After being announced this summer, the flagship book of the Marvel Comics event known as ‘Inhumanity’ was set to hit our local comic book shops in January. However, earlier this month, the company announced that ‘Inhuman’ by Matt Fraction with art by Joe Madureia would be postponed until April. Then, we found out this week that the reasoning behind it was that the acclaimed writer would be replaced by up and comer Charles Soule, who would be taking the book in a different direction. But at the time of that announcement, no real reason was given as to why this was happening. Was Fraction fired? Was he too busy with his other books like ‘Hawkeye’, ‘Sex Criminals’, and ‘Satellite Sam’? Now, thanks to an exclusive from Comic Book Resources, we have the answer.
As an extra edition of his regular column for the site ‘Axel-In-Charge’, Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso shed some light on this changing of the guard on the book that was meant to expand the Inhumans’ mythology after the events of ‘Infinity’:
“This is just an instance where we — meaning Marvel and the writer, Matt Fraction — came to the realization that we weren’t on the same page, we probably never would be, and no one would benefit if we tried to force it to work. The series that Matt wanted to write would have been good, no doubt about it, but it was not the series we need to lay the foundation for this new universe within the Marvel Universe. The reason this [creative shift] came about a bit late is because of the mutual respect we’ve built over ten-plus years, and, well, because we really wanted it to work out.”
Fraction, who left his writing duties on ‘Fantastic Four’ and ‘FF’ to work on ‘Inhuman’, weighed in on the matter as well by saying that there’s no bad blood between any of the parties and that his fans shouldn’t even entertain the idea that he had been let go by the company:
“As un-dramatic and uninteresting as it sounds, my version of ‘Inhuman’ wasn’t what they were into and, y’know, it’s their company. It’s a legit case of ‘creative differences’ in spite of everyone’s best intentions. After what? Five or six months where this has been my primary focus and we’re still not on the same page — I can’t say they didn’t try, they can’t say I didn’t try, and at some point, you gotta move on. It happens.
It didn’t make sense to continue working together on this book. I was not fired. I am not fired. I am still employed. We are all still friends. ‘Inhuman’ is a really big deal for all involved. You need to be moving as one.”
Finally, the new writer of the series chimed in with his excitement to get to work and high praise for the gentlemen that laid the groundwork for him:
“Matt and Jonathan Hickman set me up with a really good springboard for the series. The things that happened in ‘Infinity’ and ‘Inhumanity!’ give me a ton to play with, but we’re really starting mainly with the premise that Black Bolt’s Terrigen bomb exploded over New York City and has subsequently begun to spread a cloud of Terrigen Mist all around the world, activating latent Inhumans wherever it encounters them. That lends itself to a million different angles. Because the ground work is so strong, I’d be an idiot to ignore it — it’s a foundation upon which many amazing stories and characters will be built.”
In my experience with Matt Fraction (which is actually only limited to what I’ve read on his Tumbr and the Tumblrs of people who have met him), the writer is a class act and an awesome team player. Some people in the industry wouldn’t be as understanding as him in a situation such as this. It’s good to hear that everyone is on the same page and all determined to put out the best product possible rather than sending a crappy book to the printers for the sake of putting it out.
What do you think about this whole ‘Inhuman’ situation? Are you disappointed that Matt Fraction will no longer be writing the series about all the new Inhumans in the Marvel Universe? How do you think Charles Soule will handle the task at hand? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
