[lordbest]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBlueMarvel

@Red
@lordbest
I agree entirely with your demographic arguments. Marvel's not making these decisions based on political leanings. Marvel is making these decisions based on hard data regarding the changing demographics of the fanbase, country, and world (a reality that a number of people are struggling with for idiosyncratic reasons). It's a business move. Plain and simple. That said, I wouldn't dismiss all of the complaints we "old guys" are levying at the current state of Marvel. Continuity is taking a tremendous hit in this rush by Marvel to come up to speed with the times. Not to mention, there is a gimmick laden quality to some of what is going on.

The gimmick, in my opinion, is "lets simply change the flagship characters to be more representative of the fanbase/society and do so by cannibalizing what came before." To me, that's inorganic and lazy. I'm all for more diversity in comics, I'm an African American Marvel/DC fan who's been reading since the late 70's. I've been excited by every new hero introduced to me, but especially excited by heroes of color because they weren't as plentiful (and obviously, they were representative of my ethnic subset of American culture). In my estimation, the development of a more diverse creative and editorial staff is the way a publisher like Marvel will successfully address targeting current and future demographics. In this manner, they can create 'new' ideas that don't alienate 'old' sensibilities.

Exactly yes, and the reason I dislike talk of "PC agenda" isn't because every attempt a diversity is good or above criticism (there is some very compelling criticism from African American comic fans about Riri Williams for example), but that but dismissing efforts at better diversity as political you are de-legitimizing and dismissing the right of people to have stories that reflect them. None of us choose to be born how we are, and no one deserves to have their presence in stories turned into a political issue when it isn't.
I'm certainly not dismissing all the complaints, and I'm not saying that someone who misses the way comics were in the 70s is wrong to feel that way, not at all.

I don't disagree, but it comes down to execution rather than any inherent issue with the change, in my opinion. If it is executed badly, it comes off as inorganic and forced and does more harm than good probably. But that doesn't invalidate the reasoning behind it necessarily.
More diverse creative staff is also vital, it's horrifying that Marvel only just employed it's first black woman writer (I'm not sure if meant on an ongoing or ever) in the past few months. And again Bendis is being criticized for writing Riri Williams. For these stories to feel organic and natural they need to reflect the peopl they are supposed to represent, and the best way to do that is to have the people they represent write them or at least heavily involved in the production process.

I'll leave it there, this discussion has been nice and civil so best to end it.