8 Ways DC And Marvel Make It Impossible For Fans To Read Their Comics
6. Pointing The Finger At Diversity For Sales Slumps
Marvel Comics
When Marvel bigwig David Gabriel laid the blame for falling comic sales squarely at the feet of diversity, fans were - understandably - rather peeved. Especially so, given how male-oriented and white the publisher's comics have been for the majority of its history.
Gabriel's comments, while later clarified to allay fears that Marvel would be ending any further efforts to diversify their heroes, rightly drew criticism from both creators and fans alike, and in the wake of the Hydra-Cap reveal only seemed to exacerbate fan frustrations.
Not only were Gabriel's comments misjudged, they were also demonstrably false. Almost half of comic book readers are women, and within that bracket it's clear that these readers are searching for books that best represent them - a process that has seen many fans divesting from stale (and mostly male) storylines and characters. Diversity wasn't, nor ever will be, responsible for a decline in sales, and the idea that making a universe more representative of the world we live in would dissuade new audiences from participating in the medium is even more absurd.
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.
