"It's a little T&A, but only a little," said Bonnie Hammer, the network's general manager. "It's meant to be comic book in style. It's not meant to be a serious, profound experience."

Clearly you haven't caught on how simple my argument is, how easily I can prove it, and how impossible it is for you to disprove it. I'm not saying quality is necessary to sell, or quality sells better than anything else. I'm saying quality can and will sell along with everything else.

There are quality books in every era and they all prove my case. EC's horror comics were better than the 1950s competition. SUPERMAN was better than the pulp fiction of 1938. Heck, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories were better than the contemporaneous detective fiction.

Consider one case: The Lee/Kirby FANTASTIC FOUR was quality compared to the '60s DC formula. It sold like hotcakes because it was way better than CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, SEA DEVILS, or similar fare. It sold because of its relatively sophisticated themes, plots, and characters. The first black superhero...the Surfer as Christ figure...the first Indian character..."This Man, This Monster"...the first superhero wedding and childbirth...to name just five examples.

Quality sells, again and again and again. I'm amazed you think you can even touch this argument.

In a sentence or two, what would you attribute the success of the All-New, All-Different X-Men series (1975-present) to?

I'd have to attribute its success to the overall quality of the storytelling and artwork. That, coupled with the fact that everyone can identify in their own way, whether they be black, white, short, fat, bald, etc., to the plight of the mutants who are persecuted simply for what they are.

At the time, the X-Men, being "all new" and "all different," represented a shift away from the rather ho-hum consortium of heroes still dominating comics (the all-white, all-WASPish Fantastic Four, the mostly-white Avengers, the barely-diverse Justice League, etc.). Only the Legion of Super-Heroes offered more diversity (but most of them were just white folks colored with a different primary color). I think the ethnic diversity, now a cliche among comic book teams, was a major factor in the initial appeal of the Uncanny X-Men's relaunch. Of course, good art (first Dave Cockrum, fresh from Legion of Super-Heroes, then wunderkinder John Byrne) and a character-driven, if convoluted, storytelling style and voice (pure Chris Claremont), helped keep readers, once they were attracted to the book.

I think overanalyzing it is a mistake—Leonard Nimoy, commenting on Star Trek: The Next Generation, said you "can't capture lightning in a bottle TWICE." The success of ST:TNG might disprove his hypothesis, but generally speaking, he's right. Sometimes all of the pieces just fall into place, as in the case of Star Trek, Star Wars, and the Uncanny X-Men. Later work by Roddenberry, Lucas, Claremont, and Cockrum, couldn't compare to the greatness they achieved on their seminal works (though Byrne has arguable matched or exceeded his work on X-Men with Fantastic Four and Superman).

Some of the elements which stand out, in my mind, as a fan of those early X-Men issues: characters die (Thunderbird, Jean Grey, Phoenix); religion is not only not ignored, but addressed (Nightcrawler's Catholicism, Wolverine's atheism, Kitty Pryde's Jewish heritage & faith); characters argued amongst themselves (though the FF pioneered this "technique" in comics); Wolverine (nuff said); and strong female characters (a Claremont trademark, including Moira McTaggart, Storm, Kitty Pryde, and Jean Grey/Phoenix/Dark Phoenix).

Oh, and cool costumes.

I believe the appeal of the 1975 X-Men team is to young people who as teens feel they too are isolated and fighting against enormous odds in their own personal quests to be understood.

Comics Crusade:  TV and Film Writers Return to Their First Love

Richard Neal, owner of Zeus Comics in Dallas, says this represents an established trend in the comic-book industry.

"Our audience is so well-read that they follow writers ... [and] art teams" rather than following characters, Mr. Neal says. "Our hottest-selling titles are by well-known writers," he says, and much of their work is aimed at adults.
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"Everything they touch is gold," he says, referring to these big-name comic-book creators, "because everything they do is good work."