January 19 2006
Joss Whedon/Astonishing X-Men press conference
and preview pages from #13. Some of the highlights: a new Joss Marvel project is likely this year, Joss more open to Buffy/Kitty X-Men crossover than Firefly/Starjammers and most importantly of all, major discussion by Joss about the X-Men. Full transcript of Joss' chat at Comic Book Resources.
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Simon | January 19, 15:04 CET
And ooooh!:
Interesting....
GVH | January 19, 15:21 CET
Another t-shirt worthy slogan. I like this conference. I'm having fun.
I reckon the new project will be S.W.O.R.D..
Simon | January 19, 15:26 CET
BamSaidTheLady | January 19, 15:32 CET
That has got to be one of the lamest ideas ever. One of the things that made Firefly interesting is that there was no aliens. I sure as hell hope that doesn't happen.
war_machine | January 19, 15:40 CET
Simon | January 19, 15:41 CET
Niels van Eekelen | January 19, 15:48 CET
Like Simon said, the idea is most likely just a joke but if it ever came to pass i'd definately get a copy, if only to see the no doubt colourful conversations between Corsair and Mal! :)
WhedonTrivia | January 19, 15:53 CET
Simon | January 19, 16:00 CET
Niels van Eekelen | January 19, 16:02 CET
Septimus | January 19, 16:03 CET
war_machine | January 19, 16:04 CET
Simon | January 19, 16:06 CET
I might be a weird fanboy, but I don't think there's anything I wouldn't buy if Joss wrote it. If the big man think it's a good enough concept to be able to tell a story worth telling, then I'd just trust him - Joss' work hasn't let me down yet, after all.
Having said that: I'd love to see a cross-over like that, as long as it isn't serious in any way.
GVH | January 19, 16:09 CET
war_machine | January 19, 16:09 CET
hm. I'm betting the unnamed movie is something along the lines of that cinematic gemstone St Elmo's Fire (which is definitely one of my horrible guilty pleasures, god the eighties were good for that). Actually, I think I just want to make Joss watch St Elmo's Fire with me and make horrible, horrible fun of everything.
dottikin | January 19, 16:15 CET
Simon | January 19, 16:26 CET
Madhatter | January 19, 17:00 CET
Lioness | January 19, 17:38 CET
Simon, if you are talking a few years ago then you must mean the first limited series by Warren Ellis and Carlos Pacheco. I'd have bought that series even if i hadn't loved the team. One of my favourite writers combined with one of my absolute favourite artists made that a must buy.
As for the Galactus/River thing, i can totally see him making her into his latest herald. Now that is another comic i would read! :)
WhedonTrivia | January 19, 17:40 CET
Simon | January 19, 17:50 CET
ETA: From the transcript:
(my emphasis) Is that just a general reference/slip of the tongue or tantalising hint of something on the cards ?
[ edited by Saje on 2006-01-20 01:27 ]
Saje | January 19, 18:18 CET
I want to point out that in the transcript where it says (laughs), it means the other people on the call, not me. If you don't understand that, I come off even dorkier than I usually intend.
Also, though I enjoyed the Starjammers (and Starlord, EARLY Byrne/Austin) (and Star Wars) (A New hope) no way in heckity would they ever cross paths with the Firefly crew, for reasons stated above. Having said that, YEAH, I TOTALLY flashed on River as Galactus's new herald. Why does that seem perfectly reasonable?
Comics are awesome. Leave me.
[ edited by joss on 2006-01-20 01:29 ]
joss | January 19, 18:29 CET
And, welcome.
[ edited by Lioness on 2006-01-20 01:31 ]
Lioness | January 19, 18:30 CET
Simon | January 19, 18:32 CET
Can't we bring you with? :) The interview was today, huh? That was some speedy writing-up.
And, JW, you are more like Earshot Cordy ("I don't have an unspoken thought") than I ever would have imagined.
I'm inferring that the 'Jammers had their own book at some point - anyone got specifics? I loved them in the Byrne/Claremont Dark Phoenix sequence, and a little later in the Brood story of the UXM 160s, but haven't seen them since. Maybe because I was walking past comic book stores with my eyes closed for a number of years there.
SoddingNancyTribe | January 19, 18:37 CET
Yep, this TV shows remark is intriguing the flying flapoolas (yes, it's late, I couldn't think of an actual word to use) out of me. It'd be ever so awesome to have more whedony tv things to look forward to.
Agreeage with, well, all of you, on the River/Galactus thing. And, yes, comics are awesome. We are all most wise.
GVH | January 19, 18:38 CET
Okay, i may have just inspired Joss Whedon to write something. My life is complete!
Oh, hang on a second. Still got that "get a date with Amy Lee" thing to do. Better get working on that now then! :)
WhedonTrivia | January 19, 18:40 CET
Starjammers Vol.1 by Warren Ellis and Carlos Pacheco. 4 issue limited series, first issue dated Oct 95.
Starjammers Vol.2 by Kevin Anderson and Alé Garza/Sean Parsons/Jorge Lucas. 6 issue limited series, first issue dated Sep 04.
There is some dispute over whether the second series was true Marvel 616 continuity but it generally accepted that it is. Hope that helps.
