The Four Color Media Monitor

Heat Street's written about the social justice hijack of mainstream superhero comics:

Thor was replaced by a woman, stripped of his name and powers. Iron Man was replaced by teenage African American girl. Iceman is now gay. And let’s not forget how Mary Jane Watson, Spider-Man’s love interest known for her dark red hair, has been cast as an African American in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming movie.

Oh yes, that's something I'd thought of commenting on, but hadn't found the time until now. It may be the Spider-movies in focus here, but it looks like social justice tampering and pandering has found its way into the films too, with Mary Jane Watson the victim, much like she was in 2007 when the Mephisto soul-sale took place with hers and Peter Parker's marriage the sacrifice. Now, they're insulting our intellects even further by possibly changing MJ's racial background. From what I know, it may be a rumor so far. But that doesn't mean the Quesada influence isn't affecting even a movie not officially overseen by Marvel's movie division.

Social media is rejoicing over the revelation, but one must ask whether forcing such elements of diversity into comic books lowers the impact of the struggles of anyone who live their whole lives struggling with the loneliness of never really fitting in.

Diverse characters should be developed from the ground-up like any other. Shoehorning “woke” elements into existing characters for the sake of performative wokeness minimizes what many people have gone through, and still do. Doesn’t it reduce what it means to be different?

It most certainly does. Turning established creations inside out only verifies that they're being stolen for the sake of narrow agendas and compounds the lack of creativity by refusing to create new characters.

When Hot Air followed up on the above, they argued:

...It’s tough to just whip up a new superhero and expect them to attract the kind of following that can challenge the likes of Batman, the Flash and Green Lantern. From what I’ve heard, Daredevil is doing pretty well (and he’s blind) but not many others are getting far beyond niche popularity in what appears to be a sustainable way.

The problem isn't recognition. It's the terrible, insular way practically all mainstream superhero worlds are marketed, with limited distribution and far more reliance on small groups of devotees, and, more precisely, a model that isn't based on judging by writing quality in the finished product. I'm sure even the publishers know their whole approach is poor, but do they care?

And while looking through the comments, I found one that alludes to a point I made before:

Considering that, back in the 90s, Iceman was ogling every skirt that walked into his line of sight, I really have a tough time accepting him as gay. (Except in the pejorative sense.) But hey, whatever gimmick works, Marvel. It's clear you abandoned good writing and characterization long ago.

There's an independent comic I follow called Gold Digger. The writer, Fred Perry, wrote a story arc where one of the characters (just out of prison) kept up a joke that she was a lesbian, just to freak out one of her fellow superheroines. Eventually, she admitted that it was just a prank. The SJWs went berserk in the message boards, demanding that Perry make the initial character gay. He replied "I'm not going to because it's not in her character. It's my story, and if you don't like it, go buy another comic." The demands ceased soon thereafter.

Now how is it creators who own their properties have what it takes to make clear they won't put up with selfish clowns who feel entitled to every product they see fit, but corporations don't? And they wonder why they're tanking? It's clear that for now, the future of comicdom has to be carried by independents whose owners have the guts to make clear they're not appeasing people who surely don't even read the books in focus on any kind of regular or devoted basis. The mainstream superheroes have become dumbed down while smaller creations are doing relatively better.

Labels: Daredevil, dc comics, Flash, Green Lantern, indie publishers, Iron Man, marvel comics, politics, Spider-Man, Thor, women of dc, women of marvel, Wonder Woman, X-Men