Return of The Twelve

Just sat down to read some of this months new titles, and found issue #9 of The Twelve. For those with short memories, this is a twelve part maxi-series from Marvel Comics about a dozen obscure mystery men from World War II, who are awakened from suspended animation in the present day. It's pretty good.

Except that the 'present day' these guys woke up in was 2008. Which is when the last issue , issue #8, was published. November 2008. Then something happened, apparently the writer and artist both had other commitments and it...well...stopped, mid story. Now, in 2012, it's continuing as though nothing happened. And we got a two paragraph recap to events in a book published more than three years ago. That's just bizarre.

Well, given that the writer in question was JMS (Deadline problems? Me? Shurely not?) it might have been expected to have been a little late...

Seriously though, I picked up issues 1- 8 from the bargain bins at the late Red Sun, with no idea that it was about to be completed (or pretty much anything about it come to that. The covers just looked really nice and for quid a pop what was I going to loose?).

Picked up issue 9 at ACE in Southend by pure fluke and Lee tells me that Marvel effectively told JMS he wouldn't be allowed to finish it because he's signed an exclusive for DC. When they relented Chris Weston had his hands full and effectively had to take a year out of his schedule to finish the four remaining issues.

I'm now waiting for them to finish it before I start reading it.

That's politics for you. It infects everything, even comics...

Just read #10.
That was...bizarre. I did not expect that.

I keep wanting to read it, and I think I have one of the new issues on hold. I bought the older issues at a used bookstore, and I read them when they came out. So, I probably will read them. However, Straczynski so pissed me off with his remarks about Before Watchmen (he went straight to a trick a lot of people on the internet use, where they claim they're reasonable and their opponents are emotional, and he did it without any pretense) that I find it hard to want to follow his work. And, this is the guy who did Babylon 5, so I WANT to like his work.

I think I must have been one of the only three sci-fi fans on the planet who never understood the appeal of Babylon 5. It bored me to tears much of the time. Maybe I just wasn't at the right stage in my life to appreciate it.

tony ingram wrote:I think I must have been one of the only three sci-fi fans on the planet who never understood the appeal of Babylon 5. It bored me to tears much of the time. Maybe I just wasn't at the right stage in my life to appreciate it.

Not necessarily. To me, good science fiction can be broken down into 2 groups. First is the traditional "If this goes on" stuff, where you extrapolate and talk about future stuff, or use SF ideas to do stories about SF things. Hard to describe, but by this I'd mean cyberpunk, for example. Second are things like Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Galactica, where the SF stuff is just used to let you tell a story in a different way, but the main thrust of the story isn't about the tech or extrapolating trends, it's about something entirely human. Babylon 5 is about politics, and the aliens are just a story convenience.
I KNOW this isn't the most wel-though-out framework for SF, and it's much more complex than that, it's just what I notice mainly in tv or movie SF. You know, where most of the thoughtful stuff gets boiled out.

Finally got round to reading this.

To keep it succinct - what a pile of pish.

I didn't think it was that bad, but it was pretty predictable. Just for once, I'd have liked to see a writer resist the urge to kill off characters just because they can be safely deemed to be disposable.

One day I'd like to see JMS finish one of his epic storylines properly.

The Twelve has glorious artwork but frankly the overall plotting sucked.  I thought the story resolution regarding The Black Widow in particular was absolute nonsense.

What's really annoyed me is that none of the survivors have been seen since, anywhere!

The only issue of The Twelve I've bought / read was the Spearhead issue that JMS didn't write.

Much as I'm curious about this series, I am not a fan of JMS at all. The few things I've read of his sometimes had nice Hallmark Greeting Card moments, but otherwise had so many holes in the plots it wasn't funny. (And the fact he commits to big projects, then bails less than half-way through for whatever reasons sometimes . . . )

It did seem to take a surprisingly long time to finish.

tony ingram wrote:It did seem to take a surprisingly long time to finish.

Thirteen issues (#0 + #1-12) over almost four-and-a-quarter years?

And I don't think sales were the big hold-up (unlike with All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes) since it looks like Diamond's numbers for the last issue (pre-hiatus) were respectable enough among the Top 300:
* 105th - Twelve #8 - 25,982 copies
(http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2008/2008-10.html)

MajorHoy wrote: . . . And I don't think sales were the big hold-up (unlike with All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes) . . .

Next month will mark the 7th anniversary of the release of All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes #1.

And then, October will mark the seventh anniversary of the last issue being released (prematurely ending the series a few issues short of what had been originally said).

MajorHoy wrote:

MajorHoy wrote: . . . And I don't think sales were the big hold-up (unlike with All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes) . . .

Next month will mark the 7th anniversary of the release of All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes  #1.

And then, October will mark the seventh anniversary of the last issue being released (prematurely ending the series a few issues short of what had been originally said).

 

And I've still never read more than one issue.