Marvel’s Nick Spencer is the guy who essentially turned Captain America into a Nazi for its infamous Secret Empire event. Given the fallout from the creation and extended stay of “Hydra-Cap,” one would hope that he would be extra careful with his handling of The Amazing Spider-Man.
Spoiler alert: It didn’t happen.
Mr. Spencer’s preview of The Amazing Spider-Man for Free Comic Book Day managed to undermine the hero’s origin within two panels, and at one point he lets a criminal get away in a manner that clearly echoes his failure to stop the robber who killed his uncle.
Ask yourself this question: How sick is it for the main character to pivot from one of the defining moments of his life — his culpability for Uncle Ben’s murder — to a yuk-yuk joke about how New York City’s views also played a role in convincing him to become a hero?
If you want to hear the full story, then check out my latest YouTube video. As always, make sure to hit the subscribe button if the format is up your alley.
Question: What happens when Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort sees the success of theJawbreakers: Lost Souls INDIEGOGO campaign and then decides to take out his anger on customers?
Answer: Mr. Brevoort likens readers to an evil worm while he’s in a blind rage, but it only comes across as projection. People know that he is such an angry man that he even uses Twitter to call his son an “entitled white a**hole.”
Ak yourself, dear reader, who is more of a worm: Comic book readers who think it’s gross to call Peter Parker’s “devil deal” a form of medicine, or the guy who airs his own family’s dirty laundry on Twitter for cheap “likes” by total strangers.
If you want to know what Jawbreakers: Lost Souls has readers energized while Tom Brevoort only has people shaking their head disgust, then look no further than his Twitter feed.
Check out my latest YouTube video for the full story regarding Marvel’s meltdown, along with the growth of the Comicsgate/Save Comics community that lives rent free inside Mr. Brevoort’s head.
Here is a social experiment for you: Ask your average person on the street what they would expect from the 700th issue of Captain America. Ask them what the cover might look like. Ask them about the themes a writer would be expected to highlight by his editors. Ask them how they should feel after closing it.
More than likely the individual will telegraph that a 700th issue of Captain America should be a celebration of Steve Rogers.
What they won’t tell you is that it should be a lament over the election of President Donald Trump.
What they won’t tell you is that Marvel Comics should design a cover that puts the hero into the background as a new character basks in the limelight.
Sadly, writer Mark Waid has delivered a book for long-time Captain America fans that is little more than a Trump allegory for angry people who don’t buy comics. He wished upon a mushroom-cloud star for the ability to shoehorn his personal politics into an important issue and the wish came true — at the expense of loyal customers.
You can get the full rundown in my latest YouTube video. Be sure to subscribe for regular updates if the format is up your alley, and let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Roughly two years ago this blog started seeing fewer updates due to my increased attention to YouTube. I loved the regular commenters and the discussions we had here on a wide range of issues, but at the same time I knew that I needed to devote serious time to YouTube if my plan of having a bigger impact on the comics industry was to be realized. I had to in many ways sacrifice something I loved in order to possibly obtain a greater good down the line.
Fast-forward to this week: The “Comicsgate” community turned out in full force in support of Richard C. Meyer’s, artist Jon Malin’s, and colorist Brett Smith’s INDIEGOGO campaign “Jawbreakers: Lost Souls.”
In short:They aimed to raise $5,000 and ended up with nearly $40K in one day.
Right now some readers are asking: “What the heck does this have to do with you, Doug?”
The Answer: Your friendly neighborhood blogger has been working on YouTube and Twitter — along with MANY other men and women — for months to expose the myriad or reasons why the comics industry is in a tailspin.
Regular readers can remember our tussles with Marvel scribe Dan Slott. If you haven’t caught my work on YouTube, however, then you’ve been missing out on coverage of the fits and tantrums that industry creators are experiencing due to work by Mr. Meyer (aka, Diversity & Comics) Capn. Cummings, Just Some Guy, myself, Yellow Flash, That Umbrella Guy, Captain Frugal and others. All of us play different roles within the community, but the endgame is the same: We want comic books with solid artwork and sound storytelling devoid of petty politics.
If you want to see what I’ve been up to, then you can check out a nearly two-hour interview I had with Jon Malin on March 30 (embedding disabled or else I’d add it here).
As always, if you like the content then make sure to subscribe over at YouTube for regular updates. There are some pretty cool announcements planned for later in the year.
Timothy Lim of My Hero Magademia joins myself and journalist Ian Miles Cheong.
Regular readers of Marvel Comics know all too well that its writers have been obsessed with Donald Trump since his primary campaign. Twitter rants coincided with weird editorial decisions (e.g., turning the man into an alternative-universe M.O.D.O.K.), and writer Nick Spencer used multiple books — including the Secret Empire event — to throw political tantrums.
Marvel scribe Mark Waid, however, has taken the industry’s Trump Derangement Syndrome to a whole new level for the company’s “Legacy” run. Captain America #699 is a fascinating read for all the wrong reasons.
