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Alex Ross: A$$hat or Visionary?
 
Aug 29, 2008  08:27 AM
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Here ya go Steve!
Discuss.

 
Reply #1 • Aug 29, 2008  10:56 AM
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for a comic book writer, he’s okay

 
Reply #2 • Aug 29, 2008  11:13 AM
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He’s pretty to look at, and once you start listening to him you realize how much of his own press he reads.

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Reply #3 • Aug 29, 2008  12:42 PM
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I think he’s a forgettable writer, but a worthy artist with a nice gimmick. The only book of his I ever really liked cover-to-cover was Marvels, and that was largely because of Busiek’s script. Uncle Sam was OK, too.

 
Reply #4 • Aug 29, 2008  01:02 PM
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Steve Shanafelt - 29 August 2008 12:42 PM

I think he’s a forgettable writer, but a worthy artist with a nice gimmick. The only book of his I ever really liked cover-to-cover was Marvels, and that was largely because of Busiek’s script. Uncle Sam was OK, too.

You didn’t like Kingdom Come?

 
Reply #5 • Aug 29, 2008  01:21 PM
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Kingdom Come was great, but I think that the story impetus was Ross’ while the scripting was Waid’s. Ross is a great idea guy, but sometimes I think it takes a great writer to flesh out those ideas.

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Reply #6 • Aug 29, 2008  01:33 PM
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The Masked Superstar - 29 August 2008 01:21 PM

Kingdom Come was great, but I think that the story impetus was Ross’ while the scripting was Waid’s. Ross is a great idea guy, but sometimes I think it takes a great writer to flesh out those ideas.

True, and for that matter Marvels was written by Busiek.

 
Reply #7 • Aug 29, 2008  06:52 PM
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bobaloo - 29 August 2008 01:02 PM

You didn’t like Kingdom Come?

It was OK, but I had a really hard time getting into it. I’m just not as interested in the DC universe as the Marvel one, so much of the story involved characters I never really found all that compelling to begin with. I never liked Captain Marvel, and found it really hard to care that he now a bad guy and was fighting Superman. I did like the basic premise of older superheroes fighting the newer, almost Marvel-style vigilantes, however, with Batman kind of walking the line between the two. Moore did it better in Watchmen, but it wasn’t a bad story or anything.

 
Reply #8 • Aug 29, 2008  10:40 PM
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Everything was done better in Watchmen.

 
Reply #9 • Aug 30, 2008  12:06 AM
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I saw we move past that. It’s a comic that’s bigger than the medium at this point.

We’re talking about Alex Ross.

I do like his sequel to Kingdom Come he’s doing in JSA.

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Reply #10 • Aug 30, 2008  09:31 AM
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Anyone read his “Earth X” series and the sequels? Ross scripted (or maybe “outlined” would be a better word) that series and did the character design, but didn’t do the inside art. Although I enjoyed seeing how he reinterpreted the characters, I had the same trouble getting into it. He’s just not much of a storyteller without a good writer to put the pieces together for him.

 
Reply #11 • Aug 30, 2008  09:52 PM
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The Masked Superstar - 30 August 2008 12:06 AM

I saw we move past that. It’s a comic that’s bigger than the medium at this point.

We’re talking about Alex Ross.

I do like his sequel to Kingdom Come he’s doing in JSA.

Yeah, but you know Johns is doing the actual writing.
I like it as well. Some are saying it’s too damn slow, but it’s got more of a slow burn feel to me. I like a nice long setup as long as it’s interesting. It would be nice if they incorporated the Final Crisis story line into it, but Ross isn’t much of a continuity guy.

 
Reply #12 • Aug 31, 2008  10:10 AM
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Two things.

Re: Johns- see my above post about how Ross’ concepts are good, but he needs a writer to flesh them out and make them work. Johns is arguably the #3 writer in the industry right now (behind Morrisson and Brubaker).

Re: Ross and continuity- Ross is arrogant and seems to think that if it isn’t his idea or something that came about 40 years ago he doesn’t need to pay attention to it.

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