Fan Culture @ Swarthmore

Fletcher Wortmann and Dylan Smith

Week 10: Sub-creation, Seriality, and Media Franchises

In July of 1940, the Marvel Comics publishing corporation hit upon a breakthrough gimmick to increase sales. The company published the adventures of several popular superhero characters (The Sub-Mariner, Captain America, The Human Torch) independently. In issues 8 and 9 of Marvel Mystery comics, it was decided that The Sub-Mariner and The Human Torch would meet and fight one another. It was an effective marketing ploy, as fans of one character were compelled to buy any additional comics featuring their favorite hero, and their exposure to another character might convince them to buy that characters title.

It was with this simple gesture that the ‘Marvel Universe’ was created. Since then, Marvel has created any number of popular characters (Spider-Man, the X-men, the Fantastic Four). The same publishing rules applied, as a popular character could ‘guest star’ in another’s title to help boost sales, and so all of these characters were shoehorned into the same fictional universe. Unlike the fictional worlds of Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings, which are guided by the vision of a single creator, the ‘Marvel Universe’ thus developed as a mishmash of different characters and ideas. The X-Men (science-fiction mutants) would interact with the Silver Surfer (an alien), Dr. Strange (a magician), and Howard the talking anthropomorphic Duck. Marvel represents the development of a complex, fan-friendly fictional universe as an explicitly economic publishing strategy.

This brings us to our fan artifact for the week. A quick search on Google reveals two major Marvel Comics wiki sites: the Marvel Database (http://en.marveldatabase.com/Main_Page), a fan-run wiki focusing on the Marvel characters, and ‘Marvel Universe’ (http://www.marvel.com/universe/Main_Page) an official wiki included as part of Marvel’s official web site. The two sites demonstrate how corporate involvement can influence fan productivity. The official Marvel site includes animated graphics, character statistics and ads for subscriptions to Marvel comics. The unofficial site lacks these things, but features more extensive articles on a greater number of characters. The official site also requires that any edits are approved by site editors hired by Marvel; users who contribute information may be rewarded by being hired as editors or being allowed to participate in special promotions on the Marvel web site. Interestingly enough, the official web site also seems to omit some information about the characters. The ‘Marvel Database’ cites a comic where Spider-Man reveals that he was once sexually abused as a child; the official ‘Marvel Universe’ page makes no mention of that issue.

Discussion Questions:

1. With the conception and flourishing of this shared universe, in what ways has it created both masculine and feminine forms of fandom? Does it favor one over the other?

2. What is the sentiment on Marvel sanctioning one of the wikis? Is this good because Marvel is acknowledging the popular wiki system and seemingly ensuring its accuracy? Or is it bad because it is another example of the corporations trying to make money (there are many ads) off a clearly fannish activity?

3. What is the effect of the omission about Spider-Man’s childhood trauma? Is this is an example of the creators having final say in their creations, or an innocent way to keep our beloved icons “pure”?

4. Could these wiki’s be seen as an economic threat to Marvel? With all this information easily obtainable and in great detail, is it worth spending the money on the actual comic books?

5. Who would win in a fight between Dr. Doom and Magneto? Show your work.