Marvel executive says emphasis on diversity may have alienated readers

originally posted by: JHumm
I understand that they want to reach more people, and adding new characters could help with that but why do they have to replace iron man with a teenage girl?

I have my own theory on this one. Robert Downey Jr has effectively destroyed Marvel Studio's ability to ever put own a movie with anyone else in the role of Tony Stark. Downey IS Tony Stark. The same holds true for Captain America and probably Thor and now Deadpool. The studio makes way more money than the publishing house does, so the studio (in my theory) drove the change in Ironman. They saw two possibilities:
1. Wait a generation to reboot the franchise, grabbing up an entirely new, younger fan base who don't know Ironman only as Downey Jr. (an example is the Superman franchise... an almost 20 year hiatus to free viewers from rejecting a non-Christopher Reeve Superman)
2. Change the character significantly, allowing the audience to see a whole new, unique vision of the character which will allow them to still think "OK, Jack Nicholson was an amazing old school Joker, but Heath Ledger's Joker was a dark sociopath serial killer, I can like both characters because they're dramatically different from each other."

a reply to: seasonal

Oh, hell, he'll be getting doxxed for the next 12 months over this............

a reply to: seasonal

Frank miller sales might go up. No pc stuff from him

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

What does doxxed mean?

a reply to: seasonal

Hack

a reply to: seasonal

Disney who own Marvel have long had an association with Intelligence circles spewing out propaganda, I'm not surprised that they retracted. They will continue with Cultural Marxism undertones in their shaping of minds.

They don't say?.. They, really need to stop using comic books/movies to shape "reality" and not use it to "educate" people..with. Or "indoctrinate" with. Only "Educated" people will succumb to that. ... Any trained pet will "roll over" enough, if you use "pain association"...

a reply to: seasonal

That's when they set about gangstalking their opponenets; various means of trying to intimidate and (literally) ruin someones life.

Of course Ms Marvel is wasted
She isn't drawn in a skimpy outfit, big breasts and slender body.
Ms Marvel is a geeky glasses wearing girl without a headscarf, how does she interest the target market.
Women in comics have for decades been nothing more than fluff, still are.
It's how they market women in comics

In their attempt to try and stay trendy with the mainstream they are alienating their real fan base.
The comic book readers.
The group that put them on the map.
Comic books back in the 30's were dealing with some very charged issues in regards to race and gender equality. Take Superman for example. He is literally an illegal alien from a different planet. Disguised as an average working American man who was the most powerful being on the planet and would save the planet daily.

Playing with the subtle racial issues in this entertainment medium will only blow up in the faces of anyone attempts this. These are stories that have been evolving and developing for decades some so complex they make a soap opera look like a comic strip. Making drastic changes to these universes to simply try and appease a group will not end well.
*cough Ghostbusters cough*

I could care less what skin color or gender my super hero is. Being a superhero in itself will always make them part of the minority and an outcast of society. One of the things comics always did well was the subtle play on this.

To these people with all their SJW'ing who feel Captain America should be gay, Iron man should be some ethnic chick, and we need a PG-13 version of Deadpool for the kiddies.
I have one thing to say to you...

originally posted by: intrptr

Diversity as in other ehnicitiies? Poor Marvel fan base, they prefer captain america, bat man, thor and superman to remain white.

Hancock was a pretty cool character.

And we have bizarro superman, Super Girl, Super Dog,

Why reinvent the wheel?

The X-Men has a ton of diversity.

That's the participation trophy mentality at work.

What good is it if everyone is a superhero?

Considering that there is only so much disposable income.

And also considering each comic book is like 3-4 bucks.

How many titles can a person read a month?

Personally I wouldn't spend more than 20-30 a month on books myself.

So that's 5-6 books a month?

And if you want to read a variety of titles? You're not gonna stuff you don't know about.

So yeah.

a reply to: grey580

Then how do new series ever emerge?

originally posted by: burdman30ott6

originally posted by: JHumm
I understand that they want to reach more people, and adding new characters could help with that but why do they have to replace iron man with a teenage girl?

