In yesterday’s post on Marvel, I talked about the global problems that have gone on for a long time that have consequently torpedoed the comic book industry over decades. Disney is either complacent in this or they are pushing this decline of this division, which can only be described as a complete business failure. It doesn’t make sense at all from a rational economic mindset. The only place it does make sense is in the bizarre emotions of social justice warriors. Like science fiction publishing, like the convention scene that decided I’m not welcome, the exact same issue plagues Marvel to where they can’t make rational decisions.
Marvel has a diversity problem.
In that they have none in terms of diversity of thought. They are a pure social justice propaganda arm. This is dangerous when it comes to creating art, as if you have everyone thinking in lockstep, unable to get outside the box, you’ll have creative stagnation. More than that, when you turn children’s adventure fiction into adult message browbeating, you lose any semblance of fun that a product formerly had. It’s no wonder that sales have dropped by about half, when they have an entire writing core of every single one of their monthly writers hell-bent on a crusade of alienating half of the country in some social engineering through comics. I don’t exaggerate my numbers either, and I did some leg work for you all so you might better make educated purchases, or lack thereof, of Marvel Comics.
Just looking on the comics rack, you can see where Marvel has decided to make a foolish stand. No sane person would go and buy these comics anymore, there’s nothing of value there. All they have left is legacy purchasers who have made such a habit of picking them up that they can’t drop it. Even those have been dwindling because Marvel’s taken their political nonsense to more of an extreme than Tor Books or Hollywood itself. Stories themselves don’t exist in a vacuum, however, it stems from their editorial and who they hire to write, which are no longer the brightest creative minds, but SJWs who yell the loudest and who purposefully virtue signal at every turn.
According to marvel.com, there are 18 writers on the current releases. I went through each and every one of their twitter accounts to give you a summary of where they spend their time on social media in terms of politics. I don’t mind people getting political occasionally, or even necessarily holding left wing views, but when it’s constant beating the drum of anger and hate, that’s what makes an SJW, and that’s where one needs to stay away (and is a primary reason for Marvel’s steep sales decline in recent years). Here’s a brief summary of the writers’ twitter feeds, as I’ve gone through all of them for you:
Mike Costa – Constant Anti-Trump posts.
Jason Aaron – Anti-Trump, has #resist greenpeace retweet from inauguration. However, he doesn’t post politically very often, not pushing some anger crusade all the time.
Brian Michael Bendis – Anti-Trump posts, but posts so much it’s not a large percentage of his tweets.
Cullen Bunn – Rabid anti-Trump.
Becky Cloonan – a couple of snarky anti-Trump posts pre-election, but no political posts since. From the feeds, appears to be the sanest of the Marvel staff.
Gerry Duggan – Constant Anti-Trump posts, retweets Bernie (he can still win!).
Al Ewing – British, and doesn’t seem to post a lot of American politics, but very heavily steeped in globalism in immigration “rights” in his posts. Anti-Western civilization.
Roxanne Gay – Constant rants about feminism, anti-Trump posts.
Zac Gorman – Complains about Republicans as “joke”, but only one recent post as such. Low percentage of political tweets.
Derek Landy – Anti-Trump, not overwhelming in political posts. Mostly sticks to posts about writing.
Kate Leth – Regular anti-Trump posts. Constant complaints about some boogeyman “privilege”, rambles at racist, sexist, etc., “white dudes”. Rants about queer issues.
Stuart Moore – Regular posts anti-republican, anti-Trump.
Greg Pak – Complains about “representation” of different races. Lots of anti-Trump posts.
Dan Slott – Anti-trump rants all the time.
Charles Soule – Constant anti-trump rants.
Nick Spencer – Rants about trump/republicans and calls anyone who disagrees with him flat out evil.
G.Willow Wilson – “Muslim” Ms. Marvel writer, rants anti-Trump posts all the time.
Chip Zdarksy – Constant anti-Trump posts.
UPDATE 3/22/17: Found another crop of Marvel writers: http://delarroz.com/?p=687 still batting 1000%. Looks like blackballing is real as the sample size becomes far less coincidental.
18/18 Marvel writers, 100%, are extreme left wing ideologues who hate half of the country, have nothing nice to say about the USA or its president ever. While the severity of how often they post this garbage varies, the message is always the same. That is crazy. It speaks to the fact that there absolutely is blackballing for “wrongthink” going on in comics publishing, that it’s so far extreme it’s unbelievable, and that these companies have litmus tests for their stories. The writers take to twitter constantly to shake fists at average Americans (who are their customers and readers, I must stress again) and have turned their pamphlets into Lyndon LaRouche fliers instead of optimistic superhero stories they should be. They have zero diversity, and most of these writers wouldn’t actually even TOLERATE someone thinking differently than them.
This is why your sales are in the toilet, Axel Alonso (Editor in chief). If you can’t even bring yourself to get one dissenting voice on your staff to go “heeeeey maybe we shouldn’t, in every single book we publish, stick middle fingers up at our overwhelmingly primary audience of 18-35 year old white males who buy comics, as about 2/3 of them voted in a way that is contrary to the social narratives we’re pushing.” Instead, they foolishly double down and tell that audience they aren’t wanted, that they’re overrepresented and that they want a different audience.
Here’s the problem: that different audience isn’t showing up to buy your comics. They’re not going to show up to buy your comics.
Seriously. My wife isn’t going to walk into a store and go “ooh, Iron Man” because Iron Man is now a thirteen year old girl. She still isn’t interested. She may read a Terry Moore comic, but won’t stop for a second to look at this virtue signal. That type of story, that character brand speaks to male action adventure readership. Muslims, similarly, aren’t going to flock to Ms. Marvel in droves. They think American pop-culture is evil, and still will regardless of if you install foot baths in your offices in NY. Morevoer, I, your long time audience who used to spend $50-100 a month on your line for over 20 years (remember me?), am not going to buy a comic for my kid to read that’s pushing anti-American, anti-Christian sentiment. Why would I fill my kid’s brain with that? So you lose the next generation as well. You’ve seen the quick boost from the news articles this generates as people rubberneck this kind of content.
It’s one thing to have a female protagonist or one of a different race or whatnot. Characters can be characters. In my book, I have a Female, half-Asian protagonist. I didn’t do so out of any desire for representation or to show that she can be just as physically strong as men. It’s not because of some want for some phantom social justice cause that makes no sense at its core. I did so because that was the character for the story. And that’s what’s missing from Marvel in a nutshell. Beyond the fact that they’re not even trying to create new content but simply “twisting” the old in ways we’ve seen before for some social justice narrative, there’s no characters for the story. The characters are placeholders for virtue signaling through message fiction, and no longer have distinct voices. Peter Parker doesn’t sound like Peter Parker when he’s sitting there fretting about beating up an actual criminal because of their race (seriously, it’s in a bleeding cool preview). Social justice, as we see, is not justice.
