Random Comic Thoughts

• Man, people are making a stink about the new Newsarama boards. Some people are REALLY bent out of shape.
  
• I'm more thrown by Newsarama becoming more of an entertainment site than a comic book site and basically turning all of their articles into blogs, rather than leading into traditional message board discussion. Still, better than CBR's "hey...go find somewhere on our site to talk about it" style.
• Without giving spoilers, I'm not as sold on Trinity yet as others. Yeah, Busiek has the characters down cold. But some of the elements that they're building from scratch here (I'm being vague as possible) could backfire. Busiek was hit-or-miss on new elements he introduced in Superman (mostly miss from what I can remember). When he missed, it could only hurt an issue or an arc. Here, it looks like a majority of the series could very well hinge on how fans react to entirely new creations.
  
• I think Millar's Kick Ass is interesting, if not setting the world on fire for me. But I find my opinion of it is often negatively effected by the hype machine Millar rolls out for it. From quoting sycophant fans on the back of the book as if they were noteworthy critics to at least one quote whore I know reviewing the book just in hopes of being quoted.
• Secret Invasion #3: wasn't the most outlandish spoiler that Mr. Anonymous gave me, but it still qualifies as another "I told you so" moment. I'm wondering what's going on with the biggest bomb he said they'd be dropping on the readers, though.

In response to some of the stuff in the comments section:

• Yes, Bagley does, indeed, rule on Trinity. He does great work on the book. I'm just a bit of a cynic, which is why I focused on my fears for the book in the comment rather than the good stuff. I'm glad to see a strong start on the backup art with the choice of McDaniel, too.
• I've revealed the (potential) biggest bomb for Secret Invasion in the past, but it was via a vlog. I'll embed that vlog in the bottom of this blog shortly (update: rather than embed, here's the link). I haven't heard from Mr. Anonymous again since shortly after the release of the first issue. That's consistent with his stated motives, though. He made it clear to me that the reason why he was passing along the info was directly related to how much of an asshat "Marvel_b0y" was being.
  
• I'll not delve into a Newsarama vs. CBR pissing match, but I've always thought that articles that go directly into a forum to discuss the news was one of the things that made fans flock to the 'Rama in larger numbers than CBR. I think the change takes some of the charm away, but how much remains to be seen.
• Peter Tomasi and crew are certainly kicking ass on Nightwing. I'll say, though, that I was a little disappointed to see how irregular Rags Morales has been in his contributions to the book. I wonder if he might have still been contributing a bit to the Batman Confidential arc he did with Tony Bedard. While I'm sure Rob might still lop off an appendage to be him, the number of times other artists have had to fill-in for him is making his timeliness look more Liefeldian with every passing day. Update: Ken B. mentions below that Rags explained on a Newsarama forum that the fill-ins on Nightwing have largely been necessary due to his commitment to aforementioned Batman Confidential arc.
  

Can We Get The Consensus on Marvel_b0y's Status?

He stopped posting suddenly. Barely addressed any of the audience's many concerns about his legitimacy. Ended on the whimper of saying that RUN FATBOY RUN.

So...do we think now that he was definitely marketing and they didn't know how to wrap up the production?
Or maybe the silence is meant to build things up for him speaking out again as a viral marketing tool?
Was he just a bitter employee like he suggested?
Or something else?

I'll be running a poll on the front of the site to get what popular opinion is.

SCHWAPP!!! If I Was Played By Marvel...

SPOILERS: And Now...For Mr. Anonymous's Finale....

When it came time to give the last spoiler, I wondered: how could I extend this. How could I make this a chore for people to get the info again in a more obtrusive way than having to just highlight random gaps in paragraphs?

The last Skrull I have to reveal...

I figured it out: a lengthy embedded video.

...is...wait for it...

So, here you go:

...in the vlog, you cheating lazy bum.

Why Provide Spoilers?

At first, I provided the spoilers given to me by Mr. Anonymous because I strongly dislike the way this Marvel_b0y viral campaign has been pulled off. It is another marketing strategy that takes things to a new level of dishonesty. When you spew as much bile and venom as this viral marketing campaign has done (opt-in or not), there will be collateral damage. The fans become yelling, screaming, stressed, and insulted pawns in your game to make a few extra bucks.

Not in this spot...

Mr. Anonymous, himself, would probably never have stepped up to give me these spoilers if not for Marvel_b0y giving out the occasionally wrong info and being a douche.

