There are a few mother's-basement-dwelling cretins who are aggressively/desperately trying to make a "Gamergate of comics" happen, and as I recall they were all over this as well, trying to invent a controversy to push their alt-right agenda the same way.
I mean, as an industry, comics has a huge sexism problem that's only
verrrry slowly improving. Sadly, that's like most industries... But it always bums me out in particular when it's so pronounced in "geek culture" kind of spaces. The idea of sci-fi and speculative fiction being so restricted to one narrow perspective or "voice" is insanity. And getting angry that women work in and enjoy comics is insanity. These are concepts and characters with wide, universal appeal, after all, and an almost limitless potential for growth and adaptability.
As far as I'm concerned, anyone who's more concerned with "protecting their clubhouse" than sharing what they love with as many people as possible... doesn't really love it at all. That's not fandom. That's emotional stuntedness and an unearned sense of ownership and control. Which is exactly the attitude that will kill the comics industry stone dead if the creeps win and it's allowed to dominate the culture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZariusTwo
One might say this is what really kicked off Marvel's downward spiral this year. I noticed after this that a LOT of Youtube critics like Diversity & Comics, Capn Cummings, and Captain Frugal all got very popular
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The comics alt-righters sure concentrated their efforts around that time, yeah. But I think you can attribute their falling sales to Marvel's overall marketing/editorial mismanagement: constant, confusing relaunches (to try to milk new #1s) and the heavy push of truly awful, never-ending event comics that exist only to lead into the
next awful, never-ending event comics.
Personally, I feel that Civil War II was the breaking point. That whole event was wretched and damned near inescapable, and I feel it was a jumping-off point for a lot of readers.