BRING ON THE ODD COUPLE

LegalDispatch 126

Feb 21, 2025

A few friends have pointed out this newsletter has been pretty dark of late (with good reason), so I’m going to try to strike a more positive tone this week…

FEEDBACK

Robert Emmerich writes:

I don't think we have to worry about it getting worse, that's a given. I had my Amazon, credit card, and Twitter account hacked yesterday.

Oh shit, man. I’m so sorry.

I keep thinking some guy named Big Balls did it, but he's busy putting the nuclear codes on an unsecured website. Congress has a 4-day weekend and I'd say it's 50-50 Musk emails them all "You're fired" letters before Tuesday, coup complete.

Sadly, that sounds right. Revolution by email. It’s what we all voted for, isn’t it?

You should have quoted our Star Wars kaiju discussion, may have cheered people up. :-)

Hah! For those who don’t follow Bob and me on Bluesky, here’s the exhange he’s referring to:

I maintain that the space worm from Empire Strikes Back is not a Kaiju and my original post stands.

But this is a great excuse to share the recently-released covers for the issue in question, Jedi Knights #3:

Variant cover by Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding

Lightsaber foil variant cover by Taurin Clarke

Myranda V. Peterson writes:

*GASP* Oh my gosh THAT WAS ME. I WAS THAT FAN WHO ASKED [the question about Arrow flashback transitions discussed in the last newsletter]! *squeak*

Hah! That’s so funny. Thank you for subscribing!

Seeing these transition storyboards is very cool! It really does help to visualize and understand the concept, even as a viewer, that we're now looking at the past versus the present. (I also remember the episode that came from, haha.) It sounds so complicated and maybe even a bit daunting when you're just considering the script, but the visual aspect really brings it all in and makes it easily understandable.

Absolutely. That’s the real benefit of storyboards.

I still remember the early days of finding Arrow and being really amazed by that flashback concept (funnily, I actually stumbled across Ep. 2 and missed the pilot originally, but boy did that show hook me in even at that point). Thank you for showing that artwork!

Of course!

Also, thank you so much for coming to MegaCon! It was really cool to meet you and hear your writing tips. I appreciate how approachable you are. Hope to see you at another one so I can get an Arrow script! (of course, the Crisis script is good too!)

Thank YOU. Interacting with folks like you is a big reason why I’ve started going to cons in the past year. It’s a really wonderful experience thanks to people like you!

Kelly J. Crawford writes:

First: I loved those clever timeline transitions on Arrow.

Thank you! We were very lucky to work with an veritable army of very talented and inventive directors.

Second: Sorry to hear about your assistant -- and other hardworking industry folks we both know -- struggling to pay their bills and keep a roof over their heads. Unless you're an A-Lister, like Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, J.J. Abrams or Steven Spielberg, you're watching your bank account balance dwindle, with absolutely no truly viable job offers on the horizon. I've got friends with a row of Emmys on their mantle who haven't been able to book a general with anyone, since 2019. Phone calls and emails are not returned. Same is happening with me here in Canada but, at least, I have a monthly disability cheque to take care of the big stuff. My friends in LA? Not so much. Very sad & frustrating!

It really is. I know so many people who are, quite simply, panicking. But in keeping with the aforementioned goal of sounding a little more positive this go ‘round, I’ll say that the only hope for creatives these days lies in diversification. So many of the writers I know who are struggling are having a hard time because they’ve confined all their creative efforts to television, which has really taken the brunt of the current contraction. Accordingly, the only hope is to diversify beyond television and, probably, even beyond live action. For example, I know some writers who are getting by (if it can be called that) by writing scripted podcasts. I’ve been kicking around an idea of bringing writers together for an audiobook series/concept. Bottom line, we all have to diversify beyond the fields where we’ve always worked in order to survive in this altered landscape.

Note that I said “in this altered landscape” rather than “for now” because, unfortunately, I’ve come to believe that the current situation is — tragically — our new normal.

Aly writes:

Just a quick comment, mass protests have been happening regularly for a few weeks, just no one is covering them.. I find out where to go through 50501 on Reddit. Just a quick share, there are big nationwide series of protests planned for Monday Feb 17th, and an economic corporate blackout day on Feb 28.

