Marvel's Captain Marvel movie gets writers! - Clickbait roundup

The latest clickbait roundup is, for a change, about actual news. Marvel's "Captain Marvel" movie has got scriptwriters!

About 4 weeks ago, Rob Keys on ScreenRant.com posted a roundup of the rumors that had been circulating about this project, but none of these rumors had anything to do with the writers.

On April 13, Borys Kit in the Hollywood Reporter posted a very journalistic article on reports that Marvel was considering the two writers for the movie, and a link to a safely broad but accurate history of the character (though when they mention the original Captain Marvel, they neglect to add Bill Parker's name to C.C. Beck's as creator).

The very same day,  Clark Allen on The Tracking Board apparently breaks the news in what is posted as the "exclusive" story that Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve are in advanced talks to write CAPTAIN MARVEL. The article very responsibly gives  brief but insightful backgrounds on the character and the two writers.

Jeff Sneider on The Wrap.com then reported on that "Nicole Perlman (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) and Meg LeFauve (Pixar’s “Inside Out”) are nearing a deal to co-write “Captain Marvel” for Disney and Marvel, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap." He then goes on to add the rumor that Michelle MacLaren was to direct, making all sound like he has some exlusive insider info. The article credits Tracking Board with breaking the news, and was updated on April 20 with Marvel's official announcement.

Apparently later the same day, however, Albert King on Comic Book Resources had posted the big news that Michelle MacLaren had left Wonder Woman, and, in the relatively in-depth article, also mentioned The Wrap's rumor of her working on "Capain Marvel" and names Perlman and LeFauve as writers as if it is confirmed fact.

Also on CBR, Megan Damore reports that Perlman and LeFauve are "in talks, but the headline says that the writers are "signed."

Though the piece is undated, the comments on Sean FitzGerald's one-paragraph report on Vulture.com indicate that it was posted on April 14. It reports that "Guardians of the Galaxy's Nicole Perlman and Inside Out's Meg LeFauve are close to inking a deal to co-write Disney and Marvel's forthcoming Captain Marvel project, according to the Wrap."It is notable that in those comments, someone points out that "You've, ehm, got the wrong Captain Marvel up there in your image. The wrong publisher, in fact." Either that commenter was mistaken, or they changed the picture, because the picture shows the now-common picture of Carol Danvers pulling on her glove.

On that same day Justin Kroll on Variety.com posted an industry-targeted announcement of the report, claiming that it had been confirmed by a source.

Matt Key of Geek Girl Authority also reports on the article from The Wrap, adding little more than pictures of the two writers.

There is a lengthy discussion board about the MacLaren news that includes quotes from CBR about MacLaren and the Perlman and LeFauve rumor at http://rocketf.org/thepond/showthread.php?tid=792

On April 20, 2016, Marvel officially broke the news that 'Nicole Perlman & Meg LeFauve will together write Marvel’s “Captain Marvel,” in theaters November 2, 2018, bringing Carol Danvers to the big screen in her first solo cinematic adventure.' And the clickbait reports began.

A surprisingly concise-yet-thorough writeup of the whole situation was done by Andrew Dyce on ScreenRant on April 20, apparently before the news broke, and added a link to the Marvel announcement as an update.

Max Nicholson on IGN.com writes the briefest of all possible reports on the news and then pads the story with a surprisingly accurate video about the history of the character that annoyingly calls her "Miss Marvel" instead of "Ms."

Mike Cecchini on DenOfGeek.us adds just a little insight and opinion in his brief report.

Dan Van Winkle on TheMarySue.com reports the news briefly and with barely any real insight or depth.

Reviewer Drew McWeeny writes an opinionated piece for Hitfix.com. He believes that gender-equality justice would be served if as many tasks in the movie. from the writer to the best boy, were given to women. He does make a convincing point.

Brendon Connoly writes an undated piece for WhatCulture.com that nicely but briefly sums up the situations of the writers.

...and you know what, my life is so busy, it took over a month to get this posted. I may just give up on these clickbait roundups...

Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau in all-female team!

So Marvel Comics has announced that there will be an all-female team of Avengers in their upcoming "event," Secret Wars. The news has been announced on, as should by now be expected, bunches of websites, and almost all of them included this image...

Among the characters portrayed are two Captain Marvels: Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau. What with Danvers being Marvel Comics' premiere female at the moment (she has her own regular series, as well as appearing in certain "Avengers" titles and "Guardians of the Galaxy," and is the white Queen" in a chess set Marvel has just released in England), I am a little surprised that she is not front-and-center.

Josh Dickey at mashable.com was apparently the first to report the news, in an article remarkable for its knowledge of the subject of female superheroes, even pointing out that there have been 14 female super-teams before this one (who wants to guess them all? I can think of Birds of Prey and specific lineups of the Defenders and the X-Men, plus one lineup of the Justice League put together for a specific mission. Does the Marvel's Divas series count?

Michael Cavna and David Betancourt of The Washington Post combined this news in an article with news that DC Comics was ending their "New 52" in June and resetting their universe. Obviously not a lot of comics fans read the Washington Post on line, because there are only two comments as of this writing, whereas other websites' comments counts are running anywhere from the 80's to the 140's, etc.

Apparently Salon doesn't get read by many comics fans either. They didn't even bother writing their own article, just reprinted Jesse J. Holland's brief but detailed Associated Press report, and only got one comment on it.

