Why NOT to boycott Marvel

[dvandom]

Okay, you probably already know about Marvel suing the City of Heroes people over trademark issues. I am not here to discuss the relative merit or stupidity of that action.

Rather, I'm saying that a boycott of Marvel is likely to have the opposite effect of what you might wish.

Think about it. Marvel is doing this because their trademarks are now more important than their comics. Let's say you boycott Marvel over this issue.

Marvel's TV and movie licenses probably won't even notice. Movies like Spider-Man are successful because of non-fans coming to see them. Sure, there's a lot of CoH players, but even if you got all of them to sign on, it's just a drop in the bucket for this segment of Marvel's income.

Marvel's toy licenses won't notice either. If you have control of your own finances, you're probably not in the main target audience. And if your five year old son wants a Spider-Man toy, I doubt that arguments about corporate responsibility are going to stop the screaming.

Marvel's game licenses might take a hit, might not. I don't really know if they're doing much beyond movie tie-ins, and I suspect tie-ins are immune for the same reason the movies are.

Marvel's comics...those you can hurt. A bunch of enraged fans can probably manage to put a noticeable dent in comic sales. This is probably the only place a boycott will even be noticed.

Of course, the comics have been loss-leaders for some time now, making so little money for the parent companies that the shift in emphasis has been to the licensing. Which has increased the drive to protect trademarks. Which led to the CoH lawsuit.

Yep...boycott Marvel and there's good chance they'll just be driven farther into the sort of behavior you dislike. In the meantime, the people who like the comics (and who create the comics) get hurt by cancellations and low sales.

Comments

[rickj.livejournal.com]

You should post that on the CoH message boards & LJ Communities, where the fans are already organizing a boycott.

[scavgraphics.livejournal.com]

You know what will get the attention? Buy every copy of Captain America & Falcon you can..everyone...and burn them in a huge bonfire.
It's the perfect symbol...Corporate/govermental shill Captain America and token nod to diversity Falcon..everything wrong about Marvel...so go and buy out every issue you can!!!

[jim-smith.livejournal.com]

Corporate/govermental shill Captain America and token nod to diversity Falcon

Try reading those copies before you burn 'em, and you might realize how wrong you are.

[scavgraphics.livejournal.com]

Thank you...I've read every one of those issues....and of the other things written by Priest...and every page on his website...and the emails we exchange regularly...and I think that protestors should buy EVERY copy of the book to protest.

Are you understanding me now, Jim?

[spinn.livejournal.com]

Who cares, though. There's only one reason I can see them suing NCSoft over this: as a required, protective action, because if you don't protect your trademarks, you risk losing them.

This doesn't require a lawsuit, though. All it requires is a legal and formal agreement between two parties, and if Marvel wouldn't require boneheaded stipulations, then it'd be easy.

Conclusion: Marvel's legal department is collectively being a bonehead, and thus is already setting the company on the path of ruin. A boycott doesn't cause that, it's a result of that.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

That's actually a large part of the consensus on the CoH boards... that Marvel had to take some sort of legal action, but the lawsuit is the result of some weasel-brained lawyer thinking that everything must end up in a court of law. (Of course, the thing I find most laughable about the whole brief they filed is the point that argues that Statesman is a derivative of Captain America...)

[ascian.livejournal.com]

Well said. I didn't even know there was talk of a boycott.
Quite frankly, I don't have enough faith in the lawsuit to feel any action on my part is necessary. Certainly not sufficient that I should miss X3 for it, which would probably be the next time Marvel sees my money anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

Boycotting Marvel hurts your cause more than it helps. Does anyone remember when Neocons demended that Americans boycott french imported goods. The sales of those same goods went up!

Just don't read the books. Seriously, it's not that hard to stop. "Civil War" was the biggest piece of crap in recent memory, and that includes "Gigli" and "Malibu's Most Wanted." Don't buy products with Marvel Comic characters. It's a good deterent from getting beaten up. And don't DON'T spend your hard earned cash in those mechanically challenged Marvel games whose only redeeming value is being able to snicker at the yellow shirt, tiara-wearing, Luke Cage variant costume.

Yeah, it sounds like my message is, "Don't boycott Marvel, but don't buy thier stuff either." No, that's not it. I am just advising you not to spend your money on crap because Marvel makes crap and doesn't deserve your business. I don't want want you to drive them into the poorhouse. They do a good enough job of that on thier own.

P.S. Don't DC crap either now that I think about it.