Hey, CBR.
Got a huge post here. It's not long because of a meandering rant, though I'm sure some will read it that way. It's long because I try to explain myself as well as I possibly can because I believe mutual understanding is a cornerstone of real progress. I know that sometimes the more you give people in the interest of understanding, the more ammo you give them to use against you (that one little phrase that didn't come out quite like you intended!). But, hey, at least I tried...
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Obviously this is a huge topic these days. Just glancing over the CBR forums and headlines on a daily basis shows just how ubiquitous the talk of diversity efforts have become. On the surface, that's a good thing. But, what most people have taken issue with is how these efforts appear engineered to create conflict instead of peace. This is happening so much that I think people honestly believe that if you aren't fighting someone, if you aren't making someone angry, if you aren't seeking to end one's pain by transferring it to someone else, then you aren't accomplishing anything progressive. Personally, I don't believe the best way to peace is through war. I didn't believe it when George W. Bush tried to sell the notion years ago, and I still don't believe it today. And if you aren't concerned with working towards peace and understanding, then what the hell are you working towards?
Let's start with an assumption that I see as a given: diversity in comics is not a zero-sum equation. You don't have to remove heterosexual, white, male heroes to increase the number or prominence of female and minority heroes.
Still, creating unnecessary friction certainly makes sense when you think about how media makers and journalists can leverage controversy and fighting to meet their goals. To quote one of my favorite bands, "No one's excited unless they're divided." So, you divide people, you give them an enemy or something to be afraid of or worried about, and now they're excited. It's a cheaper, easier way to get people excited. It has made people tune in to the news for decades and it makes people pick up tabloid magazines to this day. Excited people will click on links, share articles, post comments, rally their friends, and talk about comic books that might otherwise struggle for attention on the merit of their content alone.
The problem is, diversity on its own is not really controversial these days. Yes, it's as emotionally charged as ever. But, in general, people are welcoming and eager to celebrate those who have different backgrounds than their own. People generally want others to not have to suffer in silence or be judged unfairly for who they are. People generally want others to be able to pick up a given work of media art and see themselves reflected back in some way if that's what it takes to get them to relate to that art. Because of this acceptance, diversity on its own is not going to create the kind of "excitement" that the one's selling want to generate from the one's buying. Sure, introducing new characters of diverse backgrounds would increase sales among the reflected groups, but it's not going to generate the loudest buzz possible in the 2000-teens.
So, the method chosen has to be more potent, more buzzworthy. And this is where I'm getting to the point I'm trying to illustrate here. Something that I'm not sure has really been talked about but seems like a kind of obvious factor in the equation. I now see Marvel's recent big attempts at diversity as a two-step process.
Step 1. Take a prominent heterosexual, white, male hero and alter one of those traits.
Step 2. Make the altered chosen trait from step 1 as big of a contrast as possible.
That's really the crux of my observation here, step 2. Let's take a look...
- The character of Thor was an embodiment of many masculine stereotypes. So, the new Thor is female.
- Steve Rodgers was very "white," in whatever cultural, or even national, sense you want to think of it. So, the new Captain America is black.
- One of Bobby Drake's well-known character traits was a frequent affirmation of his heterosexuality. So, the story reveals Iceman to be gay.
In other words, while the writing itself reflects a lack of ambition, the specific choices made illustrate a very calculated process expected to yield a desperately desired result. They want that change to be as jarring as possible to create the largest emotional response as possible to generate the most "excitement" as possible to get people to ... make a big deal out of it. Fight with each other, draw battle lines, share, click, read. It works great for the people selling the comics and the blogs. And it also works great for people who enjoy the battle, who see it as a good thing. But, for some, it feels like their emotions are being unnecessarily (see: zero-sum above) and purposefully prodded just to increase revenue -- not for any virtuous social goal.
It hurts even more because the long-time fans are the ones who supported comic books. So they feel sold out and a little betrayed when they feel like nothing more than an emotional resource. Not because they have something against women and minorities, but because the method is DESIGNED to upset them. Not by challenging their beliefs about social issues, but by taking away something they enjoyed. It's the same backlash comic creators receive about new costume designs or when a character moves to a different city for lazy plot reasons, or their powers change for lazy reasons, or etc, etc.
I know many people reading this made their minds up a long time ago. They will read what I wrote and see what they want to see. There's human nature in that and I am understanding of it. But, for those who are not too extreme in either direction, I feel like it's important to recognize Marvel's strategy and understand why it is having the result that it is -- not because people are bad, but because it's the intended result.
With so much of the audience today being more interested in waging their own battles off the page than any kind of narrative conflict in the books, I don't see an end in sight to these, at best, questionable decisions. At least, not until the next trend emerges to replace it... which could be a while.
Anyway, maybe this helped shed some light on things for people. Maybe it helped you understand someone you still disagree with a little better. Or, maybe it just made you think less of me. I'm trying to be brave and speak my truth and so I'm prepared for that consequence as well. But, I will leave you with one of Bendis' best pieces of recent writing...
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