So this came up over the weekend and I thought it bore
further examination. In “New Avengers
#15” Spider-Man, newly appointed member of the team, voiced concerns about what
his reputation would bring to the venerated superhero organization. This is after the Avengers Disassemble story
arc. For more details on that, I recommend
picking up the collected editions of “Avengers Disassemble”. So when New Avengers came out, it literally
was a splinter group, an off the books kind of situation led by Capt. America
and consisting of Iron-Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Wolverine, and a rotation of
Sentry, Ms. Marvel, Daredevil and Ronin.
However Spider-Man isn’t wrong about his misgivings about
joining the team. At this point, Peter
Parker is no longer working for the Daily Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson is in full
swing with this anti-Spider-Man campaign.
Spidey is right to think his presence on the Avengers team will draw bad
press.
Here is where Tony Stark comes up with a brilliant idea:
make a deal. Believing that Jameson is
first and foremost a capitalist, he tries to broker a deal with the newspaper
publisher offering exclusive coverage of anything the Avengers get involved in
to the Bugle in exchange for him laying off Spider-Man.
Here is the problem with this idea: Jameson isn’t strictly a
capitalist. I would hesitate to call him
a Republican. He’s more of an
independent conservative, and thus will not bend what he believes is right in
favor for anything. Jameson meets with
Stark, shakes Spider-Man’s hand (much to the shock of everyone), then the next
day blasts the New Avengers for their attempt at bribing him.
On this surface this seems like unethical move, and the team
is justifiably outraged because now he’s not only targeting Spider-Man, he’s
dug up dirt on almost the entire team, which unfortunately for them wasn’t that
hard. Luke Cage had done prison time for
heroin dealing. He cites that it’s a false
accusation; however that won’t necessarily sway the American people. Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, is a former HYDRA
agent, that’s not a good PR thing.
Sentry, when he is on the team, is mentally unstable, and then there’s
Wolverine, a guy who’s left more bodies in his wake than probably any other “hero”
this side of the Hulk. Frankly at this
point I had no idea that Wolverine was a publically known superhero, I just
figured the X-Men just flew under the radar for the most part.
The point is that while they are outraged, you have to
wonder if Jameson was actually wrong for what he did.
Let’s look back at what transpired: Tony Stark offers Jameson a bribe. He’s offering exclusive coverage for good press;
he’s trying to purchase public opinion.
I’m surprised that anyone was surprised that Jameson took exception to
it. He’s never been one to take a
bribe. Does he unfairly vilify Spider-Man,
absolutely, but he doesn’t do so at the expense of his ethical character.
Jameson truly believes that Spider-Man is a menace. He’s not doing it to sell papers, he can sell
papers with any story, but he follows his single minded crusade against the
wall-crawler because he believes he is right.
Tony Stark actually severely insulted him on an ethical level by
assuming he could purchase his opinion.
The message that Stark sent was “I think your values are so thin that I
can bribe you to give my team good press, no matter who they are or what they
do.”
Tony assumes he’s going to take the deal, which also says a
lot about Tony because clearly this is the kind of deal Tony would take.
Of course Jameson spits the deal back in Tony’s face, and he’s
justified to do so. Then he writes a
piece that absolutely blasts the team (see above). They are outraged, no doubt a few of them are
thinking of legal action. Spider-Man in
the comics at one point filed a liable suit against Jameson for defamation of
character, so maybe that could work here.
I’m sure that crosses Tony’s mind.
Here’s the legal advice part: It won’t work, because there’s
nothing in that article that isn’t true.
All it does is cite the pasts of the individual team members, which he
didn’t make up, he used facts. You can
see it on Jessica’s face as she reads the words (brilliant art by the way) that
this is absolutely true: she was a member of a terrorist organization; she
chose to hurt innocent people.
The blasting of Stark’s attempt at bribery was, in fact,
very true and something the public did need to know. Tony Stark is one of the most high profile
superheroes and icons of business in the Marvel Universe. Everyone knows who he is and/or has supported
his business in some way. That makes him
a very influential man, and for a man of that profile and influence to attempt
to bribe the media for good press coverage raises a lot of red flags.
Legally, there isn’t anything the team can do. They cannot demand a retraction or an
apology, they have no legal ground to stand on.
The best they can do at this point is lick their wounds and go about
their business.
Now the obvious counter is that Jameson violated a
contract. He shook Spider-Man’s hand,
which indicated that he accepted the deal, but he never signs any paperwork, he
never even verbally says he’s going along with the idea. He hears Stark out, he meets the team, he
shakes Spider-Man’s hand, and leaves.
So why did he shake Spider-Man’s hand? Well, again, he’s been at a press war with
the superhero since day one. He shook
Spider-Man’s hand to say “Good play.” He wasn’t accepting defeat, he was saying
this battle was over and he was about to bring it up to the next level.
As always, the Avenger, and all associated characters are the rights of Marvel Comics, this post is generated under fair use, and no financial gain was obtained through this post
Thanks for reading.
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