This is an article in which one blogger goes paragraph-by-paragraph through another blogger’s flawed argument regarding whether or not Jack Kirby deserves more credit/etc for helping to create The Avengers. You probably don’t think you should read it, but you should. Here are a number of reasons why:
1) It’ll remind you that if you enjoyed Avengers, you really should donate to the Hero Initiative.
2) At a certain point, the discussion turns to the corporate ownership of cultural icons, which is always a good time:
Corporate control over their IP is growing more grasping and tenacious, not less, and it is corporate IP that dominates comics even today, thirty years after the independent comics movement first began to pick up steam in the 1980s.
3) And it also examines the nature of being a creator within the comic book industry — which is interesting/applicable to anyone who’s ever created something and/or built upon someone else’s previous creation.
4) Oh, and ALSO it makes an important point about how the “Kickstarter fairy tale” (my term that I just invented) is one that most likely won’t come true if you don’t have a pre-established fanbase.
5) AND there’s a classic SNL Jeopardy! reference.
So, really, give it a read. Maybe skim the more vitriolic parts. But give it a read.
