Mr. Anonymous No More!

Don't get excited. I mean that in the "Spider-Man No More" way, not as an indication that the formerly anonymous source stands revealed.

My insider has indicated that, for reasons I won't share for fear they might lead him to be identified, they will no longer be able to provide SCHWAPP!!! with privileged info. They may have told me this today, the last time I ran info from them or at any time in between.

A Bit About Spoilers...

Last time I posted some spoilers from Mr. Anonymous, I caught some shit from a few people. Some understandable (I'm still sorry to Pedro, who apparently got the spoilers against his will via the RSS feed) and some less so (some of the hate posted at the Bendis boards, where they welcome Rich Johnston with open arms (and rightly so), despite his having done the spoiler thing many times).

Mr. Anonymous still hasn't given the go ahead and I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do when he does. Some have suggested I not run it at all. A friend or two has suggested I run it with wildcards to obscure the full reveal. And, of course, there are the rabid that just want the info NOW NOW NOW.

In advance of whatever decision I make, I wanted to reiterate a few things:

• Last go 'round, I received no correspondence from Marvel or anyone associated with them asking me to pull down the spoilers and stop posting anything further. The posting process went on over a nice chunk of time, so they obviously had plenty of time to generate and e-mail me a C&D, like "marvel_b0y" supposedly received. One could imply tacit approval of my actions from their failure to communicate any problem with the matter to me.
  
• As mentioned in an earlier comment of mine, Joe Quesada bellying up to the bar with Rich Johnston, who certainly has published spoilers regarding Marvel and DC items (like the Inferno bit this week).
• More of an addition to the first bullet than a separate reason: I explicitly stated in my previous blogs that I'd immediately cease publishing the spoilers if someone from Marvel (ANYONE) asked me to. I requested to be contacted if it was a problem. I assure you they have ways of contacting me. No one did.
  

Now, I'm not saying I'll definitely be posting anything. But, if I do, just remember the above bullets while you call me a douche around the 'net. ;)

And Marvel_b0y Says...Nothing?

Given the teaser about upcoming Mr. Anonymous spoilers, I thought it was worth pointing out that marvel_b0y has been silent since April. The blog is still up. With all the "spoilers" still on it.

Hmmm...quiet as can be, just as soon as the series landed. Just as soon as the event it seemed to be viral marketing for hit.

Is there really still any doubt that it was some sort of viral marketing attempt by people with access at Marvel?

One of the saddest things? The last blog over at marvel_b0y's LiveSpace is now just a spot for World of Warcraft farming companies to advertise their gold for sale in the comments.

Might as well just take the whole thing down now, don't you think, J&J?

And Comics Journalism Needs A Russert

• Rumors persist that Marvel_b0y was a viral campaign run by employees of Marvel, despite at least some sort of denial from Joe Quesada.
• Countdown counted down to nothing, since it certainly didn't countdown to Final Crisis.
• Grant Morrison says that he gave DC his first issue script and the outline for the entire mini-series long ago, yet rumors persist that Didio traveled out to Scotland because Morrison was delivering something different than he had previously laid out.
  
• Dixon leaves DC; he didn't quit, yet he says he didn't have quite the passionate "YOU'RE FIRED!" moment. There are strong indications that Didio is the reason he's gone, but he won't spell it out further, as of yet. Keep in mind he said no comment next week and now he's been posting up a storm of comments alluding to what the heart of the matter is.
  
• And now, despite protests to the contrary only a matter of weeks ago, JG Jones has obviously NOT been on schedule with his artwork for Final Crisis, as revealed now by Carlos Pacheco being added to the series as of Final Crisis #4.
  
• Kinda indicates that Grant Morrison was full of it when he protested that things were way too far gone for them to have adjusted anything to meet up with where Countdown to Final Crisis left things. It wasn't a combination of things, it was simply the lack of desire to change things. Again, nothing wrong with that on his part. Should have left it at "I didn't want to" rather than trying to say circumstances made it too difficult.
  