Your audience has voted with their dollars. It’s time to change course. Don’t rest on the movie revenue to save your failing industry.
And now a call to action:
Mr. Alonso, I have attempted to reach you multiple times on twitter. I am a Hispanic writer who’s done sci-fi, comics, AND I’m Trump supporter, but most importantly I’ve been influenced by the action/adventure stories of Stan Lee, Edgar Rice Burroughs and others through the #PulpRevolution and Appendix N, which is the kind of content by which Marvel desperately needs an injection. Moreover, I hail from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, one of the most prestigious business programs in the world. I understand business and marketing and how this works, and why your course isn’t working. ComicBookResources.com wrote about my work: “the kind of stuff that made me fall in love with early Marvel comics”. You can’t get more diverse than that or more qualified than that. You NEED that on your staff. Bring me in. I can help. I’m always available to chat.
Meanwhile – there’s levels of good and bad here. A lot of people want to buy Marvel comics because they love that universe. Here’s the worst offenders and the best of the current writing staff easily organized so you can make educated choices in reading:
The Worst: Dan Slott, Nick Spencer, Kate Leth, Roxanne Gay
The best: Jason Aaron (Star Wars), Becky Cloonan (Punisher), Derek Landy (Secret Empire)
There’s a blog called Four Color Monitor run by a guy in Israel that goes into the problems with the SJW comics industry in gory detail:
http://fourcolormedmon.blogspot.com/
I wasn’t much into superhero comics. I read some as a kid, then as a young adult started reading Sandman and Dark Horse’s Star Wars stuff. Today I pick up a few of Marvel’s Star Wars titles. It seems to me this is entirely to placate a bubble of people within the industry and the so-called geek media rather than to honestly attract and keep a variety of readers. They can blather all they want about “representation” but I still see the same kind of people haunting comics shops since I started frequenting them in 1992, just fewer of them. With so many writers and artists on Twitter constantly spouting hateful things, you wonder 1) why would you want to support their work and 2) would they even want you to support their work in the first place? When fans tell these guys, “Hey, stick to comics and quit with the politics,” they flip out and start cussing at their own readers.
It’s emblematic of an entertainment culture that is monolithic in its perspective in spite of blather about “diversity” and “empathy.” It’s really not healthy.
Personally, I think the Mavel “diversity” line was Disney’s “in kind” contribution to the Clinton campaign. For leftists, every year is 1968 where the “children” will rise up and smite the fascist beast. Disney’s in a particularly good position to do that. Both “Moana” and “Zootopia” had the “You go gurrl!!” subtext to get the girls on board the Hillary train.
So, essentially… like a chick tract, but with spandex?
Seems to be what they’re producing.
Not QUITE. A Chick tract has SOME redeeming value, sometimes even a chuckle or three at the silliness of some of it.
This stuff? Not even that much. Waste of most people’s time. Even the people that they’re trying to pander to, actually.
I see that in science fiction novels as well, where the political leaning is so obvious it seeps through on every page, and the main characters represent the author’s viewpoint and the enemies are always on the other side of the political spectrum. No differentiation whatsoever. On the plus side, indie publishing has allowed us to truly create a diverse marketplace of ideas.
I solemnly do swear never to preach about stuff in my books. Except when I’m literally going to preach as I do have a Christianity In Space thought. Not sure if I’ll ever write it for real, but that will be my one time exception.
Good, you can do mindless garbage of buff guys punching each other withnothing to say, so nerds can whack off to them…just kidding, no one will read that stuff either!
That sounds kinda great actually. Maybe you should be writing for them.
“According to marvel.com, there are 18 writers on the current releases. I went through each and every one of their twitter accounts to give you a summary of where they spend their time on social media in terms of politics.”
A long list of nobodies other than Bendis, so 17/18 don’t really matter even if they weren’t SJWs. I’ve read excerpts of Marvel Mush for the past 4 years, and even the snippets have declined in quality. Marvel used to attract talent. Now they have third-rate Tumblrina writers like Leth who are frothing-at-the-mouth SJWs with nothing to say other than “MEN ARE #@!*#%& E-E-E-EVLLLL! GRRLS ARE GREAT BECAUSE VAYJAYJAY!”
I know that this has got to hurt. When I dumped my comic habit 25 years back, I thought both Marvel and DC had gone over the deep end, and I was inconsolable for a good long while. I just didn’t realize how deep the end was; they are still diving and they still haven’t plumbed it. Just don’t get it on your shoes, know what I’m sayin’?
Yeah. There’s vast Derpitude there- and it’s all mil-spec…
Don’t get any on ya…it sticks like Napalm.
All of their main writers are leftist Democrats?
What an amazing coincidence.
Headupassians, you mean…
Do you feel content now that you erased any chance you could possibly have to ever write for every comic book publisher??
Good post. Its the truth and it needed to be said. Although I think over the past couple years the fans have been saying this on forums and with their money, thus the terrible sales numbers. A lot of people aren’t going to agree with you and spew hatred at you and say you need to be more tolerant of other peoples beliefs (love that irony), but stand strong. Marvel needs to remember that people read comic books to escape day to day life. Escape politics. Escape reality. They need to go back to writing stories that people (all people) want to read. Not these politically correct, liberal agenda with stories with all the classic iconic Marvel characters replaced with these cheap “diverse” legacy characters. Fortunately, I think Marvel is seeing the error in their ways as this fall they appear to be going back to basics and restoring some (hopefully all) the classic characters that have been making them money for the past 5 decades. Thank you again for having the courage to take this stand.
You really think Marvel is going to give you a job? You got a little publicity on Bleeding Cool. That is about as good as its going to get and that’s not saying much. Delusional.
Hurr durr, I hate Marvel because SJWs, hurr durr. Also here’s my resume after I crapped all over your staff. hurr durr.
You’re the human equivalent of a potato. Please delete yourself from the world.
Among the many things laughably awful about this article, 2/3 of those white males didn’t vote for Trump, because only about 1/2 of those white males voted for ANYONE.
But yeah, I get it, math is hard.
