As a comic book fan, I feel somewhat torn at times about comic books and the corporate activities that go on behind them. I know I’m not the only one who has these problems, and I know comic books aren’t the only entertainment medium that has these dilemmas. Any time art and big business collide, whether it be film, literature or video games, there is likely going to be something morally unsettling going on behind the scenes that might make the fans uncomfortable should they find out about them.
I’m going to go ahead and tilt my hand by saying that I don’t have an answer to these feelings or a feel-good ending to make the guilt and discomfort go away. Honestly, I think we need to face these feelings head on and come up with answers for ourselves. This article is really going to be something of a prolonged pontification on the subject of comic books and the business that goes on behind the scenes.
Mainstream comic books do have the unique twist in that Marvel and DC are names that refer to the publishers and the characters that they own. The result of that is when someone says, “I love Marvel,” or, “I love DC,” they may mean the characters and the comics, but it becomes hard to divorce that idea from being a fan of the publishing company itself. It’s a weird fact, and it does end up creating these types of readers who love everything about one company and despise the other.
The idea of company loyalty is an interesting one, and I will likely discuss it further in a different article. What I will say now is what I believe is relevant to the subject at hand.
Firstly, the "higher ups" at the two publishing houses love the idea of someone staying fiercely loyal to their product (for it is a product to them, even if it is art to us) and vehemently hostile to the product of their top competitor. This is something they encourage, even if it is in small ways. Secondly, there is so much that is similar between the two companies that it actually seems rather silly to me to hate one and love the other. Yes, you and I can pick out tropes that one company uses more than the other, but it would be an exercise in futility to try to argue that they are more different than they are similar.
Back to the business side of things, I am going to tilt my hand again by saying that I am a consumer advocate in the style of Jim Sterling (he talks about video games, and I highly recommend him to anyone who enjoys them as an art form). I believe that executives at both of these companies will still do whatever possible to squeeze every penny out of you no matter how much loyalty you have to them. They have both done some pretty shady things in the past. Some of these things have impacted the customers directly, and some of them haven’t.
Examples of what hasn’t necessarily affected the consumer directly are the parallel lawsuits of Marvel vs. the Kirby Estate and DC vs. the Estates of Shuster and Siegel. For those who don’t know, Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the foundation upon which their respective companies were formed. Jack Kirby co-created Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Avengers. Shuster and Siegel created Superman, the original super hero. The decedents of these individuals wanted royalties from the billions of dollars these intellectual properties have made, something they couldn’t have before due to the draconian contracts those creators had to sign back in the day.
You can say what you like about people living off the accomplishments of their ancestors, and I would likely agree with much of it. However, these characters have made billions of dollars for their proprietary companies, and the families of the creators barely saw a cent of it. Marvel and DC, instead of settling with the families and paying them back for the creativity of their relatives, fought them tooth and nail in court. The companies lost, thankfully, but they still fought it, and I have a hard time seeing that as anything other than scummy.
Of course, the comic book companies trying to keep rights away from the creators is nothing new, and this has been one of the primary discussions of the industry for decades. This issue is what led to Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, and other creators leaving to found Image Comics in 1992.
All of this is to say nothing of the fight that took place just to get Bill Finger credited as a co-creator of Batman.
In terms of questionable business practices that affect the consumer directly—well, take your pick. DC’s obsession with comics published multiple times a month that make it hard for the less financially blessed reader to keep track of their stories, Marvel slapping a five-dollar price tag on any comic that might be perceived as remotely special, DC’s constant paranoia about B-list characters that results in them canning any book that doesn’t sell as well as "Batman," and then there’s Marvel’s hyperactivity and self-consciousness over their own success that ends in them making a soft-reboot and a massive crossover happen at least once a year. Which of those bothers you the most? They’re all good choices. I frankly hate all of those things.
Like I said, there’s not a real solid answer or conclusion to this little rambling about comic books as a business. If there were one, I’d say it’s that we, enjoyers of comic books as an art form, should be honest with ourselves. Yes, we may love the characters owned by Marvel and DC, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be critical of their less scrupulous business practices. The writers, artists and editors may feel passionate about their work and want you to love it too. Congratulate those people. They deserve it, and they make the parts of the comic you like. However, the people up above them could not give a rat’s ass if you enjoy their comics long as you buy them. They do the crummy things mentioned in the previous paragraph. Know the parts that are praise-worthy and the parts that aren’t. Be honest with yourself, and be critical of the parts that deserve it.
As something of an addendum, I’ll give you another story from the business side of things that I myself have to contemplate from time to time. I absolutely love Shazam/Captain Marvel. He’s one of my favorite DC Heroes. However, he was not always owned by DC Comics. He was originally owned Fawcett Comics and created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck, two creators who worked under them. Fawcett was a smaller comic book company that existed in the 1940s and 50s. His comic was actually selling better than much of DC’s slate of books at that time. DC, who at that point was in some financial trouble, came up with a plan to help themselves out. They sued Fawcett Comics and claimed that Shazam/Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman.
If you are familiar with this character, you know that, other than some aesthetic similarities, Shazam/Captain Marvel is nothing more like Superman than characters like Thor or Blue Marvel. Hyperion is a character that Marvel uses right now that was actually intended to be their version of Superman right down to similar powers and origin story. Why hasn’t DC sued Marvel over this? The answer is simple. Fawcett was a smaller company. They took to the courts, and the jury and judge probably only saw two white men with dark hair, capes, and the ability to fly. One was created sooner, and that was the one that won.
Do I love that Shazam gets to be on the Justice League? Yes. I love reading about Shazam mingling with heroes like the Flash and Cyborg. Am I glad that all this happened? No. Fawcett was made a victim simply because they were successful, and the bigger guy was hurting because of it.
Like I said, this isn’t exclusively about comic books as an art and a business as it is about any time art and business collide (which is pretty much all the time). Unsavory things will happen, and you should always be honest with yourself, come to some realization in yourself that isn’t simply denying the bad parts exist, and you should never ingratiate yourself to these companies. They’re not your friend, and I say that as someone who would like to work as a writer for one of these companies one day.
Also, screw the fact that Diamond Comic Book Distributors has a monopoly on comic book distributions. There’s nothing to ponder there. It’s just wrong.