Or in this one...

Marvel has since toned it down a bit and the only one getting lumped on is Marvel_b0y himself. It has led me to sit back and rethink things.

Oh...did you think it'd be here?

For instance: I really like Bendis. The guy AND his work. I'm sure he's not digging this...unless I'm just being played like a cheap violin by Marvel, which is entirely possible. But the anecdotal evidence I'm getting from reader reactions is that the spoilers are making them more excited and look forward to buying the product.

Still checking?

Which isn't to say that justifies anything. Yet I haven't been contacted by anyone at Marvel or anyone involved with the book to ask for the spoilers to be pulled down. The e-mail has always been out there to contact me. I've received nothing.

Nope...nothing here.

On top of that, there's the demonstrated history of Rich Johnston posting spoilers of Marvel product without any cease and desist or any obvious damage to the Marvel/CBR relationship. This would pretty much counter any argument they could try to make legally if they wanted to come after me. In order to have full legal protection of an intellectual property, you have to be consistent in how you defend it. So...you can't get too far coming after a blogger for something that you were so tolerant of previously that you've had your EiC grant multi-part event interviews to a site that has run spoilers for your product in the past (and continues to do so). Rich even posted a bit of script to confirm that he actually read an Astonishing X-Men story in advance. That's right...if Marvel brings the thunder, I'll be using the "Chewbacca Rich Johnston" defense.

Ha...you checked every gap? Check back later for the spoiler.

So...to sum up...I've spit out a meandering mess here. Part about reasoning (to counter an ill-conceived viral marketing program while appearing to cause no harm to the readership) and part about having established history of spoilers on my side, as far as from a purely legal standpoint.

Spoilers: Marvel_b0y Posts? Mr. Anonymous Counters!

Marvel_b0y is good for business, I tells ya!

[02:04] Mr. Anonymous: alright
[02:04] Mr. Anonymous: one more Skrull reveal
[02:04] Mr. Anonymous: Nightcrawler (highlight to reveal)
[02:04] Mr. Anonymous: It'll be dealt with in the Secret Invasion: X-Men mini
[02:05] Mr. Anonymous: that Mike Carey is writing
[02:05] Mr. Anonymous: (I don't think Marvel has said who's doing it yet)
[02:05] Schwapp Online: I'm good to share that, you're saying?
[02:05] Mr. Anonymous: yeah
[02:05] Schwapp Online: cool
[02:06] Mr. Anonymous: According to the story, the X-Men are the only real superhero team on the west coast
[02:07] Mr. Anonymous: So, Cyclops rallies the team to fight the invading Skrulls on their side of the country

Highlight the blank spots for the details.

Still no requests from Marvel to pull any of this stuff, by the way. Make of that what you will. schwapp.online@gmail.com, folks.

*SPOILERS* Updated: The Comment That Toppled Viral "Marvel_b0y"

Many people have come to the conclusion that Marvel_b0y was nothing but a viral marketing campaign. I won't go into a lot of the different ways people have come to this conclusion. Only one is really important:

As soon as any seriously spoil-y spoilers appeared (from an anonymous commenter instead of the blog author), the LiveJournal got deleted.

Right after pledging to be around for a long time. I completely missed the comment that appeared, but CBR poster diana_fan pointed it out to me after the fact.

And what were those comments? According to a friend who saw them before the blog imploded:

• Skrull Hank Pym shoots Reed
• Skrull Captain Marvel blows open Thunderbolts Mountain
• Skrull Jarvis has something that makes all Iron Man shit not work
• Skrull posing as Sue Richards (but not Sue herself) goes into the Baxter Building and sends it in the Negative Zone
• Skrull busts open the Raft and the villains escape including Dr. Doom
• Last page is the Skrull armada landing on Earth

Now, I don't work at Marvel and never have. I'm not in possession of any of Marvel's products. I'm just reporting information culled from what was likely their viral marketing blog that they lost control of. I welcome a cease & desist PDF, but I really don't know what grounds it would stand on. But if anyone officially contacts me regarding it, I'll pull it down. That will stand to confirm that the whole Marvel_b0y thing was a stupid viral marketing campaign, of course.

Update: I hear that Marvel is going out of their mind to take down spoilers revealed in the last comment before deletion of the Marvel_b0y LJ, but I haven't heard so much as a boo from them. I stand by my word: anyone official asks me to pull it down and away it will go.