Thank you for letting me know. And since the last newsletter, there were protests all around the country on February 17. But I absolutely agree with you that the media — our corporate overlords — have no interest in giving those protests the coverage they deserve.

Norman Anderson writes:

I too have seen some of the mass protests happening, but the footage via the posts I see on various social media platforms mysteriously disappear…

Gee, that’s weird. It’s almost as though those platforms are controlled by billionaire MAGA types or something…

and yes, the mainstream media is absolutely not covering and actively suppressing the protests videos and posts.

Bingo. (See above re corporate overlords.)

However, I do agree with you that this is going to have to get a lot worse for the resistance to be fully realized.

Yeah. America is a heroin addict who needs to hit bottom before they can go into recovery. Unfortunately for all of us, we have hit bottom with them.

Thank you for the Arrow flashback insight. We could most definitely use a real Green Arrow right now. Thanks again for keeping these updates coming.

Thanks, Norman!

Leave a comment

Bill Fordes writes:

To quote the great patriot, even though he was Scottish, John Paul Jones, “[We] have not yet begun to fight!” To all my friends who think we are DOA, I tell you, the orange buffoon and president Musk will never triumph. Like Hitler and his foul beasts, they are fierce now, but I guarantee you they will end in a bunker with the 21st century equivalent of a Walther PPK and a tablet of cyanide.

From your post to God’s ears, my friend.

But I do agree with you. This will end poorly for them. The only question is how much time and collective suffering it takes until we get there.

Todd Ulman writes:

I am not one to complain, but my 18 year old business is suffering in a way that I can't even contemplate. I spent my life savings keeping my employees on during the eight months of strikes and three months of waiting for work to spool back up. Paying their healthcare and other benefits, etc. and not doing a mass layoff like everyone else did on Day 1. Getting new business is impossible. The hedge fund owned companies refuse to play ball with anyone to keep us alive.
Example, we had a show that we were looking to get full post [production] services on, had a good line on it, and they wanted to work with us. Then the EP wanted a colorist at one of the hedge fund-runned facilities. Ok, so they take a bunch of that work and that makes sense. The show said to that facility, “Hey we will use Mad Old Nut's Avids at least and you do the rest,” and the hedge fund company said “Nah... it's all or the price goes up on the rest"... so on a let us say 2MM job, 100k is Avids, and they exploit that 5% even to crush the competition. It's just a sad state. No one cares about anyone. I can't fund this again or forever in this way. Why is no one angry? We're all too beat up to be angry. I'm not a writer, I'm just a guy that employes people who do great work and are essential to making some of the great tv shows that air, but what will I tell them when I can't provide for them anymore? Yell at who? Do what? I shouldn't be writing this, but I am. Sorry for anyone who read it.

Actually, Todd, I’m glad you took the opportunity to vent. That’s why I shared your thoughtful and moving post in its entirety.

To your question of why no one is angry, I think you hit the nail right on the head: We’re all too beat up. 8 years of Trump. 3-plus years of Covid. Two strikes. Market contractions. I could go on and on, but it all adds up to the same thing: We’re just all so damn tired.

I’ll also offer up another, potentially controversial, explanation for why there’s not more public outrage. Five years ago, the Black Lives Matter movement brought the American people out into the streets in the largest and most sustained series of public protests in my lifetime and, I’d argue, in American history. And what did all that unprecedented action and resistance accomplish? Five years later, I think most would agree, not a blessed thing.

Now TO BE CLEAR, I’m NOT saying that BLM was a waste of time or that I don’t agree with its goals — to the contrary — but what I am saying is that the failure of BLM to move the needle in any meaningful way has had an understandably discouraging effect on further public activism. Subconsciously or not, I think most people feel, deep down, something akin to: “Well, if we couldn’t change the country then, what hope do we have now?”

I’m not doing a very good job of being more positive this week, am I?

In brighter news:

PROJECT ODD COUPLE & PROJECT SINISTER

I’ve been teasing a few non-Star Wars Marvel projects for a while now and this week saw the announcement of both of them.

