Within the human mind, there are no two greater enemies and allies than Ego and Priorities.
When Ego and Priorities work together in harmony, great things can happen. An inventor, who suffers the insults of his peers when he’s told something can’t be done, finds a way against all odds to achieve greatness. An athlete shatters records. A military leader achieves victory in the face of overwhelming odds.
Priorities set the stage for what must be done, and Ego casts aside the self-doubt and the naysayers. When those two faculties work together, there’s nothing that can’t be accomplished.
Conversely, when Priorities and Ego are at odds with each other, the only greatness possible is a great disaster.
Why do I bring this up?
Because there are too many creators who have within them Egos and Priorities in clear, direct conflict with each other. You can see it everywhere, especially within the last few weeks.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was released this past weekend. By the box office numbers and critical reception, it’s a film that should never have been made.
Amazing Spider-Man #28 came out last week, and it appears nearly eighteen months of buildup, teases, half-baked mysteries, and terrible events have been summarily tossed out the window. Check out the review written by yours truly: https://weirdsciencemarvelcomics.com/2023/06/28/amazing-spider-man-28-review-2/
On the DC side of things, the few, new titles gaining momentum for entertainment and fun during the new Dawn of DC initiative (Green Lantern, Superman, Shazam, and a scant collection of others) have run smack dab into a wall called the Knight Terrors event – an event placed in the wrong spot on the calendar for a horror event, an event with no hype or buzz around it, an event that kills all momentum for new Dawn of DC titles, and an event architected by a writer with a track record for architecting bad events (see Dark Crisis).
In all cases, the story is the same. The Priority should be to delight and entertain a paying audience. The Ego of everyone involved should be urging everyone to meet and exceed expectations for that Priority. Instead, the Priority appears to be ill-conceived cash grabs founded on expediency and cheap gotchas. Instead, the Ego of everyone involved (gleaned from public statements) is that the creators know better than the audience what the audience wants, and the audience should be grateful they’re getting anything at all.
If you’re a creator, my hope and my prayer is for you to get your Priorities straight and your Ego in check. Your Priority should be to entertain the audience – first, last, and always. Your Ego should focus on making that Priority a reality beyond expectations and nothing else. Accolades, respect, and money will come in their own time, so do it for the right reasons or don’t do it at all.
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