Go ahead, check it out, then come back. But if you're the impatient type, I'll just give you the main quote:
David Gabriel, Senior Vice President of Sales at Marvel said, “As a result of the Fantastic Four sales and media coverage, Marvel is going to kill a main character every quarter.” He then made sure to say, “This is not a joke.”The article goes on to mention other media-hype "events" such as the death of Captain America, the death of Johnny Storm, and the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate universe.
Once upon a time, this "leak" might have raised my blood pressure. That's certainly the reaction Marvel would like to get. It creates buzz. The fanboys scream, the mainstream media takes note, and sales rise temporarily as the curious and the collectors turn out.
The problem is, the whole "kill off a main character" schtick has been done to... death. It's nearly impossible to care anymore. Everytime a comic book publisher pulls this stunt, it makes it harder to make a splash the next time. Especially when they're meaningless deaths.
"We really killed him/her off," they promise. And sooner or later, when the buzz wears off, they create another media event and bring 'em back.
Frankly, who cares? It's just comics. But it does cause me to wonder about the social impact of turning death into entertainment. The real tragedy is not the death of a fictional character, but the death of our sensitivity to mortality.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment