When Michael Tried to Buy Marvel

Some of you may not know this but Marvel was courted by numerous buyers in the past, the oddest of which was Michael Jackson.  Yes, THE Michael Jackson.  And when I say “oddest” I don’t mean he was odd as a person, I meant the reason he wanted to buy Marvel was odd.

As most of you know (and if you don’t I’m stunned) Michael Jackson was a phenom for most of his life.  He started performing in his early childhood and was considered “The King of Pop” until the day he passed.

As you also know, Michael was famous for making interesting purchases and attempting to make interesting purchases.  For instance, you know that he had his own amusement park at his home and that he purchased the copyrights to The Beatles’ music catalogue.  You are also probably aware of the rumors of him offering to buy the “Elephant Man’s” bones.  What you may not know is that Michael wanted to buy Marvel as well, but for reasons that go a little beyond the ordinary.  Here’s what happened:

Although Michael was known for his popularity in the 80’s, he was also hugely popular in the 90’s.  During that time Batman was reigning in the cinemas and Marvel was struggling to make ends meet.  Frankly, Marvel was doing just about everything wrong.  In order to try for a few wins Marvel was trying to get the Spider-Man and X-Men movie projects underway.

For the Spider-Man movie, Marvel was talking to James Cameron.  Who they weren’t talking to was Michael Jackson, who desperately wanted to be cast as Spider-Man.  Yes, THE Michael Jackson wanted to be Spider-Man.  Can you picture that?  If not, here’s some help:

(Author’s note:  these pictures are NOT my handiwork...thankfully.)

As Michael knew this was NOT going to happen without him having some clout at Marvel, he decided to try to buy it.  After all, Marvel was facing bankruptcy at the time anyway, so why wouldn’t they consider him a potential suitor?  

As a quick aside, Michael’s rationale may not have been on target here.  You see, the owner of the company doesn’t get to make casting decisions, the Director and the studio get to do that.  Licensing the property to the studio does not a Casting Director make.  Perhaps he would buy Marvel and make himself the Director?  Who knows.

But I digress.

Michael decided to pursue the purchase and started to build a relationship with Stan Lee Media.

If you’re not familiar with Stan Lee Media’s origin, here’s a review.  Stan Lee Media was born out of an effort between Stan Lee and a business partner to buy Marvel outright.  This came from the fact that a new CEO has screwed Stan out of everything he negotiated with Marvel over the years.  This included a life-time salary in exchange for Lee not pursuing legal claims of ownership of the characters he created.  This is why Stan Lee Media (who Stan Lee no longer has any affiliation with) seems to think they can make legal claims to Stan’s characters.  They argue that Stan’s contract with Marvel was terminated, along with the stipulation that he couldn’t sew them for ownership.  I won’t go into any further detail because I either don’t know it or it’s too much extra content for this article (you decide).

Again, I digress.

Michael went to Stan hoping that Stan could throw his weight around and secure him, and his production company Kingdom Entertainment, the rights to produce a Spider-Man movie.  In fact, Michael secured a promise from Lee that if Michael purchased Marvel, Lee would help him run it.  In a further effort to get the ball rolling, Jackson hired a financial firm to help with the negotiations.

The problem was that Toy Biz CEO Ike Perlmutter (Toy Biz being the company that owned Marvel at the time) and Lee were not on the best of terms.  So, the fact that Lee was going to help run the company for potential owner Jackson, did not sit well with Ike.  To try to kibosh the deal Ike did what any vindictive owner would do, he raised the price to $1 billion (WAY more than Marvel was worth at the time).

Jackson decided to walk away.  The rest is history...Toy Biz sold to Disney for $4 billion (about 30% more than what the company was valued at at the time of the sale).

To add to the whole weird scenario it should be noted that Spider-Man wasn’t the only character for which Michael had lobbied.  He also wanted to play Professor X in the X-Men movie (eventually played by Patrick Stewart).  