I have my own theory on this one. Robert Downey Jr has effectively destroyed Marvel Studio's ability to ever put own a movie with anyone else in the role of Tony Stark. Downey IS Tony Stark. The same holds true for Captain America and probably Thor and now Deadpool. The studio makes way more money than the publishing house does, so the studio (in my theory) drove the change in Ironman. They saw two possibilities:
1. Wait a generation to reboot the franchise, grabbing up an entirely new, younger fan base who don't know Ironman only as Downey Jr. (an example is the Superman franchise... an almost 20 year hiatus to free viewers from rejecting a non-Christopher Reeve Superman)
2. Change the character significantly, allowing the audience to see a whole new, unique vision of the character which will allow them to still think "OK, Jack Nicholson was an amazing old school Joker, but Heath Ledger's Joker was a dark sociopath serial killer, I can like both characters because they're dramatically different from each other."

It reminds of that joke, "hey did you know Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?!"

The sentiment is clear...
Readers wouldn't mind NEW heroes that are more diverse.
But dropping characters that have been around since the early '60's (or in Cap's case, 40's) and replacing them with upstarts that resemble a United Colors of Benetton ad from the '90's, seemed forced and unnecessary to long time readers. The only one that made sense was the Falcon taking the mantle as Captain America since he was his partner for so many years.
Now:
Thor is a woman
Hulk is a half-Korean kid
Iron Man is a black teenage girl
Wolverine is a young girl (yeah, I know old man Logan is running around, but...)

originally posted by: JAY1980
In their attempt to try and stay trendy with the mainstream they are alienating their real fan base.
The comic book readers.
The group that put them on the map.
Comic books back in the 30's were dealing with some very charged issues in regards to race and gender equality. Take Superman for example. He is literally an illegal alien from a different planet. Disguised as an average working American man who was the most powerful being on the planet and would save the planet daily.

Playing with the subtle racial issues in this entertainment medium will only blow up in the faces of anyone attempts this. These are stories that have been evolving and developing for decades some so complex they make a soap opera look like a comic strip. Making drastic changes to these universes to simply try and appease a group will not end well.
*cough Ghostbusters cough*

I could care less what skin color or gender my super hero is. Being a superhero in itself will always make them part of the minority and an outcast of society. One of the things comics always did well was the subtle play on this.

To these people with all their SJW'ing who feel Captain America should be gay, Iron man should be some ethnic chick, and we need a PG-13 version of Deadpool for the kiddies.
I have one thing to say to you...

Love DeadPool, watched again last nite with the language censors, totally not the same movie.

I would say it's less about injecting diverse characters as it is about taking iconic characters with established back stories and ret-conning them to suddenly be diverse.

No matter how great they felt their ideas were, and it might have flown on one or two of their mainstays, no one can plausibly acccept that every major character in the universe was suddenly beaten with the SJW-stick all at the same time.

They might have had a better reception to change one or two of the main heroes and then use existing lines to introduce fresh, new faces who were diverse.

No I don't want more PC in my entertainment. When I see a political agenda driving what's supposed to be a flight of fancy for my mind, it's no longer a flight of fancy. It's indoctrination.

I'm happy about this. What this proves is that the indoctrination isn't working. A faint flicker of hope just lit up for humanity.

originally posted by: the owlbear
The sentiment is clear...
Readers wouldn't mind NEW heroes that are more diverse.
But dropping characters that have been around since the early '60's (or in Cap's case, 40's) and replacing them with upstarts that resemble a United Colors of Benetton ad from the '90's, seemed forced and unnecessary to long time readers. The only one that made sense was the Falcon taking the mantle as Captain America since he was his partner for so many years.
Now:
Thor is a woman
Hulk is a half-Korean kid
Iron Man is a black teenage girl
Wolverine is a young girl (yeah, I know old man Logan is running around, but...)

It's like trying to force diversity into Anime. The same peoples heads would explode.

Bad enough people bitched about the Ancient One in Dr Strange and Scarjo in Ghost in the Shell.

So which way do people want it?

a reply to: burgerbuddy

I want characters who make sense.

I don't want to feel like some aspect of this or that character is simply there for the window dressing. When a skin color or religion or sexual orientation or gender becomes as much the character as the character, then there is a problem because you know it was injected simply to be a selling point.

When you have an otherwise competent Capt. Save-the-Day and the story is going swimmingly, but suddenly you have the out of left field gender or sexual orientation or religious or racial issue complication that otherwise bears no impact at all on the story and doesn't fit ... then you know that aspect of the character is the permanent side-kick and as much a character as the character Capt. Save-the-Day.

Then your comic sort of sucks.