December 2nd, 2011
SUPERHERO: In past interviews that I’ve read with you it seems like you are a big fan of the classic versions of the DC/Marvel characters. Do you have any feelings regarding the new DC 52 “Reboot”? Do you have any feelings regarding what’s happening at Marvel these days? What did you think of the Marvel movies that have come out recently?
Ross: For the particulars of what’s gone on in publishing, I’d rather not comment. But I can say that I’ve very much enjoyed Marvel’s momentum with their films. Even if designers like myself are sticklers for certain things we want to see done a certain way, the broader impact of how well these characters’ stories are being handled is very positive and inspiring.
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For me, Ross has always been a better artist than storyteller; much better with someone whose narrative gifts are as strong as Ross’s artistic vision. My opinion of a lot of his work is that it sorts itself out into stories where Ross has creative input via his art and some of his vision and outline, and stories where someone else tries to put his idea into a narrative format more or less untouched. I often enjoy and am impressed by the former, but I’m often left scratching my head and wishing for something more from the latter. I also lost a good deal of respect for him in how nasty the disagreement between Ross and Mark Waid got after “Kingdom Come;” neither man gave a fan a lot to be proud of.
All that’s to say that this “I don’t want to comment but I’ll comment on something else so everyone can read between the lines” dance only makes me — someone who is not yet a fan of the new 52 — shrug “So what?” at Ross’s opinion.
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As I recall, they fell out when they were trying to produce a sequel that turned into the miniseries “The Kingdom,” but I couldn’t find anything online any more that detailed it. What I remember reading was a bunch of “You said X,” “No, I never said X, I said Y,” “I never claimed Y, I claimed X but you wouldn’t admit it,” and so on while they fussed over who should get more credit for “Kingdom Come.”
Although it seems recently they’ve been able to see past some of their differences enough in order to publicly respect each other’s work; Waid has a laudatory back cover quote on a recent hardcover collection of Ross’s work for Dynamite.
Will Truman December 5, 2011 at 6:53 pm
I also lost a good deal of respect for him in how nasty the disagreement between Ross and Mark Waid got after “Kingdom Come;” neither man gave a fan a lot to be proud of.
Could you elaborate on this? I’ve been out of comics for a while (maybe obvious by the question) and hadn’t heard about this.