(Author’s other note...this picture isn’t my handiwork either...thankfully.)

He also wanted to be “Agent M” in Men in Black 2.  As a consolation prize, Michael got a cameo  as himself in the MIB2.  Not quite what he had hoped for, but at least it was something.

10 Facts About the Internet Guaranteed to Astound You

With comic books now available online, advertising comic books being online, and the ability to find out ANYTHING about comic books online, it’s time we took a look at the history and facts about being online.

Here are 10 Facts About the Internet Guaranteed to Astound You (well....they astounded me)

1.)  There are 47 BILLION websites including the first one that was created 24 years ago (can you tell me the site?).  There’s no telling how many are filled with adult content but one would think there is at least a billion.

2.)  There are 3.2 BILLION Internet users worldwide accounting for almost 44% of the global population.  Almost half of the Internet users are based in Asia.  The other half are sitting in a Starbucks or a Panera Bread at this very moment.

3.)  There are 950 MILLION households worldwide with a television, but twice as many people access the internet with a handheld device.  In fact, I just realized that my handheld device is also a telephone!  That is so cool!

4.)  YouTube visitors view 6 BILLION hours of video each month and over 300 minutes of video are uploaded every second.  80% of those visitors are from outside the U.S.  No wonder world opinion about the U.S. is so questionable.

5.)  There are 1.49 BILLION people on Facebook who use the social media site an average of 21 minutes every day.  Those same people also share 1.3 MILLION pieces of content every minute.  Whether the content is interesting or not is another story completely.

6.)  Facebook accounts for the highest percentage of total time spent on mobile apps at 18 percent.  When you add Facebook Messenger and Instagram the total reaches 22.4 percent.  The second highest percentage spent on mobile apps is on Pandora, which account for 10.5 percent.  Say bye-bye to Pandora if Facebook develops a music streaming service.

7.)  Between 5 and 10 MILLION iOS apps are downloaded every day and more than 100 BILLION total apps had been downloaded as of June 2015.  I am positive that if you subtract out the apps I’ve downloaded both numbers would be dramatically lower.

8.)  In 2015 we will send and receive 205.6 BILLION emails, 60% of which will be spam (all of which land in my mailbox).

9.)  It is estimated that 1 TRILLION photos will be taken in 2015.  In 2000 there were only a measly 86 BILLION taken.  I’d love to see a study on how many of those are selfies.

10.)  The web as we know it--Facebook, Amazon, Wikipedia, etc.---represents only 1 percent of the total discoverable web.  The remainder is what is referred to as the “deep web”, an area not discoverable by standard search engines.  It is also the final resting place for all of the socks that I have lost and, occasionally, my car keys.

Think about it for a minutes, it took the telephone 75 years to reach 50 million users.  It only took the internet 4 years.  It only took Angry Birds 35 days.

So, the next time you are cursing your tablet or smartphone for taking more than 5 seconds to download a song remember that it is a staggering accomplishment that you can do it at all.


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Supermovie Release Schedule Through 2020 and Beyond

Here are the movies that are coming out through 2020 and Beyond.  Keep in mind that all of these are subject to change:

February 12, 2016               Deadpool                                                        (FOX)

March 25, 2016                   Batman vs. Superman:  Dawn of Justice     (WARNER BROS.)

May 6, 2016                        Captain America:  Civil War                         (MARVEL)

June 3, 2016                        Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:  Half Shell  (PARAMOUNT)

May 27, 2016                      X-Men:  Apocalypse                                      (FOX)

August 5, 2016                    Suicide Squad                                               (WARNER BROS.)

October 7, 2016                   Gambit                                                          (FOX)

November 4, 2016               Dr. Strange                                                   (MARVEL)

January 13, 2017                  Untitled Power Rangers Movie                   (LIONSGATE)

February 10, 2017               Lego Batman                                                (WARNER BROS.)

