CANADA

Like kryptonite, social justice warrior ideology is killing comic book universe

http://youtu.be/epyyjiOfQd4/ 04:41

Published on May 15, 2016

David Menzies gets nostalgic about comic books, offering an additional explanation for plummeting sales besides kids' preference for new media over reading.

http://www.therebel.media/like_kryptonite_social_justice_warrior_i/

Who’d have thought Superman’s most daunting foe wouldn’t be Lex Luthor or Brainiac, but Playstation and the Internet? Today’s Grade Three demographic isn’t interested in reading about the X-Men, preferring to spend hours glued to an X-box.

With the new media onslaught, comic book publishers have seen a declining readership. Marvel Comics went bankrupt in 1996 and comic sales continue to nosedive but superhero spinoffs – TV shows, movies, video games, licensed merchandise – are billion-dollar industries.

Last Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, with shops across the continent giving away over two million complimentary comics to gin up readership. I applaud efforts to get kids reading. I devoured them as a kid and would love to see a comeback. But have you checked the comic book racks lately? They’ve succumbed to the kryptonite of political correctness.

Characters have been “re-imagined”. At Marvel, The Mighty Thor is now a woman, Spider-Man is a black Hispanic, and Ms. Marvel is a Muslim (minus a burka or hijab.) DC has new Green Lanterns -- one gay, the other Muslim. Don’t expect a crossover storyline between those two because it might not go well. DC’s social engineers already goofed with the Muslim Green Lantern whose forearms are covered with tattoos, strictly "haram" in Islam. Boy, it’s not easy being politically correct, is it?
Comic book publishers in the 70’s tried to be more diverse too, but today’s efforts seem more like pandering. They haven’t done a very good job -- every superhero on my decades-old "Friends Of Ol’ Marvel" poster is white. But instead of changing the race and sex of established characters, why not introduce new and interesting female and non-white characters? Or develop the cool and diverse characters that already exist like Black Panther and Luke Cage?

For now, the comic book universe seems to be caving to those whiny social justice warriors who demand change for the sake of change. Accepting this way of thinking might be politically correct but it doesn’t make for compelling storylines.

http://www.therebel.media/like_kryptonite_social_justice_warrior_ideology_is_killing_comic_book_universe/

Money drives these changes and this is inexorably true as long as money is our god....

* You say money is your god. Take a "five" and just put a match to it and burn it. Now you have "taken charge of your life". / easy.
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** In our place we have never had any comic books. Tons of real books that from time-to-time get dusted off. The kids do have a couple of paper backs that are for bathroom reading.
** Internet has taken over and replaced books. A click of the correct question and there is more real adventure for any kids!
** At N.A.S.A. my youngest got an award for building and launching the cheapest satellite, He did forget some of the interior parts so the data was scrambled.
** Youtube is educating this generation with real "action hero's". Just watching the real magic, science teachers on youtube speaks volumes.

Same thing can be said about pretty much any business that does any kind of social or community program.
Like make a wish foundation, or toys for tots, goes "green," or when a business has a canned food drive or school supply collection.

This is what business does.

This is marketing.

This is trying to expand a customer base so they'll get money.

Do you see Apple saying "pshaw! We don't want no stupid millenials using OUR phones! We want to keep our core 30-60 year old fanboys that stuck by us since we first sold mac computers! We're going to start making iRotaries where you have to put an iDime into a slot, and if you want 'apps' go to a restaurant and look at the beginning of the menu!"

Businesses pander to the people that offer them avenues of expansion and growth.

Preferably at the beginning of the development of these groups/demographic so they become a brand that is then intrinsic to its identity, so everyone in the future that wants to join with the group has to buy the same products.

Was "you've come a long way, baby!" really so long ago and outlandishly unique making pandering to social groups something new to people?
Or are attention spans and memory really this stunted?

I think the author of that article has misidentified the problem.

Calling it "political correctness" is an error. It's got nothing at all to do with "political correctness."

It's the result of exactly the same basic capitalism that the author remembers from his own youth. There is no more or less 'pandering' going on now, than there ever was before.

What has changed, and what really bugs some people, is that the modern 'pandering' isn't aimed at them anymore.