Dear Comic Creators:
Wow. What a year, right? Brexit. Impeachment hearings. Remember when we almost went to war with Iran back in January? That was crazy. And now here we are, months into global pandemic, isolation orders implemented across the country amid crazy protests, and no real end in sight. Some of us are coping. Some of us have forgotten how to wear a bra. You know, we’re handling it.
I’m not going to lie, I miss comics. But since Diamond announced back in March that they were halting all shipments of new comics, I think we’ve all had time to reflect. Many of us have picked up books we’ve been meaning to read for ages. Others, like me, have decided to reread some old favorites. And as an X-Men fan for the better part of 25 years, that means my walk down memory lane has brought me back to books that I remember loving and to some that I…don’t. But more than anything, I realize now that I owe a number of you an apology.
First off, to Ann Nocenti, for that afternoon back in 1996 when I was reading old issues of New Mutants over at Dustin Geary’s house and we called Mojo the dumbest x-villain because how could anybody buy into the idea that an orange-hued wannabe dictator prone to bursts of anger whose only real motivation was controlling the media would be a viable threat to people’s lives? I’m sorry.
And to Grant Morrison, for every time I went into Midtown Comics to pick up your early issues of New X-Men and complained to the very patient salesperson about how you had messed up because who would believe that people could watch huge numbers of their compatriots die and then somehow just move on without demonstrating any collective mourning? I’m sorry.
And to Ed Brubaker, for that time I convinced Liz Clark that Deadly Genesis was the worst X-Men retcon because no one in their right mind could think that a leader we all trusted with the well-being of others would be so convinced of his own virtue that he would endanger those very people’s lives and then go to extreme lengths to cover up his crimes for the express purpose of protecting his ego? I’m sorry.
And to Grant again, and Joss Whedon, Christina Weir, Nunzio DeFilippis, Marc Guggenheim, and many others, for every time I criticized the arrival of a new student to Xavier’s because how were we supposed to accept that parents stuck at home for months on end with highly dangerous, probably very annoying, children would willingly send them away to an incredibly unsafe school just to get a few moments peace? I’m sorry.
And to Ed Brisson, Matthew Rosenberg, Kelly Thompson, and so many more, for every time you included an anti-mutant protests on the page and I rolled my eyes because how could anyone believe that huge crowds of people would get together and willfully risk their lives to protest an incredibly dangerous thing that could be–and very often was–right there with them the entire time? I’m sorry.
And to Jack Kirby. Yes, sir, even you have been the target of my ire, like when I said that Peepers was the result of a fever dream you had on deadline. How I used your creation of this perfunctory character to justify my own poor creative choices. “Well, even Jack Kirby had Peepers!” I would say. Haha…ha. And then later, when 90% of the mutant population was depowered and Peepers was still running around unaffected and I said “How the f— did Peepers get to keep his powers?!” because how was it possible for the worst characters in the world to keep popping back up and becoming relevant regardless of how useless their contributions to society? I’m sorry, Jack.
To all of you, and many more: I’m sorry. Of course, your contributions to comics cannot be diminished, but I wouldn’t be a true comics fan if I hadn’t complained about it at some point too. Still, looking back now, perhaps that criticism wasn’t warranted. In fact, I’m a little stunned by your prescience. So I hope you accept my apology, comic creators. It seems that while I spent years knocking your work, all I needed was a little time and a lot of perspective.
Emily Harding is a television producer and writer whose work has appeared on numerous networks and sites, including History, MTV.com, Bravo, and Discovery.
Emily Harding is a television producer and writer whose work has appeared on numerous networks and sites, including History, MTV.com, Bravo, and Discovery.
