Of all the possible scenarios that this could have gone down to... Alexander thought this to be the least likely to happen.

In his headcanon, he'll be minding his business as always.

As for this Creed-rebelling alliance, he's hoping they'll be phased out eventually.

By not actively doing anything, there's quite the inevitability that they'll pan out into a pointless endeavor.

Or maybe they'll fester but still insignificant until the end.

Either way, in Alexander's ideal world, he'll have no active intersection with them whatsoever.

Maybe DC is an exception but that's beside the point.

As of current, reality could not be any further from that ideal.

He had actively sought them out. Just goes to show that stuff doesn't turn out as we want it to.

Granted, he was here now and he needed to see it through.

Fortunately, for someone who wasn't the overtly confrontational type, he kind of had a good go at it.

There's the shock factor of inviting himself unannounced...

For such gossipmongers, their reaction is very much in line with when the one they're gossiping about is right before them.

It's like speak of the devil with the devil already present.

There's magical flare involved, too. If masterful Rubik's cube manipulation is to be considered.

It was just a quick succession of solving and scrambling to show an impressively smooth display. Goes to show that Erno originally called it 'magic cube' for a reason.

It would seem that a neat trick he picked up in his abundance of freelancer free time had proven useful.

Unintentionally brought along as a toy to pass the time, it may have just become a psychological weapon given the stunned expression they had.

Or maybe that was just an extension of the first shock factor.

Either way, he had them by the ropes.

It just that to keep the momentum going where he wanted, he had to do the one thing that he hates doing with most people, especially annoying people...

To interact with them.

-------

Giving a cursory glance to all the occupants in the room, Alexander soldiered on.

"Anyways, it's sort of good that all of you grouped up in the same place. Saves me the trouble of confronting you one by one."

"After all... between me and you guys, there's a bunch to settle. Legal issues, mostly." Given that he was here to nip something in the bud, why not?

For starters...

"There's basement dwellers... clamoring turtle this, turtle that. But that's all to it... clamor. It's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Oddly specific but not that specific to the point that you're the only one that can come up with it, right?"

For all the bull, Alexander really went poker face on this one. "In this race, we both opted to not go with the hare, it's just that it was my turtle that won. So... don't be sore losers about it. It's unbecoming."

Of course, how could a certain duo from Mirage not wince at that? It didn't feel good to be reasonably shamed like a kid by a kid, after all.

Doubling down on being dubbed as a childish alliance by a child, from earlier.

Besides, that kid and child isn't even done yet.

"Then there's Watchmen being a rip-off of heroes when it's already established as a commentary on it. But that's such a DC thing to do, isn't it? You do it all the time that the legal system pretty much likens comic copyright cases to the boy who cried wolf."

"You guys even found ways to double down on a claim about that "Question" character, even though you already folded Charlton in your mix."

Noting some of the DC representatives grimace, and that out-of-place sigh, Alexander just shrugged and continued. "Even so, it didn't help that others piled on. Old Marvel included... and a few others."

"Like a group who owns Dredd, unceremoniously condemning other law enforcement of the future as technically Dredd-incarnate. What twisted sense of logic is that about?"

To which, IPC Media people hadn't even mustered much rebuttal. Even they themselves can admit that their RoboCop argument was a bit out there.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Surprisingly, the people from Archie actually joined in." How could Alexander forget these guys? The story owners sure did have a trace of dramatic Riverdale to them, didn't they?

There's plenty more to cite but all the other minor comic publishers here are just not exempt.

"Just goes to show that it's uncommon industry practice." Alexander elicited another shrug to that as he segwayed. "Which is also why it came as a surprise that Hollywood screenwriters and a toy merchant joined in."

The people fitting those categories visibly tensed.

From the Thomeses... to Neumann and Miner... and even Alan Hassenfeld made it very obvious.

Was he that scary?

Alexander wondered but still pivoted. "Judging by your reactions, you guys already get the point."

"For the screenwriter bunch, you've probably already gone to the WGA and your apparent lack of support says it all."

"Then last but least all the same is Hasbro's qualms. Which is basically just Mirage and the Turtles all over again. Only that it's transforming robots and it's actually a Japanese company that owned yours."

"I'm not really an expert on the law or anything but common sense can pretty much settle all of this."

"Not that I'm implying that you guys don't have one. It's just that all your hostilities, grudge, and reasonings don't make sense."

"But I digress... clearly, none of you are comfortable with the topics I've brought up."

Their silence pretty much spoke louder than words.

And that was awkward for just about everybody.

Was the shock still reeling? Or was it just because he didn't give them a chance to get a word in?

Suffice to say, this was disconcerting and unfamiliar territory for Alexander, someone who would much prefer to be on the listening end and not talk at all.

Maybe he just wasn't fit for it.

On that introspective pause, someone actually took the chance to speak up.

