146 More Dumb Shit That Stupid People Say

Special Tuesday post!

This week it was announced that the family of the late, great Jack Kirby is suing Marvel/Disney in order to regain the copyright on the artist’s creations. Reportedly (since there’s no way I’m reading this thing right here), they’re also looking for a little bit of that ch-ching in the form of profit-sharing on stuff like Fantastic Four, Avengers, and Iron Man. “Was it work for hire or wasn’t it?” seems to be the question of the day, and while you may be tempted to side with the estate’s fight for what they feel is owed to their deceased relative, you may want to reconsider after reading some of the expert analysis in the Robot 6 comments section.

“Tony Jazz”:

I respectfully disagree. Kirby did the work as an employee, and if his work makes money, good for everyone. His continued employment depended on it, and he was reasonably paid. Just like my job, I’m due no more, no matter how successfully my ideas are implemented.

Yup. Just like your job. (More after the cut.)

145 Dumb Shit That Stupid People Say

Ian Sattler talking about Cry For Justice at the Emerald City Comic Con:

“I’m proud of the story and stand by it. I’m happy it upset people because it means that the story had some weight and emotion.”

Oh those shoes are just ADORABLE.

On a related note: this recession has hit us pretty hard, but at least it’s got people talking about the economy I mean am I right?

104 Plus If I Recall Correctly I Was A Dynamite Lover

Last night’s drunken thoughts on the Disney/Marvel thing, typed into my iPhone at around 1 AM, after a bottle of wine. At the time I imagined these words to be really insightful. You be the judge.

1. THIS IS LIKE THE UN-BIGGEST DEAL EVER
Oh come on, does anyone actually believe Miley Cyrus is going to be the newest Young Avenger, or that the Jonas Brothers and the Summers Brothers are going to square off at high noon? No, I suspect this isn’t the case. In fact this whole “EVERYBODY CALM THE FUCK DOWN WE’LL BE OK” movement is sort of one giant straw man argument, in that these people spouting off rationale with rolled eyes are working themselves up over a contingent of fans that exists in very small numbers, if at all. I personally haven’t seen any fanboys complain about this, sans some Newsarama posters, and those people are the least common denominator anyway*. We’re presupposing outrage that isn’t even really there.

2. IF WOLVERINE IS IN THE NEXT KINGDOM HEARTS GAME THAT WOULD BE KIND OF FUCKING AWESOME, ACTUALLY
The flip side of my argument– that Disney might intermingle with Marvel a little bit– maybe it wouldn’t be so shitty. As the Fantastic Fangirls pointed out Maleficent is all set to be part of Norman Osbourn’s cabal right now. And who knows; maybe a Disney/Marvel video game akin to that Lego Star Wars game? People loved that. Hell, I loved that**. The point here, though, is that Disney or no Disney, we’re dealing with PRODUCT. If you’re the kind of person that says “THEY RAPED MY CHILDHOOD” just stop reading and play with your Thundercats because that attitude deserves a smack.

3. ALL OF THE MARVEL MOVIES ARE SHITTY, WHILE EVEN THAT HOCKEY MOVIE MIRACLE WAS FUN TO WATCH
Yeah, Iron Man was the greatest comic book movie ever (fuck that Heath Ledger ass Dark Knight), but they’ve got nothing else going for them. If I’m being fanboy, I’ll give ‘em the X-Men franchise*** because c’mon man mutants but even I can’t support X-Men Origins: Wolverine Is A Pussy The Whole Movie: The Movie. Spider-Man? It sucked. Boring as shit. Say what you will about X-Men 3; at least you got Logan being a fucking MADMAN in the woods, and a cool scene with Madrox being a dick. What did I get in Spider-Man? Bullshit, and Kirsten Dunst. Yeah, no thanks. I can’t get behind a movie where it’s conceivable that I’d turn down the lead actress (one strike against the Dark Knight.) Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar has brought us The Incredibles, the best superhero movie not (explicitly) based on a comic. Fantastic Four reboot, let’s go.

4. NO I MEAN SERIOUSLY IT ISN’T A BIG DEAL
Seriously.

*And the embarrassing admission of the day: I’ve actually written on those message boards. A pretty fair amount, too. I even weighed in on a Tigra discussion one time. Hey, I never said I wasn’t part of the least common denominator.

**Embarrassing admission numero dos.

***Aaaaaand the trifecta! Attaboy!

103 Disney-Marvel Solicitations

As many of you have obviously heard Disney announced its acquisition of Marvel Comics this morning. It’s a huge move; possibly the biggest comics story in years! The ramifications of a deal like this could be long-reaching, from licensing to films, and beyond. In fact, Marvel has already churned out their solicitations for upcoming comics. Revamped: Disney style! I don’t know how fanboys will react to this stuff, but I for one think it’s absolutely– ABSOLUTELY!– a step in the right direction.

063.1 Happy Birthday Wishes To Such A Big Boy

So my best buddy and local business owner Peter Abbruscato has a birthday today. He has wanted desperately to be mentioned in one of my blog posts, so Peter, consider this my way of saying Happy Birthday. Also consider it my way of saying I didn’t buy you a real gift.

007 PRESIDENT ELECT SAVED BY SUPERHERO!

For those of you who don’t know, you heard it here first: Barack Obama is the President elect. No, no, silly! Not just on THIS Earth; also on Earth-616!

Marvel has this habit of mirroring the real world. For example: Did you know Richard Nixon was a terrorist? And although this was sort of copied from Savage Dragon, this morning USA Today has announced that Barack Obama will appear in the latest issue of Spider-Man. The plot of the story is that the Chameleon takes the form of Obama, because I guess he’s trying to discredit or embarrass him. And his big plan is to… I dunno, say racist shit? Kick Joe Biden in the balls? I honestly didn’t pay much attention to the plot. I skimmed the article, and generally this sort of thing kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth, because it always seems so forced and gimmicky. But this time I had a completely different issue with the whole ordeal:

BARACK OBAMA IS A TERRORIST IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE, TOO!!!

Just look at that terrorist fist jab in action! And Spidey! How could you?! You helped save NY on 9/11! Was it all a ploy to lull us into a false sense of comfort? With great power comes great responsibility, indeed.

Noticing this, I decided to look — and I mean, take a good hard look — into some of the other, less obvious ways Obama has tried to hint at his comic-book related terrorism. Hey I don’t shy away from controversy. I’m here to break the real hard-hitting stories, you know? But honestly, looking at these images, how could we have all missed it?

On the campaign trail with Lex Luthor!

Promoting Magneto’s anti-human agenda!

Catching some R n’ R on the beaches of Latveria with Victor Von Doom!

Just pallin‘ around with MODOK!

Was my family right all along?! Is Barack Obama plotting to smash the state and overthrow the leaders of the free world from the place we’d least expect it– the comic shops?? All I know is we probably shouldn’t have elected him anyway. I mean, his middle name is Hussein and his last name rhymes with Osama. Duh, people.

(Big thanks to my good friend and collaborator Matt Occhuizzo for wasting his time creating these images for me. This stuff totally doesn’t do his work justice, so please go here and check out how good he really is.)