| Posted: 24 September 2023 at 2:09am | IP Logged | 6
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…if I had a working time machine and could go back and whisper in my ear.• When Shooter’s Whim of Iron demanded that all stories be single issues, Roger Stern and I were caught several pages into what we planned as a three issue story in CAPTAIN AMERICA. Very reasonably we told Shooter we would be happy to start doing single issue stories as soon as we finished that story—which we offered to compress into two issues. But Shooter insisted the single issue stories would start immediately, with whatever issues were currently in the works. Roger quit in protest (plus some other reasons of which I was unaware at the time). Jim Salicrup, the editor, offered me the writing job, but I felt I had to support Rog, so I left, too. If I had known then what I know now, I would have convinced Rog to stay, we would have set aside the finished pages, and done a few single issue stories until the Whim blew over, as it invariably did. • Another (infamous) example of the Whim of Iron, when Shooter saw what Chris Claremont and I had done in X-MEN 137, he claimed to have had no idea what we were planning and ordered our story changed. Jean Grey, for her crimes, was to be “taken to a prison asteroid to be horribly tortured for all eternity.” That sounded to me like an incredibly misogynistic Legion of Superheroes story, prompting me to utter the immortal words “F**k that, I’d rather kill her.” * Looking back, I wish Chris and I had just done what Shooter ordered, and a few issues later had the X-Men rescue Jean. • And now the biggie. When Dick Giordano called to offer me Superman, I wish I’d said no. There are some who don’t believe this, but it’s true. The Superman experience was one of the most unpleasant of my career—and it continues, as people at DC continue to find ways to chip away at what little is left of what I did.
*****
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
The book that I remember the single-issue story decree affecting the most was Master Of Kung Fu. It seemed built for multi-issue epics that moved the characters forward. When it went to single-issue stories the energy and momentum just dissipated. It became a book without a purpose.
Given what you've said about the way things were going with yours and Chris Claremont's working relationship, I wonder if you would have lasted any longer on X-Men anyway.
Superman was an amazing accomplishment considering all that was happening behind the scenes. Including mini-series and annuals you managed to put out over 50 issues in a two-year period and make a 50-year-old character seem fresh and relatable. That's pretty amazing in itself. Your Action Comics run and the Legend mini-series also gave many of us Marvel fans an inroad into the DC Universe.
While I was saddened that you'd left the FF and the Hulk, there was a level of excitement that came with you being on Superman. It felt like the beginning of something new and exciting, particularly with Perez on Wonder Woman and Miller doing Year One.
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