There are several ways comic companies can practically guarantee a mainstream media outlet will write something about their comic books, particularly if the company is Marvel or DC. Killing off a live character, bringing a dead character back to life, revealing a secret identity, a marriage, a demonic divorce, the occasional coming out, sticking Barack Obama on the cover or in the story…these are generally enough to get some reporter somewhere to call the name of the PR person on the press release and ask for an interview.

The downside of each of those strategies, however, is that they usually involve a lot of follow-up work, and only work so many times—Marvel can’t keep killing Captain America biannually, for example, and DC can’t re-out Batwoman.

A far simpler strategy is to destroy a recognizable part of a recognizable real, world place, and let the media react—while plugging your story in the process. When Mark Millar and Marvel destroyed a chunk of Stamford, Connecticut at the beginning of Civil War, Connecticut media perked up.

Today’s Chicago Sun-Times has a short article about Marvel’s upcoming Siege miniseries/publishing event, which begins (as you’ve no doubt seen in the free preview in the back of several Marvel Comics), with the destruction of Soldier Field in Chicago (NBC Chicago also covered the series from the same angle).

Although the story appeared in the paper’s books section,  Misha Davenport framed it as a local interest sports story, with the devastation being “the latest indignity” to befall Soldier Field “after many a Chicago Bears diasspointment.” There are a few quotes from writer Brian Michael Bendis about the decision and the repurcussions. The paper’s website also ran a preview and some upcoming covers, and posted the trailer Marvel put together for the event.

All in all, not a bad bit of PR—maybe Marvel and DC should focus on destroying real world locales more often.

In the piece, Bendis promises that Marvel heroes will visit Chicago during the storyline. “We’ve blown up a stadium,” he says, “Respect will be paid.”

I’m sure there will be a scene of superheroes picking through the rubble, and maybe a memorial service of some kind before it’s over. I just hope Norman Osborn and his collaborators get comeuppance from the hero who no doubt took this atrocity the hardest.

You know, this guy:

After all, how often does supervillainy and pro football intersect in the Marvel Universe? This is his chance to shine!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Marvel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.