Stop The Presses!!! Article by aviewaskewed, 01:36 AM 20th Jun Disclaimer: The following column is entirely the opinions of the author (even at that we aren‘t sure), any similarity to the opinions of any other staff or affiliate of theendlesscrew.com is entirely coincidental and unintentional. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all creator comments have been gleaned from other sources and no creators have actually endorsed any aspect of this column. Right then, apologies and a new column coming up. Here goes… Also, as a spoiler warning, I’ll be discussing the ending of Civil War #2, if you don’t want to know this information, please refrain from reading this column until you do know, then you can come back with a strong opinion and we’ll see if you agree with me or not. Firstly, I MEAN’T to only maybe have a week elapse between columns, and not two or three like has happened now. In prepping for my Philly trip, and whatever else, the column just got put on the backburner until I had left, came back, and just couldn’t do it for burn out. My bad. But I think the lay-off was good, because if I HADN’T just sat back and soaked in the news…we might not have today’s column. Oh, and boy, what an angry column today is! So sit back…grab a frosty beverage, and enjoy avie letting loose on the headline grabbing tactics of publishers. Seriously, is it just me, or is the new game becoming “who can grab the most mainstream press?” Already it seems like the game has caused a casualty: Spider-Man. I know, I know, EVERYBODY has an opinion on this revelation, and they all won’t stop with it…too bad, you’re getting one more. I didn’t read the issue, I read the spoilers, and my reaction was immediately “Marvel has finally ruined Spider-Man”. Spider-Man reveals his identity in public? IN PUBLIC? A guy who has more reason then most heroes do to keep his identity hidden, is now public? A man who is married to a non-super powered person, has non-super powered family and friends, and a rogues gallery who has shown gleeful enjoyment of torturing these people when a few of them gained knowledge of his secret…and he is now a public hero? I’m sorry, there’s just no other way to say it: I call BULLSHIT on this one! There’s no reason for it, other then to have a big shock at the end. Oh, not to mention that big write up it got them in The New Yorker. I also love the fact that according to reports I’ve read, Marvel was threatening internet sites with legal action last week if they blew the spoiler by posting images from Thunderbolts #103, but then spoiled it the next day themselves. But for me to assert that it was totally done for the press write up would be to completely ignore how Marvel has been systematically destroying Spider-Man for years now because it would seem the high muckity mucks want to involve him in every major team and event in the Marvel universe, never mind how much of the core values of the character they have to jettison to do it. This is the last straw for me. As it feels like stunt, has converged with media whoring, has converged with the desire by Marvel to make Spider-Man a focal point of every major story no matter how nonsensical his involvement will become. Contrasting this stinker with DC’s announcement of a lesbian Batwoman, and it makes anyone that complained about that seem nuts. Not that I had a problem with that announcement anyway, I’ve long felt that we could certainly do with some gay and lesbian super heroes and characters more prominently placed in the comics pantheon. I do tend to agree with the folks who feel DC didn’t need to trot Kathy Kane’s name into it. I don’t care if it’s not the original character or whatever, the fact that you are making a gay-Bat character was bait enough to get people interested. It was also nice to see it get such good press. Though I’m not so naieve as to think that if this were a revelation about Batman perhaps picking up a gay male Robin, people would probably have gone nuts. Lesbians are more acceptable, and most people have probably forgotten the original Batwoman. But aside from these cynical observations, I think the whole deal is a good step forward, and already seems to be causing Marvel to re-think their own policies on gay characters. I’m not saying I want to see a flood of them, because frankly, it just becomes a stunt the more you add, but for now? I remain cautiously optimistic about that particular development. But still, even though I’m more harsh to one then the other company in this rant (as usual) I think it’s important that they BOTH realize that while the mainstream press is nice, the focus always needs to be on good comics, and good stories. I mean, the write-up for Batwoman is nice hype, the Spider-Man write up is good hype…but will it effect the sales in any way? I’m going to say in both cases “probably not”. Maybe this is just my bias against the overall way crossovers are being done, and the glut of them lately but…I just don’t think the average reader cares. I think the average person may come in curious, and expect they’ll be able to follow just ONE book, to understand these happenings, and will then throw their hands up when they’re informed that just isn’t the case. I think the reason the media attention on something like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, or Watchmen was so good was in part because not only were these great, watershed works, they were also SELF-CONTAINED. They were ONE book, and were able to then be fitted into ONE collection. I don’t see how the numbers on something like “Civil War” which bleeds into so many different books are going to be effected here. 52 might see a bump since that is all contained in one book (though it is attempting to explain the happenings in every other DC book with the year jump), but again, with Batwoman still a little ways off? Not really. Probably a nice overprint for that issue, and then nothing until a solo title is launched later in the year. So what’s the moral? Am I saying press coverage is bad? No, it can be just another tool in the marketing toolbox. But it needs to be used smartly, to maximum effect, and comics cannot start being written just so that publisher’s can call up The New York Times or something to get a write up. Good stories need to come first, then you call up the paper and publicize them. I think we can all agree on that one. Enjoy Superman Returns this week if you’re going to see it (I’ll probably go Sunday with the freebie ticket I’ll get from buying the third volume of the animated show, them Timm shows are like crack, I swear!). Have a good week in comics everyone. Back to Rants