Saturday, October 29, 2016

one more thing on marvel

A quick thought experiment:

Pretend for a moment that Tom Brevoort & Co. are totally right. 


Imagine Brevoort expressed this opinion in a more politic way instead of being real snide about it, like he was trying to explain Monopoly to an infant. Imagine that every new Marvel title was promoted with the same vigor to its target audience, and that every title lived long enough to factor in its performance in trade. Ignore Marvel's enormous roster of white male creators, who are encouraged to write all different kinds of characters with varying degrees of commercial and artistic success. Pretend that Axel Alonso's attempt to appease his core audience of trolls by talking about "SJWs" with contempt (even as he angles for SJW money with "All New, All Inclusive") wasn't a completely transparent attempt to have his cake and eat it too, and that it appealed to you (and/or trolls) on any level. Set aside your distaste for the way these men talk about comics sales using the language of social justice. Forget the little fantasy you created where they purse their lips and mouth "capitalism" at themselves in the mirror before giving themselves double guns. Imagine the direct market weren't really stupid and confusing. You don't ever have to think about the direct market again--it now exists in a place beyond thoughts, and it's a perfect 10, and you're fucking the direct market the way you like best on a pile of $100 bills strewn across sheets made of the purest satin. 



Almost there. Now take a deep breath: in, out. Now in again, and this time hold it till you're too lightheaded to think good. Relax your shoulders, soften the belly, and let your capacity for logic drift away. 

Okay. In your perfectly clear mind, a single thought is emerging: these men are of strong mind and noble purpose, and you agree with absolutely everything they say. 

Now here's the experiment: follow this threat thought, which I have seen everywhere, to its logical conclusion.


That representation will vanish. In other words: Marvel will stop hiring women, people of color, LGBT creators, etc. As a company, it will abandon even the pretense of caring about inclusion.


If you want more of what you like--inclusive hiring practices for creators--you'd better pony up quick, because the success of Ms. Marvel and Black Panther can only fund so many egregiously lackluster titles headed by Marvel's white male creators. That's just business, baby.

Uh...point is, if you hate harassment, go buy Mockingbird. There's only one thing to do about it, and that's support those books and those creators with your wallets. (That's a verbatim quote, by the way.)


How does it feel to finally be thinking in terms of stone-cold logic, you bleeding-heart social justice warrior pieces of shit? 
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