Being an internet refuge for Graeme McMillan
Ms Marvel recently went to its sixth printing, a rare accomplishment in comics today.
But chatting with Marvel executives at San Diego Comic Con I discovered more. That it sells more in digital than print, and that includes the first issue.
Another audience member then brought up a second statistic about above the line female talent, claiming that of all the major comic book publishers today, in the last ten years female above the line talent has gone up, except at Marvel where it has gone down. The frustrated attendee went on to ask Axel what the everyday comic book reader could do to help convince Marvel to invest in more less-established female creative talent.
“Support books beyond the big selling ones,” Axel responded, “We really have to fight hard to get a book like Black Widow even approved in the system. We count on your support!”
Axel then went on the defensive and added, “As for your previous point about us not lining up with the rest of the industry, I’m not sure I agree. I don’t want to get talking about statistics or what-have-you, but we’re sort of the big leagues. We play a certain game, and that game is telling superhero comics. We have financial imperatives that drive us. We run our business a certain way.”
Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso responds to criticism over the publisher’s lack of female writers and artists during the Women in Marvel panel at Comic-Con. From here.
The line “we’re sort of the big leagues” is appalling on many levels, but the whole report is worth reading—and also massively at odds, tone-wise, from other reports from the panel. Somehow, I suspect this one may be slightly closer to the reality.
Looking at the map, you can see that the positions of the Earths aren’t random. There are 4 central spokes – Order: going from the Black Rock of Eternity to Earth 0 and below Dream; Chaos: Going from the White Rock of Eternity to Earth-33 and above Nightmare; The Pit: going from Apokolips to Earth 6; and the Pinnacle: going from New Genesis to Earth-51. These primary values act as the core axes – Earth-0 is the mainstream DC Universe, Earth-33 is our reality, Earth-6 is a world based on Stan Lee’s versions of DC characters, and Earth 51 is based on Jack Kirby’s work at DC. In effect, the graph is saying that the Multiverse revolves around DC, Reality, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
Marvel seems to be really putting forth some effort to try and promote their female characters and give them their own comic books. The problem is nobody gives a shit. The longest running series from their recent first wave of titles lasted 17 issues. Only X-Men remains out of the original five series. Currently Marvel is attempting a second push of their female characters. Hopefully things will be better this time around.
The other week I lost my temper and said some stuff about Marvel’s announcements of Captain America and Thor, who are replacing White Captain America and Dude Thor. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, mulling it over, because it’s been pretty inescapable.
I like Marvel’s characters. I think that…
MUST-READ.
When women create superhero comics, though—as with G. Willow Wilson on Ms. Marvel—they’ve had success attracting a female audience. So Marvel’s decision to make Thor a woman, and the company’s general effort to reach out to female readers, seem like canny business moves.
Well, except for the fact that the creative team making Thor a woman doesn’t contain one woman, of course.
(From here. This has been the year for “Hey, women go to Comic-Con too?!?” pieces, it seems. See also this terrible piece.)