Man, I wish there was someone that comic notables felt that they HAD to submit to being interviewed by and could press for firm answers (without being spat upon by half of the fans out there).

You know what is a shame? I find the mysteries of Marvel_b0y (still) and exactly what the fuck is happening at DC more compelling than the comic book event series at either company.

The Two Joe Quesada Questions

Since a few people want to know what they would have been, I'll share them here...despite the fact that I'm sure it will be anticlimactic, though.

Yes or No Question 1: Was Marvel behind the Marvel_b0y blog at any point in its existence?

Glaringly obvious question, no? But I didn't catch anyone asking it or hear anything about it. With all the accusations about it, Marvel hasn't seemed to address it at all. I know I posted a question about it on Marvel.com for the MySpace Cup of Joe. I don't think I was the only one. So, I feel asking this would have been at least a little confrontational to a guy who was running a fairly feel-good panel at the time.

Yes or No Question 2: Did you get a Screen Actors Guild card for your work in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back?

This is the beating of the dead horse. But the fact remains that he had a speaking role in a Hollywood release. Normally, that requires you either being in SAG or paying for SAG membership. That would put the crossing the line to appear on Colbert in a completely different light, regardless of whether he let his membership lapse. But, being that it had nothing to do with comics and wasn't a friendly question, I didn't feel like changing the mood of the whole panel.

Everyone seems to think that I'm enough of an attention whore to have no care about screwing up a panel for other attendees or to stalk people for a response. Not me. I made an attempt to put out feelers for the Joe questions that would get to someone in a position with Marvel that would give it a chance at happening in the right circumstances. Either the info didn't get to them or they had no interest whatsoever. And thats...ok. ;)

I'm With Marvel_b0y?

People have started claiming that the I'M WITH MARVEL BOY button is evidence that Marvel_b0y was their viral campaign. Kinda forgets that Marvel Boy is a character involved in Secret Invasion...

Confirmation That Jen Grunwald Is Marvel_b0y

Why is it that no one at Marvel appears willing to confess to and address the Marvel_b0y excessively shite-y viral marketing campaign?

Mr. Anonymous (no, Marvel didn't find out who he was and make him sleep with Namor) has found out that, for at least the Windows Live iteration, it definitely was Jen Grunwald. I contend that it was always her and done with the blessing of Bendis and others the whole time.

Ms. Grunwald is an admin at the Bendis boards. She'd definitely have had the power to idiotically reactivate and rename the Marvel_b0y account over on the Bendis boards. The horridly fake game of cat and mouse between her and Bendis the whole time clearly points to his being complicit in the whole deal. I've heard whispers of others at Marvel being involved in the process, but then they turned up on the MySpace viral campaign...so it might have just been crossed signals.

I'd really like to know why Marvel doesn't own up to their goof. Come clean and put it to rest. Someone should pose that question to Joe Quesada this week.

Marvel_b0y = Jen Grunwald?

Speculation has been rampant as to the identity of Marvel_b0y. But the popular guesses as to the identity of the subject at Marvel...the employee fully approved to do this...is Jen Gruenwald.

Comments that suggested Marvel_b0y was Jen Gruenwald were initially deleted from blogs since the move to Windows Live (one is currently up, but it was just posted an hour ago). Strange behavior for someone who had a gag about being Steve Wacker earlier, eh? Made sure to call Jen a hottie earlier.

Yeah...I know this is a dead horse...but I'll occasionally keep bringing it up until there's some closure on that horrible marketing gone awry.

Can We Get The Consensus on Marvel_b0y's Status?

He stopped posting suddenly. Barely addressed any of the audience's many concerns about his legitimacy. Ended on the whimper of saying that RUN FATBOY RUN.

So...do we think now that he was definitely marketing and they didn't know how to wrap up the production?
Or maybe the silence is meant to build things up for him speaking out again as a viral marketing tool?
Was he just a bitter employee like he suggested?
Or something else?

