Jen Bartel Spoke Honestly About How Comic Companies Treat Creators and, "Fans," Got Mad as a Result

I don't understand how comic fans sometimes seem to be so hateful towards the people who actually make their comics. Whenever a creator dares to point out that Marvel or DC at times treats their creators in a manner that is questionable, a bunch of men (it is always men) will emerge online to act like they are contract lawyers/ethical experts/etc. Jen Bartel was asked some questions about her treatment by Marvel and answered honestly. She quit working for Marvel because they took advantage of contracts to not have to pay her for using her art in stuff like Marvel Snap, plus the pay was crappy and she was eventually able to find better opportunities elsewhere--but she appreciated how working for Marvel opened those doors. Still, the fact she didn't toe the line about how working for Marvel is some sort of dream come true with zero downsides got fanboys frothing at the mouth.

Jen Bartel is a fantastic creator and if she had a shitty contract with Marvel she chose not to renew then that just means she knows her worth. Marvel (and their owner, Disney) doesn't need a bunch of people typing tweets in their defense. They're a huge corporation taking advantage of creatives to make as much money as possible off an IP that the creators want to make good stories/art out of--the company doesn't care about quality, just dollar signs. Why comic fans seem to be this one demographic that treats the people who make the comics with such vitriol whilst worshipping the abstract concept of the Godly Marvel Comics/DC Comics escapes me. Then again, for decades the people who made concepts into million or billion-dollar properties have suffered in poverty from medical issues with little help from fans or the corporations that profited off them, so I guess that's how it goes.

Television Tuesday: "She-Hulk," Had a Great First Episode

First of all, thank God this show got pretty much all the background/set-up/etc. established and done in the first episode. As much as I enjoyed the Disney+ production of, "Moon Knight," it took forever for the show to properly explain the overall premise and--you know--give us Moon Knight. "She-Hulk," explains everything we need to know in the first episode, and I appreciate that. Jennifer Walters is Bruce Banner's cousin. Through an accident she becomes She-Hulk, she goes back to her job as a lawyer and is a combination crime-fighter and prosecutor. Bam, there you go. We get a chunk of jokes, a good fight scene, and fun is had. 

No insane World-ending stakes as every Marvel production acts like it has to have lately, just some good character moments (Tatiana Maslany is fantastic as Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk), a bit of explosive action, and as I said, it is fun. I'm all for a fun legal drama-comedy (or dramedy, as the kids say) that throws in some super-heroics while examining various wild and wacky Marvel characters (as previews have indicated we should be seeing). I know some people online complained it was campy and there are the usual haters who are mad a female is the star of a show (seriously, they're enraged about a lady leading a show and complaining that somehow makes it, "Woke," or, "Feiminist," in a bad way), but I liked this debut episode a lot. I will be tuning in for more!

5 out of 5 stars.

Film Friday: What Exactly Do We Want From the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

It used to be people complained that the Marvel movies were annoying because someone had to watch them all to be able to follow the big, "Avengers," event movies. Then we had the climax of all the flicks in the form of, "Avengers: Infinity War," and its sequel, "Avengers: Endgame." After that big flick we entered what is known as, "Phase 4," of the franchise and folks now are concerned about an opposite issue--how does everything connect and what is it leading to? Folks, what exactly do we want from the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Would people prefer that all the Marvel movies (and now Disney+ shows) were closely linked in a way where everything, "Matters," and they're leading some insane mega-event? Is it better if each property stands a little bit alone to where you can skip some movies or shows and they just tie in loosely with the big cinematic tapestry? When it comes to reading the comics you don't have to pick up every Marvel title--and it would be silly to do so with all the stuff they publish as it would take a ton of money and time. You follow the characters you like or creators who make good stuff and don't worry about the properties you have less interest in. Maybe you read an event sometimes and don't get the entirety of it because you skipped on some comics, but you're still happy and entertained. Perhaps the MCU is entering that kind of era now. I mean, ever since Disney bought Marvel it should've been obvious they'd want to make as much money as possible from it.

Should you want a more horror-influenced experience you can watch the new Doctor Strange flick. Into teenage drama and comedy? Check out, "Ms. Marvel," which I've heard is fun. Love Hawkeye? Well, they even made a show for you. If you want to watch a show that combines heroics and legal cases, "She-Hulk," is on the way too. There is just so much coming out from Marvel that it can feel overwhelming if you want to try to watch absolutely everything as opposed to just things that really hold your interest. Plus, I think it is clear Marvel is building up to something big for those who want a major event. 

