Marvel Comics blabbery

RJ is 3-for-3 on editorials where I agree with the principles, but think the details are insufficiently elucidated to argue those principles to people who might not typically assess spending options against such frameworks.

Such a boycott would hurt Your Favorite Creator far more than any CEO, sadly. (And really, who's gonna drop all Disney, Star Wars AND Marvel properties?)

Raises hand

Its not really that hard

I've tried to buy my twice-a-decade Marvel comic two months in a row now. Last Jedi was the first Star War I saw since Caravan Of Courage. I do watch most Pixars tho

Such a boycott would hurt Your Favorite Creator far more than any CEO, sadly

this is absolute nonsense though, My Favourite Creator is much better served by my buying the work that they own and control

ok so the last Marvel comic I bought was Strange Tales II

I have bought other comics by Nick Bertozzi and Thien Pham and Kate Beaton and Jillian Tamaki and (in anthologies) Shannon Wheeler and Frank Santoro and Kevin Huizenga and Dash Shaw and Nicholas Gurewitch and Xaime Hernandez and Beto and Jeffrey Brown and Paul Hornschemier and Tony Millionaire and David Heatley and James Stokoe and Ben Marra and Michael Deforge, but I have not bought any other Marvel comics by any of these cartoonists

I HAVE bought other Marvel comics coloured by Laura Allred, but only as a package deal

I bought one (1) other Marvel comic by Farel Dalrymple, vs ten or so of his own comics, and I bought the $5 digest of Ty Templeton's Spider-Man / Human Torch: I'm With Stupid.

(wait Strange Tales aside I guess I bought a couple of Roger Langridge comics from Marvel c. 2009-10 as well. I declined to buy the deluxe hardcover collection of his Muppet comics that came out after Disney bought Marvel, though, because they would not pay him. it's honestly really easy to make decisions like that!)

If only we could do both. Alas, I have pledged unyielding allegiance to the House of Mouse, apologies to all of those b&w books by depressed people about...I dunno, their feet or whatever.

(I'm pretty sure I've bought Los Bros a car each given the number of times I've repurchased the same stories in a different format.)

If only we could do both.

it’s only a small point of order, but I don’t think you technically can both boycott and not boycott the same product

I was talking about supporting a creator's corporate and independent work simultaneously, ya goof, but I suspect you could've grokked that without my assistance.

I guess I’ve really been letting Kate Beaton and Frank Santoro and Kevin Huizenga and Dash Shaw and Nicholas Gurewitch and Xaime Hernandez and Beto and Paul Hornschemier and Tony Millionaire and David Heatley and James Stokoe and Ben Marra and Michael Deforge down by not supporting all the work they’ve done for Marvel since October 2010

I already didn’t buy all of Jeffrey Brown’s Star Wars books before Disney bought Lucasfilm, though

Fantagraphics promoted a similar boycott when Marvel were insisting Jack Kirby sign a disgraceful contract before they returned any of his original artwork to him. These things are hard to quantify, but I think it did have some effect (on public opinion/perception if nothing else) - at least, Marvel eventually caved in iirc. Of course the stakes are quite different now, but at the very least, public opposition to Perlmutter and what he stands for can't do any harm.

I guess I’ve really been letting Kate Beaton and Frank Santoro and Kevin Huizenga and Dash Shaw and Nicholas Gurewitch and Xaime Hernandez and Beto and Paul Hornschemier and Tony Millionaire and David Heatley and James Stokoe and Ben Marra and Michael Deforge down by not supporting all the work they’ve done for Marvel since October 2010

I mean you can see how your case might be enhanced if your position was, “I Love Marvel stuff but refuse to buy it on principle,” rather than “I’m boycotting something that causes me no pain.”

Like I guess we’re supposed to just laugh at the Batman fan in the strip, “what a buffoon,” but his is the position that we identify with (as fans) — we all know what it’s like when you “gotta have your” (something).

I only buy Batman works that degrade or render the character ridiculous, hoping to cause an accelerationist death spiral of increasingly untenable Batman content that slowly dissolves the franchise, and even DC/WB itself, from within

I mean, you'd have to go some distance to outpace DC's efforts there, and still..

lest someone think I was being literal, that was completely tongue in cheek

I do look forward to future Batman efforts by Frank Miller and Neal Adams, though

I would go so far as to say, I honestly don’t give a shit if my mainstream comics purchases have a negative
political or ecological footprints for the industry and the world beyond. It’s a tiny industry. I support and pay for independent creators on a monthly basis. I’m okay with junk food.

I mean you can see how your case might be enhanced if your position was, “I Love Marvel stuff but refuse to buy it on principle,” rather than “I’m boycotting something that causes me no pain.”

Like I guess we’re supposed to just laugh at the Batman fan in the strip, “what a buffoon,” but his is the position that we identify with (as fans) — we all know what it’s like when you “gotta have your” (something).

Because it's important to express an opinion when you have one.

Marvel will outlast fucking Perlmutter. It'll probably outlast its current corporate steward once Feige leaves and the movies start to suck shit and lose money. I'm firmly on board until they start regularly pissing all over themselves a la DC. And I will somehow still muster the will and the wherewithal to read and support (*gasp* *choke*) independent comics and their creators. It's a weird wild wonderful world.

