This isn’t a post by SWC mods, it’s a submission. I’m just stealing a Laily image for the header. Don’t get confused, keep your mind clear and focused. Only the most disciplined reader will be able to make it through all of this horse shit.
So Polygon’s article about this Marvel panel at SDCC calls them out on their “diversity” and for once I agree with Polygon. Let’s take this apart bit by bit.
Today at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel hosted its regular Cup O’ Joe panel, a fan Q&A-focused panel led by Marvel Entertainment chief creative officer Joe Quesada. Quesada was joined by a half dozen other Marvel editors and writers to discuss upcoming book releases and plans, as well as answer questions from the audience.
The most interesting point of the panel came with a discussion on diversity started by a fan thanking Marvel. A fan took to the mic and told them that five years ago he had appeared in front of this same panel and complained that the Marvel Comics universe didn’t have enough Hispanic characters. Now he was returning to thank them for Miles Morales, a biracial character who is taking over as the lead of Marvel’s main Spider-Man book.
He just happens to show up to this panel? Marvel panels at SDCC are probably kinda hard to get into. It’s a big con, Marvel’s a big draw. Did they invite him back to the panel just to look good?
I’d like to point out that Miles Morales is basically the only Hispanic character of note in the Marvel universe, and he’s also black so nobody focuses on his Hispanic status. He is basically a token character, created by Brian Bendis (a liberal Jew who adopted a black child from Ethiopia) with the stated purpose of creating a diverse character. Which I don’t mind at all, actually. He’s a new character and Bendis is an alright writer, and if you want diversity in comics that’s the way to do it, but let’s be clear about the motivations here.

Brian Bendis poses with his fat wife Alisa, or rather she poses with him. Is she the snake in the grass? Bendis used to write pseudo-noir crime stories about white people. Slowly the diversity crept in. Did Alisa Bendis adopt a black child to live out her cuck-fantasies? She did not respond to interview requests, so I’m gonna say that’s a yes.
Miles Morales wasn’t part of some new initiative to create tons of diverse heroes. Miles Morales was part of a new initiative to create a few token diverse heroes so Marvel could get attention and sales, while continuing to use the majority of their white heroes to sell to the same people who’ve been buying the books for the past 30 years. Otherwise we’d see 20 new diverse characters instead of “Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales, and we gave a couple of minor characters more prominent roles”.

South Park’s character Token Black serves as a commentary on diversity in the mass media. Or he’s just there so South Park can make jokes about race.
Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort thanked the fan and promised him that the publisher isn’t anywhere near done with its increased focus on diversifying its character line-up. “Really, and we mean this genuinely, it’s only the beginning,” Brevoort said. “We talk about the need for greater diversity in our cast and in our writers all the time. We don’t want to just throw stuff out there, so it takes a certain amount of time to make things happen. But this is only the beginning.”
Sure, in the world of comics it can take a while to make changes. But where are the writers going to come from? Are they going to hire the tumblr kids who are currently writing for Boom? Much like there aren’t any black fans in the comic industry, there aren’t any female writers in the comic industry. A couple of the new female writers Marvel hired were from the Agent Carter TV show of all places! But TV writers are used to getting real paychecks, not shitty “page rates”, and even in TV most of the writers are male. Finding quality writers requires an ongoing active effort, which they’re not doing… and Marvel doesn’t accept unsolicited submissions so good luck breaking in with an excellent sample script.

Matthew Weiner (creator of Mad Men, actually hires competent women writers and writes well-rounded female characters) shares the stage with Lena Dunham (creator of Girls, known for getting naked on TV while being fat, molesting her sister). This makes me angry.
Later during the Q&A, Polygon asked the panelists if increased diversity of creators was as important to Marvel as increased diversity of characters. Quesada said it was and noted that the company’s staff is “around 40 percent female.”
It’s unclear if that statistic includes writers and artists, who are often contracted employees rather than full-time staff. According to a recurring statistics column on Bleeding Cool, women made up only 13.9 percent of Marvel’s credited creators and editors in the month of April 2015.
You don’t have to read news sites to figure this shit out, just read SWC. To quote a previous SWC post: “45 new Marvel books. They hired 10 women to work on 8 books, and half the female-oriented books are written and drawn entirely by men.”
Marvel’s staff is 40% female, there’s some corporate bullshit. Yeah they probably have a lot of women answering phones and filling out spreadsheets. Nigga nobody gives a fuck, who works on the books? It’s the same guys for the past 30 years, that’s why your shit is stale. You don’t gotta hire women to freshen things up, but if you want to do “new and different” at least commit to it.
Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso confirmed that the company is constantly looking to do better in this area. “Definitely watch out for some slow and steady and some very fast changes,” he said.
Definitely watch out for some corporate bullshit. Changes will both be SLOW and FAST. So when we only announce one new female-written title over the next 6 months, just keep waiting for those slow and steady changes… or hopefully you’ll forget we ever promised you anything, cuz hey there’s a new comics crossover event for you to write about!

