Bleeding Fool reports that failing legacy comic book publisher Marvel Comics is ostensibly reaching out to fans by offering a slate of sub-G4 tier programming, including a barely Marvel-themed cooking show.
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| The two on the right look like they just discovered Heather Antos’ boiled bunny in that pot. |
Ever since Marvel Senior Executive Sana Amanat proclaimed that Marvel was becoming a “lifestyle brand,” more and more evidence of what she was referring to is coming to light. The latest is the recent embarrassment in the form of a cooking show. That’s right. Marvel Comics is now streaming a cooking series that everyone can binge. It’s called “Eat the Universe” and it has nothing to do with Spider-Man, X-Men, or really comic books at all other than the occasional jokey reference to some long forgotten characters or merely naming the recipe after a character.
“Becoming a ‘lifestyle brand'” is how once-successful corporations troll their remaining customers.
Marvel Entertainment is the Youtube channel, which has 7.9 million subscribers. The premiere episode of Eat the Universe posted April 7, 2018 and only has 54K views and 108 comments. The series was launched the same day that Marvel New Media announced an all-new schedule of digital series featuring a variety of programming for Marvel fans. These new digital series include relaunched versions of This Week in Marvel and Women of Marvel; and new series like Earth’s Mightiest Show, Marvel’s Voices, Marvel’s Eat the Universe and Marvel’s first-ever scripted podcast Wolverine: The Long Night for fans to enjoy (if they’re willing to pay the $4.99 monthly subscription fee to Stitcher.com). None of these seem to really be my cup of tea, but I will eat my hat if any of them turn out to be a hit.
I’m not sure BF’s skepticism is warranted. Marvel’s YouTube channel clearly has its finger on the pulse of comic fandom if it’s playing a science fiction classic like Battlefield Earth.
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| I’d insert a Battlefield Earth quote, but I don’t know any Battlefield Earth quotes. |
Kidding aside, the premiere of Eat the Universe generated 54,000 views. Meanwhile, this charming colonial LARPer’s amateur video about roasting a rabbit over a campfire garnered more than twice as many views in slightly less time.
“Marvel New Media is focused on nurturing a more intimate and approachable relationship with both our super fans and casual fans by embracing and refreshing Marvel’s fundamental brand attributes, and by redefining how those fans experience the Marvel Universe across all platforms,” said Dan Silver, vice president, head of platforms and content for Marvel New Media. “As we launch and expand these new digital series, we will be introducing fans to a whole new perspective of the brand to reflect the core values of Marvel, our heroes, and extending into the real-life Super Heroes that inspire us every day.”
The words of a man who knows he’s babysitting a division of a subsidiary of a megacorp that’s losing billions at the box office. He’s painfully aware his job could be performed by a pecking bird toy positioned to click repeatedly on a corporate bullshit generator.
At this point it’s impossible not to read “Eat the Universe” as a tacit admission that the inmates in charge of Marvel’s asylum know they’re devouring the brand’s seed corn. The West’s formerly vast treasury of twentieth Century cultural capital has been exhausted. Will we see new pop culture touchstones arise to take the thrones abdicated by the Big Two comics publishers, New York SFF publishing houses, and every Hollywood studio?
I doubt it. The sea-to-shining-sea social cohesion that engendered the dominance of American entertainment icons is unlikely to return within the lifetime of anyone reading this post.
New stories and new ways of telling them are definitely on the way, though. In fact, they’re already here. If you prefer action, chills, and fun to “reflecting core values”, pick up my complete Soul Cycle adventure series for Kindle.
Also very, very telling is that Marvel is now outsourcing some of their comics.
https://www.idwpublishing.com/marvel-and-idw-to-create-new-comic-books-for-the-next-generation-of-readers/
They are now leasing out their own characters. Marvel used to be able to make stories for younger readers in house (like the amazing Marvel Adventures), but now have to get other companies to do it. The mouse makes EA look benevolent in comparison.
What speaks just as loudly is the fact that they're outsourcing to IDW. That company's financials are a total mess, and the #ComicsGate guys predict they'll be the next publisher to fold.
IDW's net income was down 91% last year. All because of their own doing.
No one who is serious about doing business would trust them right now. And as we've learned, Marvel isn't a serious company.
Marvel licensing to IDW is just one SJW organization trying to keep another afloat. They really aren't competitors. Think Globalist R's and D's in government–they back one another.
@JD: Thanks for finding the numbers. Sad!
@MotA: Comics publishing looks a lot like NY legacy pub, only more incestuous. The same ensemble of SJWs from central casting perpetually rotate in and out of these companies like they're playing musical chairs.
When they prattle on about the core values of their heroes, do they mean the core values of Captain America, Wolverine, or Deadpool? If so, which one? It's confusing. Anyone living by Deadpool's values needs to be institutionalized, at best.
I would also like to know what a 'real-life superhero' is. Is it anything like a factual fiction?
