The Four Color Media Monitor

Marvel's recently been publishing some covers for breast cancer awareness as part of a project with the Susan G. Komen Foundation. But while on the surface, this may have some sincerity, the foundation's continued associations with Planned Parenthood, which I don't think they've stopped yet, only make this combined project an embarrassment.

To make matters worse, the Komen foundation may not have even been worth any positive fuss to begin with, if news of their mammography fraud and misleading ads is accurate.

Axel Alonso spoke about this project with Fox Nation, and said:

"Everyone's got a mother, everyone's got a sister and sometimes that mother and sister are buying the book. There are more eyes on our characters and on the Marvel brand than at any time in history," said Axel Alonso, editor in chief of Marvel Comics. "It's not a bad way to highlight a cause than to tie it with our characters. And while most of our readers may be male, don't underestimate the number of female readers out there. Our titles, such as Captain Marvel [the new Captain Marvel is female], the Fantastic Four, the X-Men -- they all have powerful female lead characters. I think that Marvel is a great brand to bring awareness to any cause, large or small."

They do have powerful female characters, but the same cannot be said for the quality of their scriptwriting efforts of late. Did it ever occur to Alonso and company that some of those mothers and sisters might be quite turned off by what they did with Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man nearly 5 years ago? Or with the notorious Bendis-penned scene of Spider-Woman as a naked hostage? And that if they're aware of the Komen foundation's caving to the entitlement mindset of Planned Parenthood and their advertising fraud, they might not want to contribute to this project either? Suggestion to Alonso: don't underestimate the intelligence or awareness of the female audience out there; if they know what the Komen Foundation did that's wrong, they might not be so keen on buying any of these items.

Oh, and I can't believe the absurdity of this extra item they're including in the advertising:

During the awareness campaign, Marvel will also have special advertorials in all its titles - including the ones that are not sporting special pink covers. The advertorial features a conversation where Iron Man’s alter ego, Tony Stark, reveals his own personal battle with breast cancer to Captain America.

The public service message reminds Marvel’s largely male audience that men - even the most powerful and superhuman of them - can be afflicted with breast cancer. As rare as it is - breast cancer occurs only 1.2 per 100,000 men compared to 125.7 per 100,000 women - and as potentially embarrassing as it could be, the disease is still potentially fatal and must be confronted with early detention, as Stark tells Cap. Despite his moniker, not even Iron Man is invincible.

To bad writing and editorial decisions, unfortunately. Even if this is just an advertisement, not unlike those Hostess pastry ads they published in the late 70s-early 80s, it's still ridiculous to write their own protagonists into the campaign like that (and come to think of it, so too was a story Archie published with Cheryl Blossom a few months ago). After all, Tony Stark's battle was with the dangers his own heart faced from embedded shrapnel caused by an explosive device, much worse than cancer.

And with the 4 dollars they're charging for a lot of their books, that's one more reason even the female readership may not take to this project with the Komen Foundation.

Labels: bad editors, marvel comics, msm propaganda, politics