Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio. This week, Bennett looks at Marvel's recently announced anti-bullying variant covers.
Two weeks after writing about various anti-bullying comics (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Back at the Bully Pulpit") Marvel announced they would be doing a series of variant covers in support of the Stomp on Bullying campaign as well as to commemorate National Bullying Prevention Month. According to the official Marvel press release, 'Stomp on Bullying' is "…the leading national bullying and cyberbullying prevention organization for kids and teens in the U.S." Which was news to me, but then, in spite of my interest in the subject I had no idea there even was a "National Bullying Prevention Month." And though I'm sure they do good work, if you ask me (and nobody has), "stomp" seems like kind of a violent verb to be part of the name of an anti-violence organization. But as previously established, I'm no expert.
It certainly would appear that a full adventure featuring an appropriate Marvel superhero could get the anti-bullying message across with more force and impact than a bunch of variant covers, but it should be noted that at least Marvel is doing something on the anti-bullying front.
This is kind of like when The Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert showed up on Late Night with Seth Meyers last Tuesday to plug, among other things, the upcoming variant cover of Captain America showing him dressed as The Falcon. It's by definition good for the brand, but needs to be seen for exactly what it is, yet another set of variant covers, only slightly more significant than the Deadpool photobomb variants or the Marvel 75th Anniversary recreations of classic covers using Hasbro Marvel Legends figures. Or DC's "3-D" or LEGO variant covers for that matter.
They're "collector's items," existing only to generate short-term income for the publishers and, of course, us. I won't deny these sorts of things do exactly that for a lot of cash-strapped retailers, but having been in this business for as long as I have it's hard not to also see them as harbingers of our current boom about to go bust. As well as just being distractions, carts put before horses. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm crazy, but I seem to recall a time when it wasn't about building brands or franchises but telling stories.
So while I agree with the unnamed author of that ICv2 piece that an actual adventure with an anti-bullying message would be more effective, I won't be holding my breath we'll be getting one anytime soon. Because they just don't tell single stories anymore; those in charge are absolutely convinced they're guaranteed "jump off points" for readers. And because "kids don’t read comics anymore" (or so they say, the same way they said "girls don't read comics"), so the message wouldn't have much chance of reaching its intended audience, and would bore the audience reading the comics. So instead of the anti-bullying message getting slipped into an issue of a regular series the best we could hope for would be some kind of public service comic, something that’s usually more education than entertainment.
Which is a shame because me, I'd love to read an issue of Guardians of the Galaxy that tells the story behind that variant cover, something that's kind of a cross between The Iron Giant and The Circus of Dr. Lao. While on a brief stopover on Earth, Groot wanders off to revisit one of the areas he used to terrorize back when he was the Tyrant of Planet X in the early 60's. Rocket has to go get him and together they reluctantly befriend a lonely boy and help him find some self-esteem. But that, of course, would be "silly."
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