C’mon, your critique only makes sense in a world where white males cast fewer votes than other subgroups. That fact is generally not in evidence. In fact, if you are an anti-Trump person, you should hope that every last white male emerged from his hermitage to pull a lever for the Trump train. That would make that bloc vote unsustainable and portent a Democratic tsunami in the near future. More likely, though, you are technically right, which places comic book white males more or less in the same boat as other groups. The larger truth, though, is the author is right, and that the group of white males propelled Trump to victory.
Math might be hard, but context seems harder still.
From time to time, someone posts an article that is so pervasively, stupendously ignorant that it even an attempt at a counterargument would be giving it too much credit. Sometimes — rarely, but sometimes — it merits nothing but derision. This is one of those times.
This is an inane article, and everyone who has read it is worse off for having done so.
Not true, got an amazing laugh out of this and shared with all my feminist SJW friends to also laugh at. 10/10 would giggle again.
Agreed. I’ve served with other Americans who are Muslims and they sure as hell do not hate America or pop culture. And if he has a problem with them then he has a problem with me.
And here comes the 4chan brigade insulting a person just for publicly speaking the truth. A truth that they agree with anyway.
As for Jon, don’t bother trying to get work with Marvel. Or DC. Or Image. Or any comics publisher. The industry has become objective, undeniable garbage and needs to just die.
“The industry has become objective…”
Objective: (of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.
So, what? You WANT the industry to be fueled by personal opinions and biases? Isn’t that what the OP is ranting against? You seem very confused.
I guess I should have written “objectiveLY, undeniably, utter garbage,” because that’s what I meant.
What a scary thought. All Marvel needs is more pro-Trump staff. Gosh.
Right, the industry that was built on white men has no problem whatsoever with overrepresentation. Keep telling yourself that.
At what point, exactly, did it stop? Or was it just fine in 1963 when everyone was a white man except the token girl in the team? Did the overrepresentation stop at some particular time? The eighties, perhaps? Nineties? Back when Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Wolverine and everybody else that matters were still white men? That’s when it stopped?
The sheer panic coming out of white men when they’re no longer 90% of the cast would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad.
Your last remark, the assumption that anyone who happens to be white & male is in a panic over all the race & gender swapping that Marvel has been doing to appease a small, but very vocal contingent of fans, few of whom that even actually BUY the comics, seems to be the go-to rebuttal for just about everyone with your same mindset every time this subject comes up. And not only could it be further from the truth, but it makes you just as bad, if not worse, than what you’re all railing against. It’s very hypocritical to lump us all under one label when you have NO IDEA WHY some of us disagree with all of the blatant pandering that Marvel has been doing.
Just because I, and many like myself, happen to be white, middle-aged, and collecting comics since the 1980’s, doesn’t mean we feel threatened or under-represented by all the rampant pandering that Marvel is doing, but go ahead, keep assuming that you know each one of us so individually well to know the precise reasons why we feel the way we do, but isn’t that kind of presumptive social labeling something that all of you characters are supposed to despise so deeply? (PS – see what I did there?)
I dare say that *some* us feel the way we do for reasons more genuinely aligned with the goal that all of these whining “social justice warriors” only *claim* to be out for. I can only definitively speak for myself & those I know personally, and I can honestly tell you that I, and plenty of my peers, are against Marvel’s actions because they’re not swapping characters’ genders & ethnicities because they’re a diverse & all-inclusive corporate organization, we’re against it because it’s flat out pandering designed as inclusivity in order to separate more disparate & under-represented fans from their money, and that’s all. They don’t care about YOU, they only care about getting your money, and that’s all there is to it.
Ironically, they also don’t realize the average SJW isn’t actually interested in buying comics, only in identity politics & in winning the argument, which is exactly why their sales are currently swirling around in the toilet, on their way down the pipes.
Some of them are so quick to praise Brian Bendis, for being so compassionate & so bold to create a character like Riri Williams to replace Iron Man (even though her books are sitting on a shelf collecting dust, future dollar bin fodder), and talking about how original & daring & inspirational he is for giving her to the world. But if they were truly the fans they attempt to portray themselves as, they would be aware that Riri is a direct & complete rip off of Natasha Irons, a character who’s been featured in a number of compelling stories for YEARS over at DC. Teenaged, African-American, bi-sexual female, scientific/engineering prodigy, fighting crime & alien invasions in a suit of armor alongside her uncle Steel and Superman since the 1990’s. The difference is, DC never started shouting “Look! See how diverse & inclusive we are?!” the way Marvel did when Riri was first introduced.
Not only did DC do it first, they did it better. They didn’t have her appropriate an identity already established & popularized by a white guy in order to force her down readers’ throats, instead, they allowed their writers to help her develop her OWN identity and stand tall on her OWN merits, rather than trying to cash in by riding someone else’s already-popular coattails.
On paper, this is what the average SJW comic fan is fighting for, or at least, it’s what they *claim* they’re fighting for. Or, am I wrong and it’s not true representation if they’re not given an identity once occupied & popularized by an older white male? Am I crazy, or wouldn’t it be more respectful & more genuine to let a character be ORIGINAL, and rise on his/her own strengths & traits, rather than cut corners & slip them into a pair of boots that are already well-established in the realms of pop culture?
Because personally, I would be insulted as a fan & as a human being if I was only given these re-purposed “legacy” characters. It would tell me I’m not worth more than lazy storytelling, so they’re just gonna patronize me in order to get me to buy more of their books.
Taking the time & effort to develop a new & original character is a highly more respectable avenue to GENUINE, LEGITIMATE inclusion and representation, because slipping an alt-ethnic, alt-gender, or alt-sexual character into a pre-existing, popular character identity only proves that they’re too lazy to actually develop one organically, AND that they have no faith that such a character can carry a monthly book unless they’ve appropriated an identity already popularized by an older white male.
Is that how you want to be viewed? As someone who has to rely on the name-brand recognition of a white male character established decades ago in order to reach a respectable level of popularity, in essence, admitting that you’re not strong or compelling enough reach that pinnacle of success by virtue of your own merits?
In a nutshell, that’s basically saying you can’t make it to a higher level of respect, achievement, or popularity without standing on the shoulders of us despicable, sad, angry middle aged white guys.If that’s your goal, fine, more power to you I guess, but don’t expect any real credibility, to get any legitimate respect, OR to be taken very seriously that way.
And by the way, if you truly support Marvel’s actions, you’ve got to do it with your dollars, not your big mouths. If they’re truly giving you what you want, then why aren’t you all buying it? If you’re the new majority, like so many of you seem to think you are, then all of these SJW-friendly Marvel books should be outselling DC two to one. But the reality is, they’re not. In truth, my shop orders less & less of the Marvel titles every month, because while the DC books promptly fly out the door, the Marvel books wind up in the dollar bins with more frequency & in greater numbers every month.
