For those of us who’ve been interested in the strangely-dwindling fortunes of Marvel’s diversity when it comes to solo titles, editor-in-chief Axel Alonso kind of addresses that over at CBR:
I think you’ll see our commitment to diversity is apparent across the line, and has been for some time. Black Panther has anchored a monthly title on and off for the past 8 years, and is certain to be back in the mix in 2012, Luke Cage has been a central character in [Brian] Bendis’ Avengers, and Shang Chi’s role in “Spider-Island” is a taste of things to come — and those are just three characters off the top of my head… It’s not like we’ve stopped trying, either. Besides Miles Morales in the Ultimate Universe, we’ve introduced a wide variety of multicultural characters in the Marvel Universe: the super-powered bounty hunter team, the Zapata Brothers, from “Moon Knight” and “Deadpool Team-Up”; Reptil from “Avengers Academy”; Coldmoon and Dragonfire from “Point One”; Raizo Todo from “Fear Itself: Hulk”; and “Battle Scars” Sergeant Marcus Johnson, who is a character you’ll definitely want to keep your eye on — I mean, eyes. Also, Striker just came out of the closet in “Avengers Academy,” and Wiccan and Hulkling continue to play a huge role in “Young Avengers/Avengers: Children’s Crusade.” I feel like I’m just getting started.
He later goes on to say something unexpected: “Creating any character with the intention of having them anchor an ongoing title is probably the fastest way for them not to catch on.” While that’s probably just good business sense in today’s market, especially for Marvel, there’s something very… I don’t know, pessimistic about both creators’ ability to come up with compelling new characters and readers’ willingness to stick with books featuring new ideas in that point of view; it feels as if it dooms Marvel’s ongoing series output to spin-offs and revamps for the foreseeable future for some reason, although I can’t believe that was his intent.
November 25th, 2011 at 10:04 am
If thats true, how do Half the characters in comics come into existence? I think they should just come right out and say “our sales standards are too high for this to work,” and leave it at that. When I hear this comment, I immediately think of all the characters and comics that are new from image or other companies.
November 25th, 2011 at 11:44 am
I think he means that new characters that are introduced in existing (and strong selling) titles have a better chance in succeeding in a later solo series as they’ve had character build up and face recognition. Remember – Hawkeye, Black Widow, and a host of popular villians (Sabretooth, Venom) were built up in team or mainstay solo titles before getting their own shots at a solo book.
Great example of a new character being introduced through a brand new book that failed – the ‘new’ Powerman from last years Shadowland…hows he doing??
A great example of a new character being introduced through an existing solo title that has now become popular – Red Hulk. And Deadpool has to be the biggest example of how this succeeds.
November 26th, 2011 at 1:40 am
Did I miss something in Avengers Academy? When did Striker come out of the closet?
November 26th, 2011 at 7:21 am
“Creating any character with the intention of having them anchor an ongoing title is probably the fastest way for them not to catch on.”
*looks at banner pic*
Doesn’t seem to stop them trying
November 26th, 2011 at 10:25 am
On and off… maybe that’s part of the problem? When you do what you’ve done with Black Panther, where the title is relaunched every few years, it is bound to chase some people away.
Either the character can hold his/her own title, or they cannot.