Marvel's VP of sales claims that the declining sales of their comic books are because of the Comic studio's efforts to increase diversity and female characters.
According to
David Gabriel in an interview with ICv2, claims that readers “were turning their noses up” at diversity and “didn’t want female characters out there”.
In case you are one of the many comic book readers that stopped following Marvel's publications as of late, Marvel Editorial staff have been making efforts to
replace or kill off founding members of the famous Avengers line of characters, and replace them with new heroes that represent a more
'progressive' and
'diverse' lineup, because apparently the old lineup was too white, and too many of them had penises between their legs.
Thor Odinson was replaced with
Jane Foster.
Carol Danvers's Ms. Marvel changed her name to Captain Marvel in honor of her dead boyfriend
Mar-Vell, leaving a
Teen Muslim girl to take up the Ms. Marvel name.
Steve Rogers got really old out of nowhere, leaving the Captain America moniker to be taken up by his best friend
Sam Wilson, and most famously,
Tony Stark falling into a coma or something, leaving a
complete stranger who is only 15 years old to become the next Iron Man, but not exactly. (See, she was introduced in Invincible Iron Man #1, but most of the time she was trying to come up with a name, and settled on IronHeart eventually.) This
'ethnic cleansing' of sorts has been dubbed "All New All Different Marvel", (ANAD) or, "Marvel Now!"
According to David, he had a spoken to retailers at the Marvel Retailer Summit, who told him that readers were sticking to old favorites.
“What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity,” he said.
“They didn’t want female characters out there. That’s what we heard, whether we believe that or not. I don’t know that that’s really true, but that’s what we saw in sales … Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up.”
Gabriel later clarified his statement, saying basically some readers felt abandoned, adding that there is a demographic of readers out there that are really into the new 'diverse' characters.
“And let me be clear, our new heroes are not going anywhere! We are proud and excited to keep introducing unique characters that reflect new voices and new experiences into the Marvel universe and pair them with our iconic heroes.
“We have also been hearing from stores that welcome and champion our new characters and titles and want more! … So we’re getting both sides of the story and the only upcoming change we’re making is to ensure we don’t lose focus [on] our core heroes.”
It goes without saying that Gabriel's remarks took a bit of an ass-kicking on social media...
...Yeah, that didn't go over well with readers.
There seems to be some confusion between retailers and Marvel Editorial. Retailers can only get a gist at the issues readers buy, but that doesn't mean that they have any idea what is going on in a reader's mind. There is a difference between selling comic books for a living, and actually being an avid consumer. And since Marvel's Editorial staff seems to have no idea what the fuck they're doing anymore, allow me to clarify some things, as an avid reader and customer of comic book fiction for 20 years...
Why sales are REALLY slumping...
Marvel's core demographic doesn't like the direction Marvel is taking the universe, and dispite the consensus that Gabriel seems to be getting, it isn't because of diversity: It because a father of a Norse god --who has been dead for literally millennia-- had some
UNSOLICITED OPINIONS ON FUCKING ISRAEL!!!!!!!!!! IT'S BECAUSE YOU TURNED CAPTAIN AMERICA INTO A GOD DAMN HYDRA AGENT!!!!!!! IT'S BECAUSE YOU KEEP INSISTING THAT MOTHERFUCKING RED SKULL WANTS TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN & SHIT!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK, MARVEL!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Seriously, Are you kidding me with this shit? The negative reception is really that hard to understand?! Marvel, I don't know if you people are reading this --and I hope you do-- but literally no one in the comic book community stopped reading your books because of the vaginal status, or the skin color of your replacement characters: It's because
YOU ENDED STORIES WE WERE READING! YOU LEFT THOSE STORIES UNCONCLUDED WHILE YOU INTRODUCED NEW CHARACTERS TO TAKE THEIR PLACE PRACTICALLY OVERNIGHT!! Can you imagine how pissed people would be if the final season of Game of Thrones was canceled halfway through, and replaced with a Superhero Samurai Cyber Squad reboot!?!?
See, I don't think you get it, Marvel... We read about characters --individual characters-- in comic books. We come to your universe to read your stories for the character in the fucking title of the story. Not another character with the same name, not a counterfeit of the original, or some spinoff that takes place in a parallel universe. We come to Marvel to check up on the history of the characters --the people-- we care about. We want to see their rich history get even richer over time. We want to read the people WE have come to know and love, not the ones you fucking tell us to!
By the way Marvel, no one likes reading your books because Your politics are a pile of canned, evaporated elephant piss!!
We don't give a shit in a
Large Hadron Collider about what you think a fucking micro-aggression is, or who the fuck you think we should vote for in an election! I didn't like
Frank Miller's run on
All-Star Batman & Robin for the same reason I don't want to read
the Champions:
I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR POLITICAL OPINIONS!!!!!!! I DON'T PAY $3.99 AN ISSUE TO READ YOUR FUCKING TUMBLR ACCOUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and don't get me started on the smarmy, condescending nature of trying to manipulate grown ass readers who they shouldn't vote for! Jesus H. W. Christ, I don't care who you are! I don't care if you voted democrat or not, Trying to flat out
TELL people who they should vote for in a comic book has got to be the most insulting god damn thing I could possibly imagine from a publisher!
HOW FUCKING DARE YOU, Marvel! How fucking dare you try to force your politics on me! Who the fuck do you think you are!?!
What bills you pay to be pushing propaganda in my house!?!?!?
Fuck You, Marvel! We're done! It's over between us! I'm reading Rebirth now. Rebirth just -- DOES things; Things you never do for me. Rebirth understands me. Rebirth touches me in ways that no one ever has. Rebirth cares about me; what I want to read, but all you care about is yourself.
Things just aren't working out between us, and believe me, it's not me, and its not the readers... It's you.