And it’s got nothing to do with Miles Morales being a black Spiderman, Kamala Khan being a Muslim Ms Marvel, Amadeus Cho being an Asian Hulk, etc., there’s room for all of those characters & more in the 616, it’s the lazy pandering, blatant patronizing, shoddy storytelling, and overdose of variant covers & mega company wide crossovers.
So before you snap at the next older white dude who seems to disagree with you & assume he’s just angry because he’s not represented as en masse as he was a decade or two ago, you might want to ask specifically why first, because you never know, they might be angry because they’re even more supportive of your social goals than you are.
Amen!
This is a well-written article based on some deeply flawed thinking.
You can’t be a “hero” and espouse the values of a guy who wants to build walls to keep ethnic groups out, who wants to employ blatant racists in key government positions and who wants to deny poor kids free meals at school. For a hero to espouse those values, I don’t know what that comic book would look like or who would buy it. Brick in the Wall Man? White Power Guy? Starvation Girl? Comic book heroes fight FOR the oppressed, fight against those who would oppress them and fight for the underprivileged. That’s what makes them heroic.
The real reason comic books aren’t selling is that there are too many of them, and most of them are very poorly written. Period.
Mixing up words like “complacent” and “complicit,” as Mr. Del Arroz did, is not good writing.
No, that’s not good editing. You understood the meaning, the emotions that were evoked by what I wrote. Lrn 2 troll at least accurately.
And they’re poorly written because they’re locked into the same paradigm you are.
The superheroes who protect Earth from alien invasions and diabolical supervillains are more like Trump in some ways (fighting for his country against diabolical globalists and trying to bring law and order back to immigration) than you think — but that’s not the point. The point is that comic-book heroes don’t become enjoyable or heroic by acting as proxies for one side of a social/political ideology, no matter which side.
People don’t read for sociopolitical virtue, they read for the STORY. When the virtue signals are more important than the characters and stories, people lose interest. That’s what’s happening now.
“The superheroes who protect Earth from alien invasions and diabolical supervillains are more like Trump in some ways (fighting for his country against diabolical globalists and trying to bring law and order back to immigration) than you think — but that’s not the point. The point is that comic-book heroes don’t become enjoyable or heroic by acting as proxies for one side of a social/political ideology, no matter which side.” You just did that! Tell me why has Trump been caught lying over and over again?
https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughTrumpSpam/
He breaks the law on immigration himself. https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/editorials/article222256225.html
So the point is these writers are calling out the fraud and you cant argue against the facts, so you want them to go away.
One person’s hero is another’s villain. You tilt at straw men. Do you even know what the other side has argued?
I’ll give you one strand of opposition thought – Our country is $20 trillion in debt. You may think that the mere thought of cutting social programs or cutting back on immigrants who, on balance, take more than they give to the economy is evil. From my perspective and the perspective of many others, though, such things must be discussed before calamity ensues and all oxen are gored. They can be discussed in art in a nuanced and thought-provoking way. If Marvel hires from only one side of the political spectrum, though, you can guarantee that balanced artistic narratives will not be written. It makes people like me feel openly disenfranchised, while subtly keeping you and your comrades in a bubble of unreality.
“I’ll give you one strand of opposition thought – Our country is $20 trillion in debt. You may think that the mere thought of cutting social programs or cutting back on immigrants who, on balance, take more than they give to the economy is evil. From my perspective and the perspective of many others, though, such things must be discussed before calamity ensues and all oxen are gored. ” really? Then you do realize immigrants are on less welfare than other households? https://www.cato.org/blog/cis-exaggerates-cost-immigrant-welfare-use
Please don’t go “let’s listen to both sides” https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Balance_fallacy
I saw this on FB. I believe this comment sums it up best, “Everything you write is left-wing propaganda! Let me write right-wing propaganda!”
“My wife isn’t going to walk into a store and go “ooh, Iron Man” because Iron Man is now a thirteen year old girl.”
That’s funny because that’s exactly what me and a lot of my friends did when they made Carol Danvers Captain Marvel. We were comic fans before, but found interest in a character and title that we had never considered before.
I believe my introduction to comics was X-Men specifically because of its diverse cast. Oh and fun fact about X-Men, it had actually been canceled at one point and didn’t really take off in popularity until Marvel brought in a more diverse cast. Storm, a black woman, became leader of the group during its height of popularity in the 80’s in the midst of the Reagan era.
I also adore Ms. Marvel despite the fact that I am not Muslim. Diversity can lend more than just to that very specific demographic. I read it because I find her to be an interesting and relatable character, even if we don’t share a religion. I’m also not a christian, but I still enjoy Nightcrawler.
Really, unless your wife is a 13 year old girl, I don’t really get your point.
I’m a Christian and a fan of Ms. Marvel. There’s nothing “anti-Christian” in that series. The fact that she’s a Muslim teen girl made me interested in the series, because I’ve already seen so many stories about white males that I’m bored with them. Same reason Riri interests me while Tony, though likeable, is a bit of a yawner to me. I like reading about characters who are not like me, so I can get a different perspective, or just see something more interesting than yet another version of the same superhero story that’s been churned out since the 1960s.
Exhibit A for the decline of the west: A “Christian” of post Christian America virtue signaling his acceptance of what amounts to agitprop for the third Muslim jihad.
“Exhibit A for the decline of the west: A “Christian” of post Christian America virtue signaling his acceptance of what amounts to agitprop for the third Muslim jihad.” How is it agitprop? Because he likes change? What happen to your side supporting diversity of thought?
Here’s the thing, people who go into show biz for a living are the people who have studied art and creative writing for their entire careers and those who embrace science as well, to incorporate some reality in their sci-fi are people who tend to embrace empircism over mysticism. It should come as no surprise, then that these people who have studied the arts and sciences to pursue a creative career might have a bit of a liberal leaning, in the sense of being open to different ideas and cultures, since that is in fact, the essence of creativity.
Now I wouldn’t dare to suggest that there are creative conservative people, I’m just pointing out a trend here. Hollywood, publishing, music, the arts and sciences, these sectors are run by the music and drama nerds, the art weirdos, the science lab ultra-geeks that you made fun of in high school. Of course they’re going to give you stories about freaks, downtrodden and marginalized people getting even against overwhelming odds. That’s just good storytelling and it’s as old as civilization itself. David and Goliath, anyone?
