Marvel Teams with Stomp Out Bullying for Anti-Bullying Awareness Program

Marvel Entertainment is enlisting its biggest Super Heroes to bring added awareness of the problems of bullying. This October, Marvel will join forces with STOMP Out Bullying™, the leading national bullying and cyberbullying prevention organization for kids and teens in the U.S., to launch a special variant cover program to commemorate National Bullying Prevention Month and support STOMP’s relentless efforts to stop this growing epidemic. Throughout the month of October, the world’s most popular Super Heroes – Captain America, The Avengers, The Guardians of the Galaxy and more -- will be featured on all-new variant covers to spotlight both National Bullying Prevention Month and STOMP’s Blue Shirt Day® World Day of Bullying Prevention. The variant issues will be available exclusively at comic shops.

"The center of Marvel’s storytelling history is the eternal struggle between good and evil, with many of its greatest Super Heroes having to contend with -- and rise above -- bullying, in all its forms," said Axel Alonso, Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics. "We are proud to join forces with STOMP Out Bullying on its important bullying prevention awareness mission. We hope that all our fans take a moment this month to educate themselves on the need to stop bullying among our youth by checking out the free resources STOMP Out Bullying has to offer.”

STOMP Out Bullying™ focuses on reducing and preventing bullying, cyberbullying, sexting and other digital abuse, educating against homophobia, racism and hatred, decreasing school absenteeism, and deterring violence in schools, online and in communities across the country. It teaches effective solutions on how to respond to all forms of bullying. It educates kids and teens in school and online, provides help for those in need and at risk of suicide, raises awareness, conducts peer mentoring programs in schools, creates and distributes public service announcements by noted celebrities, and engages in social media campaigns. An additional focus educates parents on how to keep their children safe and responsible online.

In 2008, the organization created Blue Shirt Day® World Day of Bullying Prevention to signify the importance and bring awareness to the fight to stop bullying and cyberbullying. Taking place the firstMonday of October – this year on October 6, 2014 – Blue Shirt Day® World Day of Bullying Prevention is designed as a sign of solidarity against bullying by having kids, teens and adults wear blue and make that the day that bullying prevention is heard around the world.

“We are privileged to join forces with Marvel Entertainment on this critically important bullying and cyberbullying prevention campaign,” said Ross Ellis, founder and Chief Executive Officer of STOMPOut Bullying. “Bullying and cyberbullying have reached epidemic proportions, with one out of every four kids being a victim. And bullying transcends race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation; in fact, some of Marvel’s greatest Super Heroes were themselves bullied as kids and teens. But just as Spider-Man, Captain America, and Marvel’s many other Super Heroes were able to triumph and go on to combat evil, so can every one of us be a Super Hero in our own right by standing up and joining the fight to eradicate bullying.”

The following comic books, on-sale in October, will feature special STOMP Out Bullying variant covers:

• · Rocket Raccoon #4
• · Guardians of the Galaxy #20
• · Avengers #36
• · Inhuman #7
• · Hulk #7
• · Captain America #25
• · Legendary Star-Lord #4

1. Bravo Marvel
2. Seriously.......an Anti-Bullying program,and Spider-Man DOESN'T get a cover?.....okay.That sounds reasonable.

Good for Marvel, it's nice when comic companies do stuff like this..but alas, I fear bullying will always exist in one form or another.

Just make comics. I doubt some kid is gonna see this cover and be like, wow, I'm not gonna punch that kid in the face tomorrow.

Really proud of Marvel. If I can, I'll pick up those covers. The Captain America one is definitely my favorite. Could you just imagine that happening in real life?

Not bad. Although when I was bullied when I was younger I just beat on the bully and they left me alone. But I digress.

Surprised Spidey doesn't have one. Peter was a bullying poster child.

You never know. It could help to teach that kid a little empathy. A lot of times when a kid bullies, there are problems at home. If there is a way to shed light on how it's making the victim feel, then hopefully the bully can relate and see that he is continuing the cycle of harm. It may not make a huge difference, but if it helps one person, then I'm sure that one kid who was being bullied, will appreciate it.

