Imagine you were at the movies, and just as the villain and the hero faced off for the final show-down, the screen showed "Continued on next weeks New York Times...", the lights came up, and the ushers waved you out of the cinema.
That's not quite as extreme as Marvel's latest brilliant marketing scam, but it's basically the same idea. For those that read the "Nuff Said" issue of Spider-Girl (#41), and went on to read the original Tom DeFalco script, after four pages of reading through the first three quarters of Tom's narrative, the script ends MID SENTENCE, and we read "continued at www.marvel.com".
So, those of us who want to keep the script, and read it again in five years time when we re-read the main story will obviously turn on our computers, dial-up the net, surf through to Marvel's site, doubtless be asked to enter our email address and agree to receive online marketing material in our Inboxes, print out the story, and tuck it into the bag with the comic to keep it long after Marvel re-arranges their site and the link disappears.
Well, thanks a frigging heap! There was no reason why Marvel needed to do that. The script was almost finished. If they had used 13 point font in place of 14, then they would have fit the entire thing quite tidily.
We all know that Marvel has a website, and many of us visit it now and again. Prompting like this won't help their case. All this does is just annoy the heck out of most people. This from the brilliant marketing minds (no doubt) that decided to implement a Marvel fan-site policy that saw every Marvel fan site on Geocities closed down. What ARE these shiny-suited geniuses smoking up in their corner offices?
What about those kids who don't have Intenet access handy? What about those who don't have computers? I paid for a comic... not 90% of a story plus a dot.com advertisement. The script is ruined by not being completed, hence those four pages are wasted, hence I've been ripped off by four page worth, and I'm not a happy Spider-Fan!
If you didn't read the script at the back, then don't bother, it would be far more worthwhile to buy a big...
...continued on the back of your breakfast cereal box!