Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: cbr, clickbait, hawkeye: freefall, marvel, Matthew Rosenberg

Matthew Rosenberg Confused by Clickbait Article About Own Comic

Published Mon, 25 May 2020 12:00:41 -0500

Last updated Mon, 25 May 2020 13:18:57 -0500

Matthew Rosenberg is the writer of Hawkeye: Freefall for Marvel with artist Otto Schmidt, which you would think would make him qualified to decipher to desperate clickbait of comic book news websites struggling to come up with content during the coronavirus pandemic. However, even Rosenberg has trouble figuring out what the heck CBR is talking about. Rosenberg took to Twitter to express confusion over the latest CBR headline that could have been generated by an algorithm.

"I write this book, and I don't even know what this is a reference to," Rosenberg tweeted in response to a headline reading, "Hawkeye Just Had an UNTHINKABLE Marvel Team-Up." Perhaps the confusing nature of the headline was by design, as a click is a click, even if it comes from the subject of your article trying to figure out what the hell you're taking about. Regardless, it wasn't long before the article's writer, Ian Cardona, replied to Rosenberg to set the record straight.

The cover to Hawkeye: Freefall #5 by Matthew Rosenberg and Otto Schmidt, only available digitally due to coronavirus cost-cutting measures.

"Hi! I wrote this article and *SPOILERS FOLLOW* it's in reference to Hawkeye now owing a favor to Fisk. Love the book, by the way!" Cardona wrote, proving that despite popular misconception, at least some of CBR's articles are actually written by humans and not completely generated by clickbait bots and/or Brian Cronin's frankly disturbing obsession with Hulk sex. Or, at least, that those bots have become sophisticated enough to put up a reasonably convincing facade.

A quick glance at the article seems to show that Cardona did, indeed, manage to squeeze out over 500 words spoiling a single plot point in a comic book, which seems impressive on the surface. At least, until you realize that we're on track to come up with over 300 about this Twitter exchange. Rosenberg replied, acknowledging he now understood the article and thanking Cardona for his service to the field of clickbait journalism, writing, "Ah, got it. Thanks fo the article."

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