Taking Risks

Captain Native America. It'll make sense in a bit.

So I want to tack on a few more thoughts onto our discussion of Captain America pledging allegiance to Hydra. I've been reading Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe, and the revelations within add some additional context.

How did Marvel get away with this?
That's clearly Donald Duck.

In my previous post, I said that Marvel doesn't take risks, and it instead shoehorns anything trendy into an established property. I still think that this is an accurate statement in some cases, but I want to clarify that bold, new directions for comics is something that creators have attempted to do ever since the medium was created. Such attempts have succeeded and failed over the course of the history of the genre. Jim Shooter, for example tried to launch an entire line of comics with newly imagined characters with the New Universe imprint. Of course, we can add Shooter's attempts with Kirby's New Gods and countless other attempts at risky ideas. Someone at Marvel even suggested that Captain America get replaced by a Native American at one point!

The trick is for these risks is twofold. Firstly, any new idea carries the risk of being unprofitable. It doesn't matter that Howard the Duck is new, bold, and different. It's a book about a Disney ripoff that somehow exists in the same universe as Spider-Man. Outside of some niche fandom, Howard has never been that profitable. Similarly, there has been an increased push for female heroes and other diverse representations; but again, these new ideas must ultimately work in the marketplace in order for them to last. It is far easier for the new Pakistani Ms. Marvel to turn a profit because of name recognition. It is important to note that the original Ms. Marvel herself was a character that was spun-off the male Captain Marvel. Again, taking an established character in a radically new direction isn't a new tactic for the genre.

Does anyone think that this character would work as well
 if it didn't have Ms. Marvel in the title?

The second trick for these risky plays to overcome reiterates what I said previously. Simply stated, some characters are too ingrained, too quintessential to take apart without doing damage to your storytelling efforts. That' s why several different incarnations of the Flash and Green Lantern have caught on, but Batman is somehow always, always Bruce Wayne. In the same vein, I can't help but suspect that Miles Morales Spider-Man well eventually join Ben Reilly and others who try to replace established characters only to find themselves discarded into the background of continuity as trends shift.

Therefore, I do not particularly like attaching diversity trends to established properties. When the trend subsides, so does the diversity! If you merely take a black person and put them into the shoes of Spider-Man, what happens when the trend of race and gender swapping gets old? One reason that I think characters like Black Panther, Blade, and Luke Cage have shown some staying power is that they are unique, not just recolors of established characters. Allow me to repeat myself: replacing existing characters with diverse  cast choices does not ultimately address diversity in media. In my opinion, all it does is create two problems.

For one, replacing established characters divides your fanbase. While some people will hail the change, people who like the original will probably be alienated. This division does not help your brand in the long term. Secondly and more insidiously, even though you may appear as if you are taking an innovative, diverse course of action, you still haven't actually created anything diverse. Re-branding existing characters just means that you've recolored something old. Further, the cultural statement is dis-empowering. It is admitting defeat when you basically imply that diversity cannot stand on its own merits, but must attach itself to older, more successful ideas.

Although it is debatable if whether there is even a legitimate issue with media diversity to begin with (I submit that depending on how you look at it, there is no such issue), the solution to these potential issues is not to use affirmative action for fictional works. If you want more diverse art, then start typing. Create more diverse art and submit it to the public. Even more importantly, buy the art that you want to support. Complaining about how other people's art doesn't fit your ideology is the most frustrating waste of time that I can possibly imagine.