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https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/03/31 ... haracters/

We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against. That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked.

Next thing they'll be trying to tell us is that boys generally don't buy Barbie dolls, either.

What a fucking mystery.

I honestly don't understand how morons like this get into positions of power. Got to be a lot of backdoor dealings (take that however you want).

"So guys, the majority of our readers are white males, how can we increase sales?"

"I've got an idea, the whole country except for racist, sexist, and bigot Republicans LOVE diversity. Nothing makes them happier than seeing whitey pushed down in favor of minorities, transgenders, etc. Let's recreate our entire line by replacing all the characters that have made us billions of dollars and who our fans have followed for decades. Instead of those crackers, and instead of simply creating new characters, let's shit all over the previous 50-60 years of our history and all the fans and creators who have followed them. Plus, there's added synergy because our movies are HUGE right now and none of our changes will be reflected in those movies."

"Genius!"

"So let's prove we're DIVERSE by eliminating white men! Iron Man will be a teenage black girl. The Hulk will be an Asian child. Ms. Marvel will be a Muslim girl. Spider-Man will be a half black, half Latino boy. Captain America will first become old, then we'll replace him with a black guy, then we'll make him the leader of Hydra and claim he's been working for them since day one. Nick Fury will also be replaced with his 100% black biological son who also conveniently loses the same eye and goes from Army grunt to leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. in one day because his dad gives his the reigns. That's how government works right?"

"What about the X-Men?"

"Well, since we don't have the rights to them, let's eliminate the majority of them, turn half of them into bad guys, make sure both the good and bad teams are now filled with minorities or foreigners, and then we'll play them as less important than the Inhumans who our fans have always rejected, but we have the rights to..."

"What about our most popular, money making character, Wolverine? He's an X-Man and a white guy."

"We'll kill him off and replace him with a white teenage girl. And there's your diversity!"

"They're going to love this!!!!!"

"Oh, but wait, there's more! ON top of all that, let's also push our own political agenda in our books! THere's nothing that people want more than having their favorite characters become mouthpieces for a political agenda."

"We're gonna get rich!"

To be fair on the X-men, they were switching characters from good guy to bad guy and back for a long long time. The rest I won't argue on, though.

But it wasn't a political statement. The Captain America working for Hydra story line IS a political statement.

Leisher wrote: But it wasn't a political statement. The Captain America working for Hydra story line IS a political statement.

Yeah, I won't argue with that. It's just that the switching sides one happened so much over the years I can easily chalk that one up as much to "bad idea" as anything. The gender and racial swaps was straight up political correctness.

Really good article explaining that it is the lack of (real) diversity that's hurting Marvel comics.

*snort*

They needed two issues of crappy sales to figure out this series was a crap idea? Marvel needs to start cleaning house on the stupid before this crap infects the movie side of things.

I have to assume at some point Disney will step in and do some cleaning. When they bought Marvel they were 80% of all comic sales and now they're under 50%.

Leisher wrote: I have to assume at some point Disney will step in and do some cleaning. When they bought Marvel they were 80% of all comic sales and now they're under 50%.

But then we run into the conversation we had elsewhere. Will they be able to correct course without screwing things up as Disney has had a history of doing since Walt died?

I think it'd be easy. They just need to bring Joe Q. back or put someone in charge who understands the basics of business.

How about Michael Jordan? Why? "Republicans buy shoes too."

That's the mentality they need. I'd tell the writers/artists that I don't give a fuck what their political beliefs are, but they shouldn't affect Marvel's bottom line. When it does, there will be consequences.

Also, the characters in the books need to look like the ones on TV and the big screen. We want our audience to feel welcome across all our mediums. Not confused when they see a teenage black girl in the suit Robert Downey Jr wears in the movies.