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Underground > Comic Books >

Guiding Light (Soap Opera) and Marvel Universe crossover?

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

13:40 / 26.09.06

Of all the projects announced by Marvel at the recent Diamond Retailer Summit, it’s not a stretch to say a team-up with the CBS soap opera The Guiding Light was the one that raised the most eyebrows.

From it’s start, the project has been in the hands of Marvel Assistant Manager of Sales Communication Jim McCann, and we caught up with him for a chat.

Apparently someone in the town that Guiding Light takes place in will gain super powers in an episode titled "Shes a Marvel" which will be aired in November.

There will be 8 page backup stories in a bunch of Marvel books leading up to the episode, which wont have any superheroes in it due to liscensing problems, but soap opera people will be in the comics.

My biggest question in all this is what exactly IS the motivation? Is Marvel trying to get a piece of the stay at home parent/really bored college kid market? Does anyone really think that the comic nerds will become soap opera nerds after all is said and done?

14:23 / 26.09.06

They've run out of nighttime soap-opera (e.g. the OC) writers to court?

18:29 / 26.09.06

This is such an obvious cry for help.

19:36 / 26.09.06

Doesn't seem all that strange to me.

Soap operas have been dipping into sci-fi/horror for story ideas for decades (vampires in "Dark Shadows," mad scientists in "General Hospital" and "Days of Our Lives," witches in "Passions," etc).

And most DC and Marvel titles have had ongoing, soap opera style romances and tribulations since the 1960s.

Even crossovers are common to both.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

20:34 / 26.09.06

But similarities in style dont mean that it will work or be good.

I don't think that an ongoing soap opera can retcon in the fact that they have always existed in the Marvel U any more effectively then a comic book could retcon itself into the real world (9/11 comics anyone?).

What will end up happening in the end is that the GL characters will be name dropping superheroes for a month or so, and then the writers will get tired of having characters randomly say things like "That Captain America is dreamy" or "I wish I had the money that Tony Stark has!" and will stop. How often do the Days of Our Lives characters mention that Marleyna was possesed by the devil a few years ago?

The entire thing will be forgotten by years end, not causing any long lasting effects on either franchise.

Kind of like the Marvel/DC crossovers.

22:37 / 26.09.06

Kind of like most big two comics ever, Elijah.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

15:24 / 27.09.06

Well I think in the terms of the current crop of big crossovers that remains to be seen.

We all assume that Peter Parkers dual identity will be covered up by some lame excuse, but we don't know for sure.

True, there have been many "sweeping changes that will alter the universe forever" which were removed from history one way or another, but there have been major changes that had lasting effects.

The thing is, comic book fans have grown to accept that people don't stay dead, and crossovers maybe happen in a pocket universe. The failure of the GL crossover will be that the soap opera fans might not accept it as freely.

So, if Nick Fury never mentions that he spent time in Springfield investigating a new super powered threat it wont phase the comics fans, but if Sam and Susan from Springfield never mention that they met Spiderman ever again it could piss off the viewers.

Of course at the end of the episode someone will likely wake up and it will ALL HAVE BEEN A DREAM !!!111!!!!1!

19:21 / 27.09.06

The failure of the GL crossover will be that the soap opera fans might not accept it as freely.

So, if Nick Fury never mentions that he spent time in Springfield investigating a new super powered threat it wont phase the comics fans, but if Sam and Susan from Springfield never mention that they met Spiderman ever again it could piss off the viewers.

I don't think so. When you have to make five hours of new drama every week, things get pretty chaotic. So soap opera fans are pretty used to characters inexplicably vanishing, promising plotlines going unresolved, and thoroughly wacky situations occuring and then never being mentioned again.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

19:37 / 27.09.06

Good point.

I hope there is an evil twin involved somehow.

20:25 / 27.09.06

Yeah, evil twins are pretty much da bomb.

20:34 / 27.09.06

I think it was Archie Goodwin who described comic books as soap operas where fights replace love scenes. In any case, even in my limited exposure to soaps, I've seen plot twists that even Marvel fans wouldn't accept.

My favorite is "child goes away to boarding school, comes back as a young adult 6 months later"

21:35 / 27.09.06

Dude - with a name and intiials like Guiding Light, shurely the obvious superhero cross over candidate would have been Green Lantern...