Seiko here again. I cannot believe I have do to another serious session, but alas, I can't ignore what's out there. Now an article recently came to my attention, dealing with Marvel Comics, with their live-action film The Avengers a few months away, and boy, am I excited for it. However, you can't please everyone, and some who grew up on comics may not think of such features in a positive way which I expect. But boycotting and entitlements... I just don't know where to begin.
First off, here's the link to the article in question if you feel like reading:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/02/the_avengers_why_i_m_boycotting_marvel_s_movie.html
Long story short, the author goes into the origins of Marvel Comics, as well as to why he intends to boycott The Avengers when it releases in theaters in May. Majority of his argument deals with Jack Kirby, who worked alongside Marvel familiar Stan Lee. Now to my understanding, he did artwork for Marvel, not getting much back out of it, and not retaining the copyrights from it. To further his argument, he went in on Marvel, remarking the many things that happened to Kirby, the royalties denied when films were made (as well as others this has happened to by Marvel), the lawsuits that occurred, and the general hypocrisy between the superhereoes' "fighting for what's right" script, and the company behind it going the other route.
As usual, as a realist, I won't deny that it is pretty cold of them to do, but the question that boggles me is: "While it may not be right, why should we, as consumers, care?" We are whining about the unfairness of how Kirby was untreated and left in the dust, but at the same time, it's a good portion of us buying their comics, the merchandise, the movies... that said, aren't we kinda hypocritical ourselves? And the sad truth is, it's not just with Marvel that this is happening. A while back, before this even surfaced, Capcom was under fire. Not to crossover into the gaming realm again, but I feel it's a fine time I talked about this seriously. I'm sure some of you know where I'm going with this. The reason's leading up to this differed, but the outcome is more or less similar.
Branching off topic for a minute, Capcom had a rough ride of their own, after Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man, stepped down after his 23 year road of reaching the top (he left to "start his life over", creating start up company Comcept.) Since then, Capcom has took a tumble, starting with the cancellations of both Mega Man Universe and the 3rd MegaMan Legends title, something that was highly anticipated. The cancellation of those two had fans pretty annoyed already, since the last game that was released at all pertaining to the character was the downloadable Mega Man 10. I'm guessing that for the die-hard fans, as well as those fed up with "incomplete fighters" (ala Street Fighter IV and its many expansions), these were the nails in the coffin. For the Mega-fanbase, it was the inclusion of Bad Box Art Mega Man (for those who don't know, check around the net for not only the Mega Man box art for the 1st game, but the character itself in Street Fighter X Tekken) as a Sony-exclusive character. I admit, I was a little upset by that, but more so of the fact that thanks to Microsoft, Xbox 360's version was denied DLC exclusives of their own. Another issue happened on the other side, as Street Fighter X Tekken was "incomplete", since there were on-disc DLC leaked with characters Capcom intends to charge for their official inclusion in game. Even before this, people panned to boycott the company for not appeasing to their fans. Sega suffered the same treatment for a while with the Sonic the Hedgehog games, and BioWare is narrowly avoiding such by redoing the ending to Mass Effect 3, which was made by them and EA (Electronic Arts.)
But those are stories for another day. Getting back to the topic at hand, I'll be a little general first of all, and say that in regards to the artists, they do their work well, but if they freelance for companies like Marvel, this is kind of expected to happen, not to sound condescending. For one thing, they didn't have a copyright to themselves per say. They did the artwork and willfully handed them to Marvel to publish them. It's not as if they had the idea prior to even working there, just to merely submit for Marvel to make a killing of money. All that was done under a salary, a paycheck, if you will. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby didn't own the business, nor did they make them what it is today, and this is something I'll get into a bit later, because too many people are guilty of saying such a profound statement. Kirby and Lee were nothing more than hands hired for work, not sole owners. As such, they did not have intellectual rights over their pieces in the long run. That's like saying that if one worked on the code of a game/program of sorts, by default it's the coder's product. Poor misconception on their part. Perhaps it could be true for an independent coder, but under someone's name, such as Microsoft, things just don't swing that way. If it had, it would be John Doe's Windows 7 instead of Microsoft Windows 7 (yeah, poor comparison, I know.) Besides, had the artist of Archie Comics done that in regards to Sonic the Hedgehog, he would be shot down anyway, since it wasn't even his to start with! Sure, they are greats, but to make a fruitless conflict about it helps no one, especially if you're still intent on buying/looking/etc. with their products.
One last thing. It REALLY annoys me when they say "Without [Insert Name Here], [Insert Company] would be nothing." To that, and pardon my speech, I give a nice cold glass of "Shut up and F**k you!!" One man contributes to a company's success, sure, but that doesn't equal to the fate of the company being on that said man's shoulders, especially if he isn't the big cheese! To idolize someone and recognize him for his greatness is one thing, but it's kind of overzealous as to say that Marvel would have failed if Jack Kirby hadn't stepped in. Who died and said that Kirby was their knight in shining armor? Had it been any other artist, they could have helped Marvel rise or fall. It's like saying Kirby steered this company into great heights, which is simply not true. He drew, edited, and helped them out, it just happened to make a killer income, nothing more! He won no gold medal for saving a company, mainly because he didn't! Such talk is arrogance, even more so if it's a consumer saying such.
This rant is going on forever, so it's time to bring some closure to this before I really get so riled up about it. While it is a shame he didn't get the proper respect, it's not enough to warrant a boycott. But this could be applied to all of the situations I brought up, generally. Second, he did try to capitalize off of his own works, and fell short. Not to mention that he was working under their penny, so while he may have done the artwork, he can't claim intellectual property of them since he was working for Marvel at the time. Still, for so many to get all bent out of shape for what he has been put through, I have nothing against supporting who you love, but this won't halt the release of the Avengers, or any other Marvel works. Rather, it just makes you look like a self-righteous asshole, so quit it. The many issues out there that need fixing right now, and you're getting your tampons in a knot over something that occurred 50+ years ago? Back then, it would mean something to me, but now, it's just an annoyance.
And another side note: what is up with these "We are entitled to this, so the company should just kiss out ass and give us what we want!" complaints? You're only giving them money, you are nothing but a mere consumer, who the hell are you to demand anything!? The way I see it, nobody buying these products dropped a line to tell them what they want, you constantly give money away to support whatever they work on, yet when you find something amiss, you feel to bitch about it. Such ARROGANCE!! They are the one wasting their lives doing whatever they love to do in order to please you, so that said, be grateful. Honestly, you're lucky they even bother to make anything for you at all to play, read, eat, whatever. And you have the nerve to complain... come back when your whiles actually mean anything, then we'll talk!
Again, I apologize if I came off too strong, but that's just how I feel about these kind of things. Hopefully, there won't be another article for a LONG while, so I can try to make more upbeat posts. I'm sure I'll see some backlash from it, but try to be constructive when voicing them so this doesn't turn into a comment spamfest. After all, every opinion will be valued instead of... you know. Anyway, I'm going to find a nice anime to watch to get my mind off of this. Seiko, signing off.
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