peter is either too modest to link to the reviews, or he still fears the attempt will cause the website to explode again, so it falls to me. Look here and here. If you have any others, post them in the comments section and we’ll move them up front.

Meanwhile, some people are declaring victory. Forgive me for having my doubts…

UPDATE: More reviews here and here. Domo arigato, Markisan.

And anybody else who’s got a review and looking for some cheap link traffic, place their review in the comments section.

The signing went well at Jim Hanley’s Universe yesterday, I thought, although I was slightly saddened that Jim himself wasn’t actually there (Max Allan Collins, he turns out for. Me, no.) But it gave me the opportunity to meet and greet ChrisCross, Soto, Tom and Mark. I did get there late, though. Get this: Took me a little over an hour to drive in from Long Island, and then HALF AN HOUR to drive from the Queens Midtown Tunnel (35th and 2nd) to Hanley’s at 33rd between 5th and 6th…including a solid ten minutes to go 3/4 of a block on 33rd Street. I was going out of my mind.

It’s impossible to judge fairly how sales of CAPTAIN MARVEL were going since, naturally, the entire creative team was there. I will say, however, that according to store staff, sales of MARVILLE were going veeeeeery slowly. Funny thing is, the other two titles really have it pretty easy. Since I was the one going out there in the first place saying I thought the storyline in CM was so fabulous that everyone had to read it, I always figured I was the one with the most to lose if the writing wasn’t up to snuff. Expectations were high because of what I’d said, and because of my track record. Judging by comments on various boards, expectations were far less for the other two titles. It’s kind of like the Gore/Bush debates. Everyone expected so much of the intellectual, debate-savvy Gore, that all Bush had to do was show up sober, not bump into the furniture, and not attack a woman in the front row, and people would be impressed. Same thing here. My perception is that CM really has to be good to live up to what people expect. All MARVILLE and ULTIMATE has to do is not suck.

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No, it’s not grooming tips (yeah, like I’d be the one to come up with those.) I forgot to mention that I’ll be appearing today at Jim Hanley’s Universe in Manhattan, 4 W. 33rd Street, from 4 to 7 PM for a “Captain Marvel” releated signing. Then let’s all clock with a stopwatch how long it takes signed copies of CM to show up on ebay.

Also, for those within range of Stony Brook University, I’ll be appearing on the radio show “Destinies” this Friday at 11:30 PM. “Destinies” airs on WUSB, 90.1 FM, Stony Brook, NY, and can be heard via RealAudio through links at the WUSB website. After September 24 or 25, the program will be rebroadcast online in rotation at Cosmic Landscapes.

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UN weapons inspector Hans Blix. I love that name. I keep expecting he has two associates named “Sptzl” and “Glah.”

You know, that’s a thought. Send Sugar and Spike into Iraq as weapons inspectors. By the time they’re through, Saddam will be begging us to bomb him.

PAD

I’m always fascinated by the people who continue to rant and rave that my take on THE HULK was somehow dead wrong or “not the Hulk.” The one constant of any long-running comic book character is change, from variations in tone and style (Batman, Superman) to variations in costume and even identity. Why my run on the Hulk is singled out by some as being “not the Hulk” mystifies me, considering the number of personality and strength variations he went through in his first six issues alone.

These critics generally tend to single out what I called “the merged Hulk”….the period dubbed “the professor” by Paul Jenkins, a title I don’t hold with considering that it focuses merely on the scholarly aspects of the character at the time without taking into account that he was, in essence, a big bully. People who claim that the Hulk is supposed to be about the conflict between Banner and his savage aspect miss the point that the merged Hulk *was* about that very thing: It was simply internalized instead of externalized. But it was still very much there. My model for the Hulk at that point became Val Kilmer’s character from “Real Genius” except gone bad: A brilliant MIT student who was positive that he was better than everyone else in the world and could do whatever he wanted. Which is just a high-falutin’ way of saying, “Hulk is strongest one there is.” People who thought I did the storyline just so I could have him be clever and witty and big and green, frankly, just didn’t get it.

There are those who claim that the Hulk should be about nothing except Hulk smashing this and that and some other dámņëd thing. Fans who believe that this would be a good thing are blind to the reality of the marketplace, which is that readers get bored. Fast. At $2.25 and up per book, fans are looking for reasons to drop titles more than they are to pick them up. Anyone fan who states that, if he were writing the title, it would be 22 pages of “Hulk smash” every month has doomed the book to declining sales and themselves to unemployment. The key to keeping a title going long-term is dancing as fast as one can. I applaud Bruce Jones’ success on the book; let’s see how he’s doing on it in ten years.

The funniest notion is those folks who believe the Hulk was my mouthpiece for my political views. It doesn’t get dumber than that. The Hulk headed up the Pantheon, an organization dedicated to the notion that they should be able to go wherever they want, whenever they want, and right whatever wrongs they saw fit regardless of national boundaries, treaties, or the desires of respective governments. In short…he was George W. Bush. Does *anyone* think I’m George W. Bush?

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Just came back from a weekend spent down in Pennsylvania, celebrating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. For the first time in a while, all of us were in one place (with the exception of Shana and Gwen, up living in Boston and weren’t able to make it down…and by the way, Gwen is looking for a job. She’s particularly skilled at baking, if anyone knows of anything.)

My folks got a small room at a local place called the William Penn Inn, a restaurant so fancy that there was a harpist outside the room. I’m sure we drove him nuts because my father and I kept singing along anytime he played show tunes.

My pregnant sister and my pregnant wife have an established greeting wherein, instead of shaking hands, they bump bellies.

Ah well. Off to atone. Hope God doesn’t strike me down for entering my BLOG on Yom Kippur. That would kind of suck.

PAD