The Rise and Fall of the Comic Empire

I stumbled onto SF Debris’ Opinionated Reviews a few weeks ago. The page features a fascinating history of the comic book industry. Some of the stories and information I knew, but much of it I did not. I have heard many stories about the dodgy tactics Marvel and DC used over the years to screw over each other and destroy their competition. Their mutual hatred of Valiant and Image is legendary.

I have not vetted any of the claims made in the videos, however, based on my understanding of the comic book industry I do not doubt any of it. Despite the industry being about “funny books,” it is still a business and that will always attract some of the worst humanity has to offer.

What is particularly interesting is Marvel’s behavior over the years. When Disney bought them in 2009, I thought that the Disney need to crush all competition would ruin Marvel. Little did I know that Marvel was as underhanded and vicious as Disney. Given the information presented in the videos, Disney’s buyout of Marvel looks practically incestuous.

The series is well worth the watch.

Dear Marvel, You Can’t Win

Several months ago I wrote about an article featured on ComicsAlliance. Juliet Khan, the author, wrote a rant about Marvel and DC Comics’s recent attempts to appeal to progressive feminist female readers. Her complaint was that the new femalecharacters were bland and boring. Of course, this is precisely what feminists like Khan asked for. They want female characters who never do bad things, never make mistakes, never have bad things happen to them, and never have any character flaws. All this leaves creators with are characters who can only be snarky and sassy.

As I noted at the end of my post, people like Khan knew what the end result would be because comic book fans warned them. We told these progressives that their ideas were boring, yet they ignored us and demanded these characters anyway. And for inexplicable reason, both of the Big Two companies caved.

Now another ComicsAllaince writer shows us why capitulating to the so-called “social justice warrior” crowd is pointless.