Monday, August 9, 2010

Manic Monday--The Man Without What Now??

As most of you have seen, Marvel is running these odd promos:


"Who Will Be The New Man Without Fear?"

So far they've put out teasers featuring Nova, Kraven, Gambit, Black Panther, and Falcon.

Apparently, Daredevil is going to lose that "title"...but really, what does that matter?

It's not a title. It's not like he's Sorcerer Supreme, or Protector Of The Universe, or Green Lantern Of Sector 2814.

It's not a job description--there no extra duties involved, no special powers, no cosmic jewelry.

It's just a nickname, something people occasionally called him (and inside the book, in the stories, Matt Murdock was very rarely called that, anyway).

So why is Marvel wasting this much time on these silly promos, if it doesn't mean anything? It would be like Iron Man getting new armor, and Marvel running a week of promos, "Who Will Be The New Golden Avenger?" or when green Hulk was gone for awhile teasing us, "Who Will Be The New Jade Jaws?"

So who really cares, Marvel?

And even if the meaning of the promo is that some other hero will end up "policing" Hell's Kitchen in Daredevil's place, why do they have to take the silly nickname??

Sometimes I think Marvel's publicity department is a little overstaffed, and they have to keep doing these ridiculous drawn-out promos constantly to keep the layoffs at bay.

Lot of publicity drama for what will surely be a pretty boring reveal...unless, of course, said new "Man Without Fear" is going to have his fear center surgically removed, and have to cope with the dangers of not having normal fear reflexes, and...

PS. Who should be The Man Without Fear? Duh. The Vision. Next!

8 comments:

Mark Engblom said...

Maybe they'll discover that Hell's Kitchen is actually a mystical repository for a metaphysical "Fear Creature" that has gradually corrupted Matt Murdock into a villain.

Maybe they could even name the fear-creature "Dare-alax".

Lazarus Lupin said...

I love your general snarkery but really this time just sit back and enjoy cool posters. It's silly but I am having fun imagining kraven running around hell's kitchen like Siegfried without Roy. I have no idea why they choose a spiderman villain, if they were going to choose a villain going straight it should probably be someone a little closer to Daredevil like say "Stilt Man."

Lazarus Lupin
art and review
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/

Mark Engblom said...

No, I think sitting back and just enjoying "cool posters" might be part of the problem when it comes dopey stuff like this. I think Marvel and DC assume we're just going to eat up whatever they serve up, and it's good that guys like Snell call "foul" when it's clearly the nonsensical non-event this thing appears to be. Outside of Matt Murdock's personal/psychological/pathological attachment to Hell's Kitchen, who's to say anyone needs to be appointed to (or needs to assume) the role of its protector? It's just not a very compelling (or logical) concept, is what I think Snell is saying.

No amount of pretty pin-ups can overcome that.

Chris B said...

I thought Kraven shot himself about 20 years ago? I remember McFarlane drawing him with a hunk of his noggin missing. Course I stopped reading about that time....came back later and picked up X-Men Hidden Years....and that piece of crap was enough to finish me as a marvel fan. So maybe I missed Kraven's clone or twin?

snell said...

Chris--Kraven was resurrected last month, after nearly a year's build-up. Marvel will be mighty disappointed that you didn't notice.

notintheface said...

Gambit, Man Without Fear?

BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

No, really?

Chris B said...

Snell: Geez....I had no idea. Spidey make a deal with the devil to bring him back?

I love your blog, btw.

snell said...

Chris--Kraven's wife & children used an arcane ritual involving human sacrifice of spider totem type people. Yes, it was kinda stupid.

Thanks for the compliment.