I'll be running a poll on the front of the site to get what popular opinion is.

Random Comic Book Thoughts

• Hey...maybe Heidi MacDonald and Douglas Wolk were paid Marvel consultants on the Marvel_b0y viral marketing campaign? I mean...didn't they start the whole "insult your readers and creators to generate buzz" thing with the "Jess Lemon" incident?
  
• Now that it is no longer April Fool's Day, I can tell you my true joke: the spoilers were never going to end with Monday's reveal. Full Secret Invasion #2 spoilers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI
• I'll be traveling to attend a wedding and possibly a funeral this weekend, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm not around to say "I told you so" or "f*ck! they used me!" right away.
• For some reason, the retcon of a sidekick for The Wrath just happening to match the way The Wrath was done in THE BATMAN cartoon is detracting from my enjoyment of the great work Bedard and Morales are doing on their BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL arc. I wish it wasn't true, but it keeps nagging at me. If anyone involved has come out and said that it was an idea that came up independent of the cartoon development, please direct my attention to it so I can breathe easier.
• Dennis Calero was on the RON & FEZ SHOW on XM Satellite Radio Channel 202 this afternoon, plugging his upcoming appearance at NYCC and a big project he is doing at Marvel that he thinks will be announced at the convention. Wonder what it is? DC's loss for not wrapping him up when he was on Legion of Super-Heroes; his work there was very underrated. (Update: Dan Coyle says in the comments that Calero was talking about a big pitch with Fred Van Lente at the Baltimore Comic Convention)
  
• I'd really like to see Johns and Morrison collaborate on a bi-weekly half or full year alternate Earth story. Well, I'd be fine with them writing the real DCU Earth, if coordination issues wouldn't seep in. I'm struggling to figure out who I'd team to do the same over at Marvel, but Fraction would be in the equation.
  

Much Better Than Marvel_b0y

I have to agree with the masses: THIS is the proper way to run a viral marketing campaign. Well...the proper method, but you do have to find a way to infect more people earlier on...

SCHWAPP!!! If I Was Played By Marvel...

Is Agent M the nefarious Marvel_b0y?

Has a Blackberry. Takes the same piss-poor style pics. Would be exactly who brass would have post the stuff or model their fake employee after.

Mr. Anonymous No More?!?!?

Well...I think it might be safe to say that Mr. Anonymous won't be giving me any spoilers. I received an IM from someone who brought up the topic of Mr. A, leading to the following portion of our conversation:

[01:21] Schwapp Online: I'm a little bummed that my source hasn't been on in the last 24 hours
[01:22] Mr. Mysterious: Marvel found him.
He sleeps with the Atlanteans.
[01:22] Schwapp Online: ...
[01:22] Schwapp Online: Namor is backdooring him?
[01:23] Mr. Mysterious: I was making a play off of "sleeps with the fishes".
[01:23] Schwapp Online: I know...and I twisted it into something more Brokeback Mountain
[01:24] Mr. Mysterious: Sick freak.
[01:24] Mr. Mysterious: Anyway, I'm out; later!!

Mr. Anonymous...please say it ain't so?!?

SCHWAPP!!! Mr. Anonymous Revealed!

In this vlog, I finally reveal the truth behind all of the Mr. Anonymous and Marvel_b0y hoopla going around. I'm only sorry I waited this long to tell you all.

SPOILERS: And Now...For Mr. Anonymous's Finale....

When it came time to give the last spoiler, I wondered: how could I extend this. How could I make this a chore for people to get the info again in a more obtrusive way than having to just highlight random gaps in paragraphs?

The last Skrull I have to reveal...

I figured it out: a lengthy embedded video.

...is...wait for it...

So, here you go:

...in the vlog, you cheating lazy bum.

Why Provide Spoilers?