March 3, 2017                     Wolverine 3                                                   (FOX)

May 5, 2017                        Guardians of the Galaxy 2                           (MARVEL)

June 9, 2017                        Fantastic Four 2                                           (FOX)

June 23, 2017                      Wonder Woman                                             (WARNER BROS.)

July 28, 2017                       Untitled Spider-Man Movie                          (SONY)

November 3, 2017               Thor:  Ragnarok                                           (MARVEL)

November 17, 2017             Justice League                                              (WARNER BROS.)

Unknown Date, 2017          Bloodshot                                                       (SONY)

February 16, 2018               Black Panther                                               (MARVEL)

March 23, 2018                   The Flash                                                     (WARNER BROS.)

May 4, 2018                        Avengers:  Infinity War 1                              (MARVEL)

July 6, 2018                        Ant-Man & The Wasp                                    (MARVEL)

July 13, 2018                      Unknown X-Men Movie                                 (FOX)

July 20, 2018                      Untitled Spider-Man Animated Movie          (SONY)

July 27, 2018                      Aquaman                                                       (WARNER BROS.)

March 8, 2019                    Captain Marvel                                              (MARVEL)

April 5, 2019                      Shazam                                                           (WARNER BROS.)

May 3, 2019                       Avengers:  Infinity Wars 2                              (MARVEL)

June 14, 2019                     Justice League 2                                             (WARNER BROS.)

July 12, 2019                      Incredibles 2                                                   (DISNEY)

July 12, 2019                      Inhumans                                                        (MARVEL)

April 3, 2020                      Cyborg                                                             (WARNER BROS.)

May 1, 2020                       Untitled Marvel Movie                                    (MARVEL)

June 19, 2020                     Green Lantern                                                 (WARNER BROS.)

July 10, 2020                      Untitled Marvel Movie                                    (MARVEL)

Year Unknown                   X-Force                                                            (FOX)

Year Unknown                   The New Mutants                                             (FOX)

Year Unknown                   Sinister Six                                                       (SONY)

Year Unknown                   Sandman                                                          (WARNER BROS.)

Year Unknown                   Untitled Superman Movie                               (WARNER BROS.)

Year Unknown                   Justice League Dark                                        (WARNER BROS.)

Year Unknown                   Untitled Batman Movie                                    (WARNER BROS.)

Year Unknown                   Harbinger                                                          (SONY)


For those of you who like numbers, here are the totals:

43                  The total number of movies scheduled for release

             15                  Being done by WARNER BROS.
             12                  Being done by MARVEL
             8                    Being done by FOX
             5                    Being done by SONY
             1                    Being done by DISNEY
             1                    Being done by PARAMOUNT
             1                    Being done by LIONSGATE

4                    The number of movies being released in July of 2018
2                    The number of movies being released on July 12, 2019
8                    The number of movies with no official release date

I hope this helps you schedule your movie-going in advance!  Maybe I’ll see you there!

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15 Facts You May Not Know About Comics

There’s nothing like learning things you don’t know about comics in general.  It seems like the odd facts are endless.

Here’s 15 facts you may not know:

-Joe Dimaggio, the famous baseball player, loved comic books but was too embarrassed to buy them. He thought it would ruin his image.  So, he would send teammates down to the local newsstand or drug store to pick up comics for him.


-Elvis Presley also loved reading comic books.  It’s rumored that the black hair and curl he let hang down on his forehead were inspired by his favorite character, Captain Marvel, Jr.

-Michael Jackson wanted to play Spider-Man in a movie so badly that he tried to buy Marvel Comics in the 1990’s.


-In Archie Comics, Jughead has a real name, Forsythe Pendleton Jones II.  His sister is named Forsythia “Jellybean” Jones.


-The Joker once served as the Iranian Ambassador for the United Nations.


-Superman once had his mind controlled by a villain named Sleez, who tricked him into recording a sex tape.

-In the 1970’s Captain America witnessed Richard Nixon committing suicide after the Watergate scandal.


