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Rick Remender Makes It Work

Comicscape: Rick Remender's VENOM
© Mania

“Easier said than done” – it’s a commonly used phrase. Perhaps too common. But a close second would have to be “There really are no bad characters in comics; it just takes the right writer and the right pitch”… and isn’t it funny how the two kinda go hand-in-hand? Comicscape has often come down in favor of the “there are no bad characters” theory and we’ve even dedicated entire columns to lame characters that we think deserve a shot at the big time. But the truth is that even we have characters we just can’t stand. Mostly, this is due to overexposure and/or years of poor treatment. But recently, we’ve seen a few of those lame characters start to gain favor in our eyes and yes, it’s generally due to the right writer and the right pitch.

Making it Work

We’ve discussed our ability to find it in our hearts to forgive Wolverine for appearing in 47 monthly titles and wearing out his welcome back in the 1990s, but for as much as we love Jason Aaron’s recent work on the title, most of that is just due to the fact that we’re not really reading much with Wolverine in it and the few books we are reading happen to be really good. We’ve made numerous mentions of our love for Matt Fraction and the fact that his skills have allowed that weasel Tony Stark to worm his way back into our hearts after cloning Thor and selling out a bunch of his buddies. Come to think of it, Matt Fraction wrote the Punisher for a while and it was a damn fine Punisher he wrote – the type of story that could allow another overexposed, one-dimensional vigilante to experience some nice growth and character development before another writer took over and lead into our all-time favorite Punisher story.

And no, don’t worry, this isn’t going to be another column dedicated to Franken-Castle. We’re mentioning it one last time because we love it and because we’re making it one of our New Years Resolutions to stop hammering it down your throats. But really, we’re bringing it up because we want to talk about Rick Remender. You ought to know by now that the guy is awesome and if you don’t, then you ought to pick up The Last Days of American Crime and Fear Agent. He’s written plenty of other stuff, but those are our favorites and we figure they’re easy to find and pretty accessible. But if you’re not into gritty, conspiracy-theory laden futuristic noir or totally awesome, genre-blending science fiction, you can find Mr. Remender toiling away in the Marvel Universe on books like the Punisher or Uncanny X-Force. Oh yeah, and the upcoming Venom series. Which brings us back to our point: there really aren’t any bad characters. It just takes the right writer and the right pitch.

F*#% That Guy

In a way, we sort of hate Rick Remender. Don’t you hate it when someone makes you eat your words? When you swear up and down that a character like Frank Castle has pretty much reached his limit and that you aren’t sure if you can truly love the character like you did when you were 12? And then somebody comes along and turns him into a big ol’ monster, all while massaging that part of your brain that wishes EC Comics had never died and that rubber-suited monster movies were still on late-night cable stations.

Or how about when you try year after year to retrain yourself to love the X-Men but you just can’t do it? You jump back on board during a big crossover, only to drop out four issues in because you’re bored to tears. You start a new series with a #1 and very quickly lose interest and you even try to read the title that one of your other favorite writers is writing but dammit, it just doesn’t click. You figure that you’re never going to pick up another book with an X in the title, let alone one that features a team of killers including Deadpool, Archangel and the focused totality of Psylocke’s vorpal sword, or whatever the hell that thing is that she uses.

But hey, that Remender dude is writing it and Jerome Opeña is drawing it so how can you pass it up and… well I’ll be damned, this book is actually pretty good! Hell, two issues in and Uncanny X-Force is dealing with the whole “nature vs. nuture” debate with the return of Apocolypse in the fom of a young child! Not only that, we’re actually enjoying a book featuring Deadpool. Deadpool! (another fine example of a character we’ve never had any use for, despite our assertion that there are no bad characters) And oh man, have you seen Opeña’s art?

So yeah… f*#% you, Rick Remender. We’re not supposed to like any X-books, let alone laugh out loud at Deadpool. See what you’ve made us do?

And Then There’s Venom

When compiling a list of comic book characters we never want to see again, the #1 spot is a no-brainer. Without a doubt, it’s Venom. And while we really dig the concept of Eddie Brock selling the suit to Mac Gargan, we’re still so damn sick of the character and his stupid tongue that we’ve almost forgotten how badass that suit looked the first time we saw it.

But lo and behold, we hear news of a new Venom series, one featuring a government operative who only wears the suit for a few days at a time while on secret missions and quickly develops a dependency on the symbiote. Okay, that’s a pretty interesting concept (especially since we’re pretty sure at this point that it’ll be Flash Thompson sportin’ the symbiote) but we’re not totally convinced and then OH MY GOD, RICK REMENDER AND TONY MOORE ARE WORKING ON IT?!?!

You mean those guys that did Fear Agent? You mean the Tony Moore, the one who pencilled the first six issues of The Walking Dead? (Have you heard of the Walking Dead? Rumor has it that it’s quite popular) You mean the very same creative team that breathed new life into the Punisher by killing him and turning him into a monster and… well, you know that schpeal already. That Rick Remender and Tony Moore?

Yeah. f*#% ‘em both. Now we’ve gotta buy a Venom book.

And that’s it, folks. The truth is that there are no bad characters, even the ones you haven’t enjoyed in the past 15 years. It just takes the right creative team, and it doesn’t hurt if one of ‘em is named Rick Remender.