Tag: Marvel

Mark Waid runs to Orwellian Nerdist shills for lawsuit coverage, changes tune on ‘SJW’ term he loved in 2017

by Douglas Ernst 1 Comment

Waid call

Once upon a time the term “SJW” was a form of sweet music to the ears of writer Mark Waid. The comics industry veteran literally said in 2017 that he wore it with “pride.”

Something happened, however, between then and now to change his mind: He was sued for tortious interference and defamation by the popular YouTuber Diversity & Comics, aka Richard C. Meyer, aka ‘Ya Boi Zack.’

These days, according to Mr. Waid, calling him exactly what he wanted to be called is “the language of a bully.” Interesting, isn’t it?

Mark Waid Twitter SJW

One would think that a respectable journalist within the comics industry would ask Mr. Waid why he was allowed to use “SJW” as a rhetorical cudgel in 2017 while standing atop a self-made moral pedestal, yet now the term is a slur that can be used against the Comicsgate movement in court.

Sadly, dear reader, Mr. Waid only goes to shill outlets like Nerdist to discuss his lawsuit. And yes, “shill” is the correct description to use for the creator’s live-stream with Nerdist, given the following: a.) the moderators rushed to delete any chatroom comments on the lawsuit while Comicsgate was simultaneously being framed as a “hate” movement; b.) the host only asked softball questions and agreed with everything Mr. Waid said; and c.) the normal comments section was disabled after the live-stream ended.

MW comments disabled

If you’re asking yourself why all of this sounds familiar, then simply step into this blog’s time machine and travel to July 26, 2013.

Fact: Your friendly neighborhood blogger was covering “Comicsgate” before it was ever called Comicsgate. Anyone who wants to debunk the industry’s current lies can often do so by mining my old coverage of “Marvel’s Orwellian message boards” and the unprofessionalism by men like *cough* Mark Waid.

Marvel Memory Holes

There is much more to be said about Mr. Waid’s hypocrisy and his lawsuit with Mr. Meyer, but for brevity’s sake I suggest checking out my latest YouTube video. Please make sure to hit the subscribe button if video content is up your alley.

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Chelsea Cain bites the Cebulski that feeds; Comicsgate right all along

by Douglas Ernst 1 Comment

THR Chelsea Cain landing page
Comic book fans know Chelsea Cain as the writer behind the “Ask Me About My Feminist Agenda” issue of Mockingbird in 2016, but this week she added to her resume. The self-professed “pain in the ass” melted down after Marvel dropped her six-part tale titled The Vision (never mind the fact that it took her two years to finish four issues).

The Hollywood Reporter weighed in on Thursday with the following:

“Just weeks after announcing the project’s existence — and two months before it was set to debut — Marvel Entertainment has cancelled The Vision, a six-issue comic book series by novelist Chelsea Cain, critic Marc Mohan and artist Aud Koch, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

The cancellation of the series was initially announced to retailers Thursday morning, with Bleeding Cool sharing the information online shortly afterwards. Marvel confirmed the cancellation to THR but declined to comment further.”

Marvel asked Ms. Cain to keep the embarrassing development “clean and quiet,” but she had other plans.

The reason: Left-wing ideologues always bite the hand that feeds.
Chelsea Cain Pain in the A tweetChelsea Cain’s outburst is another black eye for Marvel Comics, which already saw two bizarre developments within the past month:

  • Editor in chief C.B. Cebulski exploded on Spike Valentine, a YouTuber who has done work for Marvel in Mexico. Mr. Valentine is not shy about calling out the company’s poor business practices.
  • Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada spent hours — in the middle of the night — sparring over the nature of Comicsgate with Richard C. Meyer, aka Diversity & Comics, along with artist Ethan Van Sciver.

Marvel somehow managed a P.R. nightmare hat-trick over the course of 30 days, which isn’t easy. What it means is up for debate, but most of the theories that come to mind do not bode well for the company’s long-term health.

Spike Valentine

Is Marvel’s EIC so impotent that SJW writers are willing to publicly lash out at editors?

Are left-wing ideologues telling us that the emperor has no clothes (i.e., things are so bad behind the scenes that they are now willing to bite the hand that feeds)?

