Originally posted by Chuck Austen
Yeah, diverstiy is good, but traditional can still work, at least in my humble opinion. And at the moment, traditional is bucking the trend, so what the hell. I'll be a renegade by being "normal".
It's interesting that on the eve of my debut with Uncanny to see the antsy, heightened level of activity on this and other boards. People are alternately terrified and excited, and many don't want to let go of what the series has become. We're entering a turbulent and uncertain time, all of us, and no one knows what to expect because I've kept my mouth shut tight through most of this.
I know a lot of people aren't happy with Joe Casey leaving, and would love to see things stay moving in the direction he's taken the Uncanny team. His last two issues have gotten stellar reviews here at X-Fan and elsewhere, and that makes him a tough act to follow. Fortunately for the reviewer and his fans, Joe's still writing comics. Fortunately for me, he's no longer writing the X-Men. Whether that's fortunate for the fans as well remains to be seen, and that's what has people edgy.
I guess with the book only two weeks away I can say finally say that I won't be doing what Joe did. I won't be taking "Joe's sage advice" as Anthony Zisa has advised, and "imitate his direction". I've never been able to imitate anyone, and I don't think anyone ever should. I have my own road, and when it ends, I pull out the machete and forge ahead in the direction my heart takes me. There'll be no circling back, trying to find Joe's road.
So welcome to my road now, for better or worse.
This may mean that some fans will leave and follow Joe. I wish them well, and no hard feelings. Everyone has a different taste. This may mean Anthony Zisa and others will review my work and advise me to return back down the path and follow Joe. Not gonna happen. I go my way, or I hit the highway. Sales will determine which is in our mutual future, not reviews.
If this is upsetting for the fans who were intent on seeing more of Joe's direction, as I said, he's still writing. I wouldn't be able to write Warren behaving the way he has in the last two issues, using a woman whose life choices he has obviously detested up until this point to further his own ends by seducing the Vanisher. I don't see Warren that way, nor will I. I could never write a book written mostly in untranslated German, ease of communication with the reader is too important to me. I could never have written a story where Sean Cassidy trusses up a woman in a tank and uses her, forcing her to help further his own plans. Sean doesn't play that way in my mind. These were all interesting and innovative and brave choices, but they're not my choices. That's not how I see the X-Men.
Joe is a noir author, writing eloquently about society's underbelly and the darker, seedier sides of life, as well as the "fiction" of the hero being a knight in shining armor. We all know real heroes have feet of clay, make questionable choices, take ambiguous paths, and don't always like the people they work with. That's a profoundly interesting viewpoint. It's a viewpoint I've touched close to in War Machine.
But it's not my viewpoint of the X-Men.
My image is of real fantasy heroes who always strive to do the right thing, trying to rise above the petty emotions and negativity of the real world. My view is of a non-traditional family, who squabbles and argues, yet still loves one another at the end of the day. My perspective is of a family that is bound together, not by blood, but by common need and purpose, and a desire for a better world and a place for everyone in it.
The X-Men I write dream of an end to persecution, because they have been victims of it. They could never use others to further their own ends.
This doesn't mean I'm jettisoning everything Joe did. On the contrary, I'll be following the continuity he laid out and answering a lot, if not all, of his unanswered questions and dangling plot threads. I'll just be dealing with them in my way, not his.
I think it'll be fun and I hope you stick around. If not, I understand completely, because I'm not Joe Casey.
I wish him well and I know he will be missed.
From the man himself.
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