Don’t get me wrong, I think that Whedon is a great, talented writer, but I’m really getting sick and tired by his inability to stick to a monthly schedule. Normally I am forgiving when it comes to delays, but Joss is habitually late and it’s negatively effecting other comics.
First, anyone who has read Uncanny X-Men #496 now knows one of the key plot points in the yet-to-be-released final issue of Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run. What especially sucks about this is that Whedon’s Breakworld story has been going on so long that it is nearly impossible to fit into normal continuity with the regurally released series. But then Whedon goes and writes something that should deeply effect all the X-Men and then the other writers in the series have to somehow ignore it until Astonishing X-Men is released. Looks like Mike Cary couldn’t wait anymore. Some recognition of the change had to be given, even when readers didn’t even know what the change was!
Secondly, in an interview on Alter Ego Comic Cast, Terry Moore let it slip that Runaways will be relaunching when he begins his run after Whedon. That means that we will be having a third Runaways #1. Now, this may just be the contemporary trend of relaunching a series every 50 issues (only 30 in the case of Runaways), but I suspect that a big part of the reboot stems from the fact that the book’s delays have caused it to loose readers and the momentum it had under Brian K. Vaughan. Many Runaways fans have com planed that they have forgotten what had happened in each previous issue by the time one is released. No doubt this has caused some casual readers to drop the book. Marvel needs to create some hype around the book with Moore’s arrival, thus a new #1.
I haven’t been following comic news very closely lately, so I have no idea where Whedon is going after Runaways, but I sadly hope it is far, far away from my pull list.