-As part of his secret identity, Clark Kent compresses his spine while in disguise so he’ll appear shorter than Superman.


-When the original comic code was created it prohibited judges and law enforcement agents from being portrayed negatively.

-Batman actually had 8 different Batcaves.  One was located directly under Arkham Asylum.


-There are over 20 different types of Kryptonite, including pink.


-In the 1940’s there was a hero who fought the Nazi’s called Red Bee.  He used trained bees.  His favorite bee was named Michael and lived in Red Bee’s belt buckle.

-Iron Man used to use roller skates that were built into his armor.

-In an alternate reality Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive sheep and became the hero Sheep-Boy.

-The actor Nicolas Cage (real name Nicolas Coppola) took the last name “Cage” from the Marvel character Luke Cage.


Look for more odd facts in upcoming blogs from The Comic Whisperer!

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Wearing a Superhero Costume Can Ruin Your Life

The whole concept of banning certain costumes at school has been gaining momentum for many years.  I have seen it go from just banning certain specific costumes to banning costumes completely. I even know one school that refuses to acknowledge Halloween (to the point of not having a single Halloween decoration).  I admit, I have a tough time understanding some of the rationale.

Fair Disclosure:  I have two grown kids who went through grade school at the beginning of these “bans”, so please dismiss the “you don’t have kids so you wouldn’t understand” thoughts you may be having.

Supporters of the ban on certain costumes say that costumes must not be interpreted by other students as offensive, promoting a religion, scary to a small child, sexualized, discriminating, or associated with gangs.  Costumes with a weapon are also not allowed.  In fact, according to an article in Mental Floss magazine, (http://mentalfloss.com/article/69774/8-halloween-costumes-have-been-banned-schools) there are 8 costumes/costume types that are banned in many schools this Halloween.

1.)  Jesus Christ
2.)  Superheroes
3.)  Geishas, Squaws and Cowboys
4.)  Sombreros
5.)  Trench Coats
6.)  Cross-Dressing
7.)  Sexy Nurse
8.)  Anything with a weapon

As this is a mostly comic book blog let’s just focus on #2, Superheroes.

According to the article an unidentified school sent out a letter, ahead of the holiday, to all parents.  It stated that superhero costumes that included, but were not limited to - Wolverine, Batman, Superman, the Power Rangers, and any of the Fantastic Four - were not allowed.  It went on to say that witches, ghosts, or any costume that would be too scary to a small child, were also not allowed.  The letters apparently used a comic style font for further effect.  Frankly, some of the reasons for these bans should be scary to a small child.

I couldn’t find that particular letter, but I did find this one online.  I could not authenticate it, however.

So why ban superheroes?

Some take it back to 1954 when Frederic Wertham published his book “Seduction of the Innocent” which said comic books were the cause of juvenile delinquency in America.

Some say it’s because the act of playing “superheroes” can lead to acts of violence, such as biting, punching, kicking, etc.

This poster, found online, was authenticated by the author of the article in which it was found.  Note the spelling and grammar errors in this poster authored by two school “Directors”.

Some say it’s because not all kids can afford superhero costumes and it’s not fair to those who can’t.

Some say it’s because certain heroes promote violence.

Although I do agree that children should not be committing acts of violence on one another, I think we need to reexamine how we handle the situation.  Here’s why:

Let’s say, for example, that I tell my son that he cannot dress as Superman for Halloween at his school’s party.  If he asks why I tell him that I don’t want him hitting or punching other kids when they play superhero (I have no clue what the real reason is).  He tells me that he wouldn’t do that but I ask him not to just the same.  Later that night he asks if he’s allowed to wear his Superman costume trick-or-treating.  I tell him it’s OK.  He asks why I’m no longer afraid he will hit other kids while playing superhero.  He wonders why I let him read the comic books, why I let him get the costume, and why we watch the cartoon together.  He asks me why he can play make-believe at home but not in school.  He asks if I ever dressed up as a kid.

