Today I protested Marvel Comics by purchasing only 1 of their titles, THE FEARLESS DEFENDERS #12. There were 8 comic books on my family’s list for today, and 6 of those books were Marvel titles. They will just have to wait until next week. I faithfully read Superior Spider-Man bi-monthly, but not today. Guardians of the Galaxy. Nope. Deadpool. Sorry D-Piddy. While it’s great that Misty Knight is in Daredevil: Dark Knights, this week is all about The Fearless Defenders. So that title is not coming into my home this week either. I didn’t even purchase Amazing X-Men for my husband (don’t worry, he fully supports my protest). The only title I’m reading by the slasher of comics this week is The Fearless Defenders. Imagine the impact if more readers stood up and did the same for their favorite comics that are getting axed.

The heavy stream of tears from my eyes have finally reduced to a trickle. I was fine reading the book until the last page of the story. That’s when the tears began to fall. And reading the final thoughts by the creators made it even worse. Ellie Pyle gave a rundown on projects that Cullen Bunn and the rest of the team will be working on. But…they’re all working on separate projects across the universe.

DISCLAIMER: My blog consists of my HONEST reviews and HONEST thoughts and tantrums. Everything I type is my own voice, as I am influenced by no one.

Right now my tongue is on fire. It’s more explosive than all the TNT that Wile E. Coyote used during the entire run of Roadrunner.

In case you’re wondering, yes I am in sista mode. Remember it’s sista, and not sister. Misty Knight’s mouth ain’t got nothing on mine right now.

Marvel seems to enjoy playing with the emotions of its’ readers. They will cancel a title, only to re-launch it with a new creative team. I don’t know why they won’t start the new team on the new arc. They know damn well there are some serious comic collectors that does not need their numbering to be played with. I should know, my husband has been collecting for many years. And what about new titles? Books that don’t even get the chance to celebrate a one year anniversary, such as The Fearless Defenders?

But in all honesty (which is what my blog is all about), Marvel did not cancel The Fearless Defenders. It was the readers. We canceled this title. Sure Marvel is the puppet master, but we loosened the strings by not spreading the word about the book.

I wrote a blog post a few days ago about my random thoughts. I mentioned how readers need to support their favorite books and creative teams. Creators always tell readers to talk to others about the books, and why we like them. A few simple ways to get the word out are:

• Talk about your favorite book(s) at your local comic shop. Tell why you like it. Is it the writing, art or both? Talk to the owners AND customers.
• Get on your blog, website, or visit a comic forum and post a thread or comment on someone else’s.
• Social media sites. I’m on Facebook and Twitter, but I know there’s a lot of other sites out there. Post a few words about the books you’re reading. Mention the writer and artist.
• Instead of wasting keystrokes begging for re-tweets and follows on Twitter, post what comics you’re reading and what you like about it. Tweet multiple posts if you run out of space (I’m a talker so I had to learn how to condense my tweets to 140 characters).
• Use hashtags. I haven’t been on Twitter that long, but I am learning how to use them. Before you know it, your favorite titles will be trending.

We need to drown the internet by marketing our favorite books, to keep them in publication. Cullen Bunn, Will Sliney, Mark Brooks, and Veronica Gandini gave it their all. We know this because it shows in their writing, art and the colors.  And yes, always mention the colorists. Who do you think bring the pencils and inks to life? It’s definitely not me. I would place last in a stick figure drawing contest, and I started back coloring outside the lines as soon as I graduated from kindergarten.  So there is no way I could do Gandini’s job.

I also mentioned in my random thoughts post that we need to put our favorite creators on a pedestal, especially those on low-profile titles. Spider-Man and X-Men are high-profile titles. They don’t need anything but everyone to step back, and take a moment to realize that there’s other books out there besides those two.

I follow a lot of people on Twitter in the comic industry. These people open up their lives to not just their family and friends, but to their fans. We know all about their families, pets, and what they eat at each meal. We know when their loved ones are ill, and when they recover. And they’re constantly posting pictures. This is a chance to establish creator/reader relationships. If they share their lives on social media sites, then we can tell them how much we appreciate them and their work. This provides encouragement and a motivation boost.

I was hyped about The Fearless Defenders from the beginning. Besides the characters, I was familiar with Bunn’s writing from Deadpool Kills. And that’s another thing. If you like a certain book, follow the creative team. You just might like their other work. When I learned about this title, I had the comic shop PRE-ORDER my copies.

Instead of complaining about the artist of a certain minority-led book, and gossiping about some eight year-old bullshit about who tried to get with who, put all that damn energy into trying to keep your favorite comic books far away from the chopping block.

I will definitely miss this awesome series, and I hope to see many, if not all, the characters in other titles. If you haven’t had the chance to read the adventures of this kick ass non-team, you can read all the issues here.

Since Marvel loves to stop and re-launch titles with different creative teams, maybe this title will get re-launched but with a twist. The twist would be that the creative team would remain unchanged.