Newsmax, a politically-leaning website, did not even get one comment on Margan Chilson's article, that basically just quotes reports from USA Today by Brian Tuitt (which includes a lot of detailed and insightful interview response from writer G Willow Wilson) and Entertainment Weekly by Joshua Rivera. 

Huffington Post dutifully reported this news in an article by Jessica Goodman. Since this is, after all, news, UPI has a minimalist report by Veronica Linares. And since this is entertainment news, the Hollywood Reporter posted a brief report by Graeme McMillan that basically quoted the article from Mashable and called it a day.

But the prize for most brief article is an uncredited post on 4GeeksLikeYou. Two short paragraphs and a quotation.

The most sensationalistic, yet analytical article of all, the one most worthy of being called "journalism" in this vast wasteland of clickbait, copy-paste, and shallow announcements, is Michael Calia's article in the Wall Street Journal. It is the only article I found that linked to the original Marvel Comics announcement, and looks like it was even updated after its original publication to amend a report that the announcement would be made on the TV show "The View" after that segment was cut from the show. Among its many worthy observations (peppered with stock quotes for companies mentioned in the article like Disney and Warner's) is that while many are decrying the move for being a "gimmick" or "stunt," " the comics business has always been about gimmicks and stunts, so there’s nothing new to see here in that regard."

And speaking of that report that was cut out of "The View," this surprisingly thorough article by Bdc Lives on Moviepilot uses that bit of scandal as a clickbait headline.

The funniest thing about this whole business to me is the name of this new team: "A-Force." Jesse Shedeen on ign.com supposes that this name is meant to recall "X-Force," a title from the 1980's and '90's. (Incidentally, that same website also announced the "tease" of the news the day before) Some might think it was inspired by the TV show "The A-Team." Several commenters recalled the fictional TV pilot mentioned in the movie Pulp Fiction, "Fox Force Five." almost every comments section with more than three comments included one about how the team should be called "V-Force."  My...awkwardness with the name is how there is another word that starts with "a - hyphen..." that has been getting a lot of play on TV lately, and maybe it's just my mind being in the gutter, but I can't help thinking of that word when I see this name.

Personally, I never thought I lived in the gutter, more like perched on a mailbox or something.

What do you think about this news?

Latest Captain Marvel clickbait: Joss Whedon

As a lover of the classics, sometimes I am a little bit behind the times. It ass only just recently that I discovered the term "clickbait," but now I get it. Claickbait is when you post something with a headline that is sure to get people's attention so they will go to your webpage. whie they are theere they will hopefully click on other sponsored links and get you money.

It does not matter if these headlines are false, misleading, or outright lies, and the stories are filled with inaccuracies, innuendo, speculative ideas with little to back them up, are simply are not what the headline said they would be, or are little more than a mention that something was said on another website and a link to that website, so long as they get people to your website. Some of the most egregious examples in recent years, for instance, have included stuff about the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), the birthplace and religion of the president of the United States of America, and pretty much anything involving the casting of new superhero movies, as we have reported already here and here (see how I did that? Be sure to click on the ads and the Amazon links to support Captain Marvel Culture).

The latest example of this regarding a Captain Marvel concerns a recent interview with DigitalSpy.com in which Joss Whedon, famous for creating the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Agents of Shield" TV series and directing the recent Avengers movie, claimed that there was a lack of female superhero movies because of "genuine, recalcitrant, intractable sexism, and old-fashioned quiet misogyny that goes on."

This quote was the basis of an article in ScreenRant.com yesterday which already has thre pages of comments, including one coment postad about a half-dozen times by the same guy proposing that thePatsy Walke, Marvel's character "Hellcat," be put in a movie. I guess that guy didn't use his "refresh" button or something after he posted ;).

The article itself went into slight depth about the subject, pointing out that shortly after the interview Marvel announced it's upcoming slate of movies, including Captain Marvel, and posted a lovely picture of Carol Danvers in her new costume:

Then they went on to talk about the X-Men female heroes in the X-Men movies, and then called for comments.

 

It seems now that BuzzFeed.com did a telephone interview with the director and posted it on Thursday in which they asked hm, among other things, if he would be directing Marvel's Captain Marvel. He said that he "wouldn;t rule anything out" but that he was more inerested in creating his own universe He commened a little more on the character, saying...

 

"Captain Marvel I don’t know as well. There have been a few [versions] of her. I have the first issue of Ms. Marvel, back when she was that, and had the Farrah hair. My only issue with her is that she always felt sort of on top. She was very driven. A winner. I always like to dig into the soil of things to find my heroes, if I can."

 

This makes me think he would probably want to read a little bit more about her, seeing as how she has hit bottom a couple of times since that first issue in 1976.

The interview went on to talk about The Hunger Games, Lucy, X-Men, and looking for a girl in comics over which to have crush. Nevertheless, the clickbaiters went into action

 

The real clickbait culprits came hard on the heels of this, with articles on CinemaBlend.com and ComicBookMovie.com posting the question "Could Joss Whedon direct Captain Marvel?" Both articles then quote enough from the interview to make it clear, as the interview does, that no one has talked to him about it, he isn't jumping at the chance, there have been no announcements made, and there are other things he would rather do.

 

So congratulations, guys, you got me to go to your web pages, to read pretty much the same thing three times over, and now, beause I feel that it would help my Captain Marvel Culture research project to report on all things Captain Marvel, I just spent a good chunk of this morning writing about it!

 

Maybe I should make this blog into a clickbait site....