It was that weirdly sighing guy from DC, who took courage and asked. "Erm... what exactly do you want from us then? To make all of those go away?"

"I'd prefer it if you would but I'm not really too particular with those... that was just to make conversation." If making conversation was laced reprimand, that is.

Of course, Alexander was digressing again and at the very least, someone was finally willing to talk back. "Truth be told, I'm actually just here to remind you guys about a certain incident and make sure a certain result of that never happens again."

Taking his chance, sighing editor stepped up to plate. "If there's an incident to be talked about, shouldn't it be about your biggest move as of late? Which is your recent purchase of Marvel."

"Well, it's kind of related to that." Alexander just pandered as he supplemented. "Anyways, sometime in 1984, for various reasons, DC was so behind Marvel in sales that Warner Communications contacted them about the possibility of owning DC's characters publishing rights. That was the incident I want to shed light on."

As he said so... a certain incident actually popped up in every comic booker's heads.

The not-so-destined Marvel-DC merger of '84!

Just like the blazing debut of Creed Comics, it was quite an upheaval in the world of American comics.

It was the biggest comic companies crossover of quite an epic scale!

"Wait, wait!" Even sighing editor was a bit flushed as he remembered that. "Are you seriously considering bringing that up again?! Isn't Marvel already enough for you?! Now, you want DC to be your imprint as well!"

"Well, that would be quite interesting, wouldn't it?" Alexander's eyes glinted at that. "But no... you're getting ahead of yourself and that's bad since that's not exactly where I was headed for."

"Need I remind you of why that Marvel-DC thing didn't work out in the first place?"

To which, another detail was remembered.

Weirdly enough, it had First written all over it. First Comics, to be exact.

When news broke of the impending deal, third-party comic publishers, already seeing ever-waning profits in the shadow of the looming threat combining themselves.

One publisher, First Comics, went so far as to file an antitrust lawsuit against the Marvel/DC deal with the United States federal government, alleging that the merger of the two companies would constitute a monopoly in the comic publishing industry.

With Marvel already had a near-monopoly of the comic book market, with their titles making up nearly 60 percent of total sales.

Absorbing the second-highest publisher in technicality would really violate anti-trust laws.

The courts eventually agreed, and the deal was quashed. With Marvel and DC just not wanting to trouble themselves any further.

Alexander didn't want that kind of annoying trouble for himself, hence, his presence here.

That situation's parallel to Creed and Marvel.

Granted, there were still some smart cookies in the bunch, and made that connection as well.

"Aha!" A member of the DC crowd exclaimed. "So, this is all about the threat of monopoly all along!"

Oh, what a breath of fresh air this was.

The infallible Creed now had a bane to face and they as the Anti-Creed can actually act on it.

"Haha! And to think that it was actually you, Alexander Creed, that pointed us to it!" The DC guy really milked it.

Everyone on the alliance eventually caught on to that weird blunder but they'll take what they can get. Especially when it's from this overly composed and supposedly genius of a kid.

Too bad for them, a blunder it was not. Which Alexander didn't hesitate to point out. "You guys should really stop getting ahead of yourself."

As expected of these annoying people, they really latched on to it.

Well, they're in for a treat, aren't they?

"Ask yourselves then, if Creed buying Marvel really is monopolistic or not?"

"Spoiler alert, it's not."

He asked and he answered.

And it didn't take long for this crowd to get what he meant.

Creed Comics halted its title expansion. Was it really because of their little suing spree?

Then that title reduction with the loss of Watchmen and the like. Had Creed really lost its steam?

They've thought about this already... and they were in high praise and cursing when they realized that it was to brace for a crisis they never expected.

It was even a crisis they fell for.

Same as many other comic publishers that appeared to try and follow our lead.

They rose, crashed, and also burned... yet Creed remained steady all the way.

So steady with more or less the same output from Creed against a deceptively burgeoning and growing market... would them buying Marvel still be a monopoly?

The percentage was unclear but in all technicality... Creed never really caught up in sales with the Big Two. It's just that they're too influential that it appears that way.

Come to think of it... that always-restricted issue releases, that timely speculator-driven crisis, and all that calculated steps from start to end.

Creed buying Marvel wasn't a monopoly. If anything, Creed was just buying up!

Ingenious! And over-the-top-ly so...

Like the kid among them, holding unto a Rubik's cube... looking at them as if they were jokes...

It was unnerving!

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"Anyhoo, judging by the looks of realization you have, I guess I've done my part. Which is good since I've already talked a lot, uncharacteristically so."

"Which should be my cue to leave..."

"And oh... before any of us forget... guy from Hasbro... you're technically still selling toys for Marvel and my Marvel Productions is still working on projects for you."

"So all in all, that's really awkward, isn't it?"

-------

And with that unceremonious parting... Alexander was off to another M...

Which is Mexico.