At first, I provided the spoilers given to me by Mr. Anonymous because I strongly dislike the way this Marvel_b0y viral campaign has been pulled off. It is another marketing strategy that takes things to a new level of dishonesty. When you spew as much bile and venom as this viral marketing campaign has done (opt-in or not), there will be collateral damage. The fans become yelling, screaming, stressed, and insulted pawns in your game to make a few extra bucks.

Not in this spot...

Mr. Anonymous, himself, would probably never have stepped up to give me these spoilers if not for Marvel_b0y giving out the occasionally wrong info and being a douche.

Or in this one...

Marvel has since toned it down a bit and the only one getting lumped on is Marvel_b0y himself. It has led me to sit back and rethink things.

Oh...did you think it'd be here?

For instance: I really like Bendis. The guy AND his work. I'm sure he's not digging this...unless I'm just being played like a cheap violin by Marvel, which is entirely possible. But the anecdotal evidence I'm getting from reader reactions is that the spoilers are making them more excited and look forward to buying the product.

Still checking?

Which isn't to say that justifies anything. Yet I haven't been contacted by anyone at Marvel or anyone involved with the book to ask for the spoilers to be pulled down. The e-mail has always been out there to contact me. I've received nothing.

Nope...nothing here.

On top of that, there's the demonstrated history of Rich Johnston posting spoilers of Marvel product without any cease and desist or any obvious damage to the Marvel/CBR relationship. This would pretty much counter any argument they could try to make legally if they wanted to come after me. In order to have full legal protection of an intellectual property, you have to be consistent in how you defend it. So...you can't get too far coming after a blogger for something that you were so tolerant of previously that you've had your EiC grant multi-part event interviews to a site that has run spoilers for your product in the past (and continues to do so). Rich even posted a bit of script to confirm that he actually read an Astonishing X-Men story in advance. That's right...if Marvel brings the thunder, I'll be using the "Chewbacca Rich Johnston" defense.

Ha...you checked every gap? Check back later for the spoiler.

So...to sum up...I've spit out a meandering mess here. Part about reasoning (to counter an ill-conceived viral marketing program while appearing to cause no harm to the readership) and part about having established history of spoilers on my side, as far as from a purely legal standpoint.

You Can All Have Anonymity, But There's Only One Mr. Anonymous!

OK...so I didn't feel right making you all have to wait too long for some spoiler-y goodness. If everything runs to plan, you'll see this around the start of the work day on the east coast. Everything is in white. It is a script excerpt that lays out the exact details of an earlier spoiler. Why? Because Viral_b0y is trying to insinuate that others don't know what they're talking about. Script excerpts potentially say a lot more than plain ol' spoilers.

[01:14] Mr. Anonymous: i'm looking through SI #1
[01:14] Mr. Anonymous: for anything else that might be juicy
[01:14] Schwapp Online: lol
[01:17] Mr. Anonymous: ok
[01:17] Mr. Anonymous: here's something that should get you a C&D
[01:17] Schwapp Online: LOL
[01:17] Mr. Anonymous: 1- Int. Stark's secret warehouse- Same
The dead, nude corpse of Elektra Skrull lies there. She has been cut open.
Hank Pym and Reed Richards are both working at little stations they have. Reed in the foreground is hand writing into a notebook and jotting down what he sees in his microscope.
In the foreground right, His handmade portable communication device is blinking but he has put it aside and is not paying attention to it.
It reads: Baxter building emergency
2- Tighter on Reed scribbles some notes. Making some formulas.
3- Same. Reed looks up. He figured it out.
ReED RICHARDS
I- I think I got it.

I know how they made themselves undetectable.
4- Over Hank's standing silhouette shoulder, Reed turns around and is pointing to his notes and thinking outloud. Looking at the notebook and not Hank.
ReED RICHARDS
You know what the Skrulls did? They took-
5- Over Reed's shoulder, Hank Pym is standing there with an alien weapon. He has a weapon to Reed's head. Backlit and ominous.
HaNK PYM
I do actually.

