Best Writer for the Serenity Comic Book: GARTH ENIS

POSTED BY: JohnCrichton
UPDATED: Friday, July 22, 2005 17:17
VIEWED: 4327
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LUCYFERSAM

Thursday, July 21, 2005 8:31 PM

Umm, Joss is a pro at comics, as I think he has established quite well with his current work on Astonishing X-men, easily the best X-men since Grant Morrison's run on New X-men. I enjoyed the comic and thought it was a good establishing issue, but it is not up there with the great comics. It would have undoubtably been better if Joss had written the whole thing instead of just doing the story, but he's a busy guy these days (what, with just having finished making some big movie or another).

Ennis would be a good long term author, as long as he was working with a different artist than his standerd (not that I don't like the art in Preacher, but his characters tend to look very similar no matter what the series is and I don't think the style is good for Serenity).

An Ellis/Cassaday book would be awsome, but then again those two can pretty much do no wrong, IMO.

And the ideal would be a Joss/Cassaday book.

JOHNCRICHTON

Friday, July 22, 2005 5:58 AM

And you know what I hate? People who begin their posts with sarcastic, "I love it when..." or "Oh my God...."

I don't know how much fact it is, but I know when it comes to having a passion for westerns, Ennis has that and that he's also a very incredible and talent writer.

While I am not the person to be calling the shots as a passionate fan, you're gorram right I should be expressing my frelling opinions on what I think would be best for the series. Fans aren't just meant to praise everything that comes along, they're there to call it when something doesn't ring right with what they love and this comic didn't ring right.

As of now it serves at only a bridge and collector's item 'til the film. And that's cool, but I want Firefly to be a must have monthly comic that makes your eyes bug out as if you were watching the series and for someone to do a "wanderer" series in the comic book and make it hard hitting and memorable... Ennis is the man for that job.

He would make Firefly a must have comic book.

And yeah, Joss is a busy guy and I'd rather have him out and a bout creating more cool tv shows than focusing on just a comic book and I'd rather have him do that instead of "sorta" focusing on a comic book too.

I'm glad you thought it rocked... I'm not quite sure why, unless it fulfilled that Firefly fix for you, which I can understand, cuz it did that for me. But as a comic book alone and if it had nothing to do with a show I love... I'd say it wasn't that good.

And I want it to be.

I want it to hang with the Astro City's, Preacher's, and other comic book greats out there that everyone will want a tradepaperback of and Garth could do that in spades.

I'm just sayin'.... get him a good artist (I agree DEFINATELY not Steve Dillon, who rules, but not for a Firefly comic) and watch it become a must have collectors among greats like Preacher and Sin City.

SHINYSIDEUP

Friday, July 22, 2005 7:54 AM

John, if you want to hate me for having a different opinion than you, fine. Welcome to the world. But I'm not going to be bullied by that, either; I get too much of that in the real world to let it happen on message boards...

To clarify (and perhaps I did not adequately enough) I'm not arguing that Ennis is a good writer. He is. Preacher is an amazing book. That said, he's also written crap in his day (again, my opinion). But on the whole, I think he's a real talent.

What bothers me is the way you're putting your opinions out there like they're something more than that, like yours should carry some sort of weight just because you obviously read a lot of comics (and have a very particular taste; sin city, very one note IMHO). You're ignoring the fact that lots of fans like me loved the first issue of the series, and in fact go so far as to belittle us ("I'm not sure why...") for it. Why? Because my/our taste(s) do not match up with yours?

To answer: why did I love the first issue? Because it was Firefly. Genuinely. Through and through. That, to me, is the point.

Now, it's obvious you and I have very different tastes and enjoy the 'verse for different reasons; I don't love Firefly for the hooks or jaw-dropping scenes (as you describe them/seem to). I watch it for the characters. I loved them in the show, I love them in the comic because they're spot-on. For me, that's what Firefly is all about. Bells and whistles, I can get that anywhere.

You seem to want a very different version of the book than I do, which is fine (though I agree, a different artist would be a welcome thing). Personally, I want something faithful to the world and characters the show made me fall in love with, regardless of what the medium is. That appreciates that I watched the show. I got that in a big way from the first issue, and hope to for the rest of the series.

At the end of the day, I guess different strokes for different folks. All I'm saying is look around; there are a lot of browncoats loving the series, and we're not all wrong just because you disagree (nor are you because we do). Personally, I don't see how if you like the show you don't like the comic, but I've heard you out and will read future issues with your thoughts in mind. I hope that you do the same.

As the Cap'n says, we're all just folk (with opinions, he left that part out). I hope you're never so certain of yours that you stop letting them change or allowing yourself to be surprised, because the world gets real boring that way.

So, this is me riding off into the sunset of this thread. And Garth Ennis, if you're out there or reading this, John here needs to be your agent .

JOHNCRICHTON

Friday, July 22, 2005 11:47 AM

Well said, partner.