Mockingbird cover

Ms. Cain eventually went on to say that she is willing to be “truthful” to readers because other freelancers “can’t be.”

Translation: The commentary was spot-on by bloggers and YouTubers within the Comicsgate network when they told you that industry creators were obfuscating the facts — or blatantly lying.

Chelsea Cain Twitter Marvel

In short, Marvel got into bed with slew of black widow spiders, which eventually decided to eat their mate. Smooth move, Joe Quesada, Axel Alonso, and C.B. Cebulski. We tried to warn you for years what would happen and you ignored us. You are reaping what you’ve sown.

There’s more to the story, but for that I suggest checking out my latest YouTube video. Be sure to like and subscribe if the video format is up your alley.

Sina Grace’s ‘Iceman’ returns, saves NYC from MAGA-hat wearing villains (Yawn)

by Douglas Ernst Leave a comment

Sina Grace Iceman 1

Once upon a time there was a Marvel superhero named Iceman. He did everything one would expect of a superhero for decades, and as a result he built up an impressive following. Then a weird thing happened in 2015: writer Brian Michael Bendis magically turned him gay. Colleague Sina Grace picked up the creative torch and ran with it — straight into a sales ditch.

If you thought that was the end of Iceman, dear reader, then you are mistaken! Marvel decided at the behest of “advocacy groups” and “librarians” to bring back the character so he could put MAGA-hat wearing villains into phallic ice prisons!

Iceman Letters

Yes, that’s right, instead of customers who support local comic shops across the nation dictating behavior inside the former House of Ideas (now a House of Ideologues), “librarians … the media and advocacy groups” swayed the company.

If you disagree with Marvel EIC C.B. Cebulski and comment publicly on the development, then The Washington Post says you’re “suppressing” free speech.

Comicsgate Washington Post

The author wrote Sept. 13:

Comicsgate participants in fact work to silence opinions they dislike and voices they deem malignant. The left is often accused of intolerance and antipathy to the First Amendment. The most serious new threat to free speech, however, is the use of free speech as a cover for an ongoing online assault on the enemies of the right.

Despite the fact that Marvel writers with the correct political worldview are actually rewarded for failure in 2018 (Mr. Grace’s first crack at the character was a sales embarrassment), and despite the fact that The Washington Post is now running hit pieces on Comicsgate, bloggers like yours truly are somehow a threat to free speech.

Iceman sales Nov 2017
Marvel’s “Iceman” sales for November 2017 sat at 12,677 copies shipped according to Chomichron.

It was only a few short years ago that writers like Dan Slott were framing this little blog as an insignificant but annoying reality. Now Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer, Joe Quesada, and large metropolitan newspapers have their sights fixed on “Comicsgate” because a network of like-minded readers are changing the paradigm.

Joe Quesada Richard C Meyer

Never mind the fact that guys like me implored Mr. Quesada to do some “reflection” on the unprofessional behavior of his employees for years.

The fact of the matter is that Mr. Quesada, Tom Brevoort, and all their friends essentially created their own Frankenstein monster — Comicsgate — because they failed to heed the warnings published on this blog, Dave Huber’s Colossus of Rhodey (no longer active), and others.

Mr. Grace’s second go-round on Iceman is further proof that Marvel is doubling down on stupid and then telling customers they are the bad guys for pointing out what is painfully obvious.

If you want the full rundown on the first issue Iceman versus the MAGA-hat wearing villains, then be sure to watch my latest YouTube video. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Hit the like and subscribe button for new content each week.

Related: Quesada plays Marvel ‘Memento’ games with Comicsgate’s creation

Joe Quesada plays Marvel ‘Memento’ games with Comicsgate’s creation

by Douglas Ernst 5 Comments

Douglas Ernst Joe Quesada 2015

Something happened in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2018: Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer debated the existence of Comicsgate with the networks’s supposedly insignificant members. There was, however, some big problems with his performance: Mr. Quesada wanted to pretend as if he had anterograde amnesia straight out of Christopher Nolan’s Memento.

In short, the Marvel executive wanted to act as if your friendly neighborhood blogger wasn’t trying to warn him for years that the industry’s bad business practices would produce something akin to Comicsgate.

