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William Lukash
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Posted: 24 February 2016 at 8:07pm | IP Logged | 1  

It seems like a lot of Marvel's merchandise shows character images directly pulled from 60s, 70s, and 80s comics.  I assume they expect casual fans to be familiar with these versions of their heroes or maybe they think older comic readers will be more interested in the "old look" and will buy based on that.  Free art?  I dunno.

The characters in the movies are sort of like the older versions of the heroes.

The characters in the comics are almost nothing like what they are trying to merchandise and show in the movies.  Why?  It seems discombobulated as a marketing approach.

Any insight?

Thanks.

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John Byrne
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Posted: 24 February 2016 at 8:35pm | IP Logged | 2  

Seems like a fairly typical case of wanting it all ways. Marvel knows civilians don't care about the comicbook versions, and they also know a lot of greying fanboys have drunk the Hollywood Kool-aid and buy into the whole "a comic is not a movie" blather. But those same aging fanboys want the characters as they remember them, so target them thru other merchandise while taking a scorched earth approach to the comics.
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Stephen Churay
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Posted: 24 February 2016 at 9:05pm | IP Logged | 3  

The funny part is, if the designs were
good, most would accept the change. Black
suit Spider-Man, Wolverine's brown outfit,
FF's B&W uniforms. Nobody really has a
problem with those. Captain America in
urban armor...no so much.
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Eric Jansen
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Posted: 24 February 2016 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | 4  

The problem with the idea they're marketing the old stuff to aging fanboys is that a lot of the classic versions are on t-shirts, jackets, school supplies, and other merchandise made specifically for teens.

Edited by Eric Jansen on 25 February 2016 at 2:16am
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James Woodcock
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Posted: 25 February 2016 at 6:57am | IP Logged | 5  

I had a similar conversation with my wife during the past week about Superman. All the merchandise we were looking at had a classic costume - red pants etc.

I questioned why was it, that if the thing that sells and people identify with is the classic costume, why change it in the comic? Especially as none of the redesigns look as good?
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Don Zomberg
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Posted: 25 February 2016 at 7:46am | IP Logged | 6  

Back in the day, DC kept tripping JB up because his version of Superman clashed with the "classic" version the company still marketed. Ah, progress.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 25 February 2016 at 7:50am | IP Logged | 7  

Back in the day, DC kept tripping JB up because his version of Superman clashed with the "classic" version the company still marketed. Ah, progress.

••

Dick Giordano took me to one side, one day, and explained that there were now TWO versions of Superman -- the one I was doing, and the one in the marketing material. This was frustrating on many levels -- not because I felt Superman should be MINE! MINE! MINE!! but because I had come onto the project expecting to pick up the existing character and do a story arc that took him to where I thought he should be. It was Editorial's idea to do a "reboot."

(Somewhat ironically, a few months earlier I had given an interview to a real world newspaper, talking about the reboot. The reporter had read several of the recent issues, and asked me if he was correct in his understanding that there were now TWO different versions of Superman -- mine and the one Marv Wolfman was writing.)

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Don Zomberg
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Posted: 25 February 2016 at 8:34am | IP Logged | 8  

Ouch. Hope your response was a diplomatic one...
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 25 February 2016 at 9:16am | IP Logged | 9  

The characters in the comics are almost nothing like what they are trying to merchandise and show in the movies.  Why?  It seems discombobulated as a marketing approach.

***

Well said. Can't add much to it, though. 

It's not quite the same, but on occasion, and not saying it's a frequent thing, I have seen Universal Studios' Wolfman used for marketing that was actually pertaining to Oliver Reed's Hammer Studios werewolf. Can't recall where once (a model, perhaps?). Now, that is screwed up!
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Brian Rhodes
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Posted: 25 February 2016 at 10:24am | IP Logged | 10  

Dick Giordano took me to one side, one day, and explained that there were now TWO versions of Superman -- the one I was doing, and the one in the marketing material.

But your Superman was still on-model, the costume and overall look was unchanged.  If you're speaking in terms of t-shirts and such...there was no real difference in your depiction versus what would have been out on licensed merchandise at the time.*

Marvel's current characters, in print and on-screen, sometimes look wildly different than the "classic" versions you see on some of the current crop of licenced stuff.

*Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez art seemed to be the go-to for DC merchandise for decades. Sure, the powers and history were streamlined, but, appearance-wise, was yours all that different from this?




Edited by Brian Rhodes on 25 February 2016 at 10:28am
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Stephen Churay
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Posted: 25 February 2016 at 11:55am | IP Logged | 11  

Sadly, I've noticed that the marketing push for the New52
Superman has finally hit. I'm seeing more and more
merchandise pertaining to that version, and less and less
of the classic version. The film version sans trunks, I
guess has helped the transition. I still find it odd the WB
is basically marketing three versions of the same
character.

From a branding standpoint, this makes no sense to me.
It's easier to keep brand awareness high if you keep it to
one model. This just muddies the brand. It's like taking
100 years of tried and true business 101 strategy and
throwing it out the window.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 25 February 2016 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | 12  

Dick Giordano took me to one side, one day, and explained that there were now TWO versions of Superman -- the one I was doing, and the one in the marketing material.

++++

But your Superman was still on-model, the costume and overall look was unchanged. If you're speaking in terms of t-shirts and such...there was no real difference in your depiction versus what would have been out on licensed merchandise at the time.

•••

Even tho the reboot was their idea, I realized eventually that what DC really wanted was for some hotshot to come in and boost the sales WITHOUT CHANGING ANYTHING. The same kind of muddled thinking that gave rise to CRISIS.

So while I was doing what I was doing with their mandated reboot, they still wanted to market the Superman family as seen in those gorgeous Garcia Lopez model sheets.

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