I (and others online) think we are heading towards a, "Secret Wars," similar to the 2015 event, featuring various Universes in the Multiverse going against one another. Whether the, "Baddie," will be the previously introduced (in, "Loki,") Kang, a rumored Doctor Doom, or someone else remains to be seen, but I get the feeling that is what's coming--and it should be fun! I'd probably watch a big epic fight between the Multiverse, but I don't feel obligated to tune into every Marvel property leading up to it. We as fans need to figure out what we want from Marvel. Some people want a highly interconnected yarn and others just want to be entertained by the stuff they choose to watch. Marvel needs to figure out how to balance the two, I suppose, and then it can continue enjoying immense monetary success.

Today's Toyman Show Was Full of Fun!

Anytime there is a ToyMan show I try to attend as it is guaranteed I will find a ton of stuff and see a bunch of great folks! ToyMan shows are packed to the gills with toys, Lego, die-cast cars, Funko Pops, movies, games, comics, and more. Anytime I go I find something cool I wanted, and that happened today too with a variety of neat stuff! I kicked off the show as I often do, by saying hello to my friend John Chaffee of Bigfoot Comics and Collectibles. I saw my chum, Tim Metzger, as well while he was selling stuff. I ran into Tom from Alliance Comics, Toys, and Games too. Spike of Lost in Space Toys and Collectibles had stepped away from his booth, but I was impressed with the cool stuff he had when I was browsing. Larry from Bug's Comics and Games was selling a ton of cool stuff as well. I saw Vince of VK Toys and we were able to cut a deal on a great copy of, "She-Hulk," #1 that I was enthusiastic to get. Here's a picture of it:

Konnor Tate of Tatertot Comics & Collectibles was at the show and we discussed how I'm excited for the rapidly-approaching grand opening of his store--expect an article on that as July 30th nears. I chatted with my friend Brian Lan too, who was selling wares and at other shows is often there representing the Hero Initiative! I went upstairs and saw my friend Jessica Mathews had her latest book for sale! Titled, "Roar," I got a copy for Clarkson to read and he eagerly flipped through it once I brought it home:

I continued to walk about in the upstairs area, chatting with Lonnie of Heroes for Kids Perryville. They have their show coming up this Saturday the 16th. I am excited to go and write about it! I also saw Lindsay Hornsby of Mega Giganto comics. She had her latest book available which was a, "Princess Pups," coloring and activity book. I bought it as we've loved her previous, "Princess Pups," works! Check it out:

ToyMan was a ton of fun today--just as it is anytime I visit the show! Between all the goods for sale, the lovely vendors, and the general positive energy every show has, I love going to ToyMan anytime it occurs. The next one will be on August 28th, so visit the site and plan your visit!

We've Got a, "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law," Trailer

Yesterday the full trailer for, "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law," dropped. I watched it and found myself intrigued by the plot (people who work in the legalities of superheroes), excited for Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, and a bit concerned by how the CGI just looked...off. Give it a look below:

I know the actual show's release is a bit of a way off, so perhaps they can tweak the CGI so it looks like it belongs in the scenes where Walters is She-Hulk and it appears less out of place. Besides that, I'm eager to see this mix of workplace comedy, superhero shenanigans, and a bit of romance too (it appears). I may have concerns about some of the special effects, but otherwise, I am eager for this and hope it is good! It'll be on Disney+ around August, I believe.

Disney+ Confirmed and Announced a Slew of New Stuff

Today is what is known as, "Disney+," day, as it's the anniversary of when the service launched. In honor of this, a lot of new stuff is now available to watch. Also, Disney+ confirmed a lot of rumored projects, announced others, and basically got us fans of the streaming service abuzz. We are indeed getting an Agatha Harkness show, an, "Echo," spin-off from, "Hawkeye," "Secret Invasion," is coming, "Moon Knight," as well as, "She-Hulk," had brief-but-intriguing teasers along with, "Ms. Marvel," as well. Oh, and further info was provided about the Obi-Wan show, there's going to be an X-Men cartoon that continues the 90's continuity, and there is going to be a, "Cars," series, because...why not? 

