Marvel Vs DC, the 2010 throwdown

OK, I just don’t get it. I read this new post from Heidi MacDonald’s very cool column.

...Marvel has just announced that they will accept trade-ins of retailers’ unsold copies of Blackest Night tie-ins for copies of a Siege variant edition.

You read that right. Marvel will give you a copy of their event comics for the covers of unsold copies of DC’s event comics.

The DC comics involved were all part of DC’s Lantern ring promotion — retailers had to order Blackest Night tie-in books at high levels in order to get collectible Lantern rings. Some folks thought the levels were too high.

That was on 1/13, then on 1/15 she posted this:

Why? Why did Marvel turn the clock back to 2001-2, when Nü Marvel under Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada delighted in playing Scut Farkus to DC’s Ralphie at every opportunity — calling DC AOL Comics, and so on. Jemas also delighted in getting hostile with retailers. But in 2010, things with Marvel seem so be going pretty smooth with that whole Disney thing and all, so why now? Why such an aggressive in your face move here and now?

.

Oh yeah, and well, then there’s this:



Which brings me back to my original point of, I just don‘t get it. Why can’t these two publishers just get along and instead of taking swipes at each other figure out a way to work together and do something to promote the industry as a whole?

I just wish that they would both grow up.

Mor on Spidey 4 & why we have to wait to see it

Heidi MacDonald, columnist for Publisher's Weekly, brings us more about why Spider-Man 4 fell apart, and why its director and stars walked away from the package:

NY Mag’s Vulture blog’s Claude Brodesser-Akner has a lot more details on why the Raimi version of Spider-man 4 will never be. Basically, after seeing Avatar, Raimi anted to bringing more state-of-the-art SFX, which wouldn’t relaly have been ready by the 2011 release date. Also, the script had some problems, as the studio saw it. Here’s what WOULD have been with the Malkovich Vulture storyline:

The rest of that piece is here.

Sing a song of Spider-Pence, a pocket full of rhyme...

So, word is now out that Sam Raimi, along with stars Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst have all taken a pass on Spider-Man 4. According to reports, the director was unhappy with the direction of the script and Columbia announced that the film was on indefinite hold.

...Columbia Pictures announced plans for a replacement movie focusing on the High School years of Spidey's alter-ego, Peter Parker. It will be released in summer 2012 with an as-yet-unnamed actor in the starring role and a script by James Vanderbilt.

Well, as depressing as all this may sound, from Heidi MacDonald, we learn that new Marvel owner, Disney, has come to the rescue of the previously announced-and-canceled Spider-Man Broadway musical.

Disney...has stepped in to get Spider-Man the Musical back on track, Michael Riedel at The New York Post reports.

Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark...has had a rocky road. With superstar director Julie Taymor, and superstar composers Bono and The Edge on board it seemed like a surefire hit, but monetary mismanagement, and Taymor’s divided attention with her movie career forced the planned February launch to be scuttled as the show became a financial black hole, blowing through some $52 million and needed four years of full houses just to break even.

One can only wonder if Avi Arad &/or Joe Quesada traded Sam Rami’s Spidey 4 to Mephisto to get Spidey the Musical, or he will try to trade the musical for the film