PRINCESS DIANA REMOVED FROM X-STATIX

**MattBrady** · 07-10-2003, 06:25 PM

According to Business Wire, Marvel has chosen to remove all references to Princess Diana from the upcoming X-Statix storyline in which she was slated to return from the dead.

The storyline, "Di Another Day," was slated to begin in issue #13 of the series, set to ship in September.

The release reads: Marvel Comics had planned to release a book using the spirit of Princess Diana as one of its heroines. While Lady Diana was portrayed in a positive light in the comic book, upon reflection, the company has decided to remove Princess Diana and all references to the Royal Family from the five-part X-Statix series.

In originally confirming that the late Princess would return on Fanboy Radio, Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada said of the story: "If comics are anything we're subversive, you know? I think we work the best once when we're on that level. This is really a wonderful story by Pete Milligan and I don't want to give away anything."

UPDATE

While Marvel confirmed that the report was true on Thursday, the publisher on Friday gave this statement to Newsarama: "The X-Statix series serves as an exploration into the realities of celebrity in today's world. Although the character choice in the story stirred a lot of interest and controversy, this is still a tale that can be told without the presence of a well-known personality.

"Peter Milligan has constructed a poignant and intelligent allegory for life as a celebrity with a conscience that Marvel feels stands on it's own. Accordingly, the story will be released as scheduled this September without references to Princess Diana and the Royal Family, or anything related to them."

In short, the story in the series will remain essentially the same, while specific names, events, and likenesses will be changed. While the arc will be retitled, it will not be fundamentally changed.

KingStalin · 07-10-2003, 06:36 PM

Well I have no idea what the story will be about now (prob just use a generic princess) but that sucks because the books might be late now due to all the changes that will be needed.

Scooby2099 · 07-10-2003, 06:37 PM

Sigh...

Hunter · 07-10-2003, 06:38 PM

Well, it seems that even if the six fanboys that post online have no clout, the royals do.

Mike

shakey · 07-10-2003, 06:45 PM

Gee what happened to the "subversive attitude that comics needed to take", as JQ explained in his Fanboy interview?

I smell the threat of Litigation

It's too bad, but Marvel did it to itself with the trial balloon publicity tease .

Whatever, while I'm not one of those who have nominated her for Sainthood, I feel that Diana's death was tragic , because it was caused by the relentless pursuit of the Paparazzi , the very people she was trying to avoid.

OM · 07-10-2003, 06:47 PM

...Of course, had this been written by Americans, then Princess Died could have gone on to been resurrected as Allred had scripted. The loophole is simple: This country was founded upon several principles, one of which is that royalty is a crock of shit, and the so-called- "highborn" are no different than the guy tilling the fields or horsing the shoe. Ergo, if they bitched about it from a royalty standpoint - "We are not amused." - then they could simply be told to go fuck themselves and the throne they rode in on.

Gotta thank Dr Norman Brown, my Texas U. AmHist prof for that little tidbit...

gOgIver · 07-10-2003, 06:54 PM

What the hell is it gonna be about now? Here's an idea.
They should have never killed of U-Go-Girl. Just photoshop the Di stuff out and bring Edie back from the dead. Snip & Clip edits and U-Good-to-Go-Girl. Okay? Please???

gOgIver

Charles RB · 07-10-2003, 06:57 PM

There is a possibility that Business Wire could be misinformed. And I bloody well hope they are, because it would sicken me greatly if this storyline was diluted because of a bunch of old, useless, tax-hoovering bastards that we only keep around because we're too apathetic to get rid of them.

xdemon · 07-10-2003, 06:58 PM

For what it's worth, msnbc had a survey with the article about the original story. At the time, about 8,500 responses had been cast with about 85% against the story and 15% for it.

It may not necessarily been a lawsuit but a possible public backlash that would have made the Waid/FF incident look like a newborn baby fight, especially due to their higher visibility from the movies.

Cayman · 07-10-2003, 07:00 PM

Maybe they'll have to use Mother Theresa instead.

Cay

Starpilot · 07-10-2003, 07:06 PM

Levitz and Quesada sittin' in a tree
Pulping comics
1-2-3!

jawaplumber · 07-10-2003, 07:06 PM

I was worried they might cave in, with all the B.S. surrounding this. When I saw a poll up on the AOL main page, my concerns really kicked in. I think this is crap and I wish Marvel had stuck to their guns. This will make for some nice bonus material in a hardcover of some sort twenty years from now, though.

