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View Full Version : Cross-Marketing Crapola!


PastePotPete
06-02-2006, 07:39 AM
I picked up Action Comis 839 yesterday, part 6 of a story I've been enjoying "Up, Up, and Away" by Mr. Busiek and Mr. Johns.

Anyone else who picked up this issue notice that the 'S' on Superman's chest is now raised? Uhhh, wassa word? Embossed? It's bas relief. 3-D.
When did Superman make this change to his costume? Sometime between the last issue of Superman and this issue of Action comics, apparently.

I understand that different artists draw characters differently, but this is a change to the costume. Superman got a new costume in the middle of a fight with Hellgramite, Silver Banshee, Riot, Livewire and that gun guy?

That's not what really bothers me though. It's that this is obviously an attempt to tie in Superman's look in the comic with how he looks in the movie. This is REALLY unnecessary! He's big! He's Blue! He has a red 'S.' Nobody who sees the movie is going to pick up the comic and go "Hey, why isn't the symbol on his chest raised like in the movie? This isn't the real Superman! I'm not buying this!"

Okay, it's a minor cosmetic change. Unnecessary, but I could live with it. But my anger really kicked in when Lex Luthor's plan was finally revealed. After five issues of a really great Superman story we find that Lex Luthor in the comic is doing EXACTLY THE SAME THING as Lex Luthor in the movie. He's growing Kryptonian crystals to re-create Metropolis. Or destroy it. Anyway, if you watch the Superman trailer carefully, you can see that a major part of the plot hinges on Luthor growing Krytonian crystals, and that's what Luthor is doing in the comic.

At another point in the comic, Perry White gives a speech almost identical to the one he gives in the trailer for Superman Returns.

This annoys me. A lot. I know I'm maybe overreacting, but I hate stuff like this. Why does the comic always have to jive with a movie that comes out? Do people who see the movie really come to the comic expecting it to be EXACTLY like the movie? Who would want the same story twice? Cross-marketing in this way is complete hogwash! It doesn't work! It's some idiotic marketing guy businessman piece-of-crap saying "Here's what we need to do..." But he's wrong!

Yes, people buy more Superman comics when a Superman movie comes out. Sure. No, they don't expect Superman comics to be EXACTLY like the movie. They don't. You don't want to have an energy-powers Superman when a Superman movie comes out, but you certainly don't need to emboss the symbol on his suit and lamely replicate the plot of the movie. Hogwash!

Yoda
06-02-2006, 07:55 AM
The emblem was embosed when Lois pulled it out for him in the previous issue too. It's not that big a deal. And i think it's more important to have the comics track the movies somewhat, so the people who do come in to a comic shop have something recognizable. I really get surprised when people complain about things like the S on the belt buckle and the embosed symbol. Do they ever stop to actually listen what they are talking about?

The Batman
06-02-2006, 08:03 AM
yup. i figured DC was doing something like when i read the solicits for this storyline however the Superman Returns connections were just blatant in this issue.

PastePotPete
06-02-2006, 08:21 AM
I just feel like the story is compromised in a completely unnecessary way.

Like I said, anyone who sees the movie is not expecting the Superman suit to be exactly the same when they read the comic. As long as it's blue with a red and yellow letter 'S', they're not going to be confused.

And by all means, do a Lex Luthor storyline at the same time the movie comes out, but does he have to be doing the EXACT same thing he's doing in the movie? It's tiresome. It's marketing dictating how the story is told.

van-zee
06-02-2006, 08:41 AM
I just feel like the story is compromised in a completely unnecessary way.

Like I said, anyone who sees the movie is not expecting the Superman suit to be exactly the same when they read the comic. As long as it's blue with a red and yellow letter 'S', they're not going to be confused.

And by all means, do a Lex Luthor storyline at the same time the movie comes out, but does he have to be doing the EXACT same thing he's doing in the movie? It's tiresome. It's marketing dictating how the story is told.

Dude, marketing always dictates how the story is told. Death of Superman, Electric Superman, Lois & Clark's marriage, all marketing decisions.

The writers of these books work on assignment. They should do the best possible job on each assignment. If that assignment happens to be a story that's a bit like a movie (that will leave all of us cheering like schoolboys, I'm sure) and they do a bang-up job with it (which they have) what's to complain about?