Edit: First sentence in the second paragraph should have a “no” in it: “…that there are no creative conservative…”
The story of David and Goliath isn’t about what most people think it is. That fifteen year old kid talked about literally killing lions and bears with a stick, AFTER SHOVING HIS HAND IN THEIR MOUTH. In other translations he talks about seizing them by the hair and killing them. David is a bonafide badass, albeit a young one, when he steps into the field with Goliath. Then he basically shoots him in the head.
A sling was an accepted weapon of war at the time. Shepherds using them is no different than modern ranchers using rifles to control coyote populations. Anyone who’s used one can tell you they deliver an impressive amount of force, albeit accuracy is an issue for those of us who haven’t, you know, grown up with them in our hands.
That’s not an underdog story. That’s a story about how God has the back of his faithful and a kid killing someone huge with a weapon that delivers equivalent force to a .45ACP round by hitting them in the head. Said kid then goes on to become one of the most highly-regarded kings of the land he’s serving.
The story of David and Goliath is about Yaweh having the back of his followers, nothing else. Right after he says that he’s not worried because he’s killed lions and bears and he brags about God having his back before he kills Goliath.(seriously 1 Samuel: 34-47) Then he hits the dude in the head with a rock and cuts his head off with the dude’s own sword.
The only person who might have considered David an underdog is Goliath. The whole affair is almost comical in effect, David walks out and kills Goliath with no issues. More words are spent on him talking about what a badass he is than are spent on the whole fight itself.
Not saying you’re wrong in the rest of your post, I actually agree with most of it.
But David and Goliath as the story of an underdog is an almost comical misunderstanding and one I hear reiterated all the time, even by people who’ve supposedly studied the Bible for a living.
I was just introduced to your writings today; courtesy of a Facebook page I follow called, “Geek League of America”. The blog article they posted was “Marvel’s real diversity problem” and I have to say I was very impressed. You spoke up about something few people in the industry have the courage to touch, and the comments in the Facebook post show why.
I agree with you completely. I recently divested myself of stock in the Walt Disney corporation that I have had for a while simply because I see what you see, and I think they are headed for trouble down the road. They are flying high right now, but it’s going to come to an end because they are pushing a political and social ideology through all of their subsidiaries (Walt Disney Studios, ESPN, ABC, Marvel, Lucas Films, etc) and like you said, they have no diversity of thought.
When my son was very little I introduced him to Marvel, Disney and Star Wars because they were great products that were just fun. He is now an adult and is going to be starting his own family soon. He has shared with me his concerns about the cultural messaging that is being loaded into those same products now and he will probably not be introducing them to his future children in the same way I did with him.
It’s a sad situation, but I am glad there are some brave writers out there like yourself. I just bought your book “Star Realms: Rescue Run” on Amazon and I look forward to reading it.
Thanks for speaking out.
Thank you so much for your support. Means a lot. Of course, as an independent writer, I put myself at risk of a LOT of hate, as you can see (because I’m kind enough to offer the free speech for the comments) from people defending bad business practices of mega-corps like Disney. Of course, despite what Bleeding Cool says, I know for a fact I’d never get hired there, and I didn’t need to post this blog to ensure that. But the facts are the facts. It’s really disconcerting that we can’t have any fun entertainment. My work is not message fiction at all, completely devoid of anything political, and I’m actually sure a lot of the leftist folk who are hating would probably enjoy it. I hope you do as well and thank you for taking a risk on me.
The article misses the the MOST obvious thing: The writer is upset about the wrong thing. #45 has proven to be a train wreck so of course even the most mediocre in the talent pool recognize that.
Why doesn’t the author?
I ask as a former registered Rep who made the mistake of voting for Reagan, which started this long slide into the American abyss we think of as politics. Both parties are full of lackluster morons feeding on the bones of long dead corpses who think there’s good marrow in those bones. They’re neglecting how old those bones are and how nasty that stuff in the bones is going to be once their teeth null down to it. The few talented people in both parties are repeatedly told to tow the line. Hopefully we see signs that they are rebelling…. at long last.
So, not being a Drumph supporter? No kidding. How can anyone? How far down the line does it take for even crazy denial to back up on those embracing that mental death?
Poor Snowflake.
You don’t get it, Marvel doesnt care about comic-book sales. Today The main purpose of the comicbooks is to promote and support the Movie lines. They are making billions off the movies, –and those themes of social and racial diversity you mention WORK in their films. So NOW the comicbooks are practically following the MOVIES.
Until they see a dramatic loss in their film revenue, the comics will continue to experiment with racial and social justice agendas, because thats what works on film.
if you were really a business major you would understand that…. magazines and paper publishing all around is in the tank .
You need a new strategy….! My consulting services are available.
The comics division should care about comic book sales. If they don’t, they should just close the division or make movie tie-in reprints. The movies don’t make money because of skin-deep diversity, they make money because of the brands they’re built on and for the main superheroes, mostly showing them in their iconic forms that no one gets from the comics these days.
marvel’s movies have lots of diversity. It doesn’t have to be race switching of iconic characters to do so. Although it has done a few — the black Hiemdall in thor, a black mary jane etc. It works just fine. Also, The movies are a far cry from the traditional comics ! Marvel realized unlike DC– that the closer you represent the real world the more non-comic book fans you will attract. Thats GOOD business sense and so far VERY successful.
And keeping the comicbook division open is important as a great “idea incubator” as well as a meager legacy expense. Marvel has enough money that they could buy DC if they wanted to! Now take several seats.
Your main points seems to be :
1.There are more not white people and women popping up in Marvel comics.
2. The people writing the Marvel comics with more not white people and women also don’t like Donald Trump all that much. These people suck and are lame and their products are sucky-lame.
3. Please give me a job, because I know better than you, obviously, I just told you how you suck.
Probably lesson ONE in “how to get a job” is this:
Don’t insult the guy you want to hire for and the company her works for.
Just so you know why you have, essentially, burnt any bridge between yourself and working at Marvel Comics, at least so long as the rather long and specific list of people whose names you dropped while being insulting are there.
Fiat Slug, dude.
Yeah, let’s not rush into this diversity thing. I think we need another 75+ years of mainly representing straight, white dudes in comics before we can start shifting the spotlight.
Funny how your ilk doesn’t seem to be capable of looking past superficial surface traits and appreciating a character for its more meaningful qualities. You look at these characters with their long storied histories and see nothing but straight white males, and you moan about it as if it’s Marvel’s fault that you’re so shallow.