The first is Spider-Man & Wolverine (fka PROJECT ODD COUPLE), a new ongoing series featuring two of my favorite Marvel characters and drawn by the legendary Kaare Andrews.

Here’s how Marvel announced it:

Two superstar creators. Two legendary heroes. One blockbuster series! Announced earlier today at Polygon, Marvel’s biggest icons are teaming up once more in Spider-Man & Wolverine, a new ongoing series by best-selling writer and screenwriter Marc Guggenheim and acclaimed industry talent Kaare Andrews!

Their personalities may clash, but when the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and the Best There Is join forces, few threats in the Marvel Universe can stand in their way! Now, the odd couple is back together to tackle a mystery deeply rooted in secrets from both their pasts…
Get ready for a nonstop thrill ride of big villains, bigger threats and even bigger surprises as Logan and Peter Parker find themselves up against the machinations of a plot too big for just one hero…

Before the announcement, Marvel released two teaser images by Kaare Andrews:

Thank you, Marvel. The check’s in the mail…

Here’s the soundbite I provided to go along with the announcement:

“Spider-Man and Wolverine are probably my two favorite Marvel characters to write and among my favorites in all of comics,” Guggenheim told Polygon. “I wrote Peter and Logan very early in my career, so I’m particularly excited about returning to them with a great deal more of experience and skill to lend to the endeavor. Kaare Andrews and I are determined to deliver a comic book blockbuster every month, with action that never stops.”

Spider-Man & Wolverine #1 comes out May 7. Here are our amazing covers:

The second project — fka “PROJECT SINISTER” — is my first-ever event for Marvel, Bring On The Bad Guys. The title comes from a book Marvel published back in the 70s that focused, appropriately, on the biggest villains in the Marvel Universe.

The original *Bring On The Bad Guys* (art by John Romita, Sr.)

The purpose of this event is to focus on those same villains and give them a showcase for just what makes them so formidable and dangerous.

The fun thing about the event is that it’s giving me a chance to work with five other writers on a story that spans the length and breadth of the Marvel Universe.

Here’s Marvel’s official announcement:

Bring On The Bad Guys is a seven-part event celebrating the nearly 50-year legacy of the groundbreaking Bring On The Bad Guys trade paperback. Pioneering how comics were collected, the original Bring On The Bad Guys collected key early stories of Marvel’s most iconic supervillains.

The upcoming new Bring On The Bad Guys delivers a blood pounding experience across seven one-shots starring those same infamous characters: Doctor Doom, Green Goblin, Abomination, Loki, Red Skull, Dormammu, and Mephisto.

The overarching saga will be spearheaded by Emmy Award-winning writer Marc Guggenheim who kick things off in Bring On The Bad Guys: Doctor Doom alongside acclaimed artist Stefano Raffaele and delivers the event’s epic conclusion in Bring On The Bad Guys: Mephisto.

A lineup of superstar creators craft the additional one-shots, each of which will contain a special backup story by Guggenheim shedding light on Mephisto's dastardly plot and revealing the origin of the mysterious SISTER SORROW, a new villain who plays a pivotal role throughout the storyline.
Mephisto seeks enough souls to power an ancient artifact called the SOUL FORGE – destined to give him dominion over ALL human souls! Doom must stop him at all costs, but who is the mysterious Sister Sorrow, and what is her connection to Mephisto's ultimate scheme?
“As someone who grew up with the original Bring On The Bad Guys on his bedroom shelf, this project is particularly exciting to me,” Guggenheim shared. “It’s been a while since I had the chance to work with other writers on a crossover event and I’m truly enjoying the collaboration. Marvel has such a rich roster of antagonists and it’s a huge amount of fun to not only give them their time to shine but also add a new villain to their ranks — Sister Sorrow — who is every bit as dangerous and formidable as these classic villains.”

”Marvel broke the mold with supervillains, pushing them past the archetypical to the complex and some even morally gray but still to be feared,” Editor Mark Paniccia added. “Each of these one-shots are an opportunity for fans to see what makes these villains some of the most dangerous characters in the Marvel Universe.”

Bring On The Bad Guys: Doom comes out June 7. Check out the covers:

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BRING ON THE ODD COUPLE

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