Yeah let's not spread anti-bulling and instead do nothing.. you make a good point. It's not going to stop bullying but at least it's something to help prevent bullying and I see nothing wrong with that.

@feartheliving: I really don't see how this is going to prevent bullying at all. Besides bullying will always be around.

Not only that isn't there an app out now with texting where it identifies keywords and asks if you're sure you want to say that. And something like 87% decided to reformat the message because they were made aware of it. Now that's pretty different from comics but any little thing that can help someone rethink hurting someone in any way is a plus.

I like these covers. Especially the GotG one with Gamora, and the Hulk one. It sends a good message, and having been a bullied kid, I always imagined how it would feel to have one of my heroes backing me up at school. These covers nail it perfectly.

Would have been nice to see a Nightcrawler one too.

didn't rocket raccoon want to steal a false leg from a disabled prisoner for fun in GOG?

I guess marvel is just against a pretty narrow interpretation of bullying then.

Oh my god look at that kid on that Captain America cover. He's hilarious! He has a G G Allin mustache, a pink polo shirt with the collar flipped up, a lime green 59fifty hat, a lip ring, a flannel shirt tied around his waist, John Cena dog tags, Lance Armstrong ball cancer wristband, and a off white belt....... Why is no one bullying that kid? It's like ever bad fashion trend threw up on one child. He looks like character from portlandia......

Spiderman is also a bully to be fair.

I really doubt this will do anything to stop bullying, but it's still a pretty cool thing for them to do.

That hulk one is awesome

There will always be car crashes, therefore car safety is pointless.

This is literally your logic.

@vrakmul: No its not. What I'm saying is that no kids who reads comics is gonna stop bullying because of a cover. Put a poster up in school or something, not a comic book.

I find it really funny when people try to school me on what I said.

@jayc1324: Which is still saying we shouldn't talk to people about car safety because you believe no one is going to drive more safely because of a PSA.

You're not a very intelligent man, so please stop trying to ascribe meaning to your words that isn't there.

@vrakmul: the less desirable elements of Human Nature will always exist. Risk will always exist.

Both are perfectly logically

@vrakmul: What?? Where are you getting cars from?? There's a reason they don't out seatbelt ads in comic books to anyway. You don't even know what I'm saying.

And it's incredibly stupid and an outright dangerous sentiment to hold, therefore you should feel bad for even having this opinion and fully deserve to be shamed for it.

@punyparker said:

@pwok21 said:

Spiderman is also a bully to be fair.

I like how Max Landis put it:

'Why do you think that all Spiderman's villains hate him? Because he mocks them and belittles them while breaking their bones."

Spiderman is clearly Street Level+ and yet dishes out some brutal beatdowns to people who clearly can't take them.

@jayc1324: You're saying that because you do not feel that talking to people about a problem in society (discussing bullying through the medium of comic books) solves anything that Marvel is wasting it's time and should stop.

This is actually tantamount to stating that we should not make PSAs about Car safety because someone feels that they don't do any good.

Don't try to weasel your way out.

@vrakmul: that's not at all what I'm saying. To find out what I'm saying, simply READ WHAT I ACTUALLY SAID and stop trying to twist it

How exactly would that statement be "weaseling my way out" when it was my first comment on this page?? How can I weasel out of something before you even started it??

I also still have no idea where car safety comes into this. I'm not responding to anything you say about car safety again.

Cool covers. I will get the Avengers cover since that's the only book on the list I read

@pwok21

I was getting ready to start a war, but that makes a lot of sense quiet frankly and I kind of agree at some level.

@pwok21: You rob a store,or kill a person,or rape a girl,or,or,or.......you get a beating.

@pwok21: I like Landis' vid on Superman, but I tend to disagree with caveats. Poorly written Spidy can come across like a bully, but the joker antics were created in a very different time in his book. Spiderman got shellacked in his early outings, jobbers like the Scorpion could give him a really hard time. Firstly, I have to imagine the joking was a strategy to keep the baddies off centre while he fought them. Second writing wise it was also a way to keep the book light. Third, the villains didn't snap because Spider-man made fun of them, they were already hurting people before he showed up. Lastly it was meant to show an increased confidence difference for when he put the mask on, as Peter hiding his powers he continued to be picked on, and couldn't go making witty comebacks to people bullying him, as Spider-man able to go all out he could also tell those attacking them to shut up in smart funny ways, I'm sure he wished he could have on flash.