Yes, it is boring. Yes, it is predictable. Yes, it comes across as if it were written by a freshman college student who just completed his first semester of political sciences classes.
What makes Captain America: Out of Time it interesting, however, is the psychology behind it all. Mr. Waid does not seem to even realize that all of his irrational fears regarding the president are rooted in his own ideological extremism. He fears Mr. Trump because he sees much of himself in the man.
Mr. Waid is, whether he wants to admit it or not, eerily similar to the villain referred to as “King Baby,” aka Donald Trump. Check out my latest YouTube video for the full rundown, and as always feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Your friendly neighborhood blogger has been away for awhile, but I’m back — and with good reason. The #Comicsgate community continues to grow, dear reader, and left-wing ideologues like Marvel’s Dan Slott are terrified.
For those who haven’t been paying attention, a YouTube community of men and women who want sound storytelling formed in 2017. “Comicsgate” flexed its muscles, and in the end (with help from vocal retailers and fans who voted with their wallets), Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso was shown the door. Books that should have been canned long ago were finally put out of their misery.
The past few days has seen the explosion of #MoveTheNeedle, which utilizes Twitter to show insiders just how much money the Comicsgate community spends on superhero fare.
Note: It’s a lot.
Week after week we are figuring out new ways to grow our channels and better disseminate the message. Diversity & Comics is a bigger boogeyman than ever before (Dan Slott refuses to even speak or write his name).
In short, the fight for comics culture is white-hot in 2018 and shows no signs of cooling off.
Check out my latest YouTube video for an extensive rundown of Hulk Hogan Wannabe Dan Slott, along with the desperate behavior of his ideologue peers.
Those who have followed this blog for years know that two Marvel characters hold a special place in my heart: Peter Parker (The Amazing Spider-Man), and Tony Stark (The Invincible Iron Man).
Those who have followed this blog for years know also know that your friendly neighborhood blogger has a unique relationship with Marvel scribe Dan Slott — I was writing reviews that had him rage-reading and rage-tweeting years before making the leap to YouTube.
Given this history, I thought we would both go our separate ways with the announcement that he was exiting The Amazing Spider-Man. He may have put Peter Parker into an“Ask Me About My Feminist Agenda” t-shirt, but that was in no way going to prompt me to follow his work on some random character.
The universe, my friends, had other plans!
Watch my latest YouTube video for a preview for what is to come in the years ahead as Dan continues to write for Marvel and I continue to review his work (always, mind you, with the goal of making him a better writer).
It was just three years ago that Marvel Comics decided to ignore decades of continuityand turn Bobby Drake, aka Iceman, gay. Fans ridiculed writer Brian Michael Bendis’ decision, but little did they know that things would get much worse when the character was handed over to Sina Grace.
There are many examples of “SJW Marvel” fare for comic historians to study in the years ahead, but Mr. Grace’s are particularly illustrative. Most readers are okay with a hero who just so happens to be gay, but they will balk when a character is almost solely defined by his sexuality while occasionally — almost by accident — doing something heroic.
Mr. Grace provided activism masquerading as escapism for months, and fans knew it from the get-go. People gave Iceman the cold shoulder (no pun intended) for good reason, and his response was to blame the character.
Comic book fans know that Marvel Editor in Chief C.B. Cebulski has a slew of problems to deal with as he gets settled in his new job. Some issues are more complex than others. He will need to wisely pick and choose his battles.
One issue, however, that can be dealt with over night is the behavior of writers like Max “I f***ing you hate personally” Bemis.
Every normal company has a social media policy. Every normal company would fire an employ who told paying customers “I f***ing hate you.” Therefore, it makes absolutely no sense why Disney and Marvel turn a blind eye to the behavior of Mr. Bemis of Moon Knight.
Check out my new YouTube video for a rundown of the latest unprofessional turn by a Marvel writer. Feel free to contact Mr. Cebulski and Disney with screenshots of Mr. Bemis’ Twitter feed. Some of us would love to hear them explain how, exactly, this promotes the industry.
Imagine a moment in time where Marvel writer Dan Slott was interacting with a friend — perhaps someone of Jewish or Islamic faith — and he said that not even King David or Allah could convince him of the following: Former President Obama failed the American people.
Got it? Now imagine that yours truly made a joke about said left-wing ideologue, which required me to call the religious figures mentioned a “cuck.”
Question: How would Dan Slott react to my joke?
May conservative guys like myself make fun of Jewish and Islamic ideologues of a left-wing persuasion, or is there are hypocritical double standard?
Can I make fun of Muslim left-wing ideologues with the same ease displayed by Dan Slott’s feminist crush as she refers to Jesus Christ as a “cuck”?
You tell me, dear reader. Let me know what you think, and then watch my latest YouTube video. I think you’ll find Mr. Slott’s latest attack on your friendly neighborhood blogger quite telling.
