Loki seems to have lost his solo title in the Secret Wars upheaval. Angela may be bisexual, but I don’t think it’s been established. Some readers insist that Deadpool is bisexual, but he’s only ever made jokes about it. There’s a rumor that a long overdue Northstar series may be announced soon; that might have felt like a gain if we hadn’t lost Loki and Hercules. Right now, Marvel’s best days as a publisher of queer-friendly comics are definitely in the past.
None of which is to imply that Marvel hates LGBTQ people, or that Alonso is any kind of bigot. It would be easy to characterize my comments that way in order to dismiss them, so let me be clear: I know there are LGBTQ people at Marvel, including at an editorial level. Neither the company nor the editor-in-chief dislikes gay people.
But I don’t believe the company is sensitive or receptive to the issues or the audience. Marvel is too quick to dismiss critics with derision and contempt, even when those critics are queer comic fans with a legitimate complaint, and that makes the company look hostile. Combine that hostility with a lackluster publishing slate and a track record of marginalizing LGBTQ characters, and Marvel’s failures come into sharp relief. The straightwashing of Hercules just draws attention to it all.
Meanwhile, DC is courting queer fans with books like Midnighter, Catwoman, Constantine, Harley Quinn, Bombshells, and Secret Six. So if you want to know which major superhero publisher is listening to you, and if you want to know which publisher treats its LGBTQ readers with respect, the answer to that is straighter than Hercules ever was.“
Movement Conservatives now bank on the idea that any media other than Fox is biased toward an un-American point of view. In 2012, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich summarized the argument. He called out the media for ignoring the Americans who “so deeply want their country to get back on the right track,” and who were tired of “elites who have been trying for a half century to force us to quit being American and to become some kind of other system.” But mainstream news channels do not seem to understand the history of the Movement Conservatives’ political attack on impartial media. For Movement Conservatives, any news coverage that does not explicitly endorse their viewpoint is biased and un-American by definition, no matter how well sourced or argued it is.
In their attempt to honor the American tradition of impartial and fair media, mainstream news channels have worked to give more and more airtime to the Movement Conservative worldview, until we have reached a point where the first Republican presidential debate will allow only a minute for responses to how a candidate would deal with the most pressing questions in the world, and where the leading candidate for the Republican Party’s nomination for president—for the most powerful office in the world—is the ultimate salesman.
Actions speak louder than words. We are experiencing a lull in African-American writers at this moment, but it is temporary. We will be announcing new series very soon that will prove that. I’m talking about new voices, familiar voices and one writer whose voice is heard round the world. [Laughs]
Since you mention, Dwayne, Reggie and Kevin… Comics lost a major talent when it lost Dwayne McDuffie. I’ve got to wonder how he – who had a close relationship with [SVP for Publishing] Tom Brevoort – might have contributed to Marvel. The same thing is true of the late Robert Morales, with whom I was very close. I edited his brilliant “Truth: Red, White and Black” limited series and his run on “Captain America,” and looked forward to working with him again before he passed.
Never forget that proud moment when Marvel’s editor-in-chief seemed to suggest that his company would have more black writers if they hadn’t died on him. (From here.)
At a succession of campaign stops this week, the former Arkansas governor said he would violate a landmark supreme court ruling to accomplish his goal of ending abortion.
“I will not pretend there is nothing we can do to stop this,” Huckabee said at one stop in Iowa.
The Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi pressed Huckabee at the next campaign stop, asking if he would use the national guard or the FBI to stop abortions. Huckabee responded: “We’ll see, if I get to be president.“
Do you think comic book media often times has a bias against DC? Or cynicism? Maybe I’m reading too much into it but with all the discussion recently about the lack of diversity at Marvel, some websites seem to ignore or acknowledge DC’s efforts at diversity among its creators and characters since the DCYou launch? DC still has a lot to improve on, but I think it’s a huge step from where they were 2 years ago. Not saying journalist should be praising DC, but at least acknowledge their efforts.
Favorite pre-SW Marvel comic and the post-SW comic you are looking forward to the most?
Favorite pre-Secret Wars Marvel comic… of the past 70-odd years? That’s a tough one, but I’m tempted to say Steve Englehart and Al Milgrom’s West Coast Avengers. If you mean immediately prior, then G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona and team’s Ms. Marvel.
The one I’m most looking forward to after Secret Wars? Either New Avengers or Ultimates, because I love Al Ewing’s work. Unsure about either of the art teams on the books, but (a) willing to be proven wrong, and (b) it’s a Marvel book, so chances are the artists on the first issues won’t be there by #7 anyway.
Why haven’t more publishers tried their own version of the Image Expo?
Probably concern that they’d look like copycats. Which is ironic, considering how much Image Expo bites off the Apple event format.
I think we’ll see more moves in this direction, though; Valiant’s Periscope’d #valiantsummit before Comic-Con being the most obvious move in that direction, but even Marvel’s All-New All-Different Marvel Previews book was an attempt to control the message in an Expo-esque manner, to some degree.