I have never been to a fan convention before. I always read about what D23 or Comic-Con was like from their big shindigs, knowing that it would be difficult for me to attend them, I live thousands of miles away from Anaheim and San Diego. This year I opted to experience a slice of the fandom life for myself and spent the day at Fan Expo in Toronto. Billed as the fifth largest fan convention in North America, I was thrilled to start my day with a press call which included some notable names and an important one to Marvel comic fans.
At the round table discussion on our third rotation, the comic dynamic duo of David and Meredith Finch sat down to answer our questions. For those who are not comic fans, David is a noted comic artist and Meredith is a comic writer. Together they are working on the new run of Wonder Woman. How does this relate to Marvel and all things Disney? David worked on many Marvel comics in the 1990s and 2000s. Some of his more notable books were The Avengers, Daredevil, X-Men, Wolverine, and The New Avengers. In front of me were two very important comic people, and I got to talk to them!
After they talked about their work with Wonder Woman, I asked David about Avengers and his answer surprised me because he seemed genuine and honest. He said that he missed working on Avengers because he had so much fun with writer Brian Michael Bendis. The New Avengers was formed of heroes who chose not to comply with the federal superhero registration act. What so many loyal readers knew and loved about The Avengers had been changed. As one would expect in a world with a rabid fan base, change was not a good thing. Finch said that the reaction by fans was very negative and the pressure of the reaction pretty well forced him to want to leave the book. The funny thing is that Finch said he has probably signed more Avengers books than anything else, so clearly the fans haven’t held a grudge.
via Daily Dot
The most amazing part of sitting in this small setting and talking to a Marvel comic genius like Finch and his acclaimed wife was that it was very positive. They both stressed how you have to be proud of what you do.
I couldn’t help but ask two fellow Canadians what they thought of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appearing on the cover of and in the comic Civil War II: Choosing Sides Issue #5. They didn’t know about our leader’s comic but they thought it was quite nice to see, if not awesome for him to be on the cover.
Our discussion only lasted for a few minutes but to see the faces of people who have written and drawn some quality stories in the comic world was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Comic book artists and writers are one of kind story tellers. Meredith does it with her words, while David draws it out. David did say that he missed the Avengers and wished he could still work on it with Brian Michael Bendis again. Perhaps David and Meredith Finch could take over The Avengers one day. But a fan like me can only hope.