Chapter 170: Smiley: Flawed against Flawed
DC higher-ups were truly quite energetic when it came to following through with their anti-Creed agenda.
As soon as they convened their 'brilliant' minds together and found the "best" method in doing it, they quickly put it into practice.
It was also quite good that their "big mommy and daddy" or parent company is Warner, which has many established connections with the media industry. With this advantage, their plans already have a solid foundation and dissemination method for it to go on.
They even plan to put it in stages like some multi-staging genius mastermind. For a company who haphazardly jumped into making a DC survey to compete with the Creed survey, having stages in their plans was quite the upgrade in itself.
If Creed Comics think that they can solve this stage, then they have to think again as their master plan could produce other problems that the stuck-up Alexander Creed has to solve.
If Creed Comics think that the Alan Moore and Alexander Creed are pointless, then DC would make it a point of importance to everybody. Since they rejected Alan Moore, they should have prepared for the tendency for the rejected to become a support-gathering underdog while they as rejectors become the ones to topple down.
If Creed Comics think that keeping quiet through all their clamoring is enough, then they have to think again as DC can still rally and persuade people to think of the Creed publishers as "turtles". Not the Ninja Turtle or Master Roshi kind but the derogatory one that is synonymous with "chickens".
If Creed Comics think that JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is their solution against Alan Moore-style battle, then they have to think again.
Having a bizarre drama story to fight against an anarchic dark style is already a sign of weakness in DC's opinion after all. What were to happen to the already "weak" and meek Alexander Creed when they expose to the world how much their acclaimed JoJo is just a 'romantic tragedy' story?
Heh. Did Creed Comics think that they are so smart or their enemies to be so dumb? Bizarre, adventure, and the stone mask clearly point to a roundabout romance story.
Exposing JoJo to be a romantic tragedy meant that the obscure but popular Creed creator is beat and he didn't have any proper option to deal with Alan Moore's upcoming special style of DC's most iconic superheroes.
Thinking back on this laid-out plan of theirs, the more the DC masterminds think it is foolproof and effective.
Alexander Creed was way too much of a pain in their back that the Alan Moore opportunity is something they put great importance on.
Although they doubt that their methods would make a significant impact in sales, if they do it successively, then the damage to Creed Comics should stack and hopefully prove fatal at some point.
A demonized and defeated Alexander Creed is what they want to see and is working extra hard to make it all happen.
Such a loss from the undisputed spearheading Creed creator meant that the strong Creed publisher would be blunted and DC can pick some scraps from there.
It was even much greater news when the Creed creator's mentality would be destroyed and his comic-creating days would be over. After all, the man has spurned out 7 original titles with many levels of success.
With JoJo being the 8th and before it could find its peak, having toppled and crumble down meant that there are high chances of the 9th Creed title and so on to be affected.
In any case, DC's Creed-crippling plan was in order and they were hoping to enact it in the most opportune time.
It was unfortunate that as they planned and waited, the Creed party had plans of their own and already found the most opportune time to enact it.
All was supposed to be perfect in DC's opinion but just as they employed their plan to destroy Creed's everything through the 8th release, the 9th Creed title debuted!
It was released quite timely before DC could even employ their scheming wits about them.
DC's 'confident' analyst just connected the romance dots when 'JoJo #6 Erina Pendleton' and 'JoJo #7: Damning Kiss' were made available. Then, they rushingly planned to catch Creed Comics off-guard.
How come they were the ones caught off guard now? Did the Creeds know that they were going to attack JoJo that they timely released their 9th title to combat it? If that was the case, then wasn't their espionage quite scary? Was there a spy in their meeting midst who exposed their dirty schemes to its supposed target?
When those suspicions and doubts assaulted them, the DC masterminds seem to have been struck dumb and had a pause.
Of course, by the time, they've read up on the new Creed release, they seem to have swallowed a bitter pill.
Alexander Creed's Watchmen #1 in stylized fonts was appealing as usual but the blood-stained Smiley-Faced badge as the cover design seems to be mocking them some more.
Smiley-Faced Badge: All you do is futile and pointless while I'll be happy as always.
This was what they felt that the badge was saying and also the meaning in which Alexander Creed is telling them.
When they read up on the characters and analyzed them, everything was directed towards DC and making a flawed version of it.
An always naked but godly blue man named Dr. Manhattan. Was that a rib on Superman's godliness and DC heroes' outside underwear
The "Comedian" seems like a play on their Joker while Batman or even Blue Beetle wasn't spared as Nite Owl was there.
Then, there was a femme fatale called Silk Spectre who was a representation of all their femme fatale gal heroes.
Even this Rorschach guy's mask was an inked-up version of their 'The Question'.
As for genius Ozymandias, DC just had to look into all their super genius hero archetypes and they'll find him.
If all those combined weren't a riff at DC's expense, then they didn't know what it was.
When factored that the storyline portrayed that these DC-like heroes are dark and full of issues, the Creed attack comes to a full-on bomb.
For someone annoying Creed Comics and finding enjoyment in it, this reflected annoyance was quite the irritation.
Although 'don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you' was quite the wisdom, the 'what you've done unto others be done unto you' version was the most prevalent.
How could DC not be bitter when their targets fired back and they became the target themselves? Did they think that Creed Comics' quietness was a sign of weakness and timidity?
No, it just meant they were warming up and stretching their limbs to punch and slap back.
No matter how they looked at the Watchmen issue, DC executives could only be annoyed some more.
What could even be more compoundingly annoying than having an entire cover page of a blood-stained Smiley badge be meant as a sarcastic and implicit message for you? Of course, there was the fact that this single smiley Watchmen issue had rendered their multi-staged plans to be obsolete.
They've put many hours, portions of their braincells, costly media propaganda and analytic research into everything but it fell through when a single annoying Watchmen move was introduced.
Alan Moore special style this and Alan Moore underdog that. How come Watchmen was clearly in Alan Moore style? Isn't it illegal for Alexander Creed to be able to do that?
Questions continue to pile up in the scheming masterminds but they were already feeling the loss, the more they think about it.
Painting Alexander Creed as the enemy was good but thinking that he can be brought down with an anarchic dark comic style battle was the biggest mistake to it all.
DC's conventional scheme plan was truly good and all but there were many flaws to it.
It just so happens that the Creeds Flawed Heroes protocol was accurately and surgically put against it.
Sort of like fighting fire with fire, Alexander Creed just happens to fight against their flawed plans with flawed heroes.