The fucked up thing about it all is that Marvel, as infested with identity politics as it has become in recent years, is savvy enough to recognize how shallow you are. Yeah, pandering to your lot gave them the opportunity to not-so-subtly insert their personal politics into books, sure, but this half-assed diversity drive is motivated just as much by the recognition of how little folks like you truly care about well-developed characters, and how much more important to it is to see your most superficial, least significant traits reflected on the page. That’s why, instead of developing new and interesting characters that run the spectrum of whatever insignificant traits by which you folks tend to define yourselves and introducing them organically, they’ve simply taken characters with decades of history and mainstream recognition and replaced them with characters that satisfy your superficial requirements for diversity.
Sadly it’s not working out too well. Your lot doesn’t tend to buy comics, not even the ones that pander directly to you, while the rest of us have stopped buying them because we’re just not interested in any of it, least of all the heavy-handed preaching by folks who ought to know better. Besides, Marvel’s had a pretty damned diverse stable of characters for decades now from which it could have drawn if developing new ones posed too much of a challenge to them, and watching it ignore them in favor of replacing long-established characters with the comic-book equivalent of diversity hires just isn’t all that compelling to long-time readers, as it turns out.
But yeah, I feel like you may be able to appreciate comics more if you’d stop projecting your superficiality onto them.
Like I said on Gab.ai …as long as they spell your name right!
You can easily tell which commenters actually read your FULL article and which ones are the SJW snowflakes who are offended by everyone who thinks differently than they do…which kind of proves your point doesn’t it?
I know! The ones spelling my name wrong are hilarious in that aspect. And yes, it 100% proves my point both about the politics being out of control AND fake news being out of control.
Many of the SJW people live in what is called the alternate universe (Bizarro World?) where they literally cannot accept that people think differently than they do.
Which is why they fail to understand your main point about Marvel’s fake diversity. It’s all based on skin color and nothing else. Every character thinks and talks the same with the same world view. If they truly cared about making real diversity then they would hire people who thought differently than the progressive upper management.
Marvel claims to want diversity but if you think differently than Alex Alonso,then you have no chance of working for them. That is conformity.
Well said, Micheal!
That’s what gets me about all of this. When you separate it from the politics and whatnot, you’re left with what is pretty obviously a savvy, almost cynical marketing ploy. Marvel recognized how superficial the SJW crowd is, and how important it is to that crowd to see itself represented in popular characters, so instead of putting in the work to develop a diverse cast of new and interesting characters it simply replaced long-established ones with characters whose insignificant surface traits would be enough to satisfy the SJW crowd’s shallow requirements.
It just goes to show you that diversity, even fake, half-assed diversity, is what’s most important to that crowd. Actual diversity, on the other hand? Get that shit right outta here.
I’m sure all the fine folks at Marvel thank you for the laughs.
Something I don’t think they are laughing after last quarter’s sales.
Marvel comic book style have always been pro-social justice. From the very start. All the way through.
Correlation is not causation. This is bullshit.
Oh? you have inside information on that? 100% is 100%. even if it was 90% I may have had some room for doubt and would have written this a lot differently.
Spot on. The proof is all the snowflakes who have to make snide remarks, call names, and say how you will never work for Marvel. These same people are what has turned Archie into bordering on closing their doors. If the television show does not make it, they will be done in a few years.
Marvel will do the same. The comics end is not selling, and the workers are made up of minimum wage snowflakes. That is why independents have been killing them in the sales department at shows and in comic shops. DC is not to much better but they are following a close second. TV is helping, but not that much.
SJW’s do not work as a majority and do not monetarily support Marvel and DC in any way, shape or form. Writing is sloppy, and continuity is out the window. Artwork is the worst I have seen in the history of these companies, with the exception of very few incredible artist. Colorists abound, but comics are so horridly colored and not inked. Flat panels do not sell a comic. It is like there is absolutely no editors paying attention to their books. They all seem to be rump licking fanboys and girls. And people get tired of every single comic slamming on half the citizens as well as the nation.
So I am glad I only buy indy books I like. Why support the tripe these SJW’s support. Just stop buying. It will send a message. They already lost more then half their audience, it won’t take much more to tank them. Maybe Image will be the next big publisher.
One of my fav comments ever. Thanks for reading.
Marvel is making billions from their movies. The comicbooks dont need to generate money, its role is too support the movies and generate ideas for more movies.
marvel will continue printing comicbooks as long as the movies continue printing money.
simple economics 101.
Bwahahahahaha! Good luck with that.
I think when the writer of this article sells more than ten books, he can tell Marvel how to fix their problems with readership. SAD!
lol I’ve sold a couple thousand more than that. Now what?
Hey, you fucking idiot. Comics were always counter culture. They always leaned left. There’s a reason. Arguing for equality. Arguing that people should be treated better. Arguing that life should be better for the average person, not just the rich. Most of these heroes started out fighting the rich even if they were affluent themselves.
Have you actually read these comics? Most of these writers hated Trump LONG before he was a candidate.
Fucking hell. Comics are sold in head shops, not in investments firms.
so you feel uneasy and threatened by a company attempting to reach out to anyone other than the angry white men that your blog posting appeals to? says more about your rigid thinking than anything else. And then on top of that you beg them for a job, pathetically at that. Good luck trying to get hired by a company while attaching your name to posts like this where there is a clear disdain for inclusion of minorities and women in comics. The world is clearly passing you by.
and by the way…the same people high fiving you in these comments because you railed against SJWs and the inclusion of minorities and women in comics will be the same ones telling you to get your Hispanic ass out of “their” country. Your ignorance is astounding, but keep playing the role of self hating Uncle Juan for these alt right lunatics, it won’t get you very far.
preech.
Why is that your type always has to resort to distortion like that? I mean, the fucking article is right there, Theo, and it’s not particularly difficult to read and interpret.
Its bad enough that you’re such a slave to your ideology that you clearly think nothing of lying and misrepresenting what people with whom you disagree say, but c’mon man, the article is right there! We can compare and contrast it with your response, and frankly it just leaves you looking like a fucking disturbing loon. What exactly did you think you were going to accomplish here besides undermine your credibility?
Jesus, you people sure are something…
So, the leftists hate half the country and that’s horrible, but Trump supporters hating the other half is great and possibly even Patriotic and Christian, right?
You trumpets are very strange people. And, yeah, don’t forget that you scored A BIT LESS than half in the popular vote.
There’s just so much idiocy here I don’t even know what to do with it.
I’ve never read something less useful in my life. What’s great is when you list all these authors and some of them, the most you can say is “anti-Trump tweets but not many in total” and then conclude that they are 100% far left lol.
