Media Research Failure/Comic Books
Thanks to Media Research Failure, it's only a matter of time before the news informs us that the X-Men are 24th in a line of alphabet-themed superhero teams.
- A British newspaper once featured a picture of Captain America (comics), captioned as Captain Planet, apparently failing to spot the colossal A on his helmet and American flag shield. Perhaps it was a dig at America's presence on the world stage, although this is probably giving those responsible too much credit.
- An Australian newspaper condemned the depiction of women in comic books. They cited one of the earliest examples of poor treatment being Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy. So far, correct. Then they wrote about her terrible demise by being killed and stuffed in Spider-Man's fridge...
- The media brouhaha surrounding the fact that in-real-life beleaguered Prime Minister Gordon Brown appeared in the Marvel Comic Captain Britain and MI:13 had several papers calling him SuperGordon and/or saying he "leads a counterattack" on the invading Skrulls, making him sound like Prime Minister Action. In the comic itself, he shows competence and resolve, but doesn't do much; he does give commands, but seems to be a little bit out of the loop when it comes to the world of magic and superheroics.
- Special Fail in the Daily Mail article linked to above- they refer to "an unseen character called Alistaire" yet the pictures they include alongside the article clearly depict the character in question!
- In an article about a local black comic book artist/writer, a paper claimed that there were only five black superheroes, which the article proceeded to list. Aside from the fact that there are far more than five black superheroes, the list didn't mention Storm (who, due to the at-the-time fairly recent first X-Men movie was arguably the best-known black superhero in America) but did include Iron Fist. Who is white.
- On an interview on the Larry King Show, legendary Marvel Comics writer Stan Lee was discussing the merits of comics. He said that besides great art a lot of them have good dialogue. King scoffed "Good dialogue? What like 'Zap!' 'Pow!' That's good dialogue?" Stan corrected him that those were sound effects. Lee was nice about it and playfully calling him a "Silly person"... There was a whole lot of old in the room.
- An article about upcoming summer movies in Time magazine talked of Green Lantern and his magic ring. In fairness, there is a Green Lantern with a magic ring, just not the one the movie was about.
- After an article by USA Today about the new Ultimate Spider-man had the quote “Maybe sooner or later a black or gay — or both — hero will be considered something absolutely normal.” Several news organizations such as the Daily Mail and the Drudge Report automatically assumed that Miles Morales "could be gay".
- Also a lot of news outlets neglected to mention that Ultimate Spider-Man is an alternate universe character which led a lot of laymen think that Marvel was replacing 'classic'/616 Spider-Man, Peter Parker.
- A Swedish TV guide showed a picture of a person they called Magneto. "Magneto" had adamantium claws and freaky hair.
- And actually you can pretty much include any mainstream news pieces which focused on the deaths of beloved superhero staples like Superman back in the 90s, and Captain America (comics) and Batman in the 00's. They rarely mentioned that superhero deaths are a cyclical process and that their resurrections were pretty much inevitable the moment they were killed off (or in the case of Batman, not pointing out that he was shown to actually not be dead at the end of the very story where he was presumble to have been killed). Of course, these news pieces were usually substantiated by the publicity and hype machine departments of Marvel/DC who also avoided downplaying the overall significance of those deaths lest they damper the sudden interest they were receiving.
- An issue of Latina had immigrant workers (showing that they were true heroes, performing thankless tasks) dressed in various costumes. Two were dressed as the Fantastic Four, according to the caption. They were really dressed as the Wonder Twins.
- A recent article in the LA Times on the use of V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks by the Occupy protestors somehow managed to claim that the comic and film were about Guy Fawkes rather than the Titular Character. The article also managed to invent a semi-fictitious British celebration called Guy Fawkes Day (in reality the 5th of November is generally referred to as Bonfire Night, and the older name Guy Fawkes Night has begun to fall out of use).
- "Guy Fawkes Day" is used fairly often, as shown by a quick Google search. This seems to have become a casual term for the holiday - this troper's British grandparents have referred to "Guy Fawkes Day".
- This review of Issue One of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise makes it sound like the reviewer has never actually seen an episode of A:TLA. The first paragraph mentions "the people of the Water, Earth, Fire and Wind nations"[1] and "...Water benders in the sibling duo of Katara and her brother Sokka."[2]
- Newspaper reviews of the autobiography/history of comics Supergods by Grant Morrison were particularly bad. The Irish Times, in a caption to a picture of the Justice League of America, referred to The Flash as Flash Gordon, while the Sunday Times used a piece of Watchmen fan art rather than the real deal and captioned it "Alan Moore's Watchman".