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Civil War: Loose lips didn’t sink ships, went ignored for eight months.

December 7th, 2006
Author Graeme McMillan

Mike Sterling finds something unusual:

An oddity from that Secret Crisis post…in the comments section, posted on April 24th, was this comment predicting events in then-future issues of Civil War a week or so before the first issue of the series was even released. The heck? I vaguely recall ignoring the comment as crazy talk at the time, but, dang if he (or she) doesn’t pin the Spider-Man thing, and the Clone Thor thing…and I don’t know if the rest of it has happened yet or not, but still, what’s up with that?

Millarworld has some suggestions:

“The point is, someone blabbed back in April and no one saw it. Of course, the question is, who did it? LET THE WITCH-HUNT BEGIN!”
“The only thing that really surprises me is that they said Thor would be a cyborg/clone. There was some questionaire floating around at the time with multiple choice questions like ‘Which marvel hero will reveal their identity?’, ‘Which couple will become members of the Fantastic 4′, ‘Which marvel hero will make their return?’. They could have pieced everything else together from that. The clone/cyborg Thor though? Knowing that is a bit sus.”

“I bet it’s someone really high up there inside Marvel with a chip on his shoulder… I’d guess it was one of their high-profile writers. You know, the one who seems to not like Civil War that much.”

“But who could possibly have known these Spider-man and Fantastic 4 plots way back in April? I guess we’ll never get to the bottom of this. It’s a mystery.”

“Oh, if only they shared the same writer… Waittaminute.”

“Just drop it, guys. My personal opinion is that we’ll never know who did it. Sorry, but that’s how I feel.”

“I think that you Just Might be onto Something there. We can sit here Jawing for Months with no Solution.”

“Jaded writers really annoy Me, but then they’re only making themselves look Stupid.”

Ah, fun games with coded sentences.

24 Responses to “Civil War: Loose lips didn’t sink ships, went ignored for eight months.”
  1. The Ugly American Says:

    Jaded Me Stupid… It was Mark Waid?

  2. matteo Says:

    isn’t kind of leagally dangerous to make such assumptions towards a writer ?

  3. Bruno Says:

    “isn’t kind of leagally dangerous to make such assumptions towards a writer ?”

    :O
    Just you wait. Myriads of lawyers will be unto us! Swarms of them!

  4. Jer Says:

    matteo -

    I assume that was why they were “speaking in code” instead of just saying it outright. Its kind of funny, really, because I’m sure that JMS has had many worse things said about him over the last few years as a Marvel writer than “he spilled the beans”.

    As for who it could be – well, the book was designed by committee, and there are probably a lot of folks in the chain around there. Its not like the only people who knew what was going on were Millar, McNiven and the editors – everyone at Marvel probably knew the broad outline of “big events” that were going to happen in the series (which is all that posting has – no real plot spoilers, just big event spoilers). It could have been an intern who overheard a conversation in an elevator or something – it doesn’t really need to be someone intimately involved with the Civil War process.

  5. Peter Says:

    guys, you’re being Ridiculous. tHere’s no proof it is him.

  6. Duncan Falconer Says:

    “Just drop it, guys. My personal opinion is that we’ll never know who did it. Sorry, but that’s how I feel.” is an awesome gambit. Sad to see it didn’t pay off.

  7. Ryan Higgins Says:

    I DIDN’T DO IT!

  8. John Hendrick Says:

    Oh yeah Higgins?

    Sure!

    :)

  9. jake saint Says:

    Well, After I Deliberately Read All Pertinant Entries Debating Secret Acronyms, I Note That Nothing Implies Certain Knowledge. But, You Really Never, Ever Know If Lurking Lawyers Expect Dumb Messageboard Yokels To Openly Entice Negative Answer Involving Litigation.

  10. Mike Collins Says:

    WHen you have a book that has this many people working on it, it’s no surprise that things got spoiled.

  11. Pedro Bouça Says:

    I’m the guy who found out the leak (true, check the comments!) and indeed the common thing both Spider-Man, FF and (soon) Thor have is That Guy.

    So HE was the snitch! QUASADA! FIRE J. MICHAEL STRAITOR!!! MAY HE NEVER AGAIN SET FOOT ON THE HALLOWED HALLS OF MARVELDOM!!!

    Nah, altough I will be the happiest guy in the world whenever that Stravesty of a writer leaves Marvel, I’m sure he is the world’s biggest fan of Civil War. After all, the only reason sales on Amazing Spider-Man didn’t flounder like the Titanic after The Other (like it happened to the other spider-books…) was because the book went into Civil War mode just after that (FF too, since we are at that). I really doubt the Guy Who Destroyed Jeremiah (hey, I’m european!) has anything against Civil War…

    He is just a terrible writer, not a snitch!

    Best,
    Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

  12. Ryan Landau Says:

    >>>Well, After I Deliberately Read All Pertinant Entries Debating Secret Acronyms, I Note That Nothing Implies Certain Knowledge. But, You Really Never, Ever Know If Lurking Lawyers Expect Dumb Messageboard Yokels To Openly Entice Negative Answer Involving Litigation.>>>

    I like you. Let’s be friends.

  13. Bruno Says:

    “I like you. Let’s be friends.”

    ILYLBF?
    That makes no sense!

  14. Dan Coyle: No Turning Back Says:

    SOMEONE TALKED!

    IT WAS THE NEW YORK TIMES!

  15. Bruno Says:

    OMG, THE LIBERAL COMICS FRONT!
    SCREW YOU NEW YORK TIMES!

  16. GlennH Says:

    Instead of saying who you think it is, why not have Progressive Ruin’s webadmin check the IP’s of the commenter on their Haloscan admin page. Then cross reference it against the presumed person. If it matches you have your proof, if not it could mean 1 of 2 things. 1. That its not who you think it is or 2. It is and he used a proxy (which you can reverse dns the IP to find out if that was a proxy or not)

  17. Bruno Says:


    That’s too much hassle for an internet joke.

  18. The Ugly American Says:

    They did. It came from the DC Offices. Steve Wacker! I knew it!

  19. Danja Says:

    “Instead of saying who you think it is, why not have Progressive Ruin’s webadmin check the IP’s of the commenter on their Haloscan admin page. Then cross reference it against the presumed person. If it matches you have your proof, if not it could mean 1 of 2 things. 1. That its not who you think it is or 2. It is and he used a proxy (which you can reverse dns the IP to find out if that was a proxy or not)”

    You and your logic and technology have no place in this discussion! ;)

  20. Spencer Carnage Says:

    Does this Painted Doll person mention anything about us all waking up only to find the Goliath washing himself in our shower?

    “Woah. I guess what they say about black dud–OMG IT GETS EVEN BIGGER!?!!?!?!”

  21. Bruno Says:

    Spencer Carnage…

    YOU JUST BLEW MY MIND.

  22. Palladin Says:

    And here is where all our yapping and naysaying can be FUN! This has been a great way to forget how much I hate Civil War, both Marvel’s and Iraq’s.

  23. John Zito Says:

    Since there’s is a war and all, does that make this treason?

  24. John Ross Says:

    “WAID RAPED SAINT NICK. BYRNE KILLED MY TOENAIL.”

    I’m dying over here. Classic.

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