Friday, November 29, 2013

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Most iconic? Yes, what character could possibly be more iconic than a renamed character based on a character who was a thinly-veiled counterfeit version of Fawcett's Captain Marvel character created solely to continue publishing Captain Marvel comics in the UK after Fawcett discontinued publication of their Captain Marvel comics as part of a legal action taken by DC Comics contending that Captain Marvel was too derivative of Superman...?

What character could possibly be more iconic than a renamed derivation of a derivation of a derivation of Superman, a character best known for a relatively short run of comics that no reader younger than Those of a Certain Age have been able to read, due to complicated legal issues just now being untangled, some 30 years after those comics were originally produced...?

And as for "and popular"...? I have no idea what metric they might have used to determine that Miracleman/Marvelman was the most popular superhero that comic book fans have ever read, but I generally consider comic book sales, licensing revenue and "being a superhero that people might have actually heard of in their entire fucking lives" to be pretty good indicators of a character's popularity.

UPDATE: Please read the comments, where it is revealed whether it was IGN who said something dumb, or Marvel who misquoted IGN.

6 comments:

Ryan said...

I found the original article and it was a misquote. The real quote is "Marvelman might just be the most iconic and popular superhero that comic book fans have never read," which makes slightly more sense.

Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2010/02/02/conspiracy-theory-is-sentry-really-marvelman

mordicai said...

Oh good call Ryan. So not IGN, just Marvel misquotes.

SallyP said...

I have never read Miracle Man. Don't really care either.

Bram said...

Has the makings, to me, of something that the internet is way more excited about than the general comic-buying public.

Marvel's fueling speculation with all the variant covers, but I have a feeling this isn't going to be as popular outside the comicoblogosphere.

Caleb said...

Ryan,

Thanks. What a difference a single letter makes, changing "never" to "ever."

I did google the whole phrase to see the original article, but the closest thing that came up was a list of the Top 100 superheroes of all time (which didn't include Marvelman or Miracleman). I guess that explains why.

Unknown said...

I'm not sure which is more annoying to me, the misquote, or the 'MUCH BETTER THAN DC'S WATCHMEN BY DC' quote.