Political Correctness Hurting Marvel Comics??

[Iron Maiden]

Will agree. The left shifted so far left it made me (apparently) "right" somehow even without changing my views. It's...bizarre.

Marvel has seemingly shifted along with that further left slide and, as such, I feel heavily preached to and even directly insulted by Marvel comics in many cases.

The best quote about it I've heard recently is "Somehow holding my liberal ideals has become a conservative position"

Hey guess what? You might find this shocking but... people change over time. Just as many feel that Reagan would be too liberal for today's GOP, there's also an element of the left that has gone a bit further. Or how we now have some states that are legalizing recreational use of marijuana when in the 1960s and 1970s that was radical counterculture thinking. You have viewpoints all over the spectrum. Why do you think this is somehow beyond the pale?

[Redjack]

God Loves, Man Kills came out in 1982....apparently back before Marvel comics became all "Political" and ruined the escapist fantasy.

Yet somehow that story managed to become one of the most highly regarded X-men stories ever written.

You also had Black Panther fighting the Klan in the early 70's. The Fantastic Four help Black Panther fight Apartied in South Africa around the same time.

I know, right? It's like they didn't understand they shouldn't connect the comics to real-world politics in ANY way. jack and stan would NEVER do something like that.

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[penthotal]

Not sure! But they've certainly succeeded in giving some of their readers an unwarranted feeling of superiority over other parts of the comic book fanbase.

Are you sure what's happening it's not the opposite? That some people, for some reason, have a feeling of inferiority when things are said they don't agree with? Shouldn't they solve their insecurity issues by themselves?

[Ghvxg887]

The problem is how they are forcing their agenda before thinking of great story-telling and characters. Just look on America #1 and Riri Williams.

[Mr MajestiK]

The problem is how they are forcing their agenda before thinking of great story-telling and characters. Just look on America #1 and Riri Williams.

What's "wrong" with Chavez and Riri?

[penthotal]

The problem is how they are forcing their agenda before thinking of great story-telling and characters. Just look on America #1 and Riri Williams.

The problem is how they are forcing their agenda before thinking of great story-telling and characters. Just look on America #1 and Riri Williams.

I like both books. I am 37 yo, I've started reading comics when I was 4, and I already find Riri a character that's more interesting than Stark, honestly.

America is a YA comics, wrote by a YA novelist, I think it's a nice book, definitely okay for the audience is made for. If you are not the audience for this book, or you are unable to enjoy something that's not perfectly tailored to your interest, just don't read it. Don't say it's not a good book because you don't like it, say it's not a book for you.

Story telling it's not the problem. People that read comics not because they love reading and stories, but because they are obsessed by characters they used to read when they were young is the problem. All this talk of story telling, good stories, good characters it's really meaningless.

I know a thing or two about writing, plots, story telling and characters. I work in publishing in my country, I evaluate books, I translate some of them, I proof read a lot of them. 100+ literary fiction and non fiction books per year. Today comics writing is of a greater quality than most comics from 20, 30 o 40 years ago, of almost all super hero comics from 30, 40 or 50 years ago. Plots are not naive and unrealistic as they were, characterization has more depth, characters are more real and tied to reality and their times, interactions between character is finally someway similar to as it is in real life, dialogs are not as embarrassingly ridiculous as they used to be years ago.

When people keep talking about good stories, good writing, good storytelling and at the same time their references are mono dimensional characters, a b&w good vs. evil world, embarrassingly ridiculous unrealistic dialogs, I am not sure they know what they are saying. What they want seems more similar to the comic version of a Michael Bay movie than to good writing.

[skyvolt2000]

The problem is how they are forcing their agenda before thinking of great story-telling and characters. Just look on America #1 and Riri Williams.

Have you READ the books beyond the previews?

You know there is more to a book than a cover.

It's funny these comments show up when we talk about POC, LGBT & most females. Mainly by those who never bothered with the book.

Having a POC or LGBT in a book is not a forced agenda.

Not sure! But they've certainly succeeded in giving some of their readers an unwarranted feeling of superiority over other parts of the comic book fanbase.

That some people, for some reason, have a feeling of inferiority when things are said they don't agree with? Shouldn't they solve their insecurity issues by themselves?

Yes they should but the issue is many times folks who WORK for the company feel the same.