Also oddly announced was the new, "Predator," prequel movie titled, "Prey," It is set in the past and due to its R-rated content will stream on Hulu (skipping theaters altogether). Plenty more was announced and Polygon has it helpfully sorted in this list so you don't have to check out a ton of different sites to see what's what. It looks like lots of good stuff is coming to Disney+ (and Hulu), so I'm excited! Perhaps this will assuage the fears of Wall Street and boost Disney's stock as their streaming growth has slowed lately. Considering multimedia entertainment now makes up 75% of Disney's revenue, movies/games/shows doing well is key

Marvel Announced a Lot of New Comics Yesterday

Yesterday was a big day if you like reading comic-books from Marvel. They announced a bunch of new titles and events. There is going to be a Kingpin-focused event called, "Devil's Reign," with the creative team of, "Daredevil," Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto.  We're also getting more, "Avengers," comics from Jason Aaron (yah?) in the form of, "Avengers Forever," with Aaron Kuder on art. There shall be a Kang-centric event titled, "Timeless," which a writer who is quickly becoming a favorite of mine writing it, Jed MacKay (multiple artists are involved). More, "Wolverine," comics would bore me except they are being written by Benjamin Percy and he's been doing a good job on the current, "Wolverine," comic so, "X Lives of Wolverine," and, "X Deaths of Wolverine," might be decent with his scripts and art by Joushua Cassara as well as Federico Vicentini. 

I'm not a huge She-Hulk fan, but I did adore Rainbow Rowell's work on the most recent, "Runaways," so seeing she's writing and Roge Antonio is on art has me pretty excited. The, "Reckoning War," Dan Slott has teased in multiple comics for over a decade will be occurring with multiple artists and a currently unannounced team will be bringing, "Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur," back in February of 2022 when (I assume) the animated show premieres too. Some of these comics are sooner and some are later as the graph shows, but they all sound at least like they'd be entertaining. I don't see anything listed here and go, "Ugh, really? Do we need that?" These are all just creative teams we're seeing though (or not even that in the case of, "Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur,") so it will remain to be seen how this all turns out. As it is, I'm just glad nothing is a an obviously recycled event like, "Secret Invasion II," or such.

"Moon Knight," Getting a Show!

Well, this is news that has me excited and cautiously optimistic. That news, of course is that my favorite comic super-hero, Moon Knight, will be getting his own show on the upcoming Disney+ streaming service! He is a darker character and Disney+ doesn't want to stray too far from PG-13 kind of stuff at the most, but I'm frankly just happy to have Moon Knight appearing on a screen in what will hopefully be an entertaining experience. She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel (the Kamala Khan version) will be getting shows as well. This is wonderful news, and makes me even more excited to have some Moon Knight-related books I sent-out for pressing made extra-pretty so they'll look gorgeous on display, "Raw," or in a CGC case.

The one immediate downside in all this is that now I'll basically have to buy a subscription to yet another streaming-service in order to enjoy some (hopefully) high-quality Moon Knight-programming.

Smart Journalism is for Suckers AKA Loser City Made Me Aware Today How Far CBR Has Fallen

This is real.

Look, all websites/blogs/tumblrs/whatever have their ups and downs. Heck, even I have had periods of time where I feel like I'm making great article after great article a s well as other weeks where I struggle to find the motivation to even think up a snarky headline about the latest stupid stunt by a publisher. Therefore, I can't  be too hard on some comic websites even if, say, Bleeding Cool is becoming a nearly impossible-to-navigate mess of advertisements hiding some decent articles (it still is one of the sites I check daily even if it is a pain, after all). That said, I quit going to Comic Book Resources AKA CBR awhile ago when it turned more into a list-article/listicles website than something that actually is a, "Resource," for comic-readers. That said, I didn't know how low it had sunken until I saw another culture-site I enjoy, Loser City, did a piece mocking CBR.

Apparently, "Down to Hulk: 15 Hulks You Want to Smash," is an actual article from CBR. Loser City makes sure to mention that not a single male Hulk is discussed, because apparently only 100% heterosexual men read these puff-piece articles, nevermind that women who are attracted to men or same gender loving men might enjoy an article that humorously points out how Bruce Banner is, "Someone you wouldn't like when he's angry, but might love when he's horny!" or some other moronic joke like that which I literally just made-up on the spot--which I think makes me more qualified to write for CBR than anybody else at that joke of a website. I mean seriously, who still says, "Smash," to refer to sex anymore too? That pun would have been weak even when the term was popular and used on programs like, "For the Love of Ray J."

She sure did, Ray J, she sure did.

The next time I ever doubt my only journalistic abilities I will remember that in August of 2017 a website that once was at least moderately useful for keeping track of comic book news completed sinking to the lowest common denominator with an article about which female hulks are the most fuckable. It doesn't even redeem itself by being tongue-in-cheek, titillating, or anything beyond shockingly stupid. I'm not opposed to sexy imagery or erotic storytelling in the least, but when your idea of a smart article is which hulk you want to penetrate that's just depressing. I personally want to thank Loser City for reading CBR so that the rest of us don't have to. I really hope you guys and gals can maintain your sanity.

