According to , Paul R. La Monica, Marvel’s shareholdings for this past year were not as good as they could’ve been, and it seems as though, in order to survive, they’ve got to do it not by making better comics, but by making movie deals. As told here:

In November, Marvel shocked Wall Street with sales and earnings guidance for 2006 that was substantially below consensus estimates.

Shares of () plunged 22 percent on the news. If Comic Book Guy from “The Simpsons” were a shareholder of the company, he would undoubtedly declare that it was the Worst…Earnings Announcement…Ever.

Now this may actually be more in relation to their moviemaking deals than their own comics-producing department. But even so, if only the writer knew, that a possible reason for this failure could very well be due to the editorial board’s incredible contempt towards the readership. Not the only reason, I’m sure, and those movie versions of the Punisher and even the Hulk were crummy indeed, but even so, as someone with an understanding of what writing goes on in the comics industry itself, I’m really disappointed in Joe Quesada for his own contributions to the damage at a company whose creations I so love.

And of course there are readers who do realize when the time comes that they should avoid what bad stuff Marvel puts out. But that’s still a shame, that Marvel should be doing whatever possible to alienate them, and not make really serious efforts to bring in respectable writers whose selection isn’t based on whether they’re “hot” or not. The same, now that I think of it, also goes for DC.

I hope this’ll prove to be a positive step forward in the war on terror in the comics world. (Hat tip: ) reports that Frank Miller is going to write a story in which Batman boldly faces off against the al Qaeda:

During his panel, Frank Miller discussed his next graphic novel. Once again, Miller returns to the world of the Batman, this time with Holy Terror, Batman!. Though the title plays with Robin’s classic catchphrase, the book deals with a serious subject. Gotham has been attacked by Al Qaeda and Batman sets out to defend the city he loves. The book, which Miller has inked through 120 pages, is expected to run roughly 200 pages total.

Miller proudly announced the title of his next Batman book, which he will write, draw and ink. Holy Terror, Batman! is no joke. And Miller doesn’t hold back on the true purpose of the book, calling it “a piece of prop[a]ganda,” where ‘Batman kicks al Qaeda’s ass.”

The reason for this work, Miller said, was “an explosion from my gut reaction of what’s happening now.” He can’t stand entertainers who lack the moxy of their ’40s counterparts who stood up to Hitler. Holy Terror is “a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we’re up against.”

It’s been a long time since heroes were used in comics as pure propaganda. As Miller reminded, “Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That’s one of the things they’re there for.”

“These are our folk heroes,” Miller said. “It just seems silly to chase around the Riddler when you’ve got Al Qaeda out there.”

True. I should hope that Miller and DC themselves are going to back this project all the way without fear, and deal with it meat-and-potatoes style too, because if the war against terrorism is to be won, it’s got to be dealt with in depth.

I’ve had some misgivings on a few items Miller’s done in the past, such as the abortive Dark Knight Strikes Again from 2002, but this could be a real redeemer if you ask me. I look forward to it indeed.

Bravo!

The mega-slanted Captain Comics for his Comics Buyer’s Guide column. Like his Scripps-Howard newsaper column, this too is fairly sensationalized, but I’ll just be commenting on the third and last in the line here, that being on resurrections in comics. He says:

I don’t really have to explain this one do I? After all, most comics fans no longer believe any character is dead any more. Even if we see a body.

Well in my case, I don’t want them do be dead. If I did, then they wouldn’t be my favorites, now would they? Yeesh.

Actually, as silly as it’s become, I can live with the repeated resurrection of Jean Grey – after all, “phoenix” is in her name. Ditto Donna Troy and Hawkman, whose origins (well, some of them) posit that they are always reincarnated. But Green Arrow is a quite ordinary fellow, who was blown to tiny bits, and replaced by a successor — but he’s back. Most of the Green Lanterns and the Guardians were quite thoroughly dead, and now several are back. Supergirl? Back. Cluemaster? Back. Colossus? Back. Jason Todd? Back. Psylocke? Back. Magneto? He came back twice in one year. Metamorpho? I’ve lost count. Blue Beetle was shot in the head, on panel, with a corpse for all to see, launching a year-long storyline, which is as final as death can be in comics – and Blue Beetle is on DC’s schedule for early 2006.

When death is meaningless, there is no drama. Death ought to be stunning, ought to be heart-wrenching, ought to be final. But in comics, due to literal overkill, nobody believes it for a second. When J’onn J’onzz was “killed” in a recent JLA, it was met with shrugs on my message board, and some mild curiosity about how he’d return.

In fact we might as well start a pool for his eventual resurrection. We could expand it for Barry Allen, Gwen Stacy, Queen Hippolyta, Uncle Ben, and Thomas and Martha Wayne. Heck, toss in the entire planet Krypton.

Hmm, maybe, just maaaayyyy-be. But in any case, what I find disappointing about this unsurprisingly gloss-covered argument here is that it fairly ignores a most aggravating thing about a lot of these recent “deaths”. That they were done for little more than shock’s sake, that they’re, well, just what he said - overkill, and that most importantly of all, that storywise, they were poorly intended to begin with. And that most importantly of all, is anyone really asking for deaths of specific characters? Not I, and by now, as I’ve concluded, heaven forfend that I should. Because, as I’ve since come to realize, it’s not fun, and in fact, it’s downright insulting.

And when seeing how he even brings up Supergirl in his column, my reaction to that is: holy smokes, what’s wrong with that?!? Now there’s something where it’d seem as though he’s not paying attention, that being that the reason Kara Zor-El is back is because more than a modicum of fans WANTED her back! Despite that, IIRC, he did not devote any space to Kara Zor-El in his newspaper column during 2004. On the contrary, he did devote space in at least two columns to the worthless Identity Crisis. Yuck.

And of course, I have to take issue with where he says that death should be “stunning”. Excuse me? Death is not a laughing matter, buddy boy. Nor for that matter is rape. And if it’s done in sensationalized publicity-stunt terms, as was the case with, well, just about any comic where death of a beloved character was featured, where the true purpose is to generate unnecassary controversy, the most glaring example being the desecration of Sue Dibny in Identity Crisis, then it certainly isn’t heart-wrenching in the way Capt. Comics presumably means. Nope, quite the opposite, in fact, it makes you feel sorry for the characters when seeing how they’re being abused by the owners for the sake of said publicity stunts.

And note that for now, it appears that Ted Kord is going to have some replacement coming in to fill his goggles as the Blue Beetle in a new series, which I’m not sure I’ll want to buy if I suspect that it’s just as intended for publicity stunt tactics as Countdown to Infinite Crisis was. So Capt. Comics’s presumed assumption that Ted will survive, for now anyway, seems a little off the mark.

But most importantly of all, it’s that his whole [superficial] argument on deaths is as tired as the deaths themselves. (And rape now seems to be intended as the fate worse than̷ Enough already! We don’t need it! So with all due respect, kindly take your whole tired argument and stuff it.

There. I feel so much better now.