Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, DC Comics, Image, Marvel Comics | Tagged: alex de campi, china mieville, hypothetical, kelly sue deconnick, Mike Del Mundo

3 Hypothetical Creative Teams That'll Never Happen

Published Sun, 09 Aug 2020 07:00:21 -0500

by James Hepplewhite

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It's a fun hypothetical playing commissioning editor. It's basically easy mode. You can afford everyone's page rate, there's always plenty of time to get the best work from a creative team, everyone's schedule is open, and there's no last-minute editorial jackknifes to navigate. Given that, what creative teams do you get on a comic, and why?

A stack of comic books from comic book publishers. — Comics from comic book publishers such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics, photo by Studio Matitanera / Shutterstock.com.

Alex de Campi and John Paul Leon – The Winter Soldier
[D]e Campi is no stranger to espionage, as she wrote Mayday, a Cold War comic set in California. Her parents also worked in intelligence, so there'd be an air of authenticity to the proceedings. John Paul Leon is quietly a David Aja-level talent, and his understated work serves the story well. It won't happen because de Campi is one of the loudest voices criticizing Marvel and DC, and those companies, well, nothing escapes them, and they forgive nothing, to use a Roberto Bolaño quote.

3 Hypothetical Creative Teams That'll Never Happen — The cover of Mayday. Credit: Image Comics

Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro – Suicide Squad
This one's a no-brainer. The team led by DeConnick and De Landro turned in one of the most commercially and critically successful comics about a group of prisoners rebelling against their jailers. So it stands to reason they could make a pretty good comic about another group of prisoners rebelling against their jailers. It won't happen, because, well, presumably if the creatives have a choice, they'll go right back to the work they own versus the IP they don't.

China Miéville and Mike Del Mundo – The Legion of Monsters
Miéville enjoys writing monsters and politics, and the combination of monsters plus a literal underclass beneath New York City should be an easy fit. Del Mundo is my favorite artist currently working for Marvel and draws monsters in a unique manner. The team-up would be legendary! It won't happen, because Miéville's currently writing non-fiction and Del Mundo is a powerhouse artist that Marvel wants on their biggest titles.