I saw this take on my Facebook feed a while back:
“i think people forget this lineup sole purpose was to push diversity bc the original xmen was flopping, the new characters completely revived the brand and became more popular than the original 5. imagine xmen without storm, wolverine, colossus and nightcrawler bc “diversity bad”
It had a pic of the X-Men team introduced in Giant Sized X-Men #1.
i.e., most of the team/characters people recognize in the movies, cartoons, etc.
That team’s fake diversity is something the social media virtue signalers still get very precious about to this day. Because while it’s true Marvel wanted to appeal to a bigger worldwide audience in 1975, it’s also true:
1. Colossus, the white Russian guy, was meant to be the draw, thus his bold costume colors and him leading the charge on the Giant Sized X-Men #1 cover
2. Thunderbird, the brown Apache guy, was killed off right away
3. Sunfire, the Japanese guy, was written out right away
4. Nightcrawler was the artist (Dave Cockrum’s) favorite and was German, and who used an “image inducer” to change his blue, demonic appearance into a white guy who looked like Errol Flynn
5. Banshee was a white Irishman
6. Wolverine was a white Canadian
7. Storm was the only black character, yet they even gave her long flowing hair and blue eyes like a white chick
8. Professor X, the founder and mastermind of the team, was white
9. So this “diverse” team was 99% white – with Cyclops, the white man, as leader
10. All of which was totally in line with Marvel’s policy at the time to only give the “illusion of change” but not actually change anything, mostly to appease the toy companies
11. After Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont left 17-years later, writers Scott Lobdell and Fabian Niceiza started pushing the diversity themes harder vs Claremont’s usually more subversive approach – as Claremont did use race as an allegory, he just didn’t shove it down readers’ throats as much, focusing more on character & drama (he was a theater guy) than virtue signaling
12. Modern Marvel comics are constantly pushing social activism, and from what I hear don’t make any profit anymore, with movie studios propping them up
13. The movies are mostly all hemorrhaging cash, too, though
14. That probably won’t change until the current Hollywood system collapses
15. The Marvel movies are making all the same mistakes the comics did starting 30+ years ago, as described in the book “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story”
16. The biggest mistake being: executives enslaved to metrics & perceived trends
17. All of which is yet another reason to read The Tyranny of Metrics book I think all direct marketers should possess
Businesses driven by “metrics” & chasing social activist approval are doomed to fail.
Add in virtue signaling about whatever topic, and it’s only worse.
Yes, these billion dollar brands can get away with this sort of thing for a while. But smaller businesses are out of their minds if they think that will translate to sales, long term customer loyalty, and profits.
Anyway, so that’s that.
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Ben Settle