Idiot, learn to read.
You’re 100% right on all counts, both creative and economical. I’ve been warning of this failing methodolgy for some time, and I don’t envy you the inevitable wave of ignorant, blind hate you’re going to receive for this post from extremist, leftist, SJWs and feminists – they are the loudest and most repressive voices out there – in direct contradiction of their stated goals.
One of the most amusing ironies of all this is the fact that Ike Perlmutter and his wife reportedly gave five to six million dollars to the Trump campaign. Maybe that’s why the whole movement is so poorly executed by a team of cheap, lackluster talent.
Marvel is already moving to reverse course for 2018. They are aware of their dire situation.
You have missed 3 key facts in your article that displays your lack of knowledge on things.
Key fact 1: All books, magazines, comics and newspapers sales have been a going down for years anyway so there’s your reason for the low comic sales. You also failed to mention that the same thing has been happening with DC comic sales. Thanks to more people using the internet more companies have online access sales which makes up for the lack of paper sales
Key fact 2: Political views have been expressed for years since comics first started. It’s these same views that are also expressed in the movies and shows. The X-men and Captain America Civil war shows us the 2 sides of politics: those for a mutant or superhero registration acts and those against. If we take you and your view for example, you would be for the registration acts and immigration despite the fact that as a Hispanic you are a target for ICE too just as much as many other illegal immigrants and legal citizens have been arrested and detained already. In both the Marvel and DC worlds being registered makes you a target for hate groups. Being non-registered makes you an enemy of the state. The people who abide by the law or isn’t part of either group gets caught in the cross fire. You’re one of the people who’ll get caught in the crossfire so good luck with avoiding it considering some of Hispanic veterans have been detained and deported based on race alone despite the fact that to enlist in the military you have to be an American citizen. So let that fact sink in for a minute
Key fact 3: Comics was created due to diversity and differences. Unlike Trump and his anti everything that isn’t a white male, rich, or goes against his ideas and viewpoints like actual facts and people who believes in basic equality for all people comics has embraced not only equality for all but has displayed many times how they’re people willing to defend freedom and equality at the cost of their own lives and those who has allowed fear or power to corrupt them and in doing so will do anything to hurt, kill, subjugate, or enslave the ones that are different from them. Prime examples of this can be found with characters like superman, Professor X, Magneto, Lex Luthor, Colonel Stryker, and Senator Robert Kelly. Lex feared Superman who is an alien with super abilities that he didn’t possess. His fear made him despise all those who had power and ability that he didn’t have nor could control. That same fear is what made Striker and Kelly into the people they are. Superman and Prof. X was always seeking equality and understanding between humans and mutants or aliens. Their views are liberal. Striker, Luthor, and Kelly had conservative views. Magneto shared Charles views but due to people like Kelly felt that the best way to achieve that goal is by fighting fire with fire. He wouldn’t have felt that way if he didn’t have to endure Nazi concentration camps and being registered. That’s where Trump has already started but it’ll end soon because thankfully due to his ego, personality, ignorance, and cockiness he’s about to be impeached or removed from office due to his ties with Russia and all the cover ups he and his party cohorts and staff have been trying to do
In conclusion your views on comic sales falling and analysis of comic writers along with your ideas that they’ll hire you with this article is so far fetched and convoluted that you’ll have a better chance of riding a unicorn on a rainbow than getting a job with them. The question is do you side with Lex and Kelly or Superman and Prof. X?
So, let’s see. Referring to civil rights as “queer issues,” regarding immigration as an attack on “western civilization” (and thereby equating “western civilization” with “whiteness”), equating “Christian” and “American” (in that, in your opinion, no non-Christian can ever be American), and painting 1.6 billion people with the same stereotype because they share a religion…
… oh, and then there’s the basis of the article, which is that somehow a female Iron Man or Thor, or a Muslim Ms. Marvel, ruins the character forever for you, and “no sane person would buy it” because apparently anyone who disagrees with you is insane…
… and your closing bit, in which you demand Marvel hire you because of your diversity, so you can get hard to work eliminating all the unwanted diversity from the characters and restoring Marvel to the cleft-chinned white male leads and helpless females from the old pulp novels you so admire.
Why, exactly, should anybody pay attention to a bigot like yourself, except to know who and what to avoid?
White supremacist piece of crap finds out people don’t like him, whines on his blog.
News at 11.
I assume you’re white, lecturing the hispanic author of this blog on this? That’s usually what happens.
Interestingly enough your basic premise seems to be flawed. According to Comichron Marvel’s share of the market has been increasing nicely since 2013 – which was a low point off of their high in 2008. Currently it’s back up to where it was in late 2005. So if there is a backlash based on the the themes being presented there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of it in market share numbers. In terms of retail dollars Marvel has been continuing to do quite well increasing their year over year revenue with significant acceleration since 2013. What’s nice is that market as a whole continues to grow and become more popular.
The market is off of where it was at the its peak (back in the 50s and 60s) but you can’t blame that on the SJW myth because that’s a relatively recent phenomenon. So I’d like to know what time frame you are considering when you say sales are off by more than half – because for the past 14 years they’ve only been growing – in fact, instead of being half of what it used to be the revenues are almost double what they were in 2003. So if they are doing something wrong it doesn’t seem to be reflected in their profits.
source : http://www.comichron.com/vitalstatistics/alltime.html
Sales per book is what’s important. If you have 2 books that each have 5 readers you have 10 readers. If you have one that has 8, that one did better but you have a lower percentage of the share. And what’s the overall share? We all know comic sales have been declining. This data doesn’t mean anything without that context.
I’m not sure you quite understand the economics of the comic/graphic novel market.
For starters, the female-led titles Star Wars: Doctor Aphra and Captain Marvel are consistently two of Marvel’s best selling titles in terms of raw sales units.
Also, I encourage you to take a look at the 2016 Bookscan sales numbers for graphic novels. These are sales outside of comic book shops. Guess what? There’s only one–ONE!– superhero title that even cracks the top 30: The Killing Joke.
http://www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Bookscan-16-Top-750_sheet.htm
The top of the list is filled with middle-grade graphic novels aimed mostly at–GASP!–girls! Marvel would KILL to have these sales numbers. There is a sea change happening, and it’s for the better. Inclusive content by new voices targeting a new readership of girls…that’s where comics are absolutely booming sales-wise. So, if was at Marvel, you’re damned right I’d be trying to tap into that market.
I don’t understand why that upsets or scares you. You’re not entitled to Marvel’s characters. They’re not just for you.