WhedonTrivia | January 19, 18:47 CET
SoddingNancyTribe | January 19, 18:49 CET
As far as working on "TV shows", I'm not reading too much into it. I think Joss always has ideas floating around in various stages of development. Also he might be referring to the Spike movie, which is easier to describe to a comics crowd as "TV show" than "a TV (maybe cable) or direct-to-DVD movie based on characters from my previous TV shows".
(Edited to fix the spelling of "referring". "Refering" would be something else entirely...)
[ edited by jam2 on 2006-01-20 01:51 ]
jam2 | January 19, 18:49 CET
Lioness | January 19, 19:02 CET
Well anyway i'm still hoping that when I wake up tomorrow there'll be a nice shiny TV show waiting (not asking much just 2-3 seasons to start with). It'd certainly make up for that bike Santa 'forgot' when I was 8.
Lioness: Alien 4 ?
Saje | January 19, 19:07 CET
ETA: Ah, Saje beat me to it. =)
[ edited by jam2 on 2006-01-20 02:09 ]
jam2 | January 19, 19:08 CET
Paul_Rocks | January 19, 19:16 CET
And then I guess it didn't quite turn out the way it was meant to. (Although I like AR a lot more than most, I think).
SoddingNancyTribe | January 19, 19:17 CET
In fact i would probably say that, in certain ways at least, i prefer the fourth movie in the series to the one that came before. For whatever reason the third Alien movie just never grabbed me in the way the first two had managed to. The fourth may not have been perfect either but it didn't entirely suck in the way that many say it did. At least not in my opinion.
WhedonTrivia | January 19, 19:24 CET
I'm quite tempted by the Alien set now that it's come down a bit (Amazon have it for £25 which is pretty reasonable) since it seems to have some worthwhile extras (especially the commentaries and first drafts of the scripts) and I haven't seen the director's cut of Alien yet. I thought 4 was OK, it just has some really bad moments which tend to overshadow the good stuff (I think the Ripley/Alien DNA mesh is a brilliant idea) especially in the last third.
Or I could wait for the £130 limited edition set which, for that money, presumably comes with its own working deep space vessel.
ETA: VWaG, yeah agree about 3 to some extent. Although I think 4 is the least good on average, 3 has, for me, the worst moment of the quadrilogy where Hicks et al are unceremoniously (and very lazily) written out of the movie in the first 5 minutes (presumably cos they couldn't get the actors). Poor.
[ edited by Saje on 2006-01-20 02:43 ]
Saje | January 19, 19:40 CET
Exactly! Well said, Saje.
billz | January 19, 19:58 CET
Heck, Newsarama had it up as the conference was going on, and was updating the page every few minutes with new bits. :-)
On Starjammers--If anyone wants to look into it, definitely go for the Warren Ellis version, as it was quite brilliant. I'd actuallt dispute that the Kevin J Anderson version was in (616) continuity at all--it's certainly not likely to ever be referenced again, being the sales failure that it was. And by the way, there was also actually a much older book, a two-issue X-Men Present: The Starjammers, with art by Starjammers co-creator Dave Cockrum. Written by Terry Kavanagh, I *think*, and very old-school sci-fi adventure.
On Alien: Resurrection--I maintain that it s a great film to watch, and that is so because the characters are very Whedon, and you immediately care for them. That being said, I understand why a movie like this or X-Men is unwatchable for Joss, because he got to figure out exactly how he wanted them to be, and then they were done differently.
Niels van Eekelen | January 19, 20:05 CET
Paul_Rocks | January 19, 20:05 CET
Niels van Eekelen | January 19, 20:13 CET
And nothing will *ever* top Alien for me - watching bits of all four movies in sequence, together with their associated special features confirms that for me.
When Ridley Scott tells a Q & A audience that he had guys pushing bits of the spaceship walls along with the action, or filmed the alien planet sequence through a 8mm camera because the poor quality of the model would have been too visible through a normal lens, well, you've just gotta love the genius and creativity that went into it (and which was demanded by the relative poverty of the budget). Aliens is terrific, but lacks that very personal labor-of-love vibe for me.
SoddingNancyTribe | January 19, 20:20 CET
Totally forgot about that older X-Men Spotlight: Starjammers series, probably because i've yet to read it. Have to get around to that sometime.
WhedonTrivia | January 19, 20:30 CET
I finally got my hands on an issue of axm- and i have to say joss is brilliant- totally brought it back to the good old x-men days (which for me is claremont).
Drusillaloveskyo | January 19, 21:32 CET
Incredibly kewl! Well done, VWaG! :-)
billz | January 19, 22:58 CET
I just wanna say, kudos for "Fastball Special" moment. I haven't read any X-men comics in a long time, but when I read that issue and Logan turns to Peter and says "I've got 2 words for you", all my love for the series just came flooding back.
So thank you for that, at the very least.
NickSeng | January 19, 23:14 CET
Why do I keep hearing this in River's voice?
newcj | January 19, 23:51 CET
NickSeng | January 20, 01:11 CET
GVH | January 20, 02:42 CET
eddy | January 20, 03:35 CET
holymother | January 20, 03:40 CET
Djungelurban | January 20, 04:16 CET
How ironic is that statement now that Joss has posted about the article.
war_machine | January 20, 08:09 CET
Lioness | January 20, 08:44 CET
Drusillaloveskyo | January 20, 11:05 CET