Nobody brought up shitting on indie comics at all.

I'm probably the only one who cares, but a little disappointed that the current version of Marvel Comics Presents will probably end with #9. It's been a fun book - the Soule Wolverine ongoing story is fun and I like the hidden conceit of this series - throwing characters into different real life time periods

I bought #8 (because of a Jessica Drew story), didn’t think it was very good, and was thrown for a loop by the ad for an indie rock band on the back cover — in the format of a one-page Avengers strip, à la the old Hostess comic book ads. Interesting marketing strategy, I guess.

Found an old Spider-Man from a charity shop – with Giffen art! Story is Mantlo and trashy – Spider-Man fights gentrifying crime gangs! – but the art is nice. Rare Giffen Marvel moment maybe, in full Munoz mode

https://i.imgur.com/4RvFzoX_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

What year is that from?

Has to be somewhere between March 1985 and... let's say June '87.

it's spectacular 120 iirc, so November 86

my Giffen-sense was tingling!

lol / wow apparently this was an inventory script from 1979 or earlier that got dug up for a fill-in during the black-suit Spidey era

that's an awesome spread

I knew Bill Mantlo wrote quite a few Peter Parker issues...I'd guess #104 was also an inventory script.

The Spectacular Spider-Man #6, 9–10, 12–15, 17–34, 36–40, 42, 53, 61–89, 104, 120, Annual #1, 4 (1977–1986)

After barring the Spiegelman essay they commissioned for Marvel Comics #1000, Marvel have also censored political references from a Mark Waid essay about America in the same comic

https://www.comicsbeat.com/marvel-depoliticizes-captain-america-marvel-comics-1000/

"b&w books by depressed people about...I dunno, their feet or whatever" is a pretty weird way to characterize Kate Beaton

Anyway, anyone still reading Ms Marvel? New writer's first move was to whisk her away from the New Jersey setting that imo is the heart of the series for some tedious space opera business. Hoping it'll get better now she's back home, but I dunno...

It seemed a decent way to actually in-comic deal with "holy fuck I have just taken over a book that's both good and Important" - but I stopped after a few issues.

"b&w books by depressed people about...I dunno, their feet or whatever" is a pretty weird way to characterize Kate Beaton

It was, how you say, a troll.

Was Waid’s essay (including in its original form) meant to be in the voice of Captain America?

the two hickman x-books are the only marvel stuff i've enjoyed + followed in a few years. are there other ongoings right now that are must-reads? or recent runs (like over the last 5 years) i may have overlooked?

i'm enjoying Jason Aaron's ongoing run on Thor and I've not been a big fan of a lot of his other work! His style fits the character.

The Immortal Thor run is pretty good two tpbs into it.

Immortal Hulk, not Thor. Goodnight everyone.

Almost every Marvel run I've read has been derailed sooner rather than later by being taken into space, and DC/Marvel visions of space are almost invariably as derivative and boring as fuck

If I wanted to read bad 1950s pulp SF I can get that free at Project Gutenberg

Was Waid’s essay (including in its original form) meant to be in the voice of Captain America?

no, Waid himself wears a mask and carries a shield every day, even when he's typing or cooking

That would be a “sic” burn — except the original passage mentions none of those things and seems not to be written in Steve Rogers’ voice, while the 2nd one does and is, which I why I (naturally) wondered if the entire focus of the essay shifted. You should pause to consider the context before firing up your fearsome Sarcasm Eye Beams!

I paused to assess the context of your parentheses before making a silly joke offering some 100% accurate information that I have about Mark Waid’s personal life

☮️

Btw — the Spider-Woman story in Marvel Comics Presents #8 is apparently one in a series depicting “previously untold tales of Marvel Heroes” dealing with “major historical events that for whatever reason we have not been able to fully wrestle with, either because they happened too quickly or even because they were too raw a subject.”

The “real-life event” tackled in this story is “Misinformation on Social Media” — which a long blurb describes as, “Bad information from bad sources [...] whose sole purpose was ad revenue based on clicks, with no regulation, peer control or obligation to the truth.”

I think the way they chose to frame this particular issue (“ad revenue”?) shows that Marvel may not yet be able, or at liberty, to fully wrestle with this particular subject. (Plus, the story sucks!)

yeah... they're not all winners tbf

I saw 'X-Men Red' mentioned in an article on HoXPoX, and read the first TPB this week. It's pretty great, all X-Men as political metaphor, with an emphasis on feminism. The writer, Tom Taylor, did the All New Wolverine book, so I'll check that out afterwards. That one ran 33 issues! That's an eternity for a new comic book. Hope it's as good as this, there are few things as pleasant as a good long comic run.

ANW starts out great – definitely check out The Four Sisters (Vol. 1). I eventually bailed b/c I didn’t like where it went after that.

All New Wolverine is a solid book, blessing the world with the character of Honey Badger. I agree it peters out a bit by the end, but it was worthwhile imo (the very last arc which is a what if?-style alternate future dig was real fun). Tom Taylor's the guy who also did the epic Injustice comic series of series.
The follow up-to ANW is X-23 by Mariko Tamaki which is OK but not probably quite as good. Tamaki's indie stuff is great, but her Marvel work has been just OK (see also her gray She-Hulk run).