The folks at Marvel announced on Friday that they were producing a WWII focused Captain America specifically for Army and Air Force Exchange Stores (AAFES as the military does love their abbreviations) worldwide, starting with the US first before making its way to other countries. The issue will be free in these stores that cater to active military and their families.
Written by William Harms and illustrated by Shawn Martinbrough the story focuses on Cap fighting bad guys in a WWIIesqe European town. They have focused on upping the already strong patriotic message usually found in Captain America titles, aiming for the tone used in the original run of the title 50 years ago. The pair is very excited for the up with military, ra-ra plot because of its target audience.
While its nice to see Marvel doing something for soldiers, I have to say there are better ways to go about it this. While clearly they are doing it as a promotion for the Captain America movie, which is find marketing I guess, are soldiers calling out for a single, out of continuity issue? Will comic fans in the military rush to the PX to get an issue marketed directly at them? My guess is probably not. I am sure it will move nicely off shelves, but then its not hard to sell free.
If you are going to make a promotion for the military Marvel, why not do something with some substance? Something Real? Free or discounted MCDU subscriptions wold be a good start, or a regular free/discount on mainstream issues. Not only do you get the good will of doing something like that, but soldiers have a lot of free time on their hands when they are stationed away from home. You have a fairly easy to get audience looking for entertainment. Not only do you get them hooked by the “first ones for free” method, but you also engender good feelings in the readers.
Perhaps use your marketing dollars to generate some good will with Soldiers and civilians alike, rather then produce marketing bait for your new movie looking to grab a headline but little actual attention?
13 Responses to “Is it patriotism or cynical marketing?”
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This is actually the 11th military exclusive issue. Marvel has been producing these under the New Avengers header since 2005. Some issues are purely poor shills for AAFES stores, but some are really good. The series briefly had it’s own semi-continuity, though that was abandoned a while ago. I always appreciate and enjoy these issues, and I know several others do as well.
Ok. I guess I stand corrected. Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn’t heard of these before and it looked like just marketing hype rather then doing something nice for the military. Do you think these free comics are popular and appreciated by soldiers? or just ignored?
Speaking as a soldier myself, I do appreciate them. I know some people in both camps. Some of us like them. Some could care less. They do tend to be popular. Guys who like comics grab ‘em up. Some guys grab ‘em for their kids. And there’s generally copies on ebay selling for anywhere from $.99 to $25. I usually pick up a few, for my kids and myself. I was fortunate enough to be able to interview a few of the creators involved in past issues and all seem to take the assignment quite seriously, even if it is for the custom publishing division.
Thats good to know. Its hard to tell with the movie coming out that its not just gimmicky marketing, but the fact that they have been doign it for a while says its not. This definitely makes me see marvel in a better light, and I am glad that soldiers seem to find the program as a positive. It seems every company has a “military” program and so many of them are bunk marketing that I guess I assume they all are. Glad to know I am wrong.
Also, Thanks for your service Mickey. You guys are the real heroes in my book.
Well, I’m sure it’s not really a coincidence that featured characters have frequently coincided with whatever new movie is on the way. This is the first directly tied to a film, though. Still, it’s nice to get a little bonus like this just for doing what we do. Thank you for your support. Those “thank you”s are always welcome and appreciated.
Great conversation. I recently separated from the service and I liked the free comics, being a comic reader. Some of my buddies did too.
Interesting article.
Your right. I went back and did some spell check on the last few articles.
I just saw this really great post today….
Not specifically about the book you are talking about, but I find a lot of companies like Marvel put out stuff like this to just gain good rep, and it usually is poor quality. Not saying thats what they are doing…just saying it happens.
Took a while since it wasn’t generally available, but I finally got a copy of this to read. It wasn’t bad, so that helps, but it is clear how hard they worked to tie this version of Cap into the movie, since they were released at the same time. The costume specifically.
Its good to hear the point of view of someone like Mike D. If you are going to look at this, an actual soldiers point of view is worthwhile.
I also recently separated, and we also read a bunch on comics (So basically what John said, I second it)