I was reading about how Larry Hama is joining up with IDW to reboot the G.I. Joe franchise in time for the new movie, and I had a realization — three of the biggest entertainment and merchandising franchises of the past 25 years have have each had a single person with creative vision that acted as a driving force behind the mythology of the brand.
That’s not to say that these three individuals are the sole contributors. Countless editors, producers, writers, artists, and others have made invaluable contributions to the X-Men, Transformers, and G.I. Joe over the years. But none can take a massive amount of credit quite like these three gentlemen can.
Chris Claremont - The X-Men
For the vast majority of comic book readers this is a no brainer. CC has been shepherding the X-Men in one way or another for the past 30 years (and then some, really). He didn’t create all of the core X-Men icons from scratch, but he imbued the personalities and character traits that have made Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, and the rest of the crew famous.
The X-Men franchise was ready to die over at Marvel Comics in the mid-70s when it was relaunched with a new international cast. Chris wasn’t part of the infamous Giant-Size X-Men #1, but he took over shortly thereafter and stayed until the early 1990s (from Uncanny X-Men #94-279). That includes the legendary Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past with John Byrne. He also wrote X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, a short graphic novel that inspired Bryan Singer’s x2.
He’s launched new X-titles and helped to expand the role of mutants in the Marvel Universe far beyond Salem Center, New York. He’s also revisited the main series for a couple short runs. In this decade, Chris has dedicated most (but not all) of his creative efforts to pushing the X-Men franchise into the future with X-Men: The End and GeNext (GeNext #3 hits comic book stores today).
Larry Hama - G.I. Joe
Larry does it all when it comes to comic books. I primarily know him as an editor, starting at DC Comics in the late 70s and moving over to Marvel in 80s. But he began as an artist, penciling a bunch of different series in the 70s before making the move to editorial. However, the Larry Hama we’re going to talk about here is a writer.
Specifically, he’s the writer of the file cards on the back of the G.I. Joe action figures, the influence of which cannot be overstated. Larry also wrote the 155 issue G.I. Joe comic book series from Marvel Comics, which (as is the case with Transformers as well) was really just a birthplace for ideas that would inform the TV series and the overall mythology of the Joe Universe.
Larry’s been a huge part of comics for the better part of 30 years now, including notable work on Wolverine and Bucky O’Hare. Let me say for the record that Bucky O’Hare — an okay comic, a decent cartoon, and an even better line of action figures — has impacted my life immensely thru the Bucky O’Hare NES video game. Beating that ludicrously difficult game took my cousins and I a good ten years.
Simon Furman - Transformers
I don’t know nearly as much about Simon Furman as I do about Claremont and Hama. I’ve been reading X-Men comics since before I could actually read the words, and I caught G.I. Joe fever as an 11-year-old (when the series was in heavy repeats on the USA Network). But the only Transformers I ever latched onto were the characters in Beast Machines, a sacrilegious cartoon for most TF fans.
But despite practically avoiding Transformers all my life, I couldn’t avoid the impact of Simon Furman. He’s been writing TF comics since the mid-80s, and his contributions to the Transformers Universe are legendary. I don’t know which characters Furman created, but I know that his origin for the Transformers is generally preferred by hardcore fans.
Last I checked, Furman is still writing TF stories with IDW, the same publisher that’s bringing back Larry Hama for their newly acquired G.I. Joe publishing license. He’s also the creator of Death’s Head, a character that was conceived for the Transformers Universe (but officially owned by Marvel Comics). Death’s Head was most recently revamped in the Amazing Fantasy redux series and carried over (sorta) into Planet Hulk.
Black Panther #33 has stellar art by Andrea Di Vito and a smart story by Reginald Hudlin. T’Challa, Johnny, and Ben are captives on a Skrull planet. Storm has avoided capture and in this issue she ends up in Skrull Uptown, modeled after late 60s / early 70s Harlem.
How do you pick a winner when there are so many good choices? Really, I think it would be Mighty Avengers #5 by Brian Michael Bendis, Frank Cho, Jason Keith, and Dave Lanphear. But they’ve set such a ridiculously high standard for this Ultron story arc that their outstanding quality almost seems average.
Fantastic Four #550 is the best of McDuffie’s tales yet on this run. It’s smart, bold, big, and human. It takes the team from the furthest reaches of space and reality back to their kitchen. It’s pure sci-fi superhero fun. It’s also thoughtful and very compassionate, which really sold me.
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