And nah NEVER meant to seem like I was bullying someone or that my opinion meant more than others. Nor would I hate someone for having an opinion. I try to take nothing personal hear on the "Internets."

I *honestly* don't know why you'd think this comic was really good. The world and show it represented... fantastic, but this comic, if it was just a stand alone... meh.

I won't stop reading it or throw in the towel, cuz I too love Firefly.

More later, I gotta bolt.

HELL'S KITTEN

Friday, July 22, 2005 3:31 PM

Note: This got a little longer than I intended. Sorry ‘bout that. Skip it if there are too many words... cuz it could really be a waste of your time.

I’m a comic book geek, born and raised and I am a long time fan of both Ennis and Ellis (Transmetropolitan is probably my favorite series). As such, I don’t doubt that they could write great stories using the characters from Firefly. However, to me (for some reason I feel a ridiculous need to state that), that’s not the same as writing a great Firefly story. Both Ennis and Ellis have their own styles... they bring their own “flavor” or “feel” to whatever they write... and I don’t really see that “feel” being comparable to - or blending with - what Whedon and the Firefly writing staff created.

Mr. Ennis seems to be more along the lines of insane violence and comedy, mixing in some decent character development when the characters are actually worth it, in order to tell an often fantastic (sometimes less so) story, which, in some cases, can be surprisingly deep... for lack of a better word. (Have you read the issue of... Hitman, I think... where Superman shows up??) Sure, his love of John Wayne is well known, but Firefly is more than a western war story in space. There is no doubt in my mind that he could write some of the best stories about the war for Serenity Valley and other tales of the BrownCoat Fight for Independence. But those are stories of the past and Firefly isn’t all about that.

Mr. Ellis - when writing other people’s or company’s characters - seems to take that character and what has already been done and said, and almost puts them in an alternate universe full of “what if this happened?” instead of following the commonly accepted mainstream realization of the characters. Iron Man is one example. Of course, other times, he’ll simply tell a really good story using what’s available without changing the mythology (Ultimate Fantastic Four). He can – and has – taken characters and given them such great development that the story evolves around the character, in contrast to having a character act on behalf of the plot, which is much more similar to what Firefly had. So, while I can imagine some good works coming from Mr. Ellis about the Firefly characters... he’d actually have to care enough to do it and adapt that “us versus the universe” motif that’s prevalent in Whedon’s work. And as much as I love to read anything that man writes, the pairing still doesn’t seem quite right to me.

Now, I didn’t particularly care for issue #1 of Serenity for reasons I’ve stated in a different thread. The main reason being that it wasn’t written by Joss and I could tell right away. I had no idea the writer was the same who penned “Heart of Gold,” which I also didn’t like.

So, in my mind, the only replacement for Whedon writing his own Firefly comics that comes to mind at the moment – and not including any of his usual staff of TV writers – would be Brian Michael Bendis. (Joss has even commented that every idea he’s come up with was already had long ago by Bendis. Also, when I met Bendis at the Chicago show, he said he really liked my Serenity shirt! ) Bendis’ work on Daredevil never ceases to impress me, and I never liked that character before he started writing the book. Bendis’ stories and character development seem to be much more akin to what I’ve seen in Firefly and read in Joss’ other comics, delving into the character first and letting the story unfold from there. The two of them just seem to be on the same wavelength... I wish I could explain it better, but us engineers ain’t taught to communicate good. (Grammar bad, too. Hee.)

So. Yep. That’s what’s been rattling around my little brain ever since I first stumbled across this thread. Now, empty headed, I go.

Cheers.

无党派人士

LUCYFERSAM

Friday, July 22, 2005 5:17 PM

A good analysis of Ennis and Ellis Hell's Kitten, pretty much nails my concerns with either of them writing on Serenity. Both of them could write amazing stories, but would have to take utmost care to make sure they were Firefly stories.

I'm not really sure about Bendis either, while a great writer, he very rarely brings across the warmth and humor that is present in Firefly. He has a strong tendency to be all dark, all the time He excels at dark crime stories, but I tend to find him out of his element in other genres, even his work on Ultimate Spiderman (which I know a lot of ppl really like) tends to leave me a bit cold.

Since I posted yeasterday I've thought a bit more about who I might like to see write future issues of the comic; one I came up with was Bill Willingham, who currently writes Fables (a great book). His style in terms of character interaction and development, and pacing I think would suit Serenity well. The one thing I'm unsure of with him is how well he'd deal with the setting, as I've never seen him write outside of the modern fairytale genre.

Overall as far as the current mini-series goes, as I've said I thought the first one was decent. However, I think it will have to wait until all three issues are out to really judge the writer and the book. I mean hell, I slogged through issues 1 and 2 of House of M, 1 was ok, 2 sucked, but 3 and 4 were great and I expect the series as a whole to be good. The first issue is not always the best judge.

Then we can all hope that when Joss finishes his run on Astonishing X-men, he and Cassaday reteam to do a long running Serenity comic.

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