The Four Color Media Monitor

A writer for the Federalist (via Hot Air) addressed the latest Marvel embarrassment, and gives an interesting revelation about the man who penned the screedish story. They also give some interesting news about what kind of reception some of their All-New All-Different relaunches included:

This relaunch has been marred by quite a bit of criticism from the online activist types. When they announced a Blade series that would star Blade’s daughter (a black woman) and the writer of the book was revealed to be Tim Seeley, a white male, outrage ensued. This book has yet to be released.

When Marvel announced a book about Red Wolf, a Native American, to be written by Nathan Edmondson, he was subject of multiple articles attacking him for being the wrong race; claiming, without evidence, that he is a perpetrator of harassment; and complaining that he once worked at the Leadership Institute, the biggest sin of all.

And it makes no difference to the vocal minority cybertrolls that the original incarnations of these characters were created by white writers and artists. I think that says they won't even read the older material or thank the past writers who conceived those ideas, like Roy Thomas, Gardner Fox, Syd Shores, Mark Gruenwald, Marv Wolfman Herb Trimpe and John Buscema. As pretentious as Axel Alonso's new visions already are, it's clear there's a cottage industry out there making things worse with online troublemaking and trolling. But what happens when Spencer is the assigned writer for Falcon?

The new Captain America book is written by Nick Spencer, another white male who is writing a minority character. Spencer once worked in Democratic politics. He was not subject to any of the scrutiny or outrage that followed the previous two examples.

In comics, this cycle is not new, and it’s not limited. Certain creators are capable of getting away with pretty much anything, but those who have not ridden the cult-of-personality wave are less fortunate. The vocal crowd around the industry now demands you swear fealty to the progressive cause, or face its wrath. [...]

Nick Spencer is white, Captain America is black. Past outrage about Blade and Red Wolf ought to indicate the comics community requires a strict no-nonsense policy of outrage towards creators writing characters of other races. So where’s the outrage? Why does Nick get a pass?

If you’re going to express outrage over one white-cis-male-hetereo-normative using his privilege to write a minority character, then really for equality’s sake you must do it for the rest. Where’s the thought piece, Mary Sue? Comics Beat?

So because his political positions are more apparent, that's why he's gotten a pass? How odd. I've got a hunch some of the vocal minority online don't even belong to different races, and could be as white and heterosexual as Stan Lee and the above white creators themselves. Just a whole lot of troublemakers who don't even like their own background.

Let’s dig. There we go, favorite comics gossip site hails hero Nick Spencer for his wonderful life in politics. What party did he work for? Democrats. That’s fine, but it does color the work, just like conservatives’ politics colors theirs. Trying to act like it’s not there, or that what’s written is impartial, totally a-political, and definitely not utterly vilifying the opposing view, that’s when there’s a problem. [...]

The issue is that no one is admitting how terribly one-sided this stuff is. Nick can write as much political commentary as subtle as a brick-to-the-face as he wants, but to act as if this book is not highly antagonistic towards conservatives puts him and Marvel squarely, to steal a phrase from Adam Carolla, into the category of either “stupid or liar.”

Hint: they’re not stupid.

Not literally. But they sure don't have the courage to explicitly admit what they think.

Some lines from the Serpents: “By invading this sovereign land, you defy the laws of God, nature, and the United States Constitution… until the mighty wall is built, you come here for employment that is rightfully ours! And if denied it, you seek welfare paid for by our tax dollars! … look who it is, y’all! Captain Socialism … apologizing for our country’s greatness that you have time to come down here and flout still more of our laws…”

Seriously, this is what the villains are espousing. It’s a lot of conservative buzzwords given a murderous edge, and that’s that. Together with the overall tone and narration of the issue, conservatives have every right to be angry.

Of course. And if they want to send a message, they'd better vote with their wallets and avoid ALL of Marvel's modern output. Nothing overseen by Quesada and Alonso is worth spending money on, and it should've been obvious long ago, well before J. Michael Straczynski's One More Day.

Since we're on the subject, here's also a few tweets Spencer wrote that illustrate his mindset further:

It is really a testament to the echo chamber that the GOP actually thought giving Clinton this stage would be a good idea.

— Nick Spencer (@nickspencer) October 23, 2015

Republicans now looking at HRC like school kids realizing the teacher they just got to retire was 'the nice one.'

— Nick Spencer (@nickspencer) October 23, 2015

This is obviously just Spencer's way of ignoring the results of the investigation: Hilary Clinton admitted she broke laws in Benghazi. At the same time, she also lied about some vital issues. Yet none of this matters to Spencer, who's pulling a pretty obvious ignorance act.

Labels: bad editors, Captain America, marvel comics, moonbat writers, politics