The notion that DC is straightjacketing its creators by micromanaging and blocking storylines that the creators feel passionately about is thrown into sharp relief by this storyline from MarvelNow.

In his interview with BleedingCool.com, Paul Jenkins, the writer who wrote an open letter decrying the suffering he endured while writing Batman: Dark Knight for DC, mentions that the editor for the Flash asked him what direction he might take the book if he were the writer.

Jenkins told him he'd blow off one of the Flash's legs with a roadside bomb and see how the character dealt with that. The editor walked away. This was an example offered by Jenkins of the kind of great ideas the creators are coming up with that we, the fans, will never know about because of DC's hidebound, corporate micromanagement.

It sounds to me as if MarvelNow and the Fantastic Four could really use a good dose of hidebound, corporate micromanagement at this point.

If literally chopping off the limbs of the main character is the modern writer's  idea of a "great" story, perhaps their worst instincts really are being restrained.

Marvel seems to be interested in writers who come from creator-owned comics right now. Their architects are guys who have made their name at Image and Vertigo. People like Bendis, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Rick Remender, Jason Aaron, Keiron Gillen, Cullen Bunn,  Sam Humphries, and others seem to be recruited by Marvel editorial because of those "independent" voices. What we get is stories that involve time Cyclops being a terrorist (or "freedom fighter" whatever), Charles Xavier being dead, Doctor Octopus being Spider-Man, and Tony Stark being Robert Downey Jr. 

Marvel editorial lauds these storylines and writers but you're not sure if the best interest of the characters is in place. I still read some Marvel comics but there are others that I think are broken so bad that I'll never pick up another issue.

I feel your pain, Shawn.  I collected Avengers, New Avengers, Captain America and Iron Man all before Marvel NOW and haven't touched a single issue of those titles since their stealth reboot.

In full disclosure, I do enjoy Captain Marvel, Hawkeye and Daredevil.

For me, the X-Men has been broken more of less since Grant Morrison (Cyclops as cheating on Jean, killing off Jean, the overall Vertigo feel of the run) but there were signs of interest (I liked Astonishing at the beginning and Chris Claremont's return). It really went downhill when Ed Brubaker was allowed to insert a team of X-Men prior to the Giant-Size #1 team which led to what we have today.

Some of these writers come in and aren't content with telling good stories, they follow their worst insticts and "fix" what they don't like about the characters. It's like having someone take your favorite action figure and break his arm off because he looks cooler that way.