And you know, the Royals should check out THE INVISIBLES, sometime....

boors · 07-10-2003, 07:07 PM

Here in reply to what mr. or mrs. OM wrote:

making fun of somebody who died tragically doesn't seem like a real 'neat' idea. this isn't about royalty. it's about smearing somebody's memory to boost sales and Jemas' bonus.

maybe it's just me and probably a whole lot of other europeans with our centuries worth of culture and us knowing to eat properly with a knife and a fork.

but then again, you don't give a f###, right?

TemporalFlux · 07-10-2003, 07:08 PM

So I assume all of the art is being redrawn then. The images look just like Di as they are...there's no way to remove all reference if those are still there. Or should we expect witty dialogue like "Oh...um...she just looks like Di...alot. Yeah..."

Dan20 · 07-10-2003, 07:10 PM

I was never a big fan of this idea in the first place, but this is just a big embarassment to Marvel.
For God's sake, Diana's on the cover of the issues! Are they going to have to rewrite and draw the entire arc? Why hype it up in the first place? Did they think the Royal Family would order a subscription or something?
Marvel needs to forget all this lame controversial stuff and just go back to letting good creators do good work (they can start by bringing back Waid, whose FF #500 was a great read this week).

Tom Daylight · 07-10-2003, 07:10 PM

This sucks.

Eric Yonge · 07-10-2003, 07:13 PM

I was never a huge Princess Di fan, but I was sad when she died. It was just so tragic. Still, I'm a huge X-STATIX fan, so I was morbidly curious as to how Milligan and Allred would pull this storyline off. Now I'm curious as to what they'll do now that it has to be changed.

Maybe the character will become JFK jr!

Graeme McMillan · 07-10-2003, 07:16 PM

Wow.

Now that is funny. And kind of sad.

Will Milligan walk off the book because of the editorial interference?

jawaplumber · 07-10-2003, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by boors
Here in reply to what mr. or mrs. OM wrote:

making fun of somebody who died tragically doesn't seem like a real 'neat' idea. this isn't about royalty. it's about smearing somebody's memory to boost sales and Jemas' bonus.

maybe it's just me and probably a whole lot of other europeans with our centuries worth of culture and us knowing to eat properly with a knife and a fork.

but then again, you don't give a f###, right?

How do you know she was going to be made fun of? According to Marvel, the story was going to show Di in a positive light.

Besides, we do this all the time to ourselves over here in America. All's fair. Look at how often we splatter Elvis' likeness and character all over our pop culture. He was royalty, too, you know

Aaron Weisbrod · 07-10-2003, 07:26 PM

What's that old expression about "two steps forward, three steps back?"

*sigh*

I'm guessing that, if this story is true, they'll just be using a generic Princess with a similar appearance to Di...

Heck... maybe they'll even keep the title of the story-arc the same!

Almost wishin' someone would just go all "Fountainhead" about it,
Aaron Weisbrod

jawaplumber · 07-10-2003, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TemporalFlux
So I assume all of the art is being redrawn then. The images look just like Di as they are...there's no way to remove all reference if those are still there. Or should we expect witty dialogue like "Oh...um...she just looks like Di...alot. Yeah..."

My best guess is that they'll replace the arc with something they already have in the can. Marvel and DC always have stuff sitting around they can use in an emergency. They don't even have to replace it with actual issues of X-STATIX. They can have another X-Statix related mini, just like they did the past two months with WOLVERINE/DOOP taking the place of the regular series.

Chris Hunter · 07-10-2003, 07:30 PM

Ouch.

I do find it amusing.

tralfaz · 07-10-2003, 07:35 PM

I see now NUMarvel is run by a bunch of wimps

bwahahahahahahahahaaaaaa

Oh no, public opinion deems our upcoming story as distasteful even though no one has read it yet.
buncha losers I tells ya

hey NUMarvel, why dont you grow a set!!! You're all talk about how youre changing, but all i see is you hiding in this bar fight.

GeorgesBush · 07-10-2003, 07:40 PM

"I see now NUMarvel is run by a bunch of wimps

bwahahahahahahahahaaaaaa

Oh no, public opinion deems our upcoming story as distasteful even though no one has read it yet.
buncha losers I tells ya

hey NUMarvel, why dont you grow a set!!! You're all talk about how youre changing, but all i see is you hiding in this bar fight."

I actually feel more stupid after reading your post.

Thanks!

AllAboutMe · 07-10-2003, 07:49 PM

this whole idea seemed lame to start with. No disrespect, but I still am not over how much the "great" Princess Di was drilled into our heads after her death. Wow. she married into royalty. And then divorced it. ooohhh.
I think Marvel should concentrate on more important things like making Steve Rude change how the Moth looks so it doesn't look so much like the Punisher movie logo.
Steve: You don't want to be mistaken for what will undoubtedly be another disappointing Marvel movie...DD...Hulk.