Slott went after the Bleeding Cool EiC on Twitter about the site's recent Marvel leaks, and we want in on some of that action!

Source: The Twitter

Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott took some shots at Bleeding Cool Editor in Chief Hannah Means-Shannon on Twitter today after an interview with Means-Shannon on the Word Balloon podcast raised his hackles. The tweets were taken from Tweetdeck, as Slott has blocked both The Outhouse and myself on Twitter for reasons unknown:

By revealing the comics that Marvel is already producing? Okay...

Means-Shannon took time out of her busy schedule of assigning Bleeding Cool staff members to correct Rich Johnston's many typos to respond to Slott:

Pip pip!

Oooh! Bleeding Cool is extorting Marvel for the payola (read: exclusive access to talent and information) Marvel regularly and willingly exchanges with media outlets in for fawning press coverage! How dare they?!

And on She-Hulk, you were a decent writer... is how I would have replied to that if I were Hannah Means-Shannon.

At the heart of this issue is the belief of Dan Slott, and some of the top brass at Marvel, that the purpose of the comic book press is to serve Marvel's interests. That if the press isn't helping to sell comic books for Marvel, they should be treated with hostility and are somehow failing in their duty as journalists.

They're wrong though. The purpose of the press isn't to sell comics. It's to inform (and entertain) the people, who are, in this case, the comic book reading audience and the readers of Bleeding Cool. Those readers don't care if Marvel gets to consummate their relationship with their "media partners" at CBR, Newsarama, IGN, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Nerdist, or whatever big name site they are giving an "EXCLUSIVE" to on any particular day. They just want to know about comics news, and don't need it spoonfed to them with publisher-approved glorified press releases.

Bleeding Cool is indeed helping the comic book industry. They're helping it by keeping it honest and by speaking honestly to fans instead of trying to sell them products on the behalf of publishers. That may not be the kind of "help" Dan Slott is looking for, but it's not Bleeding Cool's problem if Dan Slott has to work harder to rush out a fluff interview with a media partner. They aren't morally obligated to protect Marvel's agenda.

Dan Slott and the other creators' jobs at Marvel should be simple and unrelated to whether or not Bleeding Cool exposes their October publishing schedule a day early: tell good comic book stories. More than any kind of hyperbole, stunt-publishing, gimmick-variants, earth shattering super-mega-crossover events, number one issue reboots (that are definitely not reboots), or strategically placed EXCLUSIVE stories at mainstream media outlets, good comic book stories are what will cause fans to want to read more Marvel comics.

Sadly, some at Marvel seem all too often more passionate about promoting Marvel's corporate agenda than they do about their actual work.

We'll believe that when we see it.

Fanboy Rampage was a blog by Graeme McMillan dedicated to the funniest, most ludicrous and most inappropriate comic book back-and-forths online. McMillan has moved on now, becoming a proper journalist, but he gave permission to Bleeding Cool to revive his great creation. The Outhouse steals it occasionally to annoy them.