What's wrong
Feb. 9th, 2009 05:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captain_slinkyImagine, if you will, that you see a commercial on TV for Breakfast Cereal. IT LOOKS AWESOME. It's one of those cereals marketed towards kids with a cartoony mascot and a small line at the end of the commercial about how "Mom's love it too because it's full of vitamins and minerals that help kids grow strong!" This cereal looks and sounds like exactly the type of thing you would like to eat, as well as the type of stuff you'd like to feed to your kids.
So you go to the store and you buy a box of this wonderful cereal. You know you've got the right cereal because it's been available since the 1930's in pretty much the exact same box. It's an American Icon, much like Tony the Tiger! Toucan Sam! Snap, Crackle and/or Pop! You buy it, you take it home, you get ready to serve it for breakfast to your family...
...And the box is full of unsweetened Puffed Wheat mixed with Jalapeno Peppers and dried corn. Edible, sure... but not exactly what you thought you were buying in to. You go on-line and find that there are A LOT of people who still love to eat this cereal, mainly because they have fond memories of eating the sweeter, funner version when they were kids. But most of those people who are eating the cereal today just like to complain about it. You also find that you *can* buy boxes of cereal that were made many years ago that taste more like what you thought you were buying, but those boxes cost much, MUCH more than you're willing to spend.
The Comic Book Industry is selling us a cereal box full of Jalepeno peppers and dried corn. They have an awesome merchandising machine going pretty much 24/7 selling the "Classic" version of their copyrited characters to the youth of America with shows like "Batman" The Brave & The Bold", "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Wolverine & The X-Men" and others. Not to mention the non-stop barrage of classic cartoons from the 80's like "Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends", "The Incredible Hulk", "Super Friends" and others being served-up on DVD, Download and cable television!
WE HAVE THE KIDS HOOKED! I don't know a single kid (Boy OR Girl) who doesn't know all these heroes! But out of all the comic books being sold today there are only a fistful (maybe even less) that feature the classic characters in an all-ages setting. And even out of those comics, you've got maybe *two* of them that don't talk-down to the kids with dumbed-down storylines and kiddified artwork!
If you buy a Batman comic book for a kid, he isn't going to get any version of Batman that he's ever seen on TV. That kid's going to get a version that's a bit darker and more adult in tone than even the recent Batman movies! Same goes for Spider-Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, Fantastic Four, Iron Man... I don't think there's a single comic on the stands these days that bears much resemblance to the branded character image that they've been selling to America for all these years. Think about that! They've spent BILLIONS of dollars developing the public appearance of these characters and then they don't even USE them!
When you buy something with Mickey Mouse in it, you pretty much know what it's gonna be. You know how Mickey's gonna act. You know that Goofy's his pal, Donald is all blustery, Minnie is his girlfriend... that works perfectly! You won't see a Disney where Minnie and Pluto have left Mickey, Donald has amnesia and Goofy is Mickey's arch-enemy. It just wouldn't be smart.
So you go to the store and you buy a box of this wonderful cereal. You know you've got the right cereal because it's been available since the 1930's in pretty much the exact same box. It's an American Icon, much like Tony the Tiger! Toucan Sam! Snap, Crackle and/or Pop! You buy it, you take it home, you get ready to serve it for breakfast to your family...
...And the box is full of unsweetened Puffed Wheat mixed with Jalapeno Peppers and dried corn. Edible, sure... but not exactly what you thought you were buying in to. You go on-line and find that there are A LOT of people who still love to eat this cereal, mainly because they have fond memories of eating the sweeter, funner version when they were kids. But most of those people who are eating the cereal today just like to complain about it. You also find that you *can* buy boxes of cereal that were made many years ago that taste more like what you thought you were buying, but those boxes cost much, MUCH more than you're willing to spend.
The Comic Book Industry is selling us a cereal box full of Jalepeno peppers and dried corn. They have an awesome merchandising machine going pretty much 24/7 selling the "Classic" version of their copyrited characters to the youth of America with shows like "Batman" The Brave & The Bold", "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Wolverine & The X-Men" and others. Not to mention the non-stop barrage of classic cartoons from the 80's like "Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends", "The Incredible Hulk", "Super Friends" and others being served-up on DVD, Download and cable television!
WE HAVE THE KIDS HOOKED! I don't know a single kid (Boy OR Girl) who doesn't know all these heroes! But out of all the comic books being sold today there are only a fistful (maybe even less) that feature the classic characters in an all-ages setting. And even out of those comics, you've got maybe *two* of them that don't talk-down to the kids with dumbed-down storylines and kiddified artwork!
If you buy a Batman comic book for a kid, he isn't going to get any version of Batman that he's ever seen on TV. That kid's going to get a version that's a bit darker and more adult in tone than even the recent Batman movies! Same goes for Spider-Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, Fantastic Four, Iron Man... I don't think there's a single comic on the stands these days that bears much resemblance to the branded character image that they've been selling to America for all these years. Think about that! They've spent BILLIONS of dollars developing the public appearance of these characters and then they don't even USE them!
When you buy something with Mickey Mouse in it, you pretty much know what it's gonna be. You know how Mickey's gonna act. You know that Goofy's his pal, Donald is all blustery, Minnie is his girlfriend... that works perfectly! You won't see a Disney where Minnie and Pluto have left Mickey, Donald has amnesia and Goofy is Mickey's arch-enemy. It just wouldn't be smart.
