Marvel Boy Was There First

[jlroberson]

When I read today that the next Wikileaks release will be of corporate secrets, I could not help but think of this. A little background for those who haven't read Morrison's MARVEL BOY: Hexus, the Living Corporation, has taken over the earth via memes and franchising. Noh-Varr tries to kill their leader but every time he does another Hexus employee replaces him, and never seems to run out of them. So he does this instead.







Oh, and the cables are now a torrent. Enjoy.

Comments

[darkblade]

Which also explains why the evil sentient meme is using a coorporation instead of 4chan.

[jarodrussell]

Corps are legal entities. 4chan/anonymous is not. I think a hivemind/AI/setient meme would still do well using a corp to interface with our economy/society.

[jlroberson]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. For one thing, 4Chan doesn't employ anyone. For another--seems to me corporations are not LESS pernicious now than they were then.

Also, a corporation is considered a person under the law. But one with more rights than you or me, and which is harder to ever punish for any crimes committed. I kill someone? I go to jail. A corporation kills many people? It MIGHT pay a fine.

[darkblade]

From an in-universe perspective you are correct but from a meta perspective of a writer trying to be topical the internet presents a wider reach of understanding among the readership.

[jarodrussell]

So you're saying that Grant Morrison was right to use a corp because it's closer to how an alien-meme-thing would interface with the economy/society, but he was wrong to be right because a wrong model would work better with his readers' lack of understanding on the ecology of artificial super-organisms function?

Just...just go read Birds of Prey and leave the stories that actually try to use complex systems in a novel way alone.

[darkblade]

No I'm saying if he wrote this ten years later he wouldn't have gone with the corp and instead with the more obvious answer.

While Morrisson has his good moments he all too often goes for the most obvious answer instead of the smartest one.

[jarodrussell]

No I'm saying if he wrote this ten years later he wouldn't have gone with the corp and instead with the more obvious answer.

BATMAN, INC.

Batman, Incorporated

A company, not an image board.

[darkblade]

And a company is the most obvious way to expand upon an enterprise.

[jlroberson]

At the time, Morrison was in fact working on the side as a consultant for corporations. I'm trying to recall what, but I think it had to do with logos and branding. He applied his sigil ideas to it. So he was writing from his own experience.

[darkblade]

I didn't actually know that. In that case then I may very well be talking out of my ass here and for that I apologize.

[jlroberson]

No prob. But yeah, it was basically satire mixed with Kirbyism. (the phrasing of its name)

[jlroberson]

No, I don't think so, because most of the world neither knows nor cares what 4Chan is. Hell, I only ever heard of it initially because of HERE.

[darkblade]

When you bring up memes to an average person they will likely reconize them as their online forms of lolcats and rickrolls as opposed to the greater aspects of social structure as whole.

[jlroberson]

When I said "memes" I don't mean them in the loose and inaccurate way they're used now, I'm using the original idea of infective ideas that can take on a life of their own.

Speaking of 4Chan

[jlroberson]

They're behind the Operation Payback DOS attacks, which have now taken down the Visa site.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/08/operation-payback-mastercard-website-wikileaks

Which puts the conversation above into an interesting context. But they're not Hexus. They're the other side.