Spider-Man Unmasking, Marvel, and the Nature of Truth, PR and Lies Part 2: Steve’s Response, Kevin’s Farewell, and a Concession
“Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.”—Plato
This is the entertainment business, not the honesty business, Kevin. You and I are nothing but nodes which contribute to the propagation of this industry when you look at the bottom line. I do understand that in an ideal world no one would lie to anyone and that all of our farts would smell like lemon chiffon and Koben Kelly would get to bed down with Asia Argento every night but it doesn’t stop publishers from stopping the direction of a project or going against a promise—in effect changing their minds.
What Marvel did wasn’t lying–it was marketing their product.
You do realize that editorial changes can slow a project down—right, Kevin? You also understand that oftentimes companies will change the direction of an intellectual property they own at whim; regardless of whether or not the consumer approves—right?
“Where does one start when documenting how Marvel has gone beyond simple huckster-isms and into straight out lying to their customers?”—Kevin Huxford
Apparently, you’ve never been in sales of any kind, Kevin.
Marvel cared enough to offer an explanation—whether it’s completely accurate or not really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
“It seems that Brevoort was the first asked to step up and lie.”–Kevin Huxford
That, sir—is a statement that would be deemed conjecture in a court of law upheld by the same Constitution that allows you to murmur on incessantly with “quote and quotables” that Jeopardy would be hard pressed to find trivially accessible.
Tom Brevoort is paid by Marvel to sell comic books—not to satisfy Kevin’s desire for the truth. If something ships late—guess what—it ships late. We, as consumers, can speculate the fineries of the delay—but does Marvel owe us an explanation? No, not really. Even if they did try to “assist” retailers with a bullshit postulation—they don’t have to.
Would that be poor customer/client service if they didn’t?
Absolutely—but that still doesn’t give your “policy of truth” any more validity—it really just makes you sound like a jilted consumer to the casual reader. All you have to do to fix your jilted status—is to stop buying Marvel Comics’ product, Kevin. But here’s “the rub”: you can’t just stop with Amazing Spiderman—you’d have to stop buying the books you like as well or else you’d be a hypocrite.
Even if you kept at this boycott of deception, (for the sake of the consistency of your own character) you wouldn’t be reading any comic books or watching movies, or buying commercial products from stores. Do you know how to grow your own food or to hunt, Kevin?
You could pretend to be a not-so-talented version of Spider Jerusalem who runs off into the mountains from the hard truth about the comic book industry: It’s a business, Kevin. More than just your happiness is at stake when you ramble on and make accusations like you do. These people work hard and have families and internet porn bills too.
I could understand if you were an editor at Marvel—because these books are periodicals and they are timely in nature and it is your job to execute your job in a timely manner. I could understand if you were a retailer—because you spend money on a product that you sell in your store to perpetuate your livelihood. However, as a consumer and fan of the medium, you read the book and continue on in your day—it doesn’t effect any part of your life beyond what you buy in the comic book store on any given Wednesday–your choice to read or not read these pamphlets really doesn’t hurt the bottom line that much–because they don’t want your own “old man money” as much as they want that “new kid dollar”!
When a book doesn’t come out on the day it is supposed to I BUY SOMETHING ELSE, Kevin.
I think that helps the industry a little more than someone who pouts and runs to the internet to complain about a late book on a forum board. Again, if you don’t like a company’s practices—stop buying their product. Then you don’t have to get all upset when something isn’t quite the way it seems.
I really like how you twisted around a quote regarding Mark Millar’s health from Brevoort so that it works for your argument—do you know anything about Crohn’s Disease, Kevin? I have known two people who suffer from it in different levels of severity and both of them have good days and bad days. Just because Steve had pages to draw doesn’t mean that Millar had the strength to write revisions every day? You might not know this—because you’re just a semi-accomplished blogger—but the editorial process goes beyond a guy reading a script and giving it to an artist. Oftentimes, writers have to re-write portions of their scripts; they have to change whole portions of books because they don’t fall into the plans of the publisher of the IP in question—there is the potential for a lot of time being spent on re-evaluations. This time spent could lead to late books.
Also, FYI, I talked to Steve McNiven at MegaCon last year–he didn’t know anything about being offered work on Amazing Spiderman…he was meeting with them a few weeks after Mega Con to discuss it–so we’re talking April 2007. You wouldn’t know that–you’ve been too busy hanging out collecting quotes on the forum boards and not talking to the people themselves.
To me, your interest in Mark Millar’s health was, again, half-hearted conjecture from an opportunist using a statement barely in its proper context—it’s like using a fragment of a sentence to defy the rest of the message. It also made you sound like a finger wagging, compassionless bag of douche.
Onto the Millar/Hitch Fantastic Four example—again—what does it matter that Mark Millar and or Bryan Hitch misdirected you with hints? First off, the companies wait to release information on upcoming projects—so teasing the fans with misinformation is just what it is—a tease, a trick, a ruse—and if you get that pissed off about being teased—then I’d hate to see you in strip bar.
It’s like you had a bunch of stuff that you felt chapped your ass so you piled them together hoping to serve up some malcontent with this myopic conception that Marvel was twisting the ends of its mustache and tying your “real life” doll to some train tracks.
Side Note: World War Hulk wasn’t a company wide event and wasn’t really advertised as such. In fact, books were produced specifically for the Hulk-centric event. You didn’t have to read them to get the full story aaaaaaand…Marvel did this smart marketing move where they played the same integral scenes over a number books—in the hopes that if you didn’t buy ALL the books already—that you’d understand the importance of certain story beats within the events taking place in the World War Hulk mini-series.
I bought all of them because I like the Hulk—and the event—even if it weren’t planned for—it was pretty damn good. So why the hell are you bitching about it along with your Spider-beef?
What did your tirade accomplish? What has running your mouth accomplished in the grand scheme of things?
Wrapping up, I ask you this:
When a Kevin Huxford cries foul in the woods and no one really cares—does it really make a difference?
I guess it doesn’t matter now, you’re quitting—so I’ll concede, for your sake, so you can feel like you won something for once and I can assist you with moving on to your “sabbatical” a little faster. Again, the only reason I said anything more than my initial remark over on Blog@ was due to the fact that you were running your mouth ABOUT ME as well. Now, after reading your farewell address, it appears that you ran your mouth about the wrong person in another set of circumstances too.
My point in this debate has always been this and nothing more:
It’s a business, Kevin; unfortunately, it has more power than your wrathful indignation.
EKS