Joe Quesada tweets

Marvel’s personal boogeyman (i.e., Diversity & Comics), is supposedly the root of all that ails the industry. Spontaneous Comicsgate Combustion happened in late 2017 and a fire of bad behavior soured the relationship between creators and readers, if Marvel’s top brass is to be believed.

Wrong.

Memento GP

The fact of the matter is that Mr. Quesada and his peers had countless opportunities to right the ship. Myself and others (e.g., Dave Huber when he was writing at Colossus of Rhodey) gave Marvel a series of simple steps to avoid a large-scale consumer revolt.

We were ignored.

Regular readers know that I made the leap to YouTube with the assumption that I needed a bigger megaphone if I was ever going to help spearhead said consumer revolt.

What started on blogs eventually transformed into Comicsgate when myself, Capn Cummings, Diversity & Comics and a core group of others united behind the idea that we could create a parallel industry to “SJW Marvel Inc.”

The response by left-wing ideologues was to double down on unprofessional and immature antics — like Max “feast upon my a**” Bemis putting the “Uncle Ernst” villain into Moon Knight.

Moon Knight Ernst

Question: Did Mr. Quesada, who stayed up until about 5 a.m. EDT. talking about Comicsgate, dare to answer questions about Mr. Bemis’ lack of professionalism?

Answer: Not a chance. He stayed far, far away from me because he knows the facts are on my side and I would make him look like a buffoon.

Max Bemis Feast Upon My A

The good news about the industry’s decision to dig in its heels into a quicksand  pit of stupidity is that readers finally have other options. Indiegogo campaigns like Jawbreakers: Lost Souls have been wildly successful. The products will soon ship, and when that happens the paradigm will have officially shifted.

There is no turning back, and for that we can oddly enough thank guys like Mr. Quesada, Dan Slott, Mark Waid, Erik Larsen, Tom Brevoort, Alanna Smith, Max Bemis and a whole host of ideologues.

MB Sun2

If you want to learn more about Mr. Quesada’s faux short-term memory problems, then be sure to check out my latest YouTube video. As always, make sure to hit the like and subscribe button if the format is to your liking.

Comicstorian goes full He-Man ‘Faker’ in Comicsgate attack

by Douglas Ernst 5 Comments

It was roughly one year ago that people within comics fandom took a step back and realized that a group of guys who said they wanted to create a parallel industry were serious. Not only were “Comicsgaters” serious, but all indicators (to honest observers) were that they were resourceful and intelligent enough to make it happen.

Enter stage right in August 2017: Comics Explained with his 1.4 million subscribers and Comicstorian with his 1.8 million subscribers decided to weigh in. “Rob” wanted to frame Comicsgaters as racists and Benny wanted to make a moral equivalence between unprofessional pros and upset customers.

Your friendly neighborhood blogger/YouTuber sent word via an intermediary that I would be willing to hash it all out in private, and when Comicstorian decided to keep ranting about Twitter, the culture war he supposedly doesn’t care about, etc., I made videos exposing his ignorance.

Some people didn’t like that. They said he was “neutral” on Comicsgate and should be left alone. They also wanted to leave Rob to his own devices despite his pot shots on Twitter towards Comicsgate.

At some point in time someone must have talked a bit of sense into the two guys because they shut up for months. I allowed them to stay in their lane and did not make any videos that might upset YouTubers that I respect.

Now, for some inexplicable reason, Comics Explained and Comicstorian want to once again expose themselves as He-Man “Fakers” by insulting artist Jon Malin and the network as a whole.

I was told by multiple people over the past year that to mess with Comicstorian is to mess with the “Walmart greeter of the comics industry.” My question on Twitter and YouTube is as follows: “When was the last time a Walmart greeter called you an idiot when you walked in the door?”

If the answer is “never,” then perhaps it might be a bad idea to apply such a designation on the man. But I digress.

Check out my latest YouTube video for a full rundown on “Faker” as he dutifully does the bidding of Skelet-errrrrm, Disney.