Two Quick Thoughts on Marvel and One on DC/Vertigo

Thinking About the "Big 2"
I just have a few total thoughts today that I thought were detailed enough to put together in a post, but not nearly in-depth enough to stand on their own. As I have two thoughts about Marvel and only one about DC and its Vertigo imprint I think I'll post things in the order of Marvel, DC, Marvel, if for no other reason that my minor obsession with having things in a pattern will be sated that way.

Thought 1: Some of Marvel's Cancellations Are Really Causing Sadness

Marvel has been getting "props" for putting out more quirky or interesting books that don't fit into any sort of cliche "Marvel style". These titles are ostensibly in the Marvel Universe but still quite unique. Some successes of this style of letting the comics function more independently has resulted in some big critical and commercial successes such as "Ms. Marvel" and of course "Hawkeye", but other books apparently haven't performed well enough and are being cancelled. I heard a collective groan of sadness from the internet when it was revealed "She Hulk" was ending with issue #12 despite actually seeming to sell well, and you might have heard me cry out in despair when the announcement was officially made by Marvel and Peter David that "All-New X-Factor" was concluding with its 20th issue. There is a slight silver-lining to this very gray cloud in that Marvel clearly isn't yet giving up on at least trying to put out weirder titles, as the announcement of, "The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl" shows they are willing to let their freak-flag fly a little bit.

Thought 2: It Seems We Are Approaching A Vertigo Revamp

I've discussed in the past how I had concerns about the future of DC's mature-readers imprint, Vertigo. However, after expressing my worries in that 2012 blog post the imprint seemed to start having some more success, with titles such as, "The Wake" selling like hotcakes and other critical hits such as "Trillium" leading me to conclude I was wrong and Vertigo was doing okay after all. Well, interestingly enough my first post thinking that Vertigo could be in for a shake-up might have been right after all, if admittedly "calling it" it a bit too early. I say that because it has been hinted by the DC brass that come 2015 there are plans for an overhaul of the Vertigo line. How much this relates to DC moving their office to Burbank in 2015, the fact that more former Vertigo-creators are now making titles with other publishers (Brian K Vaughn and Scott Snyder with "Saga" and "Wytches", respectively, although Snyder is still writing plenty of super-hero stuff for DC), or any other reason I cannot say. Still, whatever the case for this plan to change Vertigo it will be interesting to see what is done in an attempt to draw in more writers and artists so as to boost the line--like perhaps DC will be more willing to offer creators ownership of their intellectual property if  they write for Vertigo, or something of that sort. We can only wait and see.

Thought 3: Marvel is Going Teaser-Crazy

Lately Marvel has been releasing teaser-images that mention past events with small changes in images of the past event or a name alteration. These have been ranging from Civil War, to Planet Hulk, to Years of Future Past, to what could be some kind of Marvel Zombies VS Age of Ultron comic. Apparently even creators of some of these past events have no clue what is going on with the man behind the original Infinity Gauntlet comic (Jim Starlin) remarking he had no idea that Marvel was planning to revisit the series until he saw one of these random promos for it. Now, unless Marvel is planning some sort of mega-event with weekly comics that will revisit past comic-events or such, I have a feeling this all relates to the earlier announcement of a "Secret Wars" event in 2015 which builds off of the events of Marvel's "Avengers" and "New Avengers" comics that have featured alternate earths coming into contact with one another and requiring the destruction of one to save the other.

Considering how the concept of alternate realities will play a huge role in "Secret Wars" I could see how these promotional images are in fact advertising other realities where past comic events turned out differently, and is building-up to the idea that these separate planes of existence are going to come into conflict with "our" earth, resulting in a "House of M" world fighting the main one, or such. That is my thinking at least. For all I know maybe Marvel just really wants to put out a bunch of random mini-series set in past events and figure enough people will be hungering for a new "Armor Wars" that it'll sell well. Again, as I said when wondering about what the future holds for Vertigo, we can only wait and see. All I know is with my eventitis I won't be in a huge hurry to read any huge earth-shattering events that will, "CHANGE EVERYTHING...at least until the next event."

Done Thinking...For Now
So there were my three scattered thoughts about Marvel and DC I had today. I look forward to what other quirky books Marvel puts out and hope they will do well, while at the same time I desire for Marvel to tone it down a bit with all these event-promos that may or may not be for an actual event. Also, whatever DC does with its Vertigo imprint is bound to be neat to see. If only I could glimpse into the future and then think on that, if only.