10 New Year 2018 Resolutions Marvel Comics Should Make

5. Be More Receptive To Criticism

Avengers No Surrender
Marvel Comics/Alex Ross

One of the defining features of comics discourse this last year was the apparent unwillingness on Marvel's behalf to accept and react to criticism, irrespective of its source.

This is a problem, because while yes, there are a vocal minority of fans out there who don't deserve the time of day at all, there are valid and important voices in the medium that deserve to be listened to. When Marvel are faced with criticism regarding their depiction of LGBT* characters, for instance, or even the relative lack of diversity on the page and off it within the company, the initial reaction from Marvel's influencers shouldn't be one of contempt or dismissal. Yet, for the better part of 2017, that's just what the reaction felt like, from Secret Empire, all the way up to the most recent set of comic cancellations.

It doesn't make for a healthy atmosphere at all, and Marvel would do well to alert to that fact and treat concerns from marginalised readers seriously, particularly when they themselves are also the target of abuse from an old-guard that's mobilised heavily across social media over the course of the last six months.

Platforms like Twitter have never really been conducive to meaningful conversation, but a wiser use of social media, combined with a concerted effort to listen to genuine fan concern, would make the milieu a considerably less toxic place to be in.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.