The island gods are restless tonight. Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker and David Aja are all leaving their extremely well received run on THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST. Cable writer Duane Swierczynski and artist Travel Foreman take on the book with issue #17. This is notable in that the run was a quirky, creator-driven take on an old character, just the kind of comic that gains acclaim and prestige as time goes on. It’s an increasingly rare phenomenon in the company driven x-over era. So why did the band break up? Brub was already doing less on each issue; Aja was leaving because of a new baby and it seemed like a good time to hang it up for the entire team. Fraction also had baby-related timing:
Matt Fraction: The second story was wrapped up, Danny and the Iron Fist mythos were where we wanted them, I had a new baby and new work coming in and it felt like we were at the absolute top of our game with the book… so let’s get the hell of the stage now before we ruin it all. Let’s leave after London Calling and not Combat Rock.
Call us old fashioned, but normally the arrival of a baby means freelancers must sweat even MORE to afford nappies and so on; it’s a nice change that people at the Fraction/Aja level afford go be more selective about their workload. It’s also telling that a year and change seems to be the outer limit of how long a quirky, creator driven book can run these days.
MEANWHILE, Geoff Johns is also leaving a book, in this case BOOSTER GOLD, after, you guessed it, a year.
It was announced in January here on CBR News that Johns will be leaving the time traveling “Booster Gold” title later this year. Unfortunately for his fans, Johns still plans on exiting the hit series, but not with issue #11 as was previously reported.
“It’s actually issue #1,000,000,” Johns revealed. “And we’re introducing a new character in that issue, too. But yes, my run ends after 12 issues, if you include #1,000,000 and #0, which was our seventh issue. So it’s been a full year. I never intended to stay on the book that long.
These changes to two of my favorite titles are simply depressing. I realize The Big Two have no desire to see some of their top talent stick around on lower-selling titles featuring C-list characters, but IMMORTAL IRON FIST was on its way to becoming Marvel’s version of STARMAN. And now, I’ll be surprised if the title lasts past issue #25.
Seems like 12 issues is the norm. It’s enough for a trade compilation or two. Then, move on.
This comes on the heels of Greg Rucka leaving CHECKMATE, another “under the rader” book whose quality was not matched by its sales.
Well, that’s crappy. IRON FIST is fantastic and BOOSTER is pretty good for what it is.
That saves what, $6 a month?
yeah, that’s too bad about Iron Fist. I don’t see any creative team from Marvel achieving that level of success.
If pay grades work the way I think they work, Fraction will be making more money on Iron Man than he was making on Invincible Iron Fist. The higher the profile gig, the better the pay, right?
Still…making a decision based on his love for a real baby rather than a fictional character shows that he has his priorities in check.
I wonder what the pay grades actually are? Anyone care to divulge?
I’m sure they meant “Cut The Crap,” not “Combat Rock,” since CB was, y’know, kinda awesome.