Monday, July 17, 2017

CBR's commentary continues to sink in a swamp of bias

If you've ever wondered how far the quality of CBR's writers has dropped, if they ever had any to start with, look no further than this article about 20 series cancelled for allegedly shocking reasons. First, here's the part about Black Panther and the Crew, where political bias predictably find its way in:
Caught up in the recent explosion of Marvel cancelations, Black Panther and the Crew is one of the more shocking picks for the chopping block. Focusing on heroes of color trying to keep the peace in a restless Harlem following the death of a civil rights activist, the title was arguably more important than most comic fare because it concerned itself with the realistic depiction of issues which typically would take a backseat to colorful and symbolic villains.

The comic was canceled in six issues due to bad sales, which is indicative of numerous problems, none of which have to do with the title’s quality. Marvel didn’t give this series a chance to tell its full story and connect with audiences. And even if they did, canceling one of the most socially important comics to come out in quite some time over a low profit margin was terrible PR for the company.
Umm, I think quality - or lack thereof - does have what to do with the lack of interest. As noted before, the politics in this spinoff series were so far left and so bad, it figures that in the end, sales were bound to suffer.

Since we're on that topic, here's also what they say about World of Wakanda:
Another of Marvel’s recent executions, Black Panther: World of Wakanda was about a romance between two Wakandan women who must defend the nation while Black Panther is away. It was penned by Roxane Gay and Yona Harvey, two critically acclaimed female writers of color. Ostensibly, it was one of the most diverse comics Marvel ever produced, both on the page and in real life.

But when Marvel sales went into free fall in the last year, one of the primary scapegoats for executives was the company’s recent explosion of diversity in their stories. Thinking that readers didn’t want anything more than the core Marvel characters, the company quickly killed off any and all titles that didn’t feature characters that wouldn’t appear in the upcoming Secret Empire event.
Oh, here I think they're getting it at least a little inaccurate, no doubt deliberately, because Black Panther and company are their own agency and there wasn't any forced replacement of established white heroes going on here. The only problem would have to be the forced lesbianism, along with the aforementioned ultra-leftist politics. So CBR's writers have only sought to opportunistically label fandom as scum while absolving the writers/editors involved of shoving leftism down everyone's throats.

There's also this sloppy note about the Super-Team Family series from the Bronze Age to consider:
This short-lived series lasted from 1975-1978. We wonder what could have possibly happened that would have caused this DC title to be canceled in 1978. It mostly featured reprints of older comics, but did give readers some iconic original works such as the first Flash/Hawkman team up and the introduction of the Atom to the wider DC Universe. Though it was canceled around the same time as the DC Implosion, it wasn’t done for financial reasons.
First, I don't see how running nearly 3 years counts as that short-lived. Second, the Atom was already introduced to the wider DCU in the early 60s when he joined the Justice League of America. Third, what if it was for financial reasons? Their assertions are laughable, and the part about the Atom is nigh hilarious.

And on the black Firestorm, an early example of DC's own pandering to SJWs and the ideology of forced diversity, they say:
Firestorm just has the worst luck when it comes to solo comics, doesn’t he? In this case, it’s refreshing to see a company listen to the readers and conforming to their opinions as opposed to axing something just due to poor sales. Firestorm was relaunched in 2004 with a new character, Jason Rusch. Fans immediately initiated backlash against the company, unhappy that fan-favorite Ronnie Raymond, who had died during Identity Crisis, was replaced with such a bland character.

DC resisted hard
, keeping the failing comic around for a full 30 issues before acquiescing to customer demand and included Ronnie Raymond as a revived soul during Blackest Night. Raymond took his rightful place as one half of Firestorm, Rusch went away to develop as a character for a bit, and the comic was canceled to give Firestorm some time to recover.
I don't see how a character who originally rose from the ashes of the DC Implosion to enjoy 8 years worth of a solo book spanning 100 issues or so has the worst of luck. I'd think the Atom, Black Lightning and Metamorpho qualify more for that category. And then, here's another example of a fictional character taking the brunt rather than the writers themselves for bland scripting of said character. But they're right that DC stubbornly kept at it, not unlike their previous record with Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern. The diversity-emphasis Firestorm was also an early example of leftist politics in motion; anybody studying what went wrong at Marvel would be strongly advised to take note of how DC preceded them. And again, it goes without saying that Identity Crisis was abominable.

So there's a few examples of why there's less and less on CBR to rely upon, now that they're owned by bigger media conglomerates.

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