More on Shooter's parting words

Jim Shooter had another brief interview with CBR the other day, to clarify some of his comments regarding artist Francis Manapul from his first interview.

Comic book fans and pundits in forum communities, message boards and across the blogosphere have been heavily active since industry legend Jim Shooter delivered some parting shots on his way out the door at DC Comics as the writer of the cancelled “Legion of Super-Heroes.”

... While he stands by what he said in his original interview, upon further consideration Shooter told CBR News that his comments about the book’s artist, rising star Francis Manapul, may have come off more “harshly than intended.”

... “My run on ‘Legion’ wasn’t everything that I had hoped for, but I probably got better than I deserved from Francis. Francis is already very, very good — outstanding, in fact — and as editor Mike Marts and I have both observed, he gets better and better as he goes. He will soon hurdle the few remaining barriers in his way and become an all-pro/MVP. Maybe working with someone else, maybe with better scripts to work from, he’ll get there faster.”

Here's some discussion at CBR about the original interview and the clarification, as well as The Occasional Superheroine.

Graeme McMillan at IO9 calls the two articles "How Not to Gracefully Exit Your Job". While I track overall sales for the Legion title over time, he notes that:

To put things in some context: Legion, under Shooter's reign, is currently DC's third-lowest selling superhero book, and one of the two series selling less was cancelled prior to the announcement of Legion's death.

And meanwhile, CBR's "Comics Should Be Good" blog asks: which Legion should a theoretical new series follow? If nothing else, it shows that there are fans of all versions and DC won't be able to please everyone (unless it's a rotating anthology of all versions).