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 asks why the Spidey musical doesn’t have a comic, why more publishers don’t do high profile previews, and the limits of superheroes.

Although it's already had seventy performances the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark kept moving back its official opening night (it's now scheduled for March 15) and apparently theater critics decided not to wait any longer and the reviews, almost all negative, have started popping up online.  While I was reading the one from the New York Times the other day something occurred to me; where's the comic book adaptation?  It sure seems Marvel is missing out on a sure bet souvenir to sell to all those people who are flocking to see the show in hopes the day they're there that there'll be another set malfunction or even an injury.  Plus the curiosity factor alone should make some kind of combination theater program/comic sell pretty well in the direct sales market.

Last week I was complaining how in spite of decades reading superhero comics I hadn't the faintest idea where the series Brightest Day was going, let alone how it was going to end.  But what I didn't mention was it wasn't just me -- none of the characters actually in  Brightest Day had any idea what was going on either (why they'd been brought back from the dead, what the deal was with the white power ring, etc.).  Well issue #19 came out last week and, while maintaining strict *spoiler* protocols, I can tell you Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi finally reveal what's going on.  It's also nicely drawn, has a couple of strong moments and even has a cliffhanger likely to make you cry out (that is, if you're anything like me), but on the other hand it's further confirmation of what DC has been saying all along; this series is definitely not going to lead to a "lightened up" version of their Universe.

In case you missed it last Friday's USA Today ran a 12-page preview of Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard's Super Dinosaur.  It's the same preview that appeared in this month's Diamond Previews but the USA Today version is large enough it won't risk eye strain in people of a certain age.  As expected it's a whole lot of fun and now I'm looking forward to the series even more than I was.  But the promotion makes me wonder why more comic book publishers haven't arranged cross-promotions with websites that receive a large number of visits per day.  I mean, imagine if, say, every day The Huffington Post had a link to a title in the Marvel/DC/Dark Horse/Image backlist; the site would get more free content and publishers get theirs put in front of an audience of new readers.

Hopefully you all got a chance to look at creator Eric Powell's video 'Creator Front For Diversity In Comics' (see "Eric Powell's Diversity Video").  I say 'hopefully' because in all the places it was posted there's now just a black box with the legend "this video has been removed by the used" in it.  But if not this statement from Powell pretty much sums up his key point:

"No other entertainment industry is sustained from one genre and 50 year old material,” Powell’s intro to the video says.  “The comic book industry is living off of decades old company owned super hero titles while shoving new original content to the side.  The result is the industry has slowly been losing readers for years and alienates anyone who is not interested in reading books about guys in tights.  It's time to change.  Support original creator owned comics and diversified content.”

I can't disagree with any of that, in fact, I've been saying something similar for years; I've always been for creator owned comics and would love it if we saw more diversified content, especially from Marvel and DC.  Periods like now, when superhero comic sales are in such a slump, is historically when publishers would try almost any genre in a desperate attempt to keep their doors open.  So, instead of fifteen Flashpoint miniseries it would be much better for them and the direct sales market if they called it off and instead published a series of one-shots that revamp some of their B-list characters.  I mean, there are certainly a lot of movies about caves getting made these days, so what better time for an 'extreme athlete' version of Cave Carson?

But the publishers know what they're doing; at least that's what they keep telling us.

And, finally, two weeks ago I reported there was a strong possibility the multiverse might actually exist.  Well this week I can report the discovery of galaxy NGC 157 which resembles the letter 'S.'  It's probably just a coincidence, of course it can't possibly 'mean' something, but once again my life somehow seems strangely vindicated.

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.