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Mephisto's Advocate – Marvel Comics, Diversity And Last Weekend

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Over the weekend, the interviews and reports from Milton Griepp, who was invited to the Marvel Retailer Summit, obsessed Bleeding Cool. Exactly why Marvel requested that retaiklers at the event sign NDAs when they was a reporter in the room may be baffling. But I am told that DC Comics executives, especially, delighted in the reports – and Bleeding Cool's coverage, analysis and repackaging of them. You can see the vestigial traits of some of their thoughts in the Batman Q&A from Dallas Fan Expo yesterday – the ones that weren't live streamed to the internet.

Certain Marvel people have cried "foul" over a number of the reports, Mark Waid, despite speaking out against violent threats to comic creators, threw around violent talk towards Jude Terror, who wrote most of the Marvel coverage for Bleeding Cool while I was on WonderCon duty. Nick Spencer spoke out against Newsarama's coverage and its headlines. And G Willow Wilson mocked the use of a visual to Ms Marvel on what, I am told was one of Bleeding Cool's article about Marvel's attitude to diversity.

But, despite the comics press being heavily criticised for their coverage, the mainstream media seems to have followed a similar tack, including the Guardian (twice) and the BBC, Entertainment Weekly, Time Magazine, Variety, with many more to follow up today.

Here's an attempt at least to put another side.

Regarding issues on price points, there has always been the argument that increasing prices means you can make more money from fewer readers, which, well, leads you to have fewer readers, which is not great for future growth. But with the 80-page Amazing Spider-Man #25, David Gabriel, Marvel SVP – Sales and Marketing, says they tripled sales – not just tripled revenue. What lesson do you think Marvel could learn from that? You know what, I'd happily buy an 80 page comic for $9.99 as long as the quality remained throughout. It's the same as buying a 20-page comic for $2.50 – cheaper than everyone but Alterna these days.

The problem with limited series causing retailers not to order them unless they are Star Wars doesn't really hold water when Secret Empire exists – unless retailers have been fooled into thinking it's an Empire Strikes Back sequel. But it might explain a number of what were considered prematurely cancelled comic books – they were only ever limited series, just Marvel knew better to call them that. Could they do what they did when they cancelled the New Universe and suddenly DP7 was #36 of a 36 issue limited series?

But the focus of most reaction has been regarding the report that Marvel was pulling back on a diverse line because of a reduced demand for what Marvel had been doing. The criticism was that Marvel wasn't marketing it well enough.

Gabriel did point out that they had got good results for the last three years. They had created outreach, they had found new audiences, people has responded well to the likes of Jane Foster as Thor, the Black Panther relaunch, Ms Marvel and Miles Morales. And we did see how Marvel used media to expand their audience with these titles. But regarding new examples of expanding diversity, they had not had similar reaction, and that was the problem.

Some people have pointed to the success of Thors and Spider-Man as to why Marvel is misguided in this issue – but the point being made was about launches around October-November last year, and since – not before.

Even when I was first breaking this story back in February regarding Marvel's move towards more "meat and potatoes" comic books with the Make Mine Marvel not-a-relaunch, I was pointing out how Marvel wanted to maintain "two streams", of classic characters and newer takes.

And no, it wasn't an entirely Marvel issue. In November, which is when Marvel began to notice an issue, Bleeding Cool ran a story in which retailers were telling Image Comics that they weren't ordering the first issue of Motor Crush because it had a black female lead character because their audience would reject it.

Of course, Image still published the comic, it seems to have done well, and they still seem to be publishing newer, more diverse titles.

But when writing a previous piece, Jude said "for the past few years, this reporter has warned readers that Marvel's commitment to diversity was a hollow one, and that the company is more concerned with receiving praise from mainstream media outlets for minimal efforts than they are with actually building a lasting long term comics model that can actually reach the potential mainstream audience that exists in that "world outside your window," instead of just the much smaller world inside the window of direct market comic shops."

And I think that's where I really disagree, simply, because I know that's not true, because I've spoken to such creators and editors and executives who have gone through difficult times in this regard and who are truly committed to just that kind of expansive work. Their work can be diluted by practical reality, they may get it wrong, they may not always think things through, but I don't think that anyone could doubt Brian Bendis' desire for his children to have in Miles Morales a superhero of the same ethnic background as them, for Sana Amanat to push for Ms Marvel, put in charge of character development and then take that message to the White House, for books like Young Avengers to be supported and act as an inspiration for others. Different people within the company may have a variety of motivations, and some are more expansive than others, some are better informed than others, but that's a very different matter. And while Jude says "if those profits were ever to dry up, Marvel would turn their back on diversity without a second thought", that's still not true. Marvel may have decided to shift its content but that is a) not without a second thought at all and b) looking to return to that kind of greater expansiveness when and where possible. It's a pragmatic solution for Marvel that tempers idealism, rather than replaces it. Just reading Gabriel's words "we saw the sales of 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 against.  That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked" or Alonso's words, "I've got a Korean nephew. This Korean-American kid couldn't sleep at night. At 4:00 AM, he's looking at the ceiling because he just found out the new Hulk is a Korean-American kid" I can't see how one can come to that conclusion.

They may not be doing it as well as some would like. They may be doing it badly. When it comes to the comics, they may not be hiring the kind of people who might get them to do it better. But when you actually look at the motivations of those making those decisions, it's not press coverage they are after. They are wanting to do the right thing. Criticise results, sure, but criticise motivation? I don't think that holds up. Even if you look at the likes of Chairman Ike Perlmutter, whose extremely dodgy views and attitudes Bleeding Cool was the first to expose, the television shows that happened under his watch are among the most diverse comics-to-TV adaptations being broadcast.

And while the news coming from the retailer summit may be disappointing for all sorts of reasons, it's no reason to stop seeing people at Marvel as people. They are responding to retailer concerns and what they supply to them. But there are other markets, and Marvel simply aren't talking to comic book retailers about them. It is notable that the ComiXology and Marvel App charts show a greater receptiveness for more diverse titles, and for those digital channels you can see Marvel pushing a much greater move for diversity. And when the comic stores want to receive it, it will be there. Of course marketing can be done, but maybe there are more receptive audiences to focus that marketing on, rather than pushing at a closed door – for now.

Oh, do note though that I managed to disagree with Jude Terror without talking about punching him through the face. It can be done. Just.

Of course, there's some things not even a Mephisto Advocate like myself can defend, such as when Alonso says "It's harder to pop artists these days… There is no apparatus out there.  There is no Wizard Magazine out there that told you who the hot top 10 were.  We don't have that anymore.  We can hype our artists all we want, but I don't know if we know how many artists, besides maybe McNiven and Coipel, absolutely move the needle on anything to be drawn."

I don't just mean the artists and needle thing, though that has been mocked and commented on all over the place. No, the lack of a hot top ten – or rather, eleven. You do have that, it's on Bleeding Cool…. measured from reader and retailer feedback, news coverage and aftermarket response. Feel free to let us know what's hot for you. Maybe, together, we can help Marvel rather than just berate them.

Maybe we should rename it "Moving The Needle"?

Mephisto, out.


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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