Marvel Comics’ 2018 Strategy: Less White Males
Luke Rohlfing
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To the far-left, there’s nothing worse than white males. To them, everything wrong in the world is blamed on their whiteness, and there is no way to get over those ills until the white man is forcefully oppressed. Just watch any video from Buzzfeed on race for examples of these claims being thrown around.
The leftists at Buzzfeed have been spreading these anti-white claims for many years, and because of people like them, that same rhetoric has been spread into more mainstream institutions. And as it turns out, the comic book industry is not immune.
While speaking to CBS This Morning, Marvel Comics Editor-In-Chief C.B. Cebulski stated that going forward the company is dedicated to increasing diversity both in their comic book characters, and in their staffing, stating:
“We’re 100 percent committed to diversity…Marvel is the world outside your window and we want not only our characters but our creative talent to reflect that world and it hasn’t been an easy road to be honest with you. Going back to the 60s when Marvel were created it was created by a number of white men here in New York City who were working in our studio… But now, we do not have any artists that work in Marvel. All our writers and artists work — are freelancers that live around the world so our talent base has diversified almost more quickly than our character base has.”
Diversity has long been a contentious topic in the comic book industry, and in Marvel comics in particular. Just last year, a Senior Vice President of Marvel caught flack when he pointed out that decreased sales numbers likely had to do with more diverse characters flopping with their fans compared to more established characters.
It was the scandal around the diversity comments that led towards Marvel taking such a strong position on increased diversity.
It’s no secret that comic books are largely consumed by white males. Looking at any picture from a comic book convention is proof of that. Despite this, Marvel is highly dedicated to increasing diversity in comic books, which, in the eyes of many in the comic book community, is simply Marvels way of saying that comics are too white and too male.
Comic book creator Chuck Dixon recently spoke with Bounding Into Comics to mirror that belief:
“Diversity is code for ‘comics are too male and white, right?’” Dixon stated. “What gave them that right to decide that for their audience. And, trust me, that’s what this is about, making up their audience’s mind FOR them. There”s no real tolerance here. No real diversity. You take their brand of indoctrination or hit the pike. And millions of readers have chosen the pike.”
Dixon has a long history in the comic book industry, co-creating the wildly successful Bane comic for D.C. Comics. Despite his popularity, Dixon has been blacklisted from Marvel Comics for over 15 years for political differences.
His blacklisting isn’t very surprising considering how liberal Marvel has been in many of their comics. They have even gone so far as to demonize conservatives in their comic books, often giving their villains right-wing political positions.
As reported by Bounding Into Comics:
“But if anyone who has actually been reading and following Marvel Comics over the past few years, Marvel has been anything but diverse and reflecting the “world outside your window.” One of the worst examples of this is Marvel writer Nick Spencer. Spencer was given a number of Captain America books to write and he took the opportunity to attack conservative and libertarian values and ideas.
In the first issue of Captain America: Sam Wilson, Nick Spencer decides to turn the long-time Captain America villains the Sons of the Serpent into conservatives who love the United States, believe in the Constitution, and are against illegal immigration.
Spencer wouldn’t stop there. In Sam Wilson: Captain America #5, he would malign exceptionalism, hard work, and free markets.
But maybe Spencer’s most egregious attack was an attempt to destroy the entire brand of Captain America by turning Steve Rogers into an Agent of Hydra, Marvel’s equivalent to Nazis.
Spencer isn’t the only one at Marvel who has used the publisher as a political platform.
In Spider-Gwen Annual #1, writer Jason Latour and artist Chris Visions imagine President Trump as M.O.D.A.A.K. or Mental Organism Designed As America’s King. The character is a riff on the Marvel villain known as M.O.D.O.K. or Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. The story sees Spider-Gwen team up with an alternate reality version of Captain America to beat up the President Trump look alike.”
So this new move by Marvel likely has more to do with advancing the far-left agenda of demonizing white males in America than actually promoting “diversity.” I wonder if they are going to promote intellectual diversity, and create a comic with a conservative super hero?
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