I wish I had the quote now from whoever said it... I don't even know who to look for. It *could* have been Joey Q... but I doubt it. i don't think it was Brevoort. I don't believe he was around as an editor then -- not for X-Books at least.I could see potential for the Draco to be much better than it was. Which is why I'm curious to know what Austen would have done differently if he had more control.
I digress,
Whoever it was said that Austen's view of how his run went down was very skewed. They weren't all on board with his plan but they allowed Mr. Austen to try his darndest and they took a chance on him. (as they have before with other writers such as Bendis on Ult. Spidey, Fraction with Fear Itself, and so on...)
To summarize the quote (and in no way do it justice): he failed, miserably. The story was nothing to what he pitched to initially, and between the delayed art, his inability to meet deadlines, and his aggressive meetings with their editors, it was no surprise he was setting up a title with DC while he was doing this.
That title, you may remember, was that awful Superman arc. It was like... Clark Kent Superman or something. An attempt at making the Supercast look like a Marvel cast. It failed, as all of Austen's titles do.
I tried re-reading the Draco tonight. I'm on part 3 and it's killing me. As if the inconsistant art isn't bad enough, there's the plot holes that I could drive the Blackbird through and the horrible characterizations done by him (I mean when did Bobby start flirting with the idea of with flirting with boys?). The biggest upset in the whole story is his smug attitude whilst he is rubbing his personal, religious, political, and other beliefs into your nose. And unfortunately, he does it through Nightcrawler. Who would never, under any other capable writer, do such a thing.
I was bothered with Kurt having more zest for religion than for the thrill of a fight but when I re-read this I remember the other version of a poorly-written Kurt that I hated. The one where he was a self-hating Christian mutant, with over-the-top, cliché daddy issues.
Lamesauce, Mr. Austen. Lamesauce.
I will give it this though... he does have some great crack in here.
[Edited on 3/1/12 by Ult_Sm86]