Marvel's Destruction of White Male Comic Book Super Heroes and Why It's Irrelevant

Despite the dashing looks, irresistible charm, and much-better-than-average-for-a-40-year-old-physique I have today, in my youth I was a nerd.  And not just "the kid who was shy" type nerd, I was a full on, 100%, grade A nerd.  I DM'd several D&D campaigns, played Shadow Run, didn't break 100 pounds until I was a sophomore in high school, and still to this day have my dice bag.

I was, and still am to this day, a nerd. 

So occasionally I like to geek out and listen to one of my favorite podcasts, The Bechtloff, wherein Chris (the host) hosts anywhere from 2-5 other nerds and discuss all thinks geekery.

Video games
Movies
RPG's
Table top games, and
Comics.

However, a common theme that is discussed on his show is the trend in the comic book industry to basically eliminate all white male super heroes and replace them with any one of a number of permutations of non straight white males.

The Green Lantern is now black.
Thor is a girl.
Peter Parker (spider man) is now gay.
But that's if you didn't know he was Hispanic before.
And then there's Ms. Marvel who is now a Muslim

Naturally, there is a backlash, but for more reasons than you'd think.

One, you are destroying the original characters as they were originally created.
Two, the obvious ploy amongst Marvel (and DC comics) to placate to leftist politics of diversity at the expense of the franchises (much like James Bond being black) ruins the comics.
Three, it insults true original creators of non-white male heroes such as Static Shock, Blade, Jason Fly (a video game called XIII), and Storm.
Finally, Marvel insults their fans as they're implying their readers are so shallow and stupid they'll respond positively to gender, race, or religious changes and not a good story line OR new original comics that contain new non-white male superheroes.

But while the assault on American comic book classics is under full swing by a new generation of talentless SJW wanna-but-never-will-be's Stan Lee's at Marvel's comic book division,

and

normal, everyday Americans are appalled at this assault

what we all need to do is step back, clear the gunk from our eyes, and look at the comic book industry through a different lens.  Specifically that of economics.  For if we do, you'll see why this destruction of "evil white male" comic book super heroes is not worth wasting one more calorie of energy getting riled up about.

First you need to know that Marvel is not Marvel anymore.  It is part of the Disney corporation which bought them out in 2007.  Previous to that it was a flailing company, one of which had filed for bankruptcy indicating Marvel, as a stand alone entity, was worthless and nobody wanted what they were selling.

Second, you need to ask yourself a question.  "How big is Marvel compared to the rest of Disney?"  And not just Marvel, but specifically the COMIC BOOK SEGMENT of Marvel?

Well, that's not as easy of a task as it seems. 

If you look at Disney's 2014 annual report, you'll note that Marvel is accounted for under two of Disney's divisions.  One, the "Studio Entertainment" division and, two, the "Consumer Products" division.  However, MOVIES are different than COMICS and thus the COMICS ONLY portion of sales would be accounted for in the Consumer Products division:

And when you look at Disney's total sales of $49 billion, the consumer products division accounts for a only 8.2% of that (though 10% of gross profits):

But here's the problem.  Consumer products include not just comic books but all of the merchandized crap that Disney sells in association with its movies.  Dolls, games, video games, music, lunchboxes, backpacks, you name it.  And when I walk through Target I can see every manner of merchandise with a super hero or Disney character slapped on it, but NO comic books.  So out of that meager 8.2%, it is likely much, much less.

How much less is hard to tell.  Because if you search Disney's 2014 annual report you'll come up with 37 instances of "Marvel" but only 6 mentions of "comic books."  And there was no data that explicitly stated how much Disney had in comic book sales.  It's almost as if Disney is ashamed they even produce comic books.

So off to teh interwebz I went and I found this helpful link that contains some comic book industry statistics from 2012.  Specifically, it contains total industry sales ($418 million) AND Marvel's percent of the market (39.06%).  This would imply that Marvel's TOTAL comic book sales in 2012 was no more than a whopping $163 million.  You know what?  Let's be affirmative actiony just like Marvel's SJW comic book artists and give them a helping hand by rounding up to $200 million.

So, in 2014 Marvel sold $200 million in comic books which accounts for (drum roll please)

.4% of Disney's total revenue.

NOT 4%,
.4% 
Like FOUR TENTHS OF ONE PERCENT.

And this is the reason why Marvel (and DC) going on an affirmative action campaign, replacing all the evil CIS gendered, white male super heroes with anything but doesn't matter.  It's because nobody cares.

While ruining classical comic books' canon may upset comic book readers, in the grand scheme of things Disney just doesn't care.  Disney bought Marvel for its ability to make movies, not comic books.  And either out of the leftist political CSR bias Disney has, a hope Marvel's comic book team would develop new comics that could be turned into infinitely more profitable movies in the future, or (and I would not doubt this) Marvel put a poison pill into their acquisition from Disney that they HAD to still produce comic books despite being bought out, Marvel's comic book division still remains.  Unfortunately it's staffed by talentless Millennial puke whose one trick pony is NOT to create new and exciting comics, but merely ruin previous artists' work by forcing "diversity" on it.  But so what?  They're irrelevant.  They're .004 of Disney's total sales and it's obvious Disney doesn't care what they do.

The truth is that the comic book industry is no different than the music industry or the book publishing industry.  The talented artists coming up with NEW and ORIGINAL art are on the internet and selling them directly to comic book fans.  The connected, the political, the ideologues, the ass-kissers, the talentless, and the hacks are employed (unnecessarily and charitably I might) by the old and now obsolete guard.  This presents a choice to true comic book fans who will determine the future of comic books.

Do you continue to buy what is nothing more than leftist propaganda posing as a comic book just because it has the brand name of "Superman" or "Thor" on it?

Or do you find new and upcoming artists who are creating the TRUE works of comic book art that will become the masterpieces of the future?
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