Eliseu Gouveia
06-02-2006, 09:23 AM
Comic Superman needs a brown cape too.

Michael P
06-02-2006, 09:31 AM
I just feel like the story is compromised in a completely unnecessary way.

How? It's just a damn embossed letter.

The Batman
06-02-2006, 10:37 AM
well the Perry speech, Superman floating in the orange sky listening to the world, even the bit with the bullets bouncing off him all felt like bits lifted from the trailer. still i'd rather this sort of tie to the movie than Lois having a kid OYL . . .

btw, OYL are Superman's powers increasing, possibly to movie levels, or is this just him rediscovering them?

Justin D.
06-02-2006, 10:41 AM
How? It's just a damn embossed letter.
It changes everything about the story! The letter …. looks different!

Ok, without the smartass remarks, I guess it might take someone out of the story when a dictated change like that is as obvious as it is. I noticed it too, but didn’t think it was so distracting that it ruined the story for me. Although, I did look to see if his speedo was altered to look like the movie version’s. I don’t mind the raised look of the emblem, but I wouldn’t mind if it didn’t look as raised as it does. Seems to stick out a bit too far. That’s one of the very few complaints I can make about Pete Woods’ art on this issue though.

phantom1592
06-02-2006, 10:52 AM
When Lois pulled it out of the closet, it reminded me of the way it was drawn in Lex Luthor: man of steel. It looked like a shiny hood ornament there too.And that was LONG before the movie was set up. They also made refrence to that suit/style in the E-1 and E-2 Superman crossover deal.

Personally I hate them both. Superman should NOT have any kind of costume that Clark can't hide under a simple shirt. No Hood ornaments.

Apathy Boy
06-04-2006, 12:00 PM
Dude, marketing always dictates how the story is told. Death of Superman, Electric Superman, Lois & Clark's marriage, all marketing decisions.

The writers of these books work on assignment. They should do the best possible job on each assignment. If that assignment happens to be a story that's a bit like a movie (that will leave all of us cheering like schoolboys, I'm sure) and they do a bang-up job with it (which they have) what's to complain about?Exactly. Fans never seem to understand that mainstream comics are a commercial medium. A writer's job is to sell comics and to make his or her employer money. Good stories are part of that equation, but so is finding ways of making the book easy to market.

Kilgore Trout
06-04-2006, 01:49 PM
The thing is that BOTH Busiek and Woods deny ANY tie in to the movie and insist that any similarity is nothing more than a happy accident...

Busiek has said over and over that his work and the 'return' of the 'new' post-post crisis Superman have NOTHING to do with the Return of Superman movie OR the timing of the movie/comic book release and its all just some kinda giant cosmic coincidence...

Ed Woods claims to have copied the raised \S/ from Lee Bermejo and his work on Lex Luthor: Man of Steel and NOT the movie’s version...

Wait a few months till Lois shows up with a kid in the comics and watch them claim it had been in the plans for years... :rolleyes:

Why they are running so hard away from the movie is beyond me...

PastePotPete
06-05-2006, 08:44 AM
The 'S' didn't ruin it for me. Slightly annoying, but no big deal. It was that the rest of the story followed suit, everything tied into the movie.

My issue is not that it ruins the story, or even that it takes me out of the story necessarily... My issue is that these creators are being given dictates and demands based on a marketing strategy that does not work. This type of cross-marketing does not sell Superman books, but it does change the writer and artist's creative process.

I think making the comic jive with the movie should be done to a certain extent in order to welcome new readership, but it shouldn't be done in such a way that the comic apes the movie needlessly.

*After seeing the movie, a potential new reader does NOT expect, nor want, to read the same plot in the comic book that he has just seen in the film. In my opinion, this would more likely cause a reader to put DOWN a comic, thinking it was retreading material he has already seen.

*After seeing the movie, a potential new reader does NOT expect to see a visual style that mimics the movie. As long as the basics remain the same (blue suit, red cape, letter 'S' on the chest), a new reader is not going to be turned off. Changing the costume to match the one in the movie is a needless change. Letting an artist find his own creative take on a costume, within the parameters of its basic look, is a much better way to insure dynamic visuals.

Do you agree or disagree with this? Who can argue that the marketing strategy they are employing is necessary for DC to sell books?