COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 360

Wild Speculation

Ever feel manipulated? Oddly enough, the recent debacle around Captain Marvel has made me feel that way. Sales are low. Marvel says they're going to raise the price to save the book. Peter David offers to write the comic for cheap in order to avoid having to raise the price. Joe Quesada points some fingers and refuses him point blank.

Of course, given the public nature of this matter, sales will probably spike. I know I'm certainly tempted to start buying the book. Not because I'm particularly interested in it, but because I like Peter David and I thought his offer was a pretty cool thing to do. And he did have a point. How the hell do you save a book by raising the price?

I refuse to believe that Quesada, Jemas, and company are stupid like that. That their Marvel logic is unlike our Earth logic. After all, this is supposed to be the new Golden Age.

Thus have I decided that maybe this was all a play act for our benefit. Remember New Coke? Ok, even if you don't, I'm going to go into it anyway. Sales were down on Coca-Cola, so they decided to change the recipe and called it "New Coke." It sucked. So they reintroduced the old formula and sales went up. Coke has been on top ever since. The whole idea of New Coke was so bad that many critics believe that maybe the Coca-Cola Company staged the whole thing.

Marvel's been pretty good at pulling wool over our ideas. How when they kept the true premise of Thunderbolts a secret until people actually read the last page of the first issue? Or the tale they concocted about the Sentry being an old "lost" hero until they rediscovered him and gave him a new series? These were really well- orchestrated plans that worked to their and our benefit, I think.

Accuse me of libel, slander, or whatever you may. Tell me I'm being stupid or irresponsible. Yell at me for saying these things, for doubting the Might Marvel Machine. But remember the old expression "fool me once, shame on you." Not that there was any shame before, it was pretty cool the first time. And the second time. But now I'm skeptical and this recent incident has felt too staged for my own comfort. It's now reached the "boy who cried wolf" point. I don't know what to believe.

I don't want to think that I'm being tricked. But on the other hand, I don't want to believe people are capable of being so... stupid. And it seems somewhat juvenile to me as well. I don't think this incident reflects very well on anyone. So no one wins.