Marvel Writer Kurt Busiek Has The Perfect Idea to Financially Ruin Marvel Comics
Since C.B. Cebulski has taken the position as Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief, fans have hoped that he’d clean house at the legendary publisher. The publisher had become infected by creators who were more worried about preaching their own politics and cultural agenda over interesting, substantive, or even just plain fun stories. Not only that, these same creators have taken it upon themselves to attack fans and anyone who disagreed with their mind-numbing preaching. This strategy hasn’t really worked out as many of these creators’ books just got the axe at Marvel.
But Marvel writer Kurt Busiek wants to double down on this failing strategy. He went on a Twitter tirade to admit his displeasure of keeping true to the source material for many beloved characters. He even said he’d rather have forced diversity than well-written stories.
There are times I think Marvel should just have the Shaper of Worlds or someone wave his hands and render the classic characters more diverse.
Which is why, I expect, many readers should be glad I’m not running Marvel. https://t.co/BQ2dJ5Q7Rv
— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
It seems that Kurt like most social justice warrior (SJW) types would rather take existing characters and just rebrand them. He wants to fill some artificial quota to make sure the pages of comics are diverse, but only in the artificial race way.
This way of thinking is not only a slap in the face to fans, but is an insult to those they are attempting to artificially include. He believes racially diverse characters are inherently unpopular. I guess that’s why Black Panther is the second most anticipated movie next year?
Busiek then goes on to say why DC and Marvel don’t make new characters. It’s because the stage is already too crowded.
But Marvel — and DC — have stages that are crowded with white guys, because they filled up most of the stage in the 1960s (or even 1940s), and new characters are hard to fit in without feeling irrelevant, because the stage is already crowded.
— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
This is complete garbage. One of my first comics that I picked up was Shi. The character of Ana Ishikawa is both amazing, complex, and not a traditionally white male. She is able to capture the struggle bi-racial people seem to grapple with going into adulthood when it comes to identity and what it personally means for them.
Busiek must have a short memory because despite a crowded stage in the ’90s, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm introduced us to Harley Quinn, who is now one of the most popular comic book characters. Or maybe Deadpool. His character took the world by storm on a crowded stage. There is plenty of room for new characters.
Making changes like that doesn’t change the main history, but it updates it. Making the characters more diverse, rather than locked into what Marvel could get on the newsstands in 1964 is conceptually a similar change. Keep the story, change the texture and context.
— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
In another turn of reasoning, Kurt Busiek then points to the idea of just “updating” characters. This to me doesn’t fly either. I mean I cannot think of another time where Captain America would have been more suited to make his debut. World War 2 makes perfect sense. Not only for his mythos, but the foundation for his character.
This just screams very lazy writing from cultural activists than people who actually care about telling a story. In fact, his line of thinking resembles the same as those who want to take down monuments. They want to destroy history because it doesn’t fit into the fake reality they’ve created in their minds.
It is not only disrespectful to the character’s history, but the people who created the characters.
Busiek is like the kid who sees a beautiful sand castle and comes over and kicks it over. He then proceeds to tell you, how to build the sandcastle the right way even if it doesn’t have a foundation.
And oddly, if DC were to do that with, say, the next iteration of the Legion, it wouldn’t feel all that odd. But it’s hard to imagine Marvel making such a change, or the audience not going ballistic if they did.
— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
Not surprising Kurt Busiek points to another iteration of an established comic to point to where you could sprinkle in some tokens, I mean diversity. He also acknowledges that the audience would go “ballistic” but not for the reason many comic book creators would claim. Many of them would say that comic book readers are just racist. They cannot accept new social norms. I don’t believe that in the slightest. Just stop by any comic book shop. Not only are the people some of the best and kindest, but they sure as heck don’t all look the same. And they also have very different ideas about the world.
We just want solid stories and art. It’s not hard to figure that out. But a forced political and cultural agenda pushed by creators such as Kurt Busiek blinds them to the reality of the situation.
Kurt responded with a heavy dose of sarcasm as users on Twitter called him out for his honesty for pushing propaganda in comics.
If only I was given the chance! This is an actual plan I’m eager to do! https://t.co/WK3aW63IAD
— Kurt Busiek (@KurtBusiek) December 18, 2017
I will give credit where it’s due. I want more writers to be as brave as Kurt Busiek. Not to attack or shame, but to at least have an honest discussion about comics and what it means for all of us. I, of course, have my feelings and opinions as any one does. And without these discussions, we can’t communicate as a community.
So what do you think? Is Kurt Busiek correct? Should we just rebrand existing characters to reflect the age we live in? Or, should we instead look to create new characters that reflect the new cultures, and peoples who now occupy our world? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
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