[01:17] Mr. Anonymous: 1- Profile, Hank holds out his Skrull weapon at arm's length and blows Reed's brains out. His head stretches violently but does not break. His eyes almost fall out of their stretched sockets.
Spx: fshammm
2- 'Camera' on the floor. Reed falls to the floor in a puddle of rubber. He's completely lost his shape. Is this what he looks like when he is dead?
3- Slightly low looking up. Hank looks down. No sign of emotion. Backlit.
4- Same. With a twinge of discomfort. He turns back to his natural form.
5- Same. And With a sigh of relief. He is free to be a Skrull again. Our first 'Skrull' the entire issue. Backlit and menacing.
6- His Skrull fingertips gently touch the forehead of his fallen comrade. The dead Elektra.
HANK PYM
As it was written.

[01:19] Schwapp Online: Sweet.
[01:21] Schwapp Online: Damn...now I have to debate which bit I run tonight versus over the weekend or Monday
[01:21] Schwapp Online: have a preference
[01:22] Mr. Anonymous: hm
[01:22] Mr. Anonymous: the script excerpt
[01:22] Mr. Anonymous: because the (possibly last Skrull reveal) thing is probably the biggest thing

Now, you just might have to wait all the way until Monday morning for that last Skrull reveal. Depends on whether I get that C&D.

Remember: I have no property in my possession that Marvel has any claim to. So, if they try to get Blogger to shut me down, they should have a helluva time trying. Marvel knows about this blog, but they're caught in a real shite position: either way they go, they probably wind up admitting that Viral_b0y is just their marketing department and they don't seem ready to do that yet.

Edit: So, post-dating the blog won't make it only appear once that time has hit. Dammit! Well, it will make for some interesting message board discussions when people argue about duplicate postings. "I had it at X:XXam!" "Nuh uh, it wasn't up until 8:28am!" ;)

Why Marvel_b0y Is Viral Marketing Reason #19293

Anyone notice how I've been blogging Secret Invasion spoilers, starting with the ones that led MB to pull his blog off of LJ?

From the start, I said I'd pull it all down if someone official from Marvel so much as sent me an e-mail requesting it. I practically said, "mother, may I please have a C&D pdf?"

Have I gotten anything? Nope. Have I even gotten a comment from anyone purporting to be Marvel brass? Nope.

And it isn't because they have no legal grounds. I mean...they don't, really. But C&D's get sent out all the time to intimidate into complying with a request that has no legal basis for being demanded.

They've sent nothing...because it's all just a game. They've apparently decided that these spoilers getting run will be less damaging than anything that might develop from them asking me to stop.

That last spoiler is coming. I'm not telling you an exact time. Keep checking throughout the day.

SPOILERS: Anonymous...Mr. Anonymous

OK...it's hard to frame this one even with white-on-white writing as to be less obvious to the casual reader.

So, the reason that the new Spider Woman series starts "the moment Secret Invasion ends"

Let's stretch this out a bit.

Is because the Spider-Woman we know is a Skrull

Do you know that I gave him the name "Mr. Anonymous"? He's actually pleased with it, though. We're both surprised that people are carrying the rumors all across the 'net while still referring to him as "Mr. Anonymous". But hey...it's cool.

the "real" Spider Woman comes back to earth during Secret Invasion

It's, also, nice to see that most people are crediting where they pulled the spoilers from. I appreciate it, though I'm not sure it makes a huge difference to Mr. A.

You might have figured that out already.

Marvel_b0y's been a little quieter than you'd expect. He's ignoring all the viral marketing comments. Ignoring the comments section...even ones from Mr. Anonymous himself. And all he provides is a bad teaser pick of another WHO DO YOU TRUST? Greg Horn painting?

But it leads to some details I'll reveal tomorrow that I bet you never guessed.

Sheesh...I tell ya...some people...what? Oh yeah...highlight all the gaps between the paragraphs to get your Skrull reveal of the day. Special goodness tomorrow.