Silver is speaking in a mishmash of corporate jargon and SJW ritual cant. His words have no meaning except to signal his membership in the corporate elite and the SocJus cult.
I would take "real life superhero" to be an obvious contradiction in terms.
Nice plug for Townsend's, that dude is awesome!
On the comics front, I haven't read Marvel since the early '90s but was gifted a digital collection of the Fantastic For that ran from its inception to about 2005 out so. What struck me was the precipitous drop in quality that began around the time I stopped reading and only got worse. I wish I could say that I'm shocked to see Marvel try their hand at a cooking show, but like you said, this is how dying companies troll what's left of their faithful. The gangrene had set in.
"Nice plug for Townsend's, that dude is awesome!"
Have you tried his 18th century fried chicken recipe? I was skeptical at first. Now I crave it biweekly.
Can watch Townsends all day, every day — great dude with some killer recipes!
Perfect contrast to Make Mine Marvel Mush.
He even did a video decrying the politicization of YouTube. I have a feeling he was referring to SJWs.
A little from column A, a little from column B. Some folks apparently took him to talk for making Orange Fool, thinking it was a reference to the President (it wasn't, but it looks really tasty). I guess a fight broke out in the comments, and he's REALLY apoltical.
Haven't tried any of his recipes yet, but I love watching his channel. It's only a matter of time, though, and thanks to him my pepper consumption has skyrocketed (nutmeg yet to come).
Thanks for clarifying.
This is a train wreck. I love it.
Might as well enjoy it. Institutional collapse is a hell of a ride!
Current-Year Marvel: "The train is fine."
As a casual fan (so run that through the appropriate mental filter) there have been too many movies. I just can't stomach another super hero movie.
I might be willing to watch them on video/Netflix if the recent movies hadn't made a big deal about diversity points and ugly women. Different directors/writers for the same movies in a series doesn't help either. There's no consistent vision.
DontGive$$ToPeopleWhoHateYou.txt
"Will we see new pop culture touchstones arise to take the thrones abdicated by the Big Two comics publishers, New York SFF publishing houses, and every Hollywood studio?"
I think we just need to see pop culture and fandom die in order to be reborn. In a state that isn't sjw infested. I've been thinking this for awhile, but our current pop culture trends of comics, film/tv, and video games is in a world of hurt it's sad. I'm at the point that I just hope Disney, DC, etc. simply go bankrupt and the characters they own disappear forever. Batman is a replaceable character. Star Wars is a replaceable brand. I say let it all die now.
"Batman is a replaceable character. Star Wars is a replaceable brand. I say let it all die now."
Take a minute to reflect on the fact that your statement would've been unthinkable just two years ago. You're also absolutely right.
+9000
These are zombified shadows of dead heroes. Bury them and build new ones in the memory of what they were.
And DC insists on someone holding its beer with the the upcoming Bat woman show.
Lemme see
1) an out lezbo who
2) has a passion for social justice but
3) must fight her demons yet
4) is very persuasive
Umhuh and my reaction to pass this clunker on a Ducati. There's much better stuff out there
xavier
Keep in mind that Batwoman has been, by far, the single most hated addition to the franchise, ever. And yes, I'm including Jason Todd and Damian Wayne. They became characters worth following. Batwoman's one trait has remained "lesbian" thoughout her entire existence.
And they keep shoving her down everyone's throats.
Meanwhile actually well-liked characters like Tim Drake get punted to the side. He's only ever had one proper appearance outside the comics, and that was in Young Justice.
DC is just as bad as Marvel. They're just better at hiding it.
JD,
I'm unsurprised that she's a detestable character because her orientation is front and centre rather than as a layer, a tragic one.
DC might be better at hiding but not for long. The same lateral job revolving door between Marvel and DC ensures that DC is as pathetically compromised as Marvel.
I'm totally unfamiliar with Jason Todd and Damian Wayne but I'll read up about them.
Same goes for Tim Drake.
Playboy is a "lifestyle brand". It tried to consume its industry and make itself unique in its niche, and became a host for SJW parasites. It now only has the bunny logo as a marketable product, licensing it for shirts, key fobs, and bottle openers. I imagine they make a regular income on that, but no one looks to them today for magazines featuring pithy writing and stylishly nude women. They diluted their brand almost to a non-entity.
Marvel wants to go the route of "lifestyle brand" and dilute its comic and movie line to the thinnest of gruel by driving out its fans, and filling the gaps with fickle followers that will desert it at the drop of a hat for the next shiny thing. (Hat tip: Brian and Bradford C. Walker)
They wish Spider-Man, the Avengers, and the X-Men to be reduced to decorative toiletry ornaments.
Good.
Let the games begin!
Marvel Comics: Official comic of small-souled bugmen living the small-souled bugman life-style.
Crowdfunded comics is bringing the Raid.
Gonna need the 50 gallon drum …
I for one look forward to Marvel brand toilet paper.
It's about all their comics are good for.