Raney's got a Secret

Newsarama is reporting that Ultimate Secret will feature Tom Raney (Outsiders) as artist for the mini-series' two concluding issues, replacing Steve McNiven, who has apparently been "working his tail off," according to Marvel EIC Joe Quesada.

It seems like we have a fairly annoying domino effect happening with Marvel's big titles. David Finch stalls on New Avengers. so McNiven is brought in. Because of this, Raney is brought in to sub for McNiven uon Ultimate Secret. I'm sure if Raney was in the midst of something, they'd replace him on his regular gig with someone else.

I personally hate it when runs are interrupted creatively. Sure, Raney is fine, but when you buy a mini-series for a few issues, your hope is that it'll have that same creative team at the end. And just as a preference, I'm more in McNiven's camp than Raney's.

Yes. Missed deadlines and change are part of publishing. But they're not part of good publishing. Meet your deadlines, get the right people to do the right thing and it works out more often than not.

Am I the only person that gets the we're-plugging-holes-in-the-dam-with-bubblegum vibe from Marvel? If it's not a creative change, it's a late-shipping book or a character reboot or "season." If it wasn't for the excellence of Whedon/Cassaday's Astonishing or Vaughan's Runaways, I'd say Marvel isn't publishing anything that interests me at all. DC's consistency looks really appealing to me right now.