With the studios, their manipulated pawns, and a relatively independent 'Karen' already tackled... it is quite important to discuss another category...
Unlike the aforementioned... whose nitpicking spirit was roused by the high-momentum-d Back to the Future... these different sets of nitpickers already had a vendetta with the Creed beforehand.
They considered themselves the Anti-Creed Alliance... and that silly name is no doubt due to the comic makers that were a part of it.
Anyways, due to Creed's rapid and dominating encroachment on what could be considered their fields of business... they were able to convene their respectively different backgrounds on rare occasions... and rare collaborations
With the advent of Creed having expanded their reach to film as well... it made sense that they'll have some part in trying to take it down a peg or two.
As soon as they got word of the Creed brand already branching out to film... they were already in place to do what they can.
Although they failed like the other BttF nitpickers... they still tried and stayed true to their name.
To oppose Creed as they can.
To be fair, they shouldn't even be considered as BttF nitpickers... but Creed nitpickers at this point.
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DC Headquarters.
Sighing editor was left to hold his sighs again as he sat amongst the executives and whatnot.
The routine meeting about DC comic books, their standing, a sales record, and whatnot had already happened.
It was the formal stuff as usual... and it didn't really matter much as the people in the meeting were all perked up for the next addendum.
The part where they discuss Creed Comics.
Sighing editor sighed as he kicked things off. "How are market expectations on this Back to the Future comic book?"
"Nothing much really as it seems to just be a one-off thing that ended when the last copy was sold." An executive answered. "There is no doubt that it would be set as a collectible but that should be enough since it served the purpose that Creed set to it."
"It's basically just a stunt to gain momentum and nudge their fanbase's attention to their movie, isn't it?"
It came as no surprise to others as that is basically what other film-based comics had done before Creed.
What's interesting is that Creed released both film and comic book at about the same time.
It was very unlike the [comic book first, then movie adaption] and [movie first, then comic book expansion]. It became more of [movie and comic book synergy] trick
With this strategy, Back to the Future would become a product that could be considered both film and comic book... and basically making both mediums to be an integral set piece to one another.
Granted, all other comic book-movie or movie-comic book combinations had pretty much the same effect... but the Creed just had to make it so timed with one another.
What made this strategy impressive... is that it would give people more inclined to seek the other out after knowing the other.
It made [When Marty Met Emmett] all the more genius as well... since it's a comic book that can stand alone but it supplements the film.
With both BttF mediums being released side-by-side each other, comic book nerds would always be curious enough to watch the film.
But this time around... normal, average people would somehow be compelled to go to comic book stores.
With the incredibly massive and encompassing number of film-goers... just a fraction of that being hooked to go into comic book stores would be incredible!
Chances are... they will be...
And chances are... they will pick Creed Comics...
With Creed Pictures and Creed Comics being tied together... along with a phenomenally popular film that took the nation by storm... everything Creed was looking up!
To be fair, nothing that Creed had employed so far was anything new... but how they went with executing it... was what made it seem much more effective than it should be.
The DC executives and all the other people in the room were pretty much ruminating the implications of this... and they really had nothing much to say.
Creed Comics, nay, "Creed" was truly a big threat that should be taken seriously.
"The tactics that Creed has done seem easy enough, why don't we do it as well?" A relatively newbie executive asked. "We have Superman IV being made... can't we just do what Creed did?"
"If only everything was as simple as that." This was all the executive could say.
It especially rings true when considering the fact that DC should have already done what Creed had done since they already have a lot of DC-adapted films to be proud of.
Yet... somehow... the newcomer Creed had pretty much done better than them already.
Everything was truly not simple and it just makes one wonder how Creed was able to pull off what they had been able to do.
"Anyways... we better do something about this new development as we, I mean you, are in a very volatile state from the perspective of Warner." The newbie executive was pretty much just an overseer from DC's parent company and his new face would just serve as a reminder to them.
Warner practically picked them up because they'd seen potential in making the DC superhero properties as profitable film projects.
With Creed's example... Warner could be considering them as gems or something to throw away.
Gems... because a film/slash comic book just wiped the Warner projects to the floor and DC heroes should have the potential to do the same.
Throwaways... because their movie-comic track record wasn't exactly as stellar as Creed. What's stopping Warner from owning Creed instead?
Anyways, there are a lot of other dynamics and factors at play but it is clear with Creed's jump to film... DC's "film" advantage was moot and would probably be overtaken as well.
Sighing editor could only sigh from all of this.
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With how DC has reacted... it was quite interesting on the side of Marvel as well!
Unlike DC which had films to boast about... Marvel was moot on this front.
Their response was pretty much being confounded and envious... when Creed Comics had already gone ahead of them. They even had Creed Pictures to go with it.
Stan Lee, who was quite the proponent for trying to have Marvel films, had to lay back to try and grasp all of this news.
"I spent a lot of my time lobbying to studios and meeting a lot of Hollywood people." Stan reminisced like it was just yesterday. "Just recently, I heard that George Lucas was interested in Howard the Duck under our umbrella. Although it isn't ideal... it should be a good start..."
"We'd finally be on the way to catching up to DC and have more edge against Creed." Stan could only sigh as he reluctantly went on. "...but then there's Creed. Surprising us out of nowhere and even had a pretty impressive showing out of it!"
"It was only a year or so ago that Goku had riled up our comic industry... yet they already walked briskly on the film industry... that we want to step our foot in for years." Oh... the sadness that Stan felt as he looked back on all of it.
Most of his motivation for film adaptations was really because of his rivalry with DC... but it hurt to have someone outside that rivalry beat him to it.
Shooter was a rather stoic man but he did try his best on trying to cheer up the sad man. "Don't beat yourself up too much. Creed is just an anomaly in my opinion."
"They're anomalies, alright." Stan agreed vehemently. "They're headed by a fellow that's my age and a little kid who's just reached the milestone of living his first decade. Then there's us at Marvel with talents and whatnot... yet we're still being beat."
Shooter shot himself in the foot there but he tried to salvage it with his next appeaser. "At least, we can still take solace in the fact that Creed still doesn't have television projects."
"Not that will stay for long. They already have Creed Animations, after all." After missing out on Creed Pictures, Marvel had to check on everything Creed and imagine their surprise that it had long planned its potential expansions. "And its animation projects to boot. There's no doubt that it will rise up to our animation endeavors too."
"Ah! It's so depressing when you compare yourself to others." Stan Lee really felt exasperated. It was quite fun to compare and contrast with DC... but it felt exhausting when you do it against Creed.
Shooter just opted to keep quiet after that. There was nothing he could do. He was a comic book editor, not a trained empath.
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Although the sentiment of the comic bookers can't be felt by Hasbro... they were feeling Creed's growing strength as well.
Although the Back to the Future movie wasn't too effective to their toys... except for the potential of BttF toys.
Also... aside from the crazy Autobots and Decepticons, even the Creed-dismissing Mattel and their Hot Wheels had to worry about that. Now they had to worry about DeLoreans alongside Hasbro too.
If Creed Toys were to follow its track record of making toys from other Creed mediums, then it was on the high course to grow even further.
If comic book-based toys were already worrying, then toys from popular movies were even more so!
Creed having access to the trifecta of comic books, films, and toys of their own were undisputedly... a frightening development.
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There are others in the Anti-Creed Alliance that had the same thought processes as they processed Creed's recent developments as well.
Duos of screenwriters, basement-level comic publishers, and the rest were pretty much the original nitpickers as they had much more time to delve into everything Creed...
Anyways, whether they hated or loathed Back to the Future... they can more or less agree that the film pushed Creed to another level.
Hopefully, their Anti-Creed stance could do that too!