Before Therre Was SJW Marvel…There Was SJW DC

Many Comic fans complain about SJW Marvel and how their changing their primary white characters with minorities has destroyed the Marvel Comics brand and led to the decline of the entire comic book industry. However, before Marvel went the SJW route in 2015, DC Comics went the SJW route in the mid 2000s And they had the same disastrous results a decade before Marvel decided to go down this road to Hell.

Back in the Mid 2000s DC decided to diversify its universe with minority characters. And as part of its diversity campaign replace some of its secondary characters with new heroes of color including:

A Black Firestorm,

A Hispanic Blue Beetle,

A lesbian Batwoman,

A Hispanic Lesbian Female Question,

And an Asian Atom.

And  along with these diversity replacements, Superman decided to renounce his American Citizenship. Before going to go find himself by walking across America a year or two later.

Good Gravy. When there’s no truth, justice and the American Way in a Superman Comic you know DC has lost its way as a publishing company.

Many of these ethnic heroes stepped into the heroes’ boots after the death of the original character. Jason Rusch stepped into Firestorm’s boots after Identity Crisis. Jamie Reyes stepped into Blue beetle’s goggles after he was killed by Max Lord in the countdown to Infinite  Crisis. Renee Montoya became The Question after the Question died of Cancer in Infinite Crisis or Blackest Night (I Think).

Ryan Choi was the only hero to not replace Ray Palmer due to a set of tragic circumstances.  But he’d meet a tragic fate later on.

Most of the “diversity” heroes were met with a lot of anger by DC Comic fans. They hated seeing their favorite characters killed off and replaced with affirmative action replacements. Out of all the “diversity” heroes only Ryan Choi’s Atom was met with a positive response. Most people loved Ryan Choi in the role of The Atom, but the editors at DC didn’t like the fact that he was so popular.

So they killed him. Damn. Just Damn.

Ryan Choi’s murder showed me how racist the so-called diversity campaign at DC truly was. Sure we could have characters of color. But they couldn’t get more popular than the White heroes they were replacing.

Moreover, the whole diversity campaign also appeared to be racist because like Marvel, DC had a catalog of GREAT Minority characters. Bumblebee, Connor Hawke’s Green Arrow, Black Lightning, Bronze Tiger, Cyborg, Vixen, Both John Henry Irons and Natasha Irons Steel and the entire catalog of Milestone characters like Hardware, Icon and Static were waiting to get a push at DC. Not to mention Michael Holt’s Mr. Terrific who EARNED the mantel from Terry Sloane in the pages of JSA.

But they made new minority versions of White characters Because…Diversity. Then they kill off the only one who got over with readers.

Comic publishers are their own worst enemy.

In the aftermath of DC’s diversity campaign they wound up splitting their audience and alienating fans. Just like what’s happening at Marvel right now.  The only difference is that DC wasn’t STUPID enough to replace the main versions of their most popular characters in their flagship titles with token characters.

Over the last few years Marvel’s editors has been copying DC’s failed business approaches. Only they haven’t seen what the end result of what happened at DC under Dan Didio’s failed leadership. Along with the diversity heroes, DC also decided to tinker with its continuity. First with Identity Crisis. Then Infinite Crisis. Then Final Crisis. The Blackest Night. Then Brightest Day. Then Flashpoint. Then New 52. Then Convergence and finally Rebirth. And with each meandering year-long storyline and continuity reboot they lost more and more fans and more and more sales and pissed off more long-time readers. Since 2011, DC has lost serious market share in not only the comic book market, but also in merchandising as fans and casuals have abandoned the DC Comics brand.

Marvel followed suit over the last few years with reboots to its own universe. First Marvel NOW. Then Secret Wars. Then All-New-All-Different Marvel. Then Marvel NOW! A direct rip-off of all the same failed approaches at DC Comics.

Marvel continuing to do what didn’t work for DC in 2011 has nearly collapsed the comic book industry in 2017.

Damn. Just Damn. If that ain’t the definition of insanity I don’t know what is. The inmates are clearly running the asylum at BOTH Marvel and DC. And no one at Warner Brothers or Disney has the balls to clean the crazy out of both publishing houses.

The sad part about the editors who created the diversity heroes of SJW Marvel is that they never studied what happened to DC’s business from 2002-2016. What hasn’t worked for DC since 2002 hasn’t worked for Marvel since 2015. So why would anyone with any common sense want to follow in their failed footsteps?

That’s the question I’d like Axel Alonso and Tom Bevroot. Because the definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result. How is following a business model that failed for DC going to succeed at Marvel?

For years Marvel and DC have played a game of follow the leader copying each other’s characters, story models and business approaches. And sadly Marvel followed right down Dan Didio’s dysfunctional road and took Marvel Comics and the entire comic book industry down a road where they have one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel. Before there was an SJW Marvel DC was pushing dysfunctional diversity in between the pages of its comics.