See Green Lantern. Hal Jordan LOVE holds that franchise hostage. And you see the low sales as a result. Never mind more folks want to read a GL book WITHOUT him.

[skyvolt2000]

Yeah, the people saying that they don't want to read comics and not have any sort of sociopolitical issues in them are being dishonest, either about their love of Marvel or their distaste for those things being touched on in comics.

Marvel comics have been dealing with politics and social issues since the 60's. It's a staple of comics like Captain America, The X-Men, Iron Man, and Black Panther. Other comics touch on social issues and politics on a semi regular basis. Freaking Spider-Man has dealt with those topics from time to time over the years.

Some of the stories that are considered classics in Marvel lore directly deal with politics and sociopolitical issues.

Anybody complaining about the political bent of the Captain America comics likely wasn't a Captain America fan to begin with.

Here is the thing most will play dumb to that because a lot of those stories have just recently (2000-now) or still not in trades.

People forget Steve quit being CA to give us US Agent and addressed Battlestar's original code name.

Peter Parker was in so many books like Marvel Tales and his 4 series-that is all he did in many of them. Especially when Rocket Racer was around. Sadly a lot of them are not in trade.

Rage when he first showed up in Avengers was one and his second arc was another one with Hate Monger.

I think folks have an issue with WHO is doing it now and who is on the cover.

White savior trope (see Batman & Flash currently) is fine but to dare show POC, LGBT & women standing up for themselves is offending some folks.

Even now, they still put out comparable stuff. It's not like Marvel's doing "Dr Gun Control" or "Socialized Medicine Man meets Capt Safe Space" to the exclusion of all else.

I think the point is if you are reading all the books-you wouldn't think that.

Right now we got folks who look at the cover and that is it.

So they scream PC agenda over a book with a POC and that it's automatically inferior. Yet those same books are winning awards. Books like Ms Marvel are being read by everyone. She's doing what Solo and many other white lead books couldn't do-get a little girl interested in reading. Yet there is that PC agenda chant. Yes there is an agenda-to get girls READING no matter what.

[He-Kal]

Tbh, I don't think this is it at all. I think the price of their comics are what's causing this.
I used to have a subscription at a comic shop I dropped ~ 5 years ago since the expense was getting ridiculous, and now only buy used trades online from Amazon and Ebay.If you have patience you can have an entire storyline for about $5 -$10 that way (as opposed to paying $24-$30).
It's simple economics that's hurting the industry and "Big events" are only bandaids for the overlying problem.

[ed2962]

The problem is how they are forcing their agenda before thinking of great story-telling and characters. Just look on America #1 and Riri Williams.

Ok...I can actually understand how someone who's maybe a fundamentalist Christian might have an issue with America Chavez just on principle. She's living a lifestyle that some might find sinful. Fine. What "agenda" does Riri represent?

And how does she symbolize an agenda, but Victor does not?

[Panfoot]

I like both books. I am 37 yo, I've started reading comics when I was 4, and I already find Riri a character that's more interesting than Stark, honestly.

What character? She showed up out of nowhere with no connections to Stark(or even Rhodey or Pepper for that matter), met Tony once, then became the main character.

[Kasper Cole]

What character? She showed up out of nowhere with no connections to Stark(or even Rhodey or Pepper for that matter), met Tony once, then became the main character.

The character that they've been fleshing out and developing for 5+ issues now. Are you going to claim that in those 5+ issues Riri has been given no development, backstory, or personality?

You're acting like this hasn't been done in comics before with varying degrees of success. What you're complaining about is the EXACT same thing they did with Miles Morales, Kamala Khan, and Sam Alexander.

[ed2962]

What character? She showed up out of nowhere with no connections to Stark(or even Rhodey or Pepper for that matter), met Tony once, then became the main character.

Ok, but how is this different than Eric Masterson, Beta Ray Bill, John Walker, teen Tony, 50's Cap and Bucky, Artimus, Barbarian Aquaman, Kyle Rayner, Cassandra Cain, John Henry Irons, Cyborg Superman, Conner Kent, Azbat, Ted Kord, Jamie Reyes, Genis-Vell, Phyla-Vell, Johnny Storm, android Vision, multiple Starmen, etc...

[CaptCleghorn]

Just gonna leave this here...

[The Negative Zone]

It seems like many people want comics to be a safe space from politics.