Disgruntled Marvel assistant or viral plant? U decide:

Oh, and as usual, Bendis continues to write bad fiction. Last night he claimed 10 people knew who I was already at Marvel. Well, no one came to escort me out and my key card works just fine. I’m not an idiot. I play the good soldier at work, smiles and GO TEAM attitude. But here I can say whatever I want and I will, until the day they catch me (which, the way things look here, will be a LOOOOOONG time if ever). It’s easy to cover tracks, anyone with half a brain and an internet connection can do this without anyone really getting to them. It’s so simple it’s almost pathetic! Don’t post at work and they can’t track you. I dumped my old LJ account with more personal, identifiable posts to start this new one. (I DID keep my favorite posts from the past because there are those of you out there who DO like me, and things you should know about me!) I’m not stupid enough to get caught. They never caught “Felicia” and they won’t catch me.


Kevin Melrose fills you in on the background.

UPDATE: Tom had an interesting comment which sums up my feelings entirely;

Now that Marvel and DC so greatly emphasize their books as vehicles for plot permutations — as opposed to peak experiences, say, or places to find this month’s great art — this heightens the value of that information as a kind of cultural currency, to the point where a once-novel pleasure, which probably had its greatest expression in the old Amazing Heroes Preview Specials, has become the unquestioned prize in a battle between fans and pros over what should be revealed and how. In other words, if the main selling point of your comic is a new and bold direction for Mucous Man, then anything surrendering for public consumption the details of that direction may work against sales. In contrast, if your emphasis is “another stellar effort from Claremont/Byrne” or “the latest babe drawings from Michael Turner,” plot reveals won’t devalue that experience as much.


But that ship sailed off to some summer place long ago.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Just because I know how One Hundred Years of Solitude ends doesn’t stop me from reading it every year.

    While I can appreciate a certain business mindedness of the whole thing, the idea of there being spoilers and some other kind of what-have you in comics, or any kind of literature, isn’t really an issue. Literature, in which I include comics, will always carry an inherent skewing towards quality, and comics get the added book of being an established collectible. Spoilers of a big reveal done well mean more people will buy the book. Iits a comic book, the bread and butter of ravenous collecting, and the big, well executed moments will always be desired.

    People want the item, the prize, not just to know what happens next, but because dammit to hell we need to have the best collections (and my graphic novel and trade collection is so much better than yours it is not even funny)!

    So if the story is good, and the art is good, then the spoiler is only going to help.

    And if it sucks, well then people are going to read it in the comic shop anyway, see that it sucks, and put it back, so they might as well be doing that online.

  2. I’m inclined to agree that this is a plant of some kind and the element that pushed me over was Fraction’s outraged response.

    “Felicia cost people jobs?” How, by repeating what everyone in the industry was talking about at every bar in the city? I don’t think pissing in everyone’s wheaties is nice or right, but there are various levels of confidentiality. Anything that’s bar gossip is not confidential.

  4. According to the newest post on his LJ, marvel_b0y is Steve Wacker. I don’t know if that’s meant in jest, but if not, and this isn’t a Marvel viral stunt, I’ll be curious how this shakes out.

  5. The comments about editors treating spoilers as TOP SECRET, then going to a convention panel and spilling their guts, seem well-timed. Did the authors of ’52’ know Didio was spilling their ending in his editorial from a month or two earlier? Probably not.

    Editors are fine with spoilers. As long as they’re the ones getting the attention.

  6. Makes for interesting reading, regardless of whether it’s real or not. Personally, I love the word “hoax.” Such a pretty word. Say it 3 times fast.
    At least people care about spoilers for certain events- there are some comics spoiling the ending would be met with a resounding “eh”

  7. What spoilers has this guy really posted? Minor stuff. If he was really out there to tell all he’d reveal major plot elements from SECRET INVASION as I understand the first 4 issues have already been written and turned in, but nothing from that of any consequence has leaked yet.

  9. I agree with Tom – I haven’t picked up a mainstream book in years with the notable exception of Jeff Parker’s all ages books, and it’s precisely BECAUSE the plot shifts are the only thing anyone seems to be selling these days. I couldn’t care less about whether or not Hawkeye dies – he’ll come back in a few years. I don’t care if Aquaman has mucular dystrophy. I don’t care about ANY of these things – what I care about is a well-crafted story with good art – either one’s missing, I don’t buy it.

    I expect that Marvel knows what they’re doing, focusing all their efforts on the next big crossover storyline – presumably if their sales figures were suffering enough they’d start trying to make good comics again. This being the case, this blog IS likely damaging to their sales, or potential sales, since shifts are what they’re selling.

  10. Yeah, Fraction’s rant made me think this is a bit of flummery from Marvel.

    How many people have gone begging in the streets because of Rich Johnston?

    JMS tipped off the ending to One More Day before it happened, how many people lost jobs over that?

    Marvel likes taking the piss. Maybe it moves books for them.

    Frankly, I’d just rather have good stories and wonderful art.

  12. ON the question of spoilers: am I just weird in that I almost never care? I’m along for the ride… if I kind of know where the ride is going to end up I don’t really care. I like how it feels.

    I can’t tell you how many movies I’ve watched in which my friends had spoiled the ending in advance… I never cared. That wasn’t the point.

    Oh well… I’m a weirdo. It does lead me to annoy people by accidentally telling them too much. On the other hand, I can’t help but think we’re just sort of taught along the way that spoiling the ending sucks and no one really stops to evaluate whether that is really true or not.

Comments are closed.