Letters to Mightiest Mortals #2

[lissilambe]

Tell us what you thought!

Take care
Don

[>>Riz!]

I have to be honest. I haven't read #1 yet, but issue #2 was a great red. I'm going to read #1 immediately.
Good work

[Merai]

I have to say, I was very impressed by this issue, as I was the first one. Traditionally, I am not a fan of the Captain Marvel character and never have been, but this made me break my rule on the Marvels and I'm very glad of it.

I enjoyed the first real appearance of Doctor Sivana, as well as the formation of the "Big Red Cheese" name and Sivana's realization that maybe this guy was a bit tougher than he looked. It was also interesting to see Freddie's friend and add a bit more depth to the boys. I also enjoyed Fawcett City's equivalent of Perry White in the form of the head of the broadcasting station, and it's nice to see a 'boss' who isn't constantly grumpy and out of sorts as we see in the old JJJ stereotype in many books.

So, we're moving the plot on as Billy discovers more of his abilities and limitations, we meet Sivana for the first time and we see the enriching of the supporting cast- all told, I have very few complaints. If I did have to say something negative- and as a rule, I always like to make at least one bit of one constructive criticism per issue- then I'd say it would be nice to see the relationship between Billy's mind and what "Captain Marvel" says explored a bit more, since it seems a bit arbitrary as is with Captain Marvel seemingly speaking things unrelated to Billy's thoughts. A bit more depth here definitely couldn't hurt, but that's a small criticism in a great issue.

I can give no greater compliment than this; if this were a real comic, I'd definitely flip through it and would quite possibly buy it! A Captain Marvel comic! Now for me, that's a first!

[dwes]

Don it's good to see you doing Captain Marvel I remeber most the whole run but I can't wait to see you get where yo were when year one was over and how you progress from there.

[starlord]

excellent read! Great grasp of character and I was very excited to see the major baddy show up. One of the greatest DC villains in the history of DC. I'll definately be back for the next issue.

Also, have to say that the cover was funtastic! I love this artist, he's one of my all time favorite.

[lissilambe]

Thanks for the kind words. First off, damn yes, Roy hits the mark nicely with Captain Marvel. I love what Roy takes for suggestions and scenes and pitches back to me. The Big Red Cheese and his family are definitely in solid hands with him.

As for the various compliments, thank you all very much. I hope to keep this as much a character-driven series as action-oriented. One of the tricks with characters like Cap, who are just so powerful, is to provide him conflict and challenge in those areas his powers don't necessarily aid him. And of course, the great area of young boy/powerful adult body is a fantastic dynamic to work with.

Sivana will be back for some more with Cap, and then keep an eye out for him in some surprising locations down the road. He's one of my favorite villains to write, so he'll get plenty of work. lol

Thanks for the constructive criticism, Merai. I love hearing back on such things. I'm not sure how deep I'll get into examining the dichotomy of Cap and Billy, but I hope to keep the mystery there and let the readers wonder. I want to go back and capture some of the Golden Age feel of the characters. Back then, it was never really clear if Billy and Cap were the same people or if they switched bodies. There was plenty of evidence on both sides of the equation, added to the fact that Golden Age tales were never quite so beholden to continuity as we modern readers might wish them to be. lol Modern writers are more definitive with this, such as Ordway (where it's clearly Billy in an adult body) or Smith (where they are most definitely different people). Me...I want to be more ambiguous, and I hope that I can do it in such a way as to make it fun for you and others.

I love Sterling and while he doesn't get as much attention as he probably should, he'll be more prominent down the line, along with Victor Craize.

Thanks for the good words and keep on reading, there's lots of fun to come.

Take care
Don

[batmantwinky]

Alright first off, a pretty entertaining issue. I'm starting to wonder why I couldn't get into this series on UDCU. Perhaps it was the white text on black background. I find the red and blue background a bit more pleasing.

Next, about the cover, I couldn’t tell who the third character was with Sivana and Captain Marvel. I'm guessing Freddy because the background matches with his scene. I just didn't think he looked much like your description of Freddy's appearance. But other than that, the cover was pretty darn cool. Sivana looked identical to his regular DCU appearance. Awesome job Roy!

Next up, about Dr. Sivana (is he really a doctor?) and his assistant, Beautia. Is she actually just a robotic arm attached to the ceiling that moves around his lab? I'm having trouble picturing it exactly in my head.

I really like the artwork depicting the final scenes of each issue and hope it keeps up. Kinda like front and back covers.

Finally, I was going to second Merai’s suggestion that it would be nice to see the relationship between Billy's mind and what "Captain Marvel" says explored a bit more but after hearing your explanation about keeping it ambiguous, I'm eager to sit back and see how you handle it.

Great work! I'm off to read the third issue.

[lissilambe]

Beautia is an artificial intelligence that's wired into the entire warehouse lair that Sivana operates out of. There's more to the tale, but it's still ahead of us at this point, so you'll have to wait. But she's more than an arm...she's the whole building, and a very, very complex, advanced computer.

Glad you're loving the art. Roy's really knocking 'em out of the park, and I love the splash page finales too.

Take care
Don

[eric the pilot]

The second issue is just as much fun as the first.

My favorite part of this whole run on thsi character is that you're really able to exploit all that the Captain Marvel franchise is about without that detatched "oh, isn't this just so stupid it's funny? It's awesome that I'm pretending to take this so seriously" type irony that most authors would write. It's refreshing, really.

I like the way this issue really serves to build up Billy and Freddy's friendship. You can really tell these are two guys that will help one another out and would look out for one another, yet you also establish them to be very strong moral people - each are basically handed the easy way out here, and come out looking good for not taking it.

The introduction of the "Big Red Cheese" moniker is really clever here. As I said in the last one, and this issue proves, Sivana in your hands? It doesn't get any better than this! I love the crazy gadgets and the even crazier names.

It's always fun to see Cap match wits with Sivana, and I look forward to setting down to read the next one to fully catch up, just in time for the next one.

Roy once again does a great job with the artwork. Way to go.

[rocketeerz]

Very, VERY solid second issue. I had a bit of flashback there with the first section (reprinted from issue #1) but I thought the progession of the story worked well. There some foreshodaowing going on with Freddy's foster brother and Billy worry about telling Freddy who he is... and it fits very well. That is a number of natural situations... I like the set up and the feel of it all.

Again, I got a good sense of the mood and structure of the scenes. Very descriptive. Very nice.

The fight with The Doc was short and sweet. Good reactions from him and I loved the artwork at the end of the issue (as well as the cover).

I'm not looking for something to critisize... but even if I was... I don't think I wouold have found it. I can't find faults with this one. Five star issue.

[chris]

This was an excellent issue, Don. As always you're a top notch writer (and one of my favorites)

I remember the run from the old DCU and rereading these great tales are bring back some really good memories.