Ah, that's great. Astonishing is proving to be a fantastic ongoing series. I'm already sad that it'll be over after issue 24. I can't imagine anyone else doing the kind of job with the title that Joss was doing.

GVH | August 05, 14:27 CET

*Dance of Joy*

24 issues and a Giant-Sized Annual! Don't forget the Giant-Sized Annual!

And I still seriously hope that if Joss can't be persuaded to stick around, they give his job to Greg Pak, who is not only blowing the roof off over in Incredible Hulk, but who also captured a mix of Joss and Morrison so beautifully in Phoenix: Endsong. As for art, what was Gary Frank doing next, again? Or if they can tear Hitch away from Mark Millar...

Niels | August 05, 17:37 CET

Frankly, I hope that Marvel is testing Brubaker on Uncanny for the Astonishing job. The guy is amazing, and delivers on time. I hope that whoever takes over will be able to meet deadlines, I am not sure the series will be able to sustain itself if shipping becomes a problem like it was last year.

rockchalkwatcher | August 05, 18:17 CET

I'm hoping Joss sticks around at Marvel and works on another project there.I've said before,I would love to see what he would do with Spider-Man.

Buffyfantic | August 05, 18:39 CET

From what I remember reading in a Wizard interview, Joss expressed an interest for Warren Ellis to succeed him. But if I could click my fingers and get anyone to do it, Alan Moore would be my choice. With Alex Ross doing the artwork.

Simon | August 05, 21:24 CET

This is the 2nd win in a row for Kitty Pryde. As a long time X-Men and Excalibur fan, I'm just amazed and astonished at what Joss has done for Kitty. Six years ago, Marvel editorial policy was preventing Chris Claremont from even using Kitty and now she's the most popular heroine. Thank you, Joss!

The current rumor is Jeph Loeb might be taking over Astonishing for Joss. He signed an exclusive deal with Marvel last fall. Buffy fans will remember Jeph from his work on the Buffy animated series and his late son, Sam, wrote for Tales of the Vampire.

Jeph wrote some really good issues of Cable and X-Force in 90s. I like Brubaker and Carey's work so far on Uncanny and Adjectiveless, and I'm certainly going to miss Joss and wish he wouldn't leave.

But the thing I like best about the prospect of Jeph on Ashtonishing is that he actually has some respect and knowledge of the X-books of the 90s. He actually knows what the word Askani means. The 80s nostalgia has been great for the X-books, but the continuity has really been lacking.

FaithFan | August 05, 21:26 CET

I'm against Warren Ellis on Astonishing based only on the whole Kitty Pryde/Pete Wisdom debacle in Excalibur. I don't trust what Warren would do to Kitty's character.

The Kitty/Wisdom/Rasputin love triangle is essentially the same as Buffy/Spike/Angel. (Joss having Kitty go back to her first love is really pretty cool for what it says to B/Aers.)

Continuity aside, Joss brought Kitty back to a more mature version of her character in the 80s, which was really neccessary after all attmepts to make her darker by Ellis and Claremont.

When I first read Astonishing #1, I was confused because you look at Kitty in X-Treme and Kitty in Astonishing and there's no continuity. It's like taking Buffy from Season 6 (Kitty in X-Treme) and turning her into Buffy in Season 1 (Kitty in Astonishing). But the change was much needed.

Whomever takes over from Joss, I just hope they don't undo what he's done. I don't want someone who's just high profile to take over Astonishing, I want someone who truly understands the characters, which was what Joss was able to do. And that's what's made Astonishing the premiere X-book and why they keep winning all these awards.

FaithFan | August 05, 21:48 CET

I agree with Simon...Alan Moore and Alex Ross is a dream team on any project. A grocery list by those two would be a best seller.

alexreager | August 05, 22:24 CET

Yep, he did, in a Wizard interview posted earlier this year: “ON WHO SHOULD TAKE OVER ‘ASTONISHING X-MEN’: I have at least four answers, and if I only give one, I’m going to insult the others. But I’ll just say the first name that comes to my mind is [Planetary writer] Warren Ellis. I’m still pretty much in awe of him because he has a sparseness and cinematic quality that I’ve tried to capture a little bit. And [Love & Rockets co-creator] Jaime Hernandez. I actually think that his clean and crisp style would be really fun. Obviously, he does his own thing and would never want to do it, but I think that he would be interesting. Those two.”

(Here’s another Joss-quote from the same interview that gave me the chuckles: ” ON BIG VILLAINS: [Vice President] Dick Cheney beats Darkseid and Thanos if they had kids. Cheney is still winning. There’s a switch on the back that can turn him to good, but no one does it.”)

BTW, here’s some Ellis news that might be of interest: He’ll be curating a mass webcomics site called “Rocket Pirates” and is inviting submissions: ”The submissions system is simply this: email your materials to me at warrenellis@gmail.com. I want to see at least three completed pages and an overview of what you intend to do. No need to be formal — rambly emails talking about the central concepts and what you want to achieve are fine.”

Read more about it at the link above to his site – there are submission guidelines, but they’re pretty free-flowing.

And yay for Joss et al for the Wizard Fan Awards.

QuoterGal | August 06, 00:02 CET

Hadn't heard that rumor yet, and may I just say, good God I hope not! Jeph Loeb is very much hit and miss for me, and leaning more and more towards the misses.

Warren Ellis would be lovely, but I don't really think we'll soon see him on a title that requires that much continuity coordination with other current titles. Nextwave (which is highly amusing and people should read it) is staying far away from Civil War, it seems.


I'll repeat what I said on Warren's site: An artist! My kingdom for an artist!
:-)

Niels | August 06, 03:51 CET

Yay for Astonishing winning.
Also I second Telltale on the "Rocket Pirates" thing: A kingdom for an artist! *sighs* Though I can draw a bit and might revive my rusty old pen, but that will probably lead no where. But thanks for the heads up, QuoterGal!

Kessie | August 06, 06:15 CET

Hoping for Brian K Vaughan, after Joss, so much right now.

Gouki | August 06, 08:11 CET

Brian K Vaughan, also a good suggestion. Unfortunate, as he just recently mentioned in an interview, he wants to focus on writing his own characters.

*sigh* So many of the writers who might have a chance to fill Joss's over-sized shoes probably wouldn't or couldn't do it (and I'm ignoring my own suggestion of Greg Pak for the sake of this argument). There's only really one thing for it--Joss will have to stay for another two years!

Niels | August 06, 13:55 CET

Congrats to the the team for another gong (they're gonna have very full bathroom shelves ;).

Yeah, BK Vaughan would be good, he's got exactly the sort of Joss snarkiness to his dialogue but as well as focussing on his own characters doesn't he have screen adaptations on the go for Y and Ex Machina ? Busy busy.

Much as I think Ellis is brilliant (if a little patchy which I agree is also true of Jeph Loeb) I don't think he'd fit AXM at the moment. He generally only does super-hero stuff if he can do something pretty radical with it and, IMO, the success of Astonishing is that it's kind of stripped back to its essentials, without too much post-modern baggage (and, again, much as I dig his stuff I think the same applies to Alan Moore).

('Nextwave' is great though and i'd also add - as usual ;) - 'Fell' to the list of Ellis' current stuff worth checking out. Read 'Desolation Jones' first arc recently and thought it had some really nice ideas in it too)

Re: suggestions, not too many spring to mind. Peter David maybe ?

Saje | August 07, 01:45 CET