Mark Waid is well known for his tantrums causing public relations problems in the comic industry, dating back to Crossgen when he allegedly put his fist through a wall in an argument with a creator. That energy has been echoed since recent comments by comic retailer Glenn O’Leary echoed what many people have been saying regarding self-insert replacement characters destroying Marvel and DC Comics. Now, in a recent interview with wordballoon, Mark Waid has doubled down in his incendiary rhetoric while trying to gaslight fans.
In a tirade last year on Facebook about Mark Millar, a Scottish socialist, Mark Waid said he’d “burn the industry down” rather than share any space with those he politically disagrees with. He strawmans people like Mark Millar, Ethan Van Sciver, and others who critique the bad stories being produced by Marvel and DC Comics as “alt-right” to do so, a term not used by normal people since the media made “alt-right” meaningless in 2017.
Wordballoon felt the need to address this matter first before getting into the interview, as the incident caused a lot of embarrassment for the comic industry as a whole with Mark Waid as one of their elder statesmen.
“You stirred things up a bit with some comments you made last month,” the host began before Mark Waid interrupted him. He asked to clarify what Mark Waid said.
Mark Waid then said, “The conversation was about, yes, the superhero comic book market is soft right now. Is it in desperate trouble? I don’t know? Is it in some trouble? Yes? Is there going to be some fix? Maybe? I mean as Tom Brevoort’s been fond of saying, comics have been dying since 1935.”
He continued, “All I do know is there is no sngle bullet theory, that’s the thing. There is no, well, if we stop telling stories about homosexuals and women, or if we went to 99 cent newsprint which doesn’t exist, or whatever, there’s no single solution.”
Naturally, he couldn’t just leave it at that, but like the woke mob often does, he attacks right-wing boogiemen and ComicsGate, saying, “A lot of the championing from a real like super-right leaning, you know ComicsGate sort of crowd was insanity. It was this whole ‘well why don’t you work with us, we’re all fighting.’”
It’s a very real question. Marvel and DC Comics have signaled that right-leaning creators are not allowed at all. It’s been alleged many times there is a blacklist of people who are outspoken in favor of Christian beliefs or conservative politics. But like many do on the left, Mark Waid pretends there’s a strawman and makes a disingenuous argument.
He said, “My exact quote was ‘there are a lot of us who would rather see the industry burn than to ally ourselves with the alt-right. Which you think would be one of the least controversial statements that could come out of my mouth. The only people who would be upset about it, tell on themselves by being upset about it.”
RELATED: Mark Waid Threatens To “Burn Down” The Comic Industry In Tantrum Over Mark Millar
This is a tactic that the left does all the time. Mark Waid has done it himself by placing “pro-Nazi” villains into his Captain America comic who were obvious stand-ins for Trump supporters. It’s calling Trump supporters Nazis that anyone with a brain could infer from the work, but when called on it, the left gaslights comic fans with tactics like “if you see yourself as the Nazi, maybe you’re the problem.”
This is exactly what Mark Waid is doing here when he brands anyone who disagrees with his extremist politics, alt-right, or ComicsGate.
He furthered his feigning reasonability with, “I wasn’t calling anyone in specific alt-right, I wasn’t calling anyone in the thread alt-right, it was simply, you know, if you’re thinking that the answer is to ally with some of the most outrageously misogynistic, homophobic, racist voices out there, I got news for you, I’d rather go work at burger king.”
But then, in an odd turn of events, Mark Waid seems to admit ComicsGate was right about the comic industry’s problems and all of the minority replacement characters ruining Marvel Comics.
He said, “You will never have met a bigger group of sore winners. Look at all the characters have been replaced by women and people of color, well the market spoke, and captain America is Steve Rogers and Iron Man is Tony stark and Thor is Thor Odinson. Where are these, yes marvel experimented with this a little bit five or six years ago, did some of it take? Maybe. Did most of it take, not really. So, congratulations, the market spoke, you got what you wanted.”
It’s a tacit admission that Marvel and DC Comics screwed their entire lines by forcing diversity across every book. The examples he gave were major characters at the height of their popularity in movies getting replaced by “diverse” counterparts. It’s ironic that diversity always means a brown-skinned female with LGBTQ proclivities. There’s nothing diverse about it, they’re in fact, all the same.
But Mark Waid then insults fans, despite admitting they were right, saying, “So shut the f*** up.”
He finishes the segment by reiterating the whole problem with comic professionals, that htye don’t care about the fans nor the properties they work on. The message is more important to them, and whenever a fan objects, they always come down to this statement Mark Waid uttered, “Not every comic has to be for every person.”
Unfortunately for Marvel and DC Comics, the comics they produce don’t seem to be for many people at all. No one wants this from comics, and Mark Waid being their champion just creates more problems in the way he lambasts fans and professionals who disagree with his extremist political agenda.
What do you think of Mark Waid’s statements? Is it bad for Marvel and DC Comics to follow him? Leave a comment and let us know.
Mark Waid belongs in a mental hospital, if you ask me.
Well, that can be arranged, Mark.
Mark belongs in a Mental Hospital far away from us.
For once, Waid has said something many of can agree with.
Is his local Burger King hiring?
Hey Mark! Give me fries with that.
Naww, burger kings are still mostly interested in profit. Some like Waid couldn’t get a job there.