Well, damn.
It’s been over a month since the last edition of my supposedly “weekly” newsletter.
Sorry about that. Things have been busy.
I feel like my work is back at its pre-COVID level of activity. I’m immensely grateful for this, as I know far, far too many writers are not experiencing that.
In my particular case, the workload is mostly the result of a lot of seeds being planted over the past three years finally beginning to sprout. As I’ve written in these digital pages several times before, the entertainment industry moves at a pace that makes “glacial” look speedy.
Then there’s the fact that I’m working on a show again (the aforementioned PROJECT VISTA). That show exists alongside several pieces of television development, including a drama pilot and an animated pilot. And the other week, I sold a second pilot to NBC (call it PROJECT STRING THEORY). Plus there’s the feature and comic book work. All told, I’ve been tap dancing quite rigorously upon the stage lately.
All that being said, I’m going to try — TRY — to recommit myself to this newsletter and get it out with greater reliability, if not regularity.
Let’s see how it goes.
FEEDBACK
Some questions have racked up while I was gone…
Disgruntled Pelican asks:
Are we finally getting an Earth-0 (or something close to that) Sara Lance?!
For the uninitiated, I suspect Disgruntled Pelican is referring to the recent one-shot special I co-wrote with Mark Waid called Justice League: Dark Tomorrow
That story featured the DC Comics introduction of a few concepts from the Legends of Tomorrow show, such as:
Disgruntled Pelican, all I can say — at this point — in response to your question is that you should reread Dark Tomorrow rather carefully as there are a few hints to your answer buried throughout…
Som Sharma asks:
What are your thoughts on Zohran Mamdani?
I like him a lot and if I were able to vote in New York, I would absolutely vote for him. I think he’s a good template for where I think Democrats should be headed: Stop fighting the culture wars. Stop policing language. Stop rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic and get back to basics — to wit, focus on policies that will make people’s lives better. It’s really that simple. People vote for candidates who (at least seem to) have their best interests at heart and have good, practical ideas for how to serve those interests. That’s the whole ballgame. Everything else is a distraction.
SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE #5
This Wednesday (9/24) — which happens to be my birthday — the fifth issue of Spider-Man & Wolverine comes out. Bleeding Cool has a preview (art by Kaare Andrews; colors by Brian Reber):
SO, ABOUT THAT DISNEY CORPORATION…
I don’t think anyone reading this alive needs me to catch you up on the Disney Corporation’s feckless — and ill-advised from a “how to deal with bullies” standpoint — capitulation to the Trump administration by “suspending” The Jimmy Kimmel Show.
As someone whose personal and professional lives are pockmarked — and financially entwined — with, this whole situation has given me a great deal of pause. However, I don’t mean that I don’t know how to react to it. I do. It’s simple: I’m fucking incensed. This decision is a violation of the 1st Amendment in the most outrageous — and concerning — sense. It’s just the latest and most profound indication that all of the mainstream media bodies are either owned and operated by Trump allies or, as in the case of Disney, overseen by people who think that bending the knee is the thing to do.
I’ve previously written about how a corporation’s fiduciary duty to make money for its shareholders provides cover for fundamentally immoral decisions. That’s certainly at play here. But what’s also at play is a massive miscalculation on Disney’s part. (I’m saying “Disney” rather than its CEO, Bob Iger, because there are other people involved in and responsible for this latest disaster.) Months ago, Disney bent the knee for the first time to settle a frivolous lawsuit which had been brought by Trump (as if there’s any other kind). Part of the reported rationale was that by settling the suit, Disney was buying goodwill with the Trump administration regime in the hope that the evil eye of Sauron would turn to another corporation.
If my childhood afforded me anything, it was a lot of experience with bullies. And even eight year-old me knew what Mr. Iger apparently still needs to learn: There is no appeasing bullies. To the contrary, backing down only invites more bullying. So, Disney’s mishandling of the Jimmy Kimmel situation isn’t just un-American, it’s just plain stupid and short-sighted.
All of which brings me back to: What am I going to do about it? (Personally, I mean.) I’ve been deeply connected with Marvel Comics long before it was a Disney subsidiary. My wife and I also are developing a pilot for Disney+. On the comic book side of things, withholding work would hurt the artists and editors I work with far more than it would hurt the Mouse. But the pilot, well, that’s another kettle of fish entirely.
My wife and I have a lot of thinking to do.
WILL AI REPLACE SHOWRUNNERS?
I was recently asked by The Hollywood Reporter to check out “Showrunner” from Fable Studio, an “AI-powered platform” that crafts short animated scenes off of a text prompt and choice of characters and settings.
I played around with it for a bit, as requested. My take:
The truth is I was generally unimpressed. I certainly don’t feel as though my job is under threat by this app. Yet. The app — which you have to access through Discord, which makes for a frustrating user experience — is basically a souped-up version of the flash animations that have been available for ages.
The name “Showrunner” is, I think, a bit misleading. I think the public thinks showrunners just create ideas and write them, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as the job goes. Ninety percent of the job is dealing with other people — executives, actors, directors, crew — and that’s not something you can outsource to AI. I like to say that I write for free. I get paid to take notes. But how would AI deal with bad notes? Could it even recognize them? I doubt that very much.
If I had the idea for a funny animated short to, say, skewer Trump in my newsletter, I might try to use Showrunner for that purpose. But that’s a pretty narrow use case.
Nevertheless, let’s give it a go:
Yeah, I’m not worried about losing my job anytime soon…
Finally, here’s the Hollywood Reporter article.
SIGNAL BOOSTING FOR A GOOD CAUSE
The incredible Mo Ryan recently turned me on to Callisto, a non-profit whose “mission is to use technology to empower survivors of sexual violence” (per their website). Their system democratizes reporting and protects survivors through encryption by providing not only a means to report sexual violence, but also an incident “Matching System” that exposes serial predators.
At the moment, the service is only available to people with a .edu email account (regardless of whether they are still associated with an academic institution), but the hope is that donations will allow Callisto to increase their footprint.
In doing so, I’m hopeful (and I believe Mo is as well, but I don’t want to speak to her) that Callisto will one day expand its scope to include incidents of toxic work environments, essentially doing a much better job of dealing with such abuses than the current HR system.
You can donate to them by clicking here. I did.
You can also subscribe to Mo’s own excellent newsletter, Something Mo, by clicking here.
Be good to each other.
Best,
Marc
West Hollywood, California
9.22.25
COMING ATTRACTIONS
A regularly-updated list of upcoming releases and events:
SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE #5 (September 24, 1970)
LA COMIC CON (September 26-28, 2025)
THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES MONARCH #5 (September 30, 2025)
NEW YORK COMIC CON (October 9-12, 2025)
X-MEN BY MARC GUGGENHEIM Omnibus (October 14, 2025)
STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS #8 (October 22, 2035)
STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS Volume 1 (November 4, 2025)
MOTOR CITY COMIC CON (November 14-16)
STAR WARS: JEDI KNIGHTS Volume 2 (April 8, 2026)
Looking forward to hearing more about the upcoming projects with mysterious names.
Congrats on NBC pilot and work picking up generally!