How Liberalism May Be Hurting Comic Book Sales
by Darin Wagner
Folks, I know comics are created by artists. I know that Marvel and DC offices are in New York City. I realized before I started typing this that asking for authentic conservatism in comic books from the Big Two to counter constant jabs, references and snide, preachy copy they print is like asking the mob to please leave garbage alone. I get that…
…but for the good of the comic book industry, this escalation and domination of liberal sentiment has got to stop and it’s gotta stop quick.
Everybody knows that when an entertainer goes political, he/she runs the very serious risk of cutting their audience by at least half. The comic book audience has been getting smaller and smaller and I think it’s time to honestly consider that a big part of the problem is the content.
We don't really do comics here; television (and the occasional literary comment from yours truly) is more our purview. But I think Wagner's comments apply to anything we geeks happen to like. Look what has happened to science fiction fandom, for example. As I've discussed in the past, we sci-fi fans have been victimized time and time again by a self-appointed Thought Police whose tactics are spiteful, arrogant, and destructive to open-minded discussion. Beyond that, though, much that has recently been published in the genre (outside of conservative redoubts like Baen, that is) is aggressively anti-conservative in character -- and the sci-fi audience is dropping off as a result. Is it too much to ask that the members of our creative class not actively alienate large segments of their potential market?
Comic books are dead. They were meant for adolescent boys with adult role models. I want to be as smart as batman, as strong as superman i.e. I want to be my dad, my big brother, a soldier i.e an adult. That ideal is now lost as they pander to a very small, niche audience largely composed of feminists.
ReplyDeleteI remember nerd rage at some giant apocalyptic storyline that was initiated because of the rape of a female superhero. But of course, that storyline was a "bestseller". Just look at all the popular tv shows of today, most of them are devoid of manly violence (fisticuffs, warfare) and replete with alpha male violence (rape but she likes it, thug style beatdowns etc.)
These themes don't draw boys and adolescents to buy comics. Neither do forced diversity by including minority or LGBT superheroes because minorities/LGBT types don't buy comics.
Superman is Clark Kent, Batman is Bruce Wayne, Spiderman is Peter Parker. Anyone remember the real name of Static Shock? Midnighter? Supergirl?