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.