Posted on 04/03/2017 7:45:55 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
While I don’t buy comic books anymore (meaning since the 70s) and don’t really go in for the superhero genre movies, I catch enough of the pop culture headlines to stay current on the breaking news. I found it more than a little odd (to say the least) when I heard that Thor was going to be a woman and Iron Man was being downgraded to teenager status, but didn’t think too much about it. Still, it sounded like a risky idea from a business perspective and that apparently turned out to be the case. The Guardian reports that sales for Marvel comics have tanked and their feedback is indicating that “diversity” isn’t a panacea for all things.
Marvel’s vice president of sales has blamed declining comic-book sales on the studio’s efforts to increase diversity and female characters, saying that readers “were turning their noses up” at diversity and “didn’t want female characters out there”.
Over recent years, Marvel has made efforts to include more diverse and more female characters, introducing new iterations of fan favourites including a female Thor; Riri Williams, a black teenager who took over the Iron Man storyline as Ironheart; Miles Morales, a biracial Spider-Man and Kamala Khan, a Muslim teenage girl who is the current Ms Marvel.
But speaking at the Marvel retailer summit about the studio’s falling comic sales since October, David Gabriel told ICv2 that retailers had told him that fans were sticking to old favourites. “What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity,” he said. “They didn’t want female characters out there. That’s what we heard, whether we believe that or not.”
I hope they have better marketing people on the job than the one quoted in this article because it sounds like they’re taking away precisely the wrong message here. It clearly looks like someone is trying to turn this into some sort of social justice warrior battle when the far more likely explanation is that it comes down to simple brand management and marketing. Making a statement such as, “people didn’t want any more diversity… didn’t want female characters” simply sounds ignorant. What people actually don’t want is you messing around with a known, established brand which your customers grew up with, along with their parents and even grandparents. In some cases you’re messing with legendary figures which predate Christianity.
Here’s a clue for the folks at Marvel. Thor was a dude. He was a big, massively muscular dude. And yes… while I’m sure I’ll be crucified for saying it, he was a white dude with blonde hair. Because he was Nordic. That’s not a racist thing… it’s just the genetics of the folks who dreamed him up. Making him into a girl isn’t suddenly going to change history.
Even the brands which are newer by millennia have been around for a couple of generations. Iron Man isn’t a teenager. He’s an adult. And yet again, he was white. Sorry about that. So was Peter Parker.
That’s your brand. It’s been your brand forever. And when you suddenly reconfigure it totally you’re going to turn off your fans. So does that mean you shouldn’t have more female heroes, more black (or bi-racial) characters or Muslims, transgender hamsters or whatever else you care to try? Of course not. But make new characters. It took a long time to build those old brands and it will take time to build these, but you’re marketing largely to a younger generation who tend to be a lot more accepting of all of this. You don’t need to make Wonder Woman a lesbian if there was never any aspect of that in her character. You can have a whole new female hero who’s gay. Give it a try. Launch some new comic book lines and keep at it long enough for them to build a following.
But reconfiguring your standards like this was bound to be a flop. People love Three Musketeers bars. They also love peanut butter. But they show up at the store one day and the Three Musketeers are suddenly full of peanut butter your sales are going to tank. We’re not racist against peanuts. We just know what we like and that’s what we spend our money on.
Back to the drawing board, boys and girls. Literally in this case.
His alter-ego is.
Milo Manara evidently understood the Spider Woman audience better than Marvel's marketing department:
Naturally, he was banned.
They want to destroy everything that is good and American. Super heroes are one of the many things they have taken on and destroyed over the years. Every time I hear this has to have more diversity, I think that’s what they want to destroy next.
Your point? Pretty sure Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama and other places are full of biracial people who happen to have a hispanic name.
I remember Milo Minara from Heavy Metal, he is actually a great artist, at least technically. He is famous for very well drawn pornographic comics. They should have praised him for depicting spider-woman with her costume on.
FReegards
what they don't want are female leads that are not feminine...
besides, who buys comics....little boys mostly....
Tell me that’s a freaking joke. That’s not an actual comic book cover is it?
Come to think of it, I don't think I ever bought a comic book in my life.
Possibly I'm wrong in that, but I never had them in my house, and my friends had dozens, or even hundreds of them, and that's where I read them.
Coming soon to Marvel Comics, Cam Cohen as Ms. Matzoh, the hard as steel Jewish super heroine and brisket maker.
If you’ve ever tried to eat a month-old piece of matzoh you will know that it is hard as steel. Can be painted and used as a substitute for the old white asbestos shingles on a house, body-armor on your car, and as Jewish throwing stars.
The woman who writes it is a blonde Muslim convert who wears the head covering with a jaunty little wisp of her blonde hair poking out. Very chic. She may not want to go into certain neighborhoods in London, though.
I got a little gray plastic submarine that you put baking soda into the conning tower, put the top on, and it would float up and down in the tube.
Does this count?
OK, if not, I did buy the long thick blue MARX model of the USS Nautilus about 1956 or so.
Unfortunately, no. Little boys have typically never even seen a comic book in 2017. It’s mostly middle aged men.
Reminds me of an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Robert was at Ray’s house and thought he would get the toy in the cereal. Ray grabbed the box and said, “If I don’t want it, you can have it.” It was the backing soda submarine. He said, “Want it!”
Never mind the “unfortunate” part. It’s unfortunate that you would never want your kids to be exposed to the content of these comic books.
Metro-sexual wimp, eh?
Kids who like to read about Superheros don’t want to read about Super Pansies or see their world defined as the evil from which the superheroes are rescuing somebody.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.