Do I tell him the truth?

Do I tell him that I dressed up as Superman at his age and no one at school was emotionally or physically scarred?  Do I show him pictures of me dressed as Quasimodo at his age, with a horribly disfigured mask, and tell him I only ever heard “Cool!” or “Can I try it on?” from classmates?  Should I share my childhood stories where we spent countless hours playing “Green Lantern” or “Spider-Man” at recess with no long lasting effects?

Of course I feel that certain behaviors shouldn’t be allowed in schools.  The problem, however, is a behavioral problem (kicking, bullying, etc.) not a costume problem.  I hope it won’t be much longer before we realize that behavior and grades aren’t improving because kids are no longer allowed to dress up as Reed Richards.  There is a whole generation of people who dressed as superheroes and are full functioning contributors to society.  There are also gatherings of adults who dress as superheroes who are also fully functioning contributors to society...we call them ComicCons.

For those of you who were pinched by a classmate dressed as Flash or Captain America and, due to specifically to that, grew up to be a bitter, angry and hateful adult....please disregard this blog.

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R.I.P. Captain America, We’ll Miss You

I just finished reading “Captain America:  Sam Wilson” #1.  What an absolute shame.  When did Captain America become a political pundit?

If you haven’t read this particular issue you can do one of two things:  either you can buy it and read it for yourself OR you can read one of a hundred different websites that are voicing their opinion on it.  They say any press is good press, but many in my circles are not happy about this new press...and neither am I.

Before we talk about the “new” Captain America let’s do a quick review of Captain America and what he formerly stood for.  He was an advocate for the U.S. and it’s war against the bad guys from WWII.   He was of the same opinion as most people...Hitler was bad.  That was pretty much the extent of Caps international views.  Domestically, Captain America stood for truth, honesty, the American way and pursuing the American Dream.  He was inspiring, a strong leader, and a role model for me growing up.  He was Marvel’s boy scout.

Apparently, not anymore.

Marvel is now voicing it’s political opinions through the “new” Captain America...and it’s not just me who thinks so.

If you haven’t read it here’s the scoop in a nutshell.  Captain America comes down hard on a white supremacist group called Sons of the Serpent.  At the time of their beating they were in the process of apprehending a group of illegal aliens crossing the desert from Mexico to Arizona.

If you want to see a comprehensive report on what happened, along with political commentary, see this video from the MacIver Institute..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THg1kmxZk6M 

It seems that Disney/Marvel has started taking political sides.  Specifically, sides against specific candidates and specific views.  It wasn’t enough to just apprehend a group of ne’er-do-wells who were wrongly enforcing the law.  Marvel decided to make a political statement.  One they can’t take back.

Will the next issue have Captain America beating up workers at Planned Parenthood?  Perhaps Marvel can use Captain America to voice their views on Capital Punishment.  Maybe, in the not so distant future, they can release a Secret Wars spinoff called Political Wars!

What were they thinking?  They weren’t.

In an attempt to reach a “younger audience” Marvel has made some dramatic changes:

-They changed male characters to female and introduced them as “new characters”.

-They changed the race of some characters and introduced them as “new characters”.

-They put out a whole slew of new #1 issues for these “new characters”.

-Now, they have decided to take sides on the political front while openly mocking the other side.

So, it wasn’t just that race and gender weren’t important enough to develop actual “new characters”.  Now it looks like these “new” characters will also have political opinions.  It appears that the shortcut to Marvel increasing revenue was to reduce its creativity and succumb to political polls.

The saddest part?  They used a person with no superhuman abilities and a political opinion to replace someone who lost their superhuman abilities and represented the country’s opinion.

R.I.P. Captain America.  We’ll miss you.

