Bridging The Divide

I recently got back in touch with a former coworker, who I was reminded of due to my newfound desire to enter the comic book industry. I knew that this coworker had previous experience attempting to pitch comics to publishers, and also had experience teaming with an artist. As I continue my writing, I have been working on getting a short story published, so that I can have a published credit before seeking an agent. Additionally, I wanted to see if writing comics, or possibly turning one of my books into a comic book, could be a way in. My friend informed me most comic book companies want art and writing submitted as a package, meaning they won’t accept writing by itself and pair writers up with an artist. Nevertheless, his info still led me to two comic book publishers who accept writing, who I will try to reach out to.

The more interesting part of the conversation actually didn’t come from our discussion of writing comics. My friend brought up the point about the Big Two comics (Marvel and DC) making less money off their comics since people don’t like the diversity revamps. As my friend saw it, the revamps were just a politically correct move. His comment also brought up an assumption that many conservatives make: That diversity and talent are mutually exclusive. It turns out he never read any of the new revamps. I told him the X-23 (successor to Wolverine) stories were good and he was surprised. I also explained that these “revamps” are not reboots that erase the original e.g. Miles Morales to Peter Parker. They are just the tales of a successor, and why does the successor have to be another straight while male instead of someone who represents an America that’s become more diverse since the original was created?

When I spoke to this coworker before, I never picked up on their thoughts about these issues. We talked about movies, comics and video games but the more political side of them never emerged. I genuinely don’t think this person is racist, like the alt-right ilk, but he does have some assumptions and thoughts in common with them. He isn’t a Trump supporter but our conversation, which went on to cover a wide range of political topics, revealed how someone who genuinely seems enlightened can still take on negative talking points e.g. liberals are hysterical.

I was actually able to get my friend to see things differently. I began to wonder if our conversation would have gone the same way if we discussed this issue online as strangers. The level of respect I had for him, and hopefully him for me, led us to really take the time to read the other’s argument (communicating via text) instead of rushing to the keyboard to snap back. Would that have happened online? I make a conscious effort to understand the point someone is making, so that I don’t respond with some trite straw-man argument. However, I have debated with many people who don’t seem to go through the same process.

Is there a chance that some of the people I’ve argued with online, who clearly didn’t understand or read the arguments I was making, would have paid closer attention to what I was saying if we knew each other? I don’t want to get too idealistic. I am sure there are still plenty of people who would be rude and stupid if you met them in person, but online communication tends to bring out the worst in people due to the anonymity or the distance it gives us. Maybe 90% of people I have argued with online would be trolls in real life too, but maybe there’s 10% who would be able to try to see where I’m coming from if we met in person or knew each other beforehand.

Just a little positivity going into the weekend.

Miles Morales: Political Correctness

Here is a link to an article I wrote for comicommand.com

As a quick summary, this short article (about 900 words) explores some of the backlash that Miles Morales received when he was introduced as the new Spider-Man in the Ultimate Marvel comics.

My argument is that many of the people criticizing this reveal with terms such as “PC” fail to see the context that led to the creation of iconic white characters like Peter Parker, Batman or Superman.

Would love it if you could all check this article out.

http://comicommand.com/2016/03/30/miles-morales-political-correctness/