You know, for a company that wants to give black people someone to cheer for and “see themselves” in (something that I can’t follow because I’ve seen myself in robots, dogs, and things that don’t exist in our world since the surface view of my white butt doesn’t define me), Marvel kind of sucks at it.
First we get Black Panther…and then he dies off-screen so they can replace him with his sister “to honor Chadwick Boseman“, as if Shuri couldn’t be a good character without that branding. Then Sam Wilson is turned into Captain America because the comics and studio both thought Falcon wasn’t a strong character and needed the Captain America branding. Miles Morales gets brought into the main Marvel universe while everyone else in the original Ultimate Universe died for not being a replacement, but despite being in the original Spider-Man universe still tries to use that branding alongside Peter. Sensing a pattern? It’s all about the Name, having the right brand to promote the character…despite much of the MCU’s most popular brands existing for decades in comics and maybe animation, with many more never touched. You ever see Nitro The Exploding Man? Angar The Screamer? Captain Ultra? ANYBODY on this list of obscure characters? With a good enough movie, Frog Man is getting action figures.
Tell me modern Hollywood hasn’t done research by showing me “Left-Winger” and “Right-Winger” against John Walker’s Captain American/US Agent. You know they’d #@$%$ up those characters royally in 2024.
By doing these things, Marvel has weakened the brands they hoped to use to push those characters. Even the marketing calles Miles Morales by his name, not at all (or sometimes alongside the brand) “Spider-Man”, to tell him apart from Peter Parker. Even black people I follow refer to Sam as Falcon, Captain Falcon, Black Captain America, Captain African-American, or something along those lines. Black Panther got drawn into the gender war. Meanwhile, Marvel has a bunch of black heroes wondering when they’re going to get a shot even though they aren’t as highly recognized even among comic fans. Considering what they did to Echo and other Marvel characters, including now blackening Wonder Man in upcoming productions, The answer might be never.
BW Media Spotlight 
Some Videos About Mark Waid’s Poorly Timed Response
Superheroes. Maybe we don’t want their world to exist as ours, seeing that it often comes with supervillains and a lot of destruction and even death. Still, when done right they’re a great escape from the weight of the day, a catharsis where good triumphs over evil and everything is right with the world. Try telling that to Mark Waid. The man who made many superhero comics in the 1990s, some with questionable stories, like dismembering a hero’s girlfriend and shoving her parts into a refrigerator, now says that due to Donald Trump retaking the White House, Waid is no longer able to write superheroes because he no longer believes in the goodness of humanity.
He’s started working on Justice League Unlimited, where practically every DC hero is now a member of the League, something they tend to flip flop on a lot through the various incarnations.
Two videos from Comics By Perch on this one, plus one more after that by two other guys. The first is a gut reaction to Waid’s post on Bluesky (where some people ran to after Elon Musk opened TwitterX to all points of view) about not being able to write heroes anymore. The third is a clip from the Rip & The Silverback podcast that goes over what should be DC’s response rather nicely. This started out just being a Daily Video with Perch’s response, but I had more to say and boosted it to full article. Note that there will be swearing in the videos but they make the point better than I can.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on November 12, 2024 in Comic Spotlight, DC Spotlight and tagged commentary, Justice League Unlimited, Mark Waid.
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