Friday, February 01, 2008

It’s all fun and games until someone makes a deal with the devil to end your marriage!

Cap’s Back, and Steven Colbert has him! What am I talking about? well you just have to check out this clip from Comedy Central’s Steven Colbert Report where Steven is (once again) talking to Marvel Editor-in-Chief, Joe Quesada:



Apparently, once you've made a deal with the devil to end somebody else’s Marriage there is no going back!

While the conversation between Steve and Joe starts off with them discussing Captain America, it soon seques into them discussing Steven’s aborted run for President. Well, apparently In the Marvel Universe, Steven is still a candidate.

I’ve taken the liberty of enhancing a couple of images from the clip. The first image shows a cutaway of some (doctored) art for Amazing Spider-Man #546 (with a close-up from that image up next). Sure, sure Joe has done a great deal to increase the awareness of Marvel, Cap, Spidey, and the rest of the Marvel stable, but it begs the question, if Joe want’s to appeal to appeal to a younger audience, then why does he keep appearing on the Colbert Report, which (I’m sure) appeals to a demographic that is substantially older than teens (who might think that a married superhero is too old).

Of course, that could be just me.

3 comments:

Tommy said...

Heh, I've never been a fan of someone being famous for doing attention-whorish things, in this case, with our beloved Marvel characters.


I read something at scans daily about some future reality where Spidey's granddaughter is known as Spider-Bitch. That and Hulk is living in the Playboy Mansion.


*Shakes head*


Marvel seems more like WWE or something, with Quesada being the heel owner a la Vince McMahon (and I have to admit, it was fun seeing Steve Austin kick his ass back when I watched it under the WWF nomenclature), but there are certain key differences here.


Being a heel in wrestling can get people to watch just cause they're wanting to see someone kick the heel's ass, but with comics we're not paying to see Quesada get put in his place, in fact, quite the opposite would be done if he were to be taken out due to lack of sales.


Instead, I'm figuring it's simple morbid curiosity to see the train wreck in motion. However, that's not appealing to a younger demographic, that's just appealing to the non-comic fan and hoping to keep them around for a while.


And just what is it that they're appealing to with said younger demographic?

Are they appealing to Hollywood type morals so they can relate and feel that the heroes are as screwed up as they are? Is this what's cool and hep (heh!) these days? Meh.


If I wanted to see that kinda stuff, I could turn on the news or just observe people around me. Oh well...this just means it's that more important for peeps to set an example if they aren't in comics.

rjsodaro said...

Personally, I’m tired of the whole “Spidey as a loser” motif. He isn’t a loser. He is an ordinary guy with extraordinary powers that is trying to make his way in the world while maintaining his own moral compass.

Tommy said...

Yeah.

He does the best he can and it doesn't always turn out well, but he keeps on going. A loser would never face up to the challenges Pete has.

A loser wouldn't have already affected the course of the multi/omniverse either. (I'm looking at Beyonder's comments there along with 20 years of reading comics.)


Rodney Dangerfield's signature quote comes to mind when I think of how Spidey is treated, both by the editorial and by some of the other heroes.

When reading some of the Civil War stuff, Spidey was hated on all the time for what side he chose.

When he was on Iron Man's side, that rabid Cap fan tried to shoot him and likely wouldn't have minded shooting Mary Jane either. The other heroes, specifically The Falcon, were calling Spidey a sell-out. When he's brought in all beat-up after his defection, I don't see a lick of concern from Ultra Girl (who is she anyways?). Are these people forgetting that this is a guy who takes on entire teams by himself, beats villains out of his power range through such a badass combination of his abilities and grit, cares about people and will go out of his way to help others? Heck, he's gone out of his way to save his villains.

Maybe the Punisher might knock that, but that's cause he isn't a Peter Parker, which is something more people should aspire to.



The only thing that made some of the disrespect bearable is that Cap still respected him which outweighs everyone else's foolishness.


Then, when Spidey is with Cap on his side, now he's bad for being against the law, so poor Spidey just can't win with this, can he?


When you see things from a police officer's perspective in a story, Spidey is the one who puts up with the sum totality of officer complaints and frustration. He ends up being the recipient of things that they feel towards all heroes, and if he wanted to, he could just flip them off and not bother with it, but doing so would endanger the current case at hand, where a collaboration is a must.



Another thing with Spidey is he's better than he thinks he is, as he tends to doubt himself a lot, but he'll face the odds anyways.

I think Spider-Man: The Parker Years where Mary Jane gives Pete a reminder of his successes sums it up pretty darn well. I think this also came out during your comic gap, Bob, but it's worth looking into.

My days under the Malibu Sun!

Way back in the early '90s I was writing for, well, virtually every comicbook magazine under the sun. As if that wasn't enough, I wa...