Monday, April 3, 2017

"Marvel executive says emphasis on diversity may have alienated readers"

Via Reddit:  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.”

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.”

(Link for more of the story)

9 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...

Is it possible to have an honest conversation about these things?

No, it is not.

readers “were turning their noses up” at diversity and “didn’t want female characters out there”

Our starting point of discussion must be to correct this purposeful horse shit put out there specifically to make the starting point retarded as possible. Rejecting the industry for saturating its products with social justice warrior horse shit is not the same thing as not wanting female characters out there, Liar! So fix the antagonistic horse shit first and then we might be able to start a discussion about industry problems but not until then and that is not going to happen so an honest discussion is not possible. Piss off with your disingenuous dishonest discussions. Suffer in your flailing miscomprehension.

rcocean said...

Why shouldn't they "turn their noses up at Diversity"? Why should I like "diversity" or "female characters"?

I'm pretty old, and I can remember when most kid movies/TV had Boy heroes, because the Entertainment industry knew that Boys wouldn't watch "girls stuff".

And that's how I was as a kid. I would've laughed at a woman "hero" beating people up. And I still find it absurd when some 130 lbs heroine knocks out a 180 lbs villain.

rcocean said...

Usually what happens is some man creates a male hero and it becomes popular. And then the executives, think "Wow, we could make a lot more $$$$, if we could females to watch/read more of this". So, they create wonder woman or batgirl, or whatever.

Has anyone ever created a female heroine and then thought, "Wow, we'd get more boys to read/watch this, if we made it more disverse"?

Trooper York said...

Well I did kind of like the book when Catwoman became a whore. Just sayn'

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Boring predictable PC story lines hurt Marvel.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Comic book fans (of all ages) like to be surprised. They want content that is challenging and interesting. They definitely do not want to be preached to.

Marvel was preaching. If they want that they can listen to their parent(s).

edutcher said...

I don't doubt 13 year olds don't mind looking at a superheroine built like Dolly Parton in an outfit that looks like it was spray-painted on her, but the interminable preaching that would go along with it would get old fast.

Methadras said...

What the fuck have I been telling you Marvel? You done fucked up. I told you guys the instant you went SJW, you will alienate your longtime fans and readers.

Christy said...

Josh Whedon has done ok with his super girls. While both Buffy and River could claim the mantle of SJW, their stories were never PC.