Related:

ComicsExplained is RaceCardUnderstood: Rob slimes people who buy comics to avoid honest debate

Comicstorian’s blunder: Misreading SJW Marvel as industry burns

Comicstorian exposed: ‘Some of us just don’t care’ about culture

Comicsgate 101: Twitter is not ‘a child’s toy’

James Gunn torpedoed his Disney career: A lesson for social-media busybodies

by Douglas Ernst 6 Comments

James Gunn THR

Hollywood director James Gunn was fired last week after conservative activists consolidated and posted his long history of rape and pedophile “jokes,” in addition to tweets that were shocking for the sake of being shocking.

James Gunn tweet

The interesting thing about Mr. Gunn’s “jokes” is that guys like me would not have been aware of them had he not been the kind of person who climbs upon a moral pedestal to lecture President Trump and Roseanne Bar about “abhorrent” rhetoric.

James Gunn Rosanne

The rise of internet busybodies who destroy careers by spotlighting a single tweet can be traced to left-wing ideologues — often times guys like Patton Oswalt — who are furious that their Frankenstein monster has turned on them.

Patton Oswalt tweet

The commander in chief must be intellectually flogged for lewd comments he made about women many years ago, but Mr. Oswalt is now upset that a sustained flow of pedo and rape “jokes” by Mr. Gunn resulted in his termination from Disney.

Strange.

James Gunn tweet 2

What makes the situation more pathetic is that a large population on social media see nothing wrong with his “jokes.” Mr. Gunn deleted at least 10,000 tweets in a very short amount of time to cover up his disturbing behavior (as a 40-year-old man, mind you), yet many observers think Disney should have yawned and said, “Move along. Move along. Nothing to see here.”

DTE on Gunn

The lesson of the day: Don’t go finger-wagging at politicians and fellow entertainers about “abhorrent” rhetoric if your past includes many years worth of sexual jokes about minors. That seems like it would be common sense, but then again common sense is in short supply as of 2018.

If you’d like to hear my full thoughts on Mr. Gunn’s firing, then feel free to check out my recent live-stream with the multi-talented Brett R. Smith. We wrap up the discussion with commentary on his latest project with artist Timothy Lim and writer Chuck Dixon: Trump’s Space Force.

You can check out the Indiegogo campaign here.

Peter Parker ‘Soy Face’ shows the world: SJW Marvel built USS Spider-Man to wreck

by Douglas Ernst 4 Comments

Peter Parker Soy Face

Your friendly neighborhood blogger has covered all things “Spider-Man” for many years. Readers are familiar with the charge that Peter Parker has been emasculated in his own book, but inevitably there are always skeptics.

“Doug, it’s just one issue!” they essentially say. Whether it’s Captain America turning into a de facto Nazi, Iceman randomly turning gay, Iron Man being replaced by a teenage girl for years, etc., the refrain always comes up that Comicsgaters are “exaggerating” or “seeing things that aren’t really there.”

The past few weeks, however, presented the world with ThunderCats Roar — a bastardization of the original and the 2011 reboot — and now Peter Parker in all his “soy face” infamy.

The image is so striking and so telling on a deeper level that a single tweet from my account has reached nearly 30,000 pairs of eyes and over 400 likes in less than 24 hours.

Peter Parker Soy Face Twitter Stats

This isn’t a one-time thing. Over … and over … and over again the creative teams assigned to watch over the character have found ways to turn him into an absolute buffoon.

Ask yourself this question: Why are all fictional heroes who represent many aspects of traditional masculinity being stripped of their credibility and turned into gags for ironic hipsters?

SpiderMan suit

Check out my latest YouTube videos on both Spider-Man and ThunderCats for a clearer picture as to what’s going on.

As always, I invite you to leave your feedback section in the comments section below. I’d really like to hear what you have to say.

ThunderCats Roar: When Cultural Snarfs Run the Show:

ThunderCats Roar: SJWs and the Sword of Bad Omens:

Nick Spencer’s Spider-Man: Your worst fears may meet you half way

by Douglas Ernst 5 Comments

Nick Spencer Spider-Man

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.

Tom Brevoort mocks Marvel customers; evil worm casting backfires

by Douglas Ernst 3 Comments

Tom Brevoort mocks fans

Question: What happens when Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort sees the success of the Jawbreakers: 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.

Tom Brevoort Twitter son tweet

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.

Captain America 700: Mark Waid’s political wish upon a mushroom-cloud star comes true

by Douglas Ernst 4 Comments

C4

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.

Cap700

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.