Mighty Marvel Misinformation and More

Originally published June 2, 2000, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1385

Assorted stuff…

Well, let’s see what’s in the news. Oh, look: In the May 9^th issue of the Wall Street Journal, headlined, “Spider-Man Tries New Web Tricks,” there’s an interview with Marvel chief executive Peter Cuneo that’s causing a good deal of consternation among the fans. What most online fans have been reacting to is the reporting of the story in anotheruniverse.com, which states, “Marvel Enterprises will increasingly move into film and video games and away from comics, (Cuneo) told the Wall Street Journal.” This is resulting in a considerable amount of agitas for the fans.

Problem is: It’s not true.

Understand, I’m not privy to Marvel internal decisions. For all I know, that’s exactly what Marvel’s long term plan is. But you can’t discern that from the WSJ article, because the vast majority of the material does not consist of quotes from Cuneo, but rather commentary made by the writer, one Erin White.

Anotheruniverse correctly attributes some of the most discouraging comments to White, including, “Spider-Man’s only chance for survival is to leap right off the page” and “The simple paper medium of comic books just isn’t cutting it in the age of video’s flashy special-effects, explosive audio and interactive action.” But these do-or-die conclusions are solely White’s, and yet the fans are starting to blend it together so that—upon repetition—what’s being spread around is that Marvel is planning to abandon comics entirely.

The following comments are the only ones directly attributed to Marvel personnel:

“Comic-book sales are down and Marvel executives acknowledge that kids just don’t read them as much anymore.” That’s not exactly a shock. Marvel execs would have to be in heavy denial if they claimed that sales weren’t down. Then again, periodical sales have been dropping across the board, so there’s no reason to single out comics. Furthermore, perhaps sales aren’t down because of the “age of video,” but rather as a result of pea-brained distribution-level corporate decisions by those who shall go nameless (* koff * Ron Perelman * koff *) which helped to kill so many comic book retailers that sales couldn’t help but be affected. Indeed, Cuneo finally shows up in direct-quote form saying, “Our characters are more popular than ever. The challenge now is really up to us to execute and build value.”

Hmm. Nothing there about abandoning comics. Let’s see what else.

White says that the movies might “reignite interest in Marvel characters and lift sales of toy tie-ins, particularly among teens and preteen boys.” Perhaps. But there’s nothing to say that they couldn’t also have some impact on the comics as well. When we get back to Cuneo, he says, “All of the merchandising and promotional activities we’re doing with our characters are bound to have a tremendous impact.” Impact on what? The reporter doesn’t clarify. Impact on Marvel’s bottom line? On year-end profits? On the comic line itself? On the viability of the characters? Could be anything.

Cuneo is later mentioned (but not directly quoted) talking about revenue from movie and TV deals and cash-on-hand helping to finance an X-Men TV show.

The only other Marvel exec quoted is Bill Jemas, Marvel’s president of publishing. Does he talk about abandoning comics? No. He talks about the upcoming “Ground Zero” line which basically reconfigures more simplistic versions of the Marvel characters without affecting the mainline titles which Jemas claims, “If you’ve been reading these for forty years, you’re really enjoying this rich, complex storyline. But if you haven’t, you’re saying, ‘Who the heck are all these characters and why do I care about them?’” Not so much a rebooting as a rebutting.

Although, to be candid, I’m not sure what Jemas is talking about. My first Marvel Comic ever was the FF annual featuring the wedding of Reed and Sue. And my reaction was exactly what Jemas claimed was anathema for potential collectors: I had no idea who any of these guys were. Try to make heads or tails of that annual without being familiar with the FF, Avengers, X-Men, the Watcher, Doctor Doom, not to mention Stan and Jack. After a lot less than forty years, there was already enough backstory in place with that annual to sink a fleet of tuna boats. Did it put me off reading Marvel titles? No. Instead it pulled me into a universe that seemed endlessly layered and colorfully populated. Not to mention that “Ground Zero” is a dubious name for a new line. Oh yeah: If I was starting up a new imprint, I’d certainly want to name it after something associated with a bomb. That’s right up there with the marketing genius who though opening Star Trek: The Motion Picture on December 7^th was a sharp move. “The biggest bombing since Pearl Harbor!” There’s nothing like making critics’ jobs that much easier.

The only other bit of information attributed to Cuneo is that he “expects licensing to grow to more than 50% of the cash flow, publishing to decline to 10% from 15%, and toys to decline to about 40%.” Still, that doesn’t translate to abandoning the publishing line; it’s just a comment on how lucrative toys are.

So it may be a bit premature to sound the alarms that fans are already sounding. Still, just so we don’t blow sunshine up anybody’s skirts: I still remember when a senior Marvel editor told me years ago that the difference between DC and Marvel was that DC comics existed simply to provide fodder for licensing, whereas Marvel was first and foremost a publisher. To do it any other way became the tail wagging the dog. That is clearly no longer the case. And if Marvel execs do get any bright ideas about diminishing the importance of the publishing line, well… since Marvel has tried (unsuccessfully) to model itself on Disney in the past, it might be instructive to point out that once upon a time, Disney seemed far more interested in concentrating on theme parks than its feature animation line. And Disney became a mere Peter Pan shadow of its former self. It was only when new management revitalized animation that Disney began its climb back to power. One forgets or neglects one’s roots at one’s own peril. Disney learned that. Let us hope that Marvel doesn’t have to be taught it.

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And now, a new occasional feature: K-Lee’s Notebook. My daughter, Gwen, has a friend named Cayley (who for some reason prefers to spell her name K-Lee. Then again, Gwen has taken to spelling her name “Gwen!” a la Scott! Shaw, so I guess I shouldn’t say anything.) Anyway, K-Lee has taken to jotting down some of the more brilliant things her fellow high schoolers, in all seriousness, say. I think they present an interesting picture of the quality of today’s educational system. For instance:

Teacher: During the industrial revolution, children were paid a wage of a penny an hour.

Student: So after five hours, they’d only make, like, a quarter?

Teacher: Who can tell me what “monotheism” is?

Student: That’s the disease you get from kissing.

Student: Are alligators made out of leather?

More installments from K-Lee’s Notebook as the opportunity presents.

* * *

Am I the only person to think that if Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe joined forces, with their last names they could make a fairly credible superhero team?

Speaking of Crowe, the best thing about the new film Gladiator is seeing Derek Jacobi back in a toga where he belongs, dammit. I, Claudius remains one of my favorite TV series, ever. Only drawback was that I kept waiting for his Gladiator character to limp or stammer. If only they’d gotten John Hurt to play another senator, the movie would have been complete.

Oddly, the only real problem I had with the film was something that turned out to have a basis in historical fact. (Spoiler warning here for those who haven’t seen the film.) I thought it a touch conveeeeenient that emperor Commodus was willing to take the risk of facing Maximus in the Coliseum. “How nuts would that be?” I wondered. Turned out that the movie didn’t come close to depicting how nuts he really was. The historical Commodus apparently decided he was Hercules, and fought in the Coliseum with some regularity. Then again, if my name was that close to a word for toilet, I’d probably have gone a little crazy myself.

(Peter David, writer of stuff, can be written to at Second Age, Inc., PO Box 239, Bayport, NY 11705.)