B'ings: Based on the Marvel Comics by...

 

            Hey, there, welcome to another edition of B’ings! If you don’t know what a B’ing is, look for some of my other B’ings or, if you’re smart, drop four letters from B’ing. Do you have it? If not, I pity you.

            Okay, so regulars to my blog will know I love Marvel comics. I review a lot of Marvel comics events, graphic novels, and prose novels, so please, check some of them out. Or, if you know me personally, you’d know I love Marvel with a passion (and if you know me personally and are reading this blog, you are AWESOME)! And since I love Marvel, I see every Marvel movie as soon as I can. And herein lies a B’ing.

            If you watch a Marvel movie and scrutinize the credits (which no one, but me does this), you’d see that it gives credit to specific writers and artists. For example, if you watch “The Avengers” and looked at the credits, they show a flash that says “Based on the Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.” Okay, now I go to the aforementioned herein lies B’ing.

            If you think about it, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Avengers. Note the keyword here: CREATED! By crediting ONLY Stan and Jack, you’re essentially saying it’s based on their work. BUT THEY WEREN’T THE ONLY WRITER AND ARTIST! They only collaborated for a specific amount of time on putting out the series! So it is interpreted (by me, of course, but possibly not by you, you have a right to your opinion) as a specific time period where only Stan and Jack did it. But there have been so many writers and artists of MANY Avengers stories over the past sixty-some-odd years, and the film is NOT only inclusive to Stan and Jack. So how can you say “Based on the Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby?”

            Okay, I have a better example of why it’s wrong (again, in MY opinion). Look at the X-Men movies that say “Based on the Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.” Stan only wrote less than twenty issues of the original X-Men comics series. The films star characters such as Storm, Wolverine, Mystique, Nightcrawler, Apocalypse, the list goes on and on. BUT STAN LEE AND JACK KIRBY DIDN’T CREATE THESE CHARACTERS! In fact, let’s look at titles of the X-Men movies. “Days of Future Past,” “Apocalypse,” “Dark Phoenix.” NONE OF THESE STORIES WERE WRITTEN AND DRAWN BY STAN AND JACK! It’s like looking at works by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, and Louise Simonson and Jackson Guise and saying the movies are not based on their works and were done by Stan and Jack. Claremont, Byrne, Simonson, and Guise deserve the credit; it’s THEIR works, NOT Lee and Kirby! But do they say “Based on the Marvel Comics by Chris Claremont and John Byrne” of “Based on the Marvel comics by Louise Simonson and Jackson Guise?” No! Instead you read “Based on the Marvel comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby!” I don’t even think any of them get mentioned in the credits of stories THEY wrote or illustrated! Okay, if my point isn’t clear yet, make me make it clear; Say you wrote a short story. Now, it gets published in a magazine. You get the magazine, expecting to see your name. Instead, you’re name doesn’t appear in it! Your big break! NOT THERE! And all you see in the credits are just the editors and staff of the magazine, like they published the magazine and only THEY deserve ALL the credit! Now, imagine: does that feel good? I think in this point you’ll actually have to agree with my opinion on this one. If I saw someone else get credit for MY work, I would NOT be happy! I don’t think you would either.

            BUT! I DO concede there are some examples where I could be wrong, so let’s go back and prove I’m not correct in that assumption. Say you want to be anonymous and give a fake name or just don’t want the credit and accredit it to another name. My previous assessment is wrong in this example. BUT! If this is what you want as your big break, yeah, agree with the former example.

            But Chris and John, and Louise and Jackson did not want to be anonymous when they wrote and illustrated those comics, assuming, of course, these were their real names. But these works were originally credited TO THEM, and NOT Stan and Jack. So does this credit seem bad to them, the writers and illustrators of these specific storylines? I would think so.

And maybe some of my points don’t resonate with you, but these are my opinions, not yours as this is my blog and not yours. I’m just here to give you something to think about.

So, yeah, you’ve read all of this? You are AWESOME! Seriously, I mean it! I always appreciate when someone gives me the time of day to rant and rave! I think we all do. So if you liked this post, there are plenty more posts on this blog that you might enjoy. I write short stories, free-verse poems, reviews, editorials, and of course other B’ings, so please feel free to keep looking. If you do, you are AWESOME! Seriously, I mean it!

All I really have to say for now is, Tim Cubbin… out!