In the age of the internet and viral marketing, all bets are off. It’s not enough to have ads for your crossover taking over the middle of every monthly comic. You have to invent a marketing device to get people talking.Over the past few years there have been ‘leaks’ from insiders in Marvel Comics regarding important company secrets (read- comic book stuff).
Spoilers that involve who dies, what creator said what to whom, etc. This year with Marvel trying to pull a very large rabbit out of its hat with their mega-crossover Secret Invasion, there is Marvel_B0y. A disgruntled intern that blogs about who’s coming back to life in Amazing Spider-Man, and more importantly how the crossover starting next month will shake down.
To all of you haters out there that keep calling me a hater, let me spell this out for you. I do not hate Marvel comics, I do not hate Marvel. I do not want to bring the entire company down. I am not doing this because I am an attention whore. I just don’t like some of the things that they have done and I am trying to use this as a forum to get Marvel to rethink some of these editorial decisions, starting at the top. I actually DO like some books!
X-Factor – great book (thought the Skrull on the team inclusion was going to be forced but PAD made it work)
Avengers: The Initiative – Greatest thing to come out of Civil War, and Mutant Zero is someone NO ONE has guessed. Slott is brilliant. So is Gage.
Agents of Atlas – yeah this came out last year, but they are coming back, thank GOD.
Daredevil – …unless Quesada approves Brubaker doing that Mila-becomes-the-new-Typhoid-Mary storyline he keeps talking about
Uncanny – Any team that includes Karma is a good team in my book.
Brand New Day – say what you will about how they got there, the stuff coming up is even better than these past few months. Two words: Kraven. Venom.
I’m almost 100% convinced that it’s a colossal con act because of how effective it is at generating interest. One blog is ’shut down,’ another hastily set up… a screen shot of a legal ‘cease and desist’ letter sent to an unknown blogger… if it is not a marketing ploy on Marvel’s behalf, it should be!
Looks like the game is getting serious now! Not only did I get a shout out in the senior editor meeting today but now the lawyers are involved and they can’t even figure out who I am. Seriously? Is this even legal if it’s addressed to “Mr. Conners?” Like I’d use my REAL NAME?!?!
I’m not sure how serious this is. The letter sounds all official but I do have freedom of speech so what can they really do? Stuff is leaked all of the time on CBR and Newsarama and I never see them getting in trouble so what can they really do? Yeah I can get fired but truthfully, this place lost a lot of the luster awhile ago for me and I was going to look for a new job anyway. In fact, the only real thing keeping me here is the fun I’m having now. So I might as well ride the bull till it bucks me (is that a phrase or did I just make it up?)
Oh, and as usual, Bendis continues to write bad fiction. Last night he claimed 10 people knew who I was already at Marvel. Well, no one came to escort me out and my key card works just fine. I’m not an idiot. I play the good soldier at work, smiles and GO TEAM attitude. But here I can say whatever I want and I will, until the day they catch me (which, the way things look here, will be a LOOOOOONG time if ever). It’s easy to cover tracks, anyone with half a brain and an internet connection can do this without anyone really getting to them. It’s so simple it’s almost pathetic! Don’t post at work and they can’t track you. I dumped my old LJ account with more personal, identifiable posts to start this new one. (I DID keep my favorite posts from the past because there are those of you out there who DO like me, and things you should know about me!) I’m not stupid enough to get caught. They never caught “Felicia” and they won’t catch me.
And for all of you that think that all I do is bash Marvel, that’s not true. I read the make ready for Young X-Men #1 today and it was great. People are going to be shocked by the ending (sorry – I don’t spoil books that deserved not to be spoiled).
In any case, it’s entertaining and I’m happy to hear that Young X-Men might actually rock as much as it should.
See? It works!