That's not me saying the way you or Landis see it is wrong, I just have a different interpretation.

The Gamora cover is fantastic.

1. Why doesn't Hulk just roar at those bullies?
2. Who's dumb enough to bully a kid sitting with the Hulk?
3. Why does Groot look like the trees from "The Wizard of Oz"?
4. "I'm Star-Lord" "Who?" Oh god, is Marvel going to start whoring out every aspect of the Guardians movie like they did with the Avengers?

@vrakmul: too accept human nature is not perfect is more rational view then some flaws idea of believing some utopian concept. we cannot completely prevent things like jealous, greed, aggression etc but we can try to reduce them. Same with risk, risks always exist, we can hope to reduce them but we'll never be able to foresee every possible risk.

"Who?"
Hey, that's from the movie XD
BB

Marvel doesn't have the movie rights hence him missing.

BB

@jayc1324: If you fail at basic logic then there's no point in discussing with an ignoramus like you.

This seems to be essentially be agreeing with me.

Good job Marvel.

Ha.
Maybe.

@punyparker said:

@pwok21 said:

Spiderman is also a bully to be fair.

You know it's true Puny Parker!

I always agreed with Landis' interpretation in that Peter took out years of repressed anger from being bullied / abused on the villains, in that he disproportionately hurt them. I get that it's a writing thing to add jokes and make the book much more kid friendly but if you insult a villain while viciously beating them it gives them a reason to hate the hero to the point where they'll specifically target the hero as opposed to committing crimes. I get that not every Spiderman villain falls into that group (It's why I like Shocker and Rhine) but to me, Spiderman is a massive jerk.
I mean, the reason the Sinister Six exists is because a group had an intense hatred of Spiderman and wanted to put him down permanently.

But like you said, it is down to interpretation after all.

^

@madeinbangladesh:

“We are privileged to join forces with Marvel Entertainment on this critically important bullying and cyberbullying prevention campaign,” said Ross Ellis, founder and Chief Executive Officer of STOMPOut Bullying. “Bullying and cyberbullying have reached epidemic proportions, with one out of every four kids being a victim. And bullying transcends race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation; in fact, some of Marvel’s greatest Super Heroes were themselves bullied as kids and teens. But just as Spider-Man, Captain America, and Marvel’s many other Super Heroes were able to triumph and go on to combat evil, so can every one of us be a Super Hero in our own right by standing up and joining the fight to eradicate bullying.”

Does anyone understand what this is supposed to mean? These statements don't seem to work together. It seems a little problematic too, as aside from alien characters, all the heroes are straight white and male, who of course could be bullied, but it kind of leaves out more obviously targeted groups. Maybe the Avengers and Inhumans covers will be good and even things up a bit.

Also, does it seem odd to anyone else that Daredevil and the X-Men from this campaign? Mutants are frequently discriminated against, and Daredevil could stand up for children with disabilities. If I was putting together a superhero anti-bullying thing, I'd maybe match heroes with children who have something in common, in a sort of role model kind of way, which this doesn't seem to be.

Either way, I'm glad efforts are being put into dealing with bullying, so hopefully this will do some good.

@punyparker:

Variant covers promoting "bully awareness for children" on a bunch of books that are rated T+ and have nothing to do with bullying. And they are available "exclusively at comic shops" where kids rarely ever go! I'm going to give Marvel the benefit of the doubt that this is just a small aspect of the partnership with this organization that includes donating a large chunk of proceeds from every book bought, television ads featuring Marvel characters and more. If that isn't the case, wow Marvel, way to publicize your meaningless half measures. They would have been better off making ice bucket challenge variant covers.

I will say, that Starlord cover is priceless though.

@madeinbangladesh: NO!!!!!

@v_scarlotte_rose: Just them saying it's not just a race or gender issue, that anyone can get bullied for any reason.

@feartheliving: I suppose that must be it. The wording seems a little off to me. Maybe it would have been a little better if they'd given some examples.

Perhaps this is just my problem though.