Jan Lucanus

This song Halcyon + On + On at the end of the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie is is one of my favorite examples of a cinematic musical crescendo. I’m also unexpectedly in love with this glow in the dark Raiden action figure, mislabeled by our family favorite toy company as “MK1” when it’s clearly the Euro-centric version of Raiden from all games up to MK11, rather than the modern, Asian-heritage-accurate version of the character that appears in MK1. Still, I have a deep connection to this deity and I’m delighted to have him on my “action figure personal embodiment” shelf. 😇⚡️☯️

Marvel just laid of 1,000 people, and I just bought this bootleg “Scarlet Hero” from as a pseudo protest and practice in spiritual alignment. I’ll explain.

Many of the people laid off helped to build one of the greatest achievements in cinema history, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including designers. Many of them can be replaced by AI now. Since this action figure is bootleg, Marvel doesn’t get a licensing fee.

I love Marvel characters.

I hate that the mismanagement of the Marvel brand since 2019 has created the conditions where I don’t trust the brand or the people behind it. I literally grew up in the company because of my father, so it’s personally upsetting.

Then to find a company like producing their own versions of these characters with arguably higher quality than any other toy company with an incredible price point, I had to support that kind of work ethic:

MAKE WHAT YOU WANT AND MAKE IT THE BEST IT CAN BE.

For comparison, the Scarlet Spider-Man pictured here (aka Scarlet Hero from ) is $40, while the Cyclops figure beneath him is about $90 from a different company. The quality of plastic, the weight, and the poseability of the figure is superior, reminiscent of how McFarlane Toys revolutionized the high-end figure market.

Back to the layoffs, they obviously suck. And I am all for AI integration and the inevitable transformation of our industries and world at large because of it. That said, due to Marvel’s poor decisions with their brand across media since 2019, I don’t believe they have a holistic sense of how to merge human and AI collaboration to the benefit of themselves and the fandom.

Marvel and all IP holders at fail-upward mega-corporations are now having to figure out what to do when their audience is empowered to create at the same scale as only they once could due to AI tools. These companies often forget that their advantage has historically been access to great talent + great tools. Letting go of so much talent is INSANE.

I wish all of those people the best in finding their next chapters, and perhaps we can all learn from and be great regardless.