by William Usher
|
Apparently things got heated at the New York Comic Con Q&A panel where Marvel’s executives answered questions from regional retailers. On October 5th, Bleeding CooI was on hand and offered some feedback on the Q&A, how it started off with people asking about the ordering process, as well as numbering patterns, but then it eventually turned toward the elephant in the room: diversity in comics.
Bleeding Cool paraphrased some of the exchanges from the retailers, writing…
“[…] objections kept being brought up and soon retailers [were] bringing up the fact that Marvel now had female versions of characters instead of the males, with echoing shouts from the crowd of retailers about not changing all the characters all at once – which is something I have also heard Marvel executives themselves echo. But things were getting tense.”
For those of you who haven’t been following the comic book industry, over the last several years Marvel has gone full SJW with their characters and stories, replacing many of the classic heroes such as Wolverine, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America, with diversity stand-ins, being women, minorities, or members from the LGBTQ groups.
Sales have been tanking since Marvel has been doing this, and retailers originally complained loudly earlier this year about how customers haven’t been purchasing the poorly written comics featuring the diversity replacements of classic heroes. Marvel had reportedly said that they would be returning their classic heroes and that the SJWism would cease, but their new stance appears to be that they will keep the old characters along with the new SJW characters as well.
Bleeding Cool reported that retailers took Marvel to task at the NYCC Q&A while they had the chance, finally airing their grievances about how diversity quotas and forced diversity is no longer moving comic books…
“Two older retailers started raising their voices arguing about diversity and how it does not work. The words “black”, “homo” and “freaking females” were used multiple times, at which point other retailers started to boo those retailers and the room started to turn on itself. Marvel editor Nick Lowe tried to get calm by saying that Marvel try and they tell stories for everyone, that the old heroes are not going anywhere, neither are the new ones, there is room for them both.”
Shortly after the outbursts, the panel was brought to a close.
The comment section on the Bleeding Cool article is a fireball of debate. Some people say they’re simply sick of forced diversity. Others are saying it’s racist to hate diversity. Others are claiming that diversity isn’t the problem but bad writing is. Others state that Marvel is being racist by constantly hiring in people just for their skin color and then parading around their race and sexuality all across social media.
Blizzard did the same thing by making Tracer, the main character of Overwatch, gay, and then proceeded to parade it around in the media ensuring it was a hot topic that trended across all of social media and YouTube. Volition also attempted the same thing when the main focus of promotion for Agents of Mayhem was on how diverse the cast of characters were, and how one of the main characters was a black lesbian in an interracial relationship. Things didn’t work out so well for Volition, and the sales for Agents of Mayhem tanked, forcing the company to lay off staff. Arkane Studios also did the same thing, making it known that the main character in Dishonored: Death of the Outsider was a black, disabled, lesbian, and that one of the writers was hired for her outspoken tweets. Despite being out for a whole month, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider has yet to sell 100,000 copies on PC, despite launching at just $29.99, according to Steam Spy.
Comic book fans and gamers alike (along with retailers) have grown tired of the Social Justice Warrior agenda, and it sounds like it all came to a head for comic book retailers during the Q&A between the retailers and the Marvel execs at the New York Comic-Con.
Originally Published at OneAngryGamer.net
Follow Billy D on Twitter
