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22 December 2023
Hi, everybody. It’s time yet again for another heartfelt and awe-inspiring installment of the best comic column that tastes like chicken has: Reading Between The Panels.
This month you need to know about a short-lived title that started out strong, kind of petered out in the middle, and is now just kind of dragging itself along the ground with its hands (because its legs just don’t work anymore) until it can cross its finish line (which has coincidentally been moved up quite a bit since the book\'s inception). The book: Marvel\'s NYX.
In the summer of 2003, Marvel was pushing the shit out of this book, and for good reason. It was being written by the Editor-in-Chief of the company, Joe Quesada, and illustrated by the brilliantly talented Joshua Middleton. The story is one of a modern New York City girl who lives a shittily (Is that a real adverb?) modern life. Plagued with poverty, drugs, gangs, and bullies, she one day discovers that:
1. she’s a Mutant, and
2. everything that can go wrong with situation number one, does.
Despite how cliché it sounds, this story had a very strong narrative thread through it, uncharacteristic of anything else I’ve ever read by Quesada, and as stated before, Middleton’s art is nothing short of fucking amazing.
Now we move on to the problems.
Released in October 2003, the book\'s first three issues came out as planned. The book\'s fourth issue was subsequently delayed for five months, coming out in May of 2004. This would be Middleton’s last issue as artist of the title, two issues short of his originally agreed upon six issue run. The fifth issue of the book was delayed for another five months, released in October of 2004, and the book is tentatively going to keep a monthly schedule until its officially announced cancellation point of issue number seven.
Quesada has stated in interviews that the lapse in the title was because of an illness and death within his family, and Middleton has claimed on his message board that parties at Marvel were less than forthcoming to him with details of what was going on with the book.
I’ve read the first four issues, and the story has a great flow with a few nice twists that most people just won’t see coming. Reviews of issue five I’ve come across label the issue as a dud due to a change in the flow of the storytelling. It’s been reported as too \"over-dramatized\" and critiques the art as not fitting in with the original flow of the story. I’m trying to get my hands on a copy, but as of yet have not. My recommendation is to read the first four issues, and after that, even though you’re going to be left with a cliffhanger, forget more issues of the book ever existed.
This month you need to know about a short-lived title that started out strong, kind of petered out in the middle, and is now just kind of dragging itself along the ground with its hands (because its legs just don’t work anymore) until it can cross its finish line (which has coincidentally been moved up quite a bit since the book\'s inception). The book: Marvel\'s NYX.
In the summer of 2003, Marvel was pushing the shit out of this book, and for good reason. It was being written by the Editor-in-Chief of the company, Joe Quesada, and illustrated by the brilliantly talented Joshua Middleton. The story is one of a modern New York City girl who lives a shittily (Is that a real adverb?) modern life. Plagued with poverty, drugs, gangs, and bullies, she one day discovers that:
1. she’s a Mutant, and
2. everything that can go wrong with situation number one, does.
Despite how cliché it sounds, this story had a very strong narrative thread through it, uncharacteristic of anything else I’ve ever read by Quesada, and as stated before, Middleton’s art is nothing short of fucking amazing.
Now we move on to the problems.
Released in October 2003, the book\'s first three issues came out as planned. The book\'s fourth issue was subsequently delayed for five months, coming out in May of 2004. This would be Middleton’s last issue as artist of the title, two issues short of his originally agreed upon six issue run. The fifth issue of the book was delayed for another five months, released in October of 2004, and the book is tentatively going to keep a monthly schedule until its officially announced cancellation point of issue number seven.
Quesada has stated in interviews that the lapse in the title was because of an illness and death within his family, and Middleton has claimed on his message board that parties at Marvel were less than forthcoming to him with details of what was going on with the book.
I’ve read the first four issues, and the story has a great flow with a few nice twists that most people just won’t see coming. Reviews of issue five I’ve come across label the issue as a dud due to a change in the flow of the storytelling. It’s been reported as too \"over-dramatized\" and critiques the art as not fitting in with the original flow of the story. I’m trying to get my hands on a copy, but as of yet have not. My recommendation is to read the first four issues, and after that, even though you’re going to be left with a cliffhanger, forget more issues of the book ever existed.
artid
2850
Old Image
7_4_panels.jpg
issue
vol 7 - issue 04 (dec 2004)
section
entertainmental