Anatomy of a rumor...

So if you'll remember back a few weeks when I pointed out the Green Goblin in the Mousedroid picture, you may remember there being a little bit of speculation about the mysterious box, mostly obscured and not photographed. There was a bit of orange fuzz and a fraction of a face and so some people went to lengths to try and decipher it, expanding the picture, etc.

Then on the forums the speculation continued... and by speculation, I've got to confess, it was mostly wishful thinking. Basically, I'm going to give a rundown of how one thread on one board, quickly spread and resulted in SHS fans all over the net thinking that City in Crisis is going to be Spidey, Kraven, Green Goblin, Vulture and Mary Jane.

First off, I don't have a problem with the theory that Green Goblin's set is the City In Crisis... I actually suggested that Crisis was going to be the next 4 pack to be shown, and Green Goblin's set would be that set, but back to the anatomy of a rumor.

So the picture is shown, the corner is Green Goblin. Then someone comes out with (and I'm going to slightly change the words to these posts so that they sound a little more grammatical, or at least a little less silly)

"Wouldn't it be nice if the other two figures included Kraven?"
"It is Kraven! I zoomed in, the orange is the main of his vest... the head in the glass is his forehead!"
"Hoping Vulture is in there!"
"Yeah! Me too!"
"Maybe they can put a younger head on it so that it can be a variant!"
"That's totally Kraven. I know my SM characters by forehead alone"
"So the four pack is Kraven, Green Goblin, Vulture and Spider-Man! That's exciting!"
"I think the other people in the set should be chameleon,shocker,electro,or scarlet spider"
"Well, we know that's not going to happen since Kraven is in there"
"Sandman is getting re-released for those who missed it. Probably in the 4-Pack with Green Goblin and Kraven"
"Where's Kraven?"
"Mary Jane was shown but not photographed."
"She's probably in the pack with Green Goblin and upside-down Spidey"
"I bet the 4-Pack will be Green Goblin, Spider-Man (Hanging), Mary Jane... and dunno. Maybe it's not Kraven in that 4-Pack."
"If Mary Jane really was seen she is probably the 4th"
"Where's Vulture?"

Now, a lot of this is simple telephone game BS. A posts their theory, B likes it and posts it elsewhere, C reads it elsewhere and doesn't correctly attribute it was speculation. C posts elsewhere. A reads C's post... finally "confirmation"! Things get changed one word at a time from post to post until finally the original person reads the twisted mutant of a rumor and decides it must be truth. Of course, some people are more notorious than others (for instance, one of the Kraven/Vulture/Goblin rumor spreaders is also behind the myth that Hasbro's release of repaint packs is due to Hasbro's wave cost balancing and thus the pack that balances out Winter Soldier must be a repaint set... his source of info on Hasbro's wave cost balancing? An earlier post wherein someone said they hated repaint sets and he said he thinks Hasbro does it for costs, and he's also behind the multiple postings that City in Crisis was the Emma Frost set, which resulted in the subsequent rumor that there's a second second X-Men theme pack on the horizon.)

So for the rundown:

Truth:
- there's a multi-pack box that we saw the corner of in Australia featuring Green Goblin, and a part of a sliver of a face with some orange-ish stuff around it
- there's photos of Green Goblin, Spider-Man hanging from a lamppost, and repainted Sandman II at Marvelousnews.
- The case of Winter Soldier 4-packs will come with a set called City in Crisis.

Rumors:
- one guy says Mary Jane was shown but not pictured.
- one guy says based SOLELY on the rumor that there was a Mary Jane shown, that she's in the 4 pack
- a few people would like to see Vulture.
- a few other people thought those people meant Vulture was included in the four pack.
- because we saw Sandman, Green Goblin and lamppost Spider-Man grouped together, they're likely to be the next set.
- A guy named ransomz on Marvelousnews says that when he talked to a guy named Scott, from marketing, that the third wave of Spider-Man had crap for distribution and "Some of the figures, like Kraven, may be worked back into future waves of the main line"

So that's what's known, and what's unknown. I have to admit, some of the coincidental stuff is more likely (when I saw the Sandman re-paint, Spidey on a lamp-post and Green Goblin, I picked them as the most likely candidates for a four pack) some of the obviously incorrect (I want Vulture =! another Vulture's coming soon) but hopefully as long as people keep pointing out facts from fiction people like you will continue appreciating it.