This is just the large “events”, there were plenty of smaller crossovers during the same period.
Diversity of character, but not diversity of thought. In 2016 how many female titles will be participating in crossovers/events to boost slumping sales? It’s the same old shit every year with cape comics.
Some of Marvel’s recent attempts at diversifying its superhero line-up include the aforementioned Miles Morales taking over as Spider-Man, a female version of Thor (pictured above), Sam Wilson as Captain America, new female characters Spider-Gwen and Silk and Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American and Muslim teenage girl who has taken on the role of Ms. Marvel. Many of these efforts remain written and drawn by creative teams that are largely white and male.
While I think that a white man can write diversity just as well as anybody else, maybe if you want to attract a diverse audience you should hire diverse writers. Writers from different backgrounds will bring fresh perspectives, which will lead to more interesting and varied stories. But if you’re not hiring fanboys, you gotta pay your writers a decent wage.
My motivations aren’t the same as Polygon’s. I don’t want diversity for diversity’s sake. I want good stories, and diversity is nice because many good stories are about different people and cultures. But if Marvel’s going to act as if they’re championing diversity, they ought to be called on their shit. Fact is, Marvel is barely creating more diverse comics characters and they’re not doing anything to create a more diverse comics audience.
What’s a good path to diversity and success? They could easily take a few million out of their massive movie profits and put it to use in the comics business, creating a couple dozen new characters and new books aimed at a diverse young audience. It’d be a smart business move. Get Hispanic and Black kids picking up thousands of comics a month, and they’re more likely to buy toys, see the movies, etc. Get young girls reading, and reading more than just Ms. Marvel. The target audience for superhero comics is KIDS, not adults. Build a young audience and prosper.

Before the moral panic over comics in the 1950s, every kid read comics. Yes, even girls.
All Marvel is really doing with this “diversity” is pandering to the white female SJW crowd. That won’t last. Once the feminists get over their self-congratulatory pleasure of having comics with girls on the cover, they’ll start criticizing Marvel once again. And once Marvel finds out how fickle the feminist audience really is, they’ll quietly shelve plans to keep marketing to these people.
Ms. Marvel will become an obscure beloved background character, like Jubilee or Cecilia Reyes. Remember those characters? The 90s had diversity too. It didn’t stick.

dat 90s anatomy tho
Marvel’s unwillingness to actually target a diverse audience, and instead just sort of pander to them by giving them a few characters, has kept their audience white and male for decades. Meanwhile, Image Comics keeps growing their business by letting their creators do whatever they want, and the readers are more diverse, although many of the same criticisms could be leveled at them.
Can comics be saved? Yes. Build a new audience of children, aim for diversity because kids from all races will read comics if you market to them. Part of marketing to them is not selling comics in specialty shops where only existing customers will visit. The comics have to actually be available for anyone to buy them.

This Japanese-American girl is probably reading this in a Japanese-American internment camp. But she’s got some comics so she’s not too bummed out about her shitty circumstances. Could the same be said for children in the modern ghetto who don’t have access to cheap comics? Kids who read comics can enjoy the escapist nature of them, they don’t need to spend time in the streets where they witness and emulate all sorts of degrading behavior.
While you’re getting the kids to read comics, spend that movie money on hiring excellent writers to write books for adults. As the children grow older, their tastes will naturally mature. They’ll continue to buy comics because the comics mature with them. Do this and you won’t have to pander to an audience of stunted manchildren with shitty cape books. You can attract an audience that appreciates quality. None of these steps are hard to take. These things could be done, and comics would experience a renaissance as a result.
But that’s an awful lot of work, and isn’t it easier to just keep doing the same old crap and selling it as something new?

What If? #10 from August 1978 clearly ushered in a new age of diversity in comics. 36 years later, they did it for reals. Yep, regular Thor is definitely not coming back. It’s a bold new era for women in comics. Just ignore that they gave Jane Foster cancer so they have an easy way to get rid of her. Pay no attention to the status quo behind the curtain.
That’s cape comics for ya. Meet the new dross, same as the old dross.
MOD 1: I think it is vital to immediately point out that when a comics company says “we’re going to be bringing a lot of diversity soon!” this is one of the oldest tactics from the bootlegging days. Promise empty bullshit, get lots of attention and praise, and never deliver because you don’t need to. The only people left to stick around to listen to your empty promises are the comic book nerd zilches who never learn and are permanently gullible (perhaps due to mental problems).
“We’re going to make some big changes soon, and some that will come over a longer period of time!” - every comics company in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and today, and then afterwards nothing happened. They do it because it works and they know it works.
It is one of the most ancient forms of marketing hype: the empty promise yelled excitedly, combined with telling people what they want to hear. It is snake oil of the most unrefined form. It doesn’t work in any other industry except comics, because comics readers are the only people left alive that are still dumb enough to be this gullible.