Heroes and Villains

Hero of the Week: Will Eisner for just being Will Eisner. He’s been gone a year this week and we miss him more than ever.

Hero: Marvel and Stan Lee for burying hatchets and working together again. Having settled his legal differences with Marvel, Stan the Man is writing a five-part story featuring Marvel characters and a bevy of current artists. It’s nice to see everyone friends again; let’s just hope the end result is better than Ravage 2099.

Hero: Marvel for hitching up the Black Panther and Storm. There’ve been hints at an attraction, but the announcement that the two heroes would be wedding came as a surprise. Even though Marvel fans need another event like Wolverine needs another title, the story possibilities that this coupling brings up with their respective ties to the rest of the Marvel universe are exciting.

Villain: Marvel for deciding that there just aren’t enough comics with Wolverine in them. Does anyone really need the Wolverine: Origins ongoing series? Is there any reason other than Marvel’s profit margin that this story couldn’t have been told within the current Wolverine series? Wouldn’t it be nice if readers of Origins made room for it in their budgets by giving up reading the regular Wolverine comic instead of some other title?

Hero: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and defense attorney Paul Cadle for persuading Judge Larry Salmon to further reduce the number of charges brought against comics retailer Gordon Lee. That leaves Lee with two charges to face when he goes to trial for accidentally giving a copy of one of Alternative Comics’s Free Comic Book Day issues to a minor who trick-or-treated at Lee’s store on Halloween. The comic depicts a historically accurate event in which Pablo Picasso was naked. It’s too soon to tell how it’ll all pan out, of course, but it’s exciting news for the defense team and comics fans.

Hero: FM International for hanging in there. In the midst of a raging sea of rumor and speculation that the alternative distributor is going out of business, owner and president Wayne Markeley cries out that his ship is still afloat. At least for now. IDW’s new, exclusive contract with Diamond Distribution has certainly hurt FM International’s business, but FM’s decision to quit handling initial orders of new titles and focus on distributing backstock sounds like a good move.

Hero: Virgin’s Richard Branson for learning that comics are where it’s at. “How do you make a small fortune in comics publishing?” the old joke goes. “Start with a large fortune.” Communications tycoon Branson certainly has that, and he’s putting it to (hopefully) good use by forming Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation. The comics division is in partnership with Gotham Entertainment, the South Asian publisher who teamed with Marvel to bring you Spider-Man: India. Virgin Comics will start off focused in Asia, but plans are to eventually move them to the rest of the world. Branson’s daring and business savvy could translate into some interesting, cool comics.