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This Review is Rated ‘R’ - A Review of Skottie Young’s “I Hate Fairyland"

I saw the title “I Hate Fairyland” on the Image Comics website (www.imagecomics.com) and immediately went to my local comic shop and asked them to order it.  What was odd was when I went to pick up the “regular” copy and the variant.  The variant was turned backward in the bag and the words “I Hate Fairyland #1 Swearing Var Cvr” were written in Sharpie on the bag.  When I pulled it out and looked at the cover I knew I was going to like this series.

It turned out I got a triple bonus.

First, I always order any variants that come with a comic on my “pull” list.  So, I got the “cursing” variant with my purchase (more on this variant in a minute).  Second, the content reminded me of “Fractured Fairy Tales” that I used to watch as a kid (yes, I’m old, Google it if you don’t know what it is).  Third, in the back of the comic, Skottie was kind enough to write a little ditty about his background and how he got into comics and wound up at Image.  The funny thing is that I had a VERY similar background but without the talent, my own characters and comic rights, and...well...OK, maybe it wasn’t that similar.

On with the review! (a final warning, this is Rated ‘R’, proceed with caution)

The review can be summed up in two words, “Holy Shit”.  The characters, plot line, writing and variant covers are just flat out awesome.  Seriously, flat out awesome.  To be more pleased I would have had to have read it while having sex.

“I Hate Fairyland” has two main characters, Gertrude and Larry, along with a great cast of supporting characters.

The premise is that Gertrude is a happy go-lucky kid who always dreamed of unicorns, rainbows, fairies and the like who one day gets sucked into Fairyland.  In pure shock of what happened Gert asks how she can get home.  She is told by Queen Cloudia that it is simple, all she needs to do is find a key to unlock her way home.  In order to help her find the key she is given two things to help her:  a bug-like thing named Larrington Wentworth III to be her guide and a map to all the known lands.  There was one eensy-weensy little problem.  The map showed dozens of lands and she had no idea which land the key was in or where, in the select land, the key would reside.

The comic then leaps 27 years into the future to find Gert with the same youth of body but a very...well....let’s just say ‘angry’ state of mind...and no key.

Let’s just say that the moon was a little snarky and didn’t last too long in the story.

And the stars didn’t last very long either.

Since Image Comics and Skottie would prefer that you buy the book instead of reading it for free in this blog, let’s skip ahead a bit.

Gert and Larry run into all kinds of trouble including the Slug Lord (who has ‘Slug Life’ written on his Jabba-The-Hut-like body), the Shroom Patrol (mushroom-like policemen who are edible) and Bruud the Brutal.

In all honesty it’s difficult to determine which is better; the writing, the artwork, or the boundaries they crossed.  For example, here is the “Swearing” variant I spoke of earlier (I couldn’t find it online so I had to take a picture of mine.  Told you this review was Rated ‘R’!)

I can hear what you’re saying in your head right now, “OK, so what makes this smutty comic different than any other smutty comic?”  

Since you asked, let me address your question.  I can even do it in one sentence:

It’s a little girl with green hair who transforms from a normal green haired girl into a haggard mentally 30-something green haired girl who physically looks the same, throws the finger, is bad-ass violent and fears no one, and a bug who has gone from a well-intentioned helper to a sarcastic, cigar smoking, antagonist who rags her at every turn, to say nothing of the fact that you have cursing, ultra graphic violence, a strong set of characters, writing that made me belly laugh several times, and has an autobiography written by Skottie Young himself....all with the help of Jean-Francois Beaulieu.

See I told you I could do it in one sentence.

The improvements that could be made to this comic are nonexistent.  I can’t think of a single reason to besmirch this literary marvel.  I don’t say this about many comics but I am actually anxious to get #2 and I sincerely hope that Skottie doesn’t let up on the “Swearing” variants.  I will take them all.

The Comic Whisperer’s Ratings:

Concept and Characters:         2 middle fingers way up

Recommendations:                     Buy this comic (even if it’s only the clean version)!

                                                    Although I can’t see this comic increasing in value much

                                                    beyond it’s cover price, collecting this comic is sure to

                                                    make any collector proficient in sarcasm and profanity.

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