Yeah sorry I can love Spider-Man and Hulk and Wolverine and also still love all their newish minority/female counterparts. I also don’t think a few arcs I don’t like or agree with, for any reason, ruins any character or genre for me, if I truly love what it’s about. Who is this Us or Them in this? Were we not all drawn to comics in the first place because we saw versions of ourselves in characters who rose above adversity to larger than life levels? What’s the problem with Marvel/DC trying to make up for having like 95% white male heroes for their first 60 years?
Why does Marvel and DC have to "make up" for ANYTHING?
It was an industry where most of the interest came from white males. The people who started the companies were white males. The people who wanted to b comic book writers, were white males. The customers were mostly white males.
White male writers use what they know. All writers do.
They know about being white males.
Its that simple.
There r many industries that happen to b centered around a certain ethnic or gender group.
Thats fine. But, r u fine with the fact that this is all part of agendas, put together by mostly rich, powerful people with a history of absolutely not giving a crap about anyone but themselves?
R u fine with the fact that Jane Thor was rolled out to u, not simply as an artistic interpretation, but as a form of programming?
“It was an industry where most of the interest came from white males” sure, but it’s still an industry, and historically, a struggling one. There’s no profit to be made selling comics, so the historical customer base that was almost entirely white male is of limited influence. The industry changed with TDK and the MCU, and the target customers are now movie goers, merch buyers, and Netflix (/Disney+) subscribers.
Marvel and DC don’t have to “make up” for anything as a moral or political matter, they’re just looking to capture modern interest and niche audiences.
Getting mad at them having a more diverse cast is like complaining that the Fast and the Furious stars aren’t all white dudes. Some of this stuff is inevitable, between the markets controlled by China and India, and the historically untapped potential profit of female customers everywhere.
The comics are still important insofar as that’s where they develop the brands and test things to power the “House of Ideas.” So characters who have strong and important brands aren’t about to be erased even if female versions or whatever pop up too... we saw this with Thor and Jane Thor.
To the extent that some characters do permanently change race/gender/sexual orientation, it’s much more a business decision than a political one. No real “us vs them” line to be drawn.
This is not entirely accurate. Women and racial minorities didn't have the same opportunities as white males back then to be comic book writers. Doesn't mean they didn't want to work in that industry, but that they had massive hurdles and discrimination which prevented them.
The main point is that comic companies don't have to destroy the history of establish characters like turning Iceman gay to pander to a specific social group. Its how they diversify not why they diversify. There are plenty of gay characters (mutants) they could have chosen to promote instead of taking a character who was involved in a pretty significant love triangle with Polaris, and others relationships with women that help define his character.
Thor didn't need to be shat on for a female to get the spotlight. Marvel could have just focus on Valkyrie or Lady Sif gave them interesting stories and a more important role, even an amp if needed. I think more people would have be ok or welcome that instead of taking away Thor real name and treating him like trash.
This just really isn’t accurate. For a long time the main characters didn’t accurately reflect everyone who was interested in comics. Superhero comics, like jazz, is an American artform, not a “white American” artform. Yes comics were started by white guys just like jazz was started by black guys, but they’re both universal. Just like Supermutant said, the white guys in charge placed massive hurtles in front of non-white males to make it in that industry. Chris Preist has spoken at length about his early days.
Why should Denys Cowan or Jim Lee or George Perez be forced to draw protagonists who don’t look like them because a few people don’t understand why diversity is important? Why is it so hard to share your toys with other kids lol
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Aug 6th, 2019 06:58 AM