So it’s not a matter of the industry doing well. Which it is. Or Marvel don’t well, which it is. It’s that certain titles that you personally like aren’t doing as well as they used to. So which titles and over what time frame?
This is a great post. I see from the hate that you have poked the SJW beast. That means you’re onto something here, and are a threat to the SJW religion. Good work, well written – you’ve verbalized what I and thousands of others think.
“turned their pamphlets into Lyndon LaRouche fliers instead of optimistic superhero stories they should be”
I tend to disagree. Sure, fliers are there to get your attention, but they have a point. In general, I find LPAC publications not apocalyptic at all but uplifting and with a very optimistic outlook. They want to unite all humans and colonize the universe for goodness sake. LaRouche is Perry Rhodan!
As a New York Hipster comic reader, I couldn’t agree more. Except for Black Widow and Vader, Marvel has fallen off my pull list. There are enough interesting titles from Image, Valiant, Boom, Humanoids, etc to keep me going to the shop every week. Less Marvel just means I spend my my on other publishers.
The comments bashing your and/or your essay clearly are not coming from people who have experienced what a drag it has been to read Marvel comics for the past couple of years. It is such a slog with these It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World style mega crossovers that are so “HUGE” that it is incomprehensible. Or the boring micro-focus of some character’s identity crisis.
These Johny-and-Joany-come-lately “geeks” have not invested any real thought into comics beyond how it makes them feel at the moment. I have been re-reading Earth X and as weird as it is, I am astounded by the profound insights into the motifs and meaning that were weaved into the early stories that have survived over 50 years. For example, in the Earth X version of the origin of The Hulk, X-51 remarks on how interesting it is that Bruce Banner would risk his life to save one person from a test of a device he created that is intended to kill thousands of people. I don’t think this subtext was consciously intended by Kirby. But it is still a cornerstone of this character.
My point is that comics are modern day myths and epics that are free of religious dogma. They are an incredibly diverse collection of rich stories, a representation of the time in which they were made and works of creativity that are accessible by everyone. There is no keeper of secret knowledge or sacred interpretations. It’s all right there on the page.
The SJW infection is trying to force an ideology into something that didn’t need it. That is because they are authoritarians who can’t allow anything diverse to exist in the world. Which makes them hypocrites as well as bullies.
Every community they force themselves into by screaming victimhood ends up wrecked or worse off. Atheism, board games, programming, comics, science, music, Occupy Wall Street, liberal politics, higher education, philosophy, the list goes on and on of things they have made demonstrably worse because of their need to be at center of everything.
I am very anti-Trump. I am very progressive. I live in New York and am hip as fuck.
I’m with Jon Del Arroz and SJWs can get right the fuck out.
And video games! How could I forget the carnage SJWs have created in video games.
Their collective need for attention got the main stream western world to start bashing ‘video game nerds’ again.
Way to go you fucks!
Interesting article. Sorry for the barrage of hate you’ve been getting for expressing an opinion.
I do think you should reconsider one point, however. Success (measured in sales) will NOT be achieved by giving equal opportunity to the right, as it does to the left. What will increase sales, is being completely non-partisan. So having 18/18 writers being far-left leaning actually isn’t a big deal, so long as they can leave their baggage at the door.
I think that’s what you were going for in your article, but I think your intentions are being severely misinterpreted by those who disagree with you.
A little more market research might also help bolster your claims. Specifically, show why pandering doesn’t work. I work in film; i can show you dozens of examples of shit movies targeted at one demographic, that end up flopping. Conversely, I can show you dozen of other examples of high-quality movies that are embraced outside of their target demographics, specifically because word spread that they were great films. Think: Mad Max: Fury Road. (Also a beautiful example of how to portray strong female characters and deliver a feminist message without beating it over an audience’s head)
In the end, raising the quality of comics will sell more copies than appealing to fringe demographics. I own the first dozen or so issues Ms. Marvel. I’m also a cis white male. I bought the comic because Kamala Kahn fresh and different and well done. It’s a good comic (or was… I can’t comment on it’s current quality).
Likewise, growing up, I read Spawn and grabbed everything Angela was in. I saw the infamous “insert random opinions on Israel” artwork from a while back, and was severely disappointed. It was bad, out of place, overtly political writing.
I think that’s where you may have more success. And if you do find a career with a big publisher, congratulations. Make the causal link between overt political statements, and lack of sales. Tie the act politicking via writing in comics to loss of readership. Show instances where comics have excelled because of fresh, innovative stories, and have seen their readership grow, while Marvel and DC’s has shrunk. Pressure publishers to be less political in general, not necessarily to give equal measure to all political opinions.
So according to your logic- to just make great product, you would be ok if all movies were white as long they are high quality films.. correct?
I’ll only defend pak in that even though he’s very much outspoken about his stance on race in comics…He’s probably written some of my favorite Bruce Banner Hulk(Planet Hulk to Heart of the monster and most recently Totally Awesome Hulk #7 & 8 which focus MAINLY on banner), Clark Kent Superman(Truth arc), Hercules (Incredible Hercules & Herc), Magento (testmate) & Red Skull(Incarnate) stories… All of which feature white guys and aren’t preachy or anything like that.
Also unlike many people who complain about Race :HE’S DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT that makes sense within the story. 10 years ago he introduced Amadeus Cho to the world, made him the new Rick Jones because Rick Jones seemingly grew out of that wrole. 10 years later he made Amadeus the Hulk in a way that makes sense and doesn’t erase what Bruce did and infact if you read Totally Awesome Hulk #7 & 8, it’s clear he’s embracing the legacy he helped make with Bruce and it almost seems to be going in the direction of making Bruce into Amadeus’ Alfred like father figure. Outside of Hulk, he had a great but short lived run on War Machine (where it was James Rhodes going full punisher mode but with a mech suit) and a solid run on Storm. He has even done original things like Kingsway West about a Chinese man living in an fantasy/weird wild west setting and dealing with the fallout of a war. Also all of his comics leave politics out of it for the most part or smartly handles them using analogies that aren’t super obivious and transparent (Like having Alex Jones or Trump in them).
Just wanted to say that not saying he’s innocent or didnidunuffing but he clearly isn’t anywhere near what Nick Spencer is doing
Marvel has been swallowed by O’Sullivan’s Law, and it’s never coming back — because that is a black-hole from which is no escape.
Write it off, and preserve your sanity. Like DC’s New 52, it will simply be ignored by the old-school fans (and their offspring) who have decades worth of older material and 1990s cartoon series to return to.