Let's Talk About Marvel, Disney, And Their Fans

Hi, I'm David Harth, and for a lot of you, this one is not going to be pleasant. I'm going to do my best not to be entirely too insulting, but I'm pretty sure some people are going to feel attacked by this. That said, I feel like it needs to be put out there. Find me on Twitter so you can tell me how wrong I am.

Yeah, no jokes this time. I bet you're pretty happy about that. It's probably the last time you will be. So, let's get into some background on me, so you know I'm not hating because of my hate for Marvel or Disney. Hopefully, you'll see that it's the opposite before I get into the heavy stuff.

So, for those of you who have been reading this series of articles since the beginning (which, seeing as how I took an over a year-long hiatus from it, I'm sure there aren't a lot of you), you'll know that I revealed that Marvel was my first comics love, the X-Men in particular. For the entirety of the '90s, the vast majority of what I bought was Marvel: X-Men books, Spider-Man books, some Avengers, stuff like that. I read some DC, mostly Superman books in the early years of the '90s and then later Kingdom Come, Morrison's JLA, and Preacher, the latter of which doesn't really count as a DC book in a lot of ways. I didn't read The Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen until 1999, even though being a Wizard reader meant I knew just about everything about both. The Sandman wouldn't get read until 2000. It wouldn't be until the early 2000s that I really dug into DC and started to like it more. I am a Marvel historian in a lot of ways, with a focus on X-Men stuff. Still, I have a working knowledge of Hulk, the Avengers, and Fantastic Four, as well as some knowledge of the more esoteric corners of the Marvel Universe, although not as much as I do the DC Universe's weirder parts.

Right now, I still read more Marvel than DC, although that's mostly because I review just about all of the X-Men books. I only buy one Marvel, well, two now that The Dark Ages #1 came out. As an aside, go buy that book if it isn't sold out where you are. It's worth it. I've loved Marvel for thirty years now, and because of people like me, buying the comics, the merch, and going to see the early 2000s movies, Marvel existed long enough to become Marvel Studios and make the MCU.

You're welcome.

So, let's get into things. Let's start with talking about Marvel's latest comic controversy- Joe Bennet.

So, for those of you on comic Twitter who follow Al Ewing's Twitter, you'll have seen a long apology that has to do with Joe Bennet and a 2017 Brazilian political comic he drew. Showcasing basically fascist Brazilian president Bolsanaro as a knight chasing down his political foes, who all look like rats. Now, rats have always been shorthand for Jewish people. Ewing did his best to distance himself from Bennet, apologized to everyone for working with him, and donated something like five grand to some charities out of shame. Now, the really interesting part of the tweet thread is that at one point, Ewing intimates that he knew about Bennet and his views for a long time. In fact, this isn't the first time Bennet got called out for an anti-Semitic drawing. Earlier this year, a panel from The Immortal Hulk had what looked to be some anti-Semitic imagery, which Bennet waved off as an accident of translation, plus he was drawing it on a window, blah blah blah.

This is a plausible explanation for that one, but it kind of falls apart when one realizes that the Brazilian Bennet has been working in the American comics industry for a very long time, almost thirty years, and shouldn't have a problem with translation. Then, this political cartoon comes out. So, yeah, smoke and fire. As I'm writing this, Marvel has stopped working with Bennet, which is a big deal since he was supposed to draw their big Kang event book at the end of this year, Timeless. The problem comes in that Marvel almost certainly knew about this stuff. They had to have. So, why keep working with him? And would they have stopped otherwise?

So, let's get into it- if Ewing says he knew about this sort of thing, then why did it take so long for Marvel to do anything about it? Well, I think we can all guess why- what are the most popular and acclaimed books being published by Marvel right now? Well, the answers to that are the X-Men books and The Immortal Hulk. No one cares about The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Amazing Spider-Man (unless they’re mocking Spencer), and just about all of the other ones. Even Donny Cates' Thor isn't as massive as his Venom. Daredevil is beloved, but the sales almost certainly don't rival those of the X-Men books or The Immortal Hulk.

Bennet's art was a big part of the book's success. He did a great job with the body horror and the action. I haven't finished it because I was trade waiting- and now I'm not sure if I ever will because he might get royalties, and as a person of Jewish descent, I'm not about to give him any of my money- but his art was beautifully ugly. It worked very well for the book. Marvel is a business first and foremost, and while most of the creators are pretty left, the company itself cares more about filthy lucre more than things like being woke. If being woke makes them money, they will be woke. However, if they can keep it down, they aren't going to fire someone for being a racist, especially not someone who is helping create one of their biggest books. The fact that they've stopped working with him now is great, but it's a too little, too late moment. This dude put anti-Semitic imagery in one of their biggest books and got away with it. The damage is done.

So, yay, Marvel, you did the right thing… after being forced to. If Ewing knew about this sort of thing, as his tweet comes out and says, and he talked to people behind the scenes, again as he literally said in his tweet, then Marvel totally knew about it. They kept paying him. Now, yeah, contracts are hard to break, but you think Marvel couldn't break Bennet's contract with Disney money and lawyers? Dude, the industry is mostly work for hire, anyway. They could have gotten rid of him when Ewing first started talking to people. They didn't. Remember that. Marvel doesn't care about anti-racism. Marvel cares about money.

Now, I tweeted my theory about Marvel knowing and got jumped on by some ComicsGate guys, which I took as a sign that I made it. Dudes tried to say I was an anti-Hispanic racist, which was hilarious. Now, let's move on to the next part of this rant. It starts, again, on Twitter.

So, I've intimated elsewhere that Simu Liu tried to drag me on Twitter. Basically, here's what's happened- I implied that Disney is only putting out Shang-Chi as yet another way to try and get the Chinese box office that they couldn't with Raya The Last Dragon (which is excellent and you should watch it) and the Mulan remake (which was terrible and you shouldn't watch it) and it was going to flop in China. I think Liu thought I was saying the movie was going to flop in general, which, yeah, would be stupid. It's an MCU movie. It's not flopping (although I'm afraid Eternals will because literally three writers have ever made that concept work- Kirby, Gaiman, and Gillen). So, Liu made some comments, I clarified my statement; maybe a hundred people noticed.

It was fine, and my opinion doesn't matter, especially since the movie did so well. I'm in Florida, so there's no way I'm going to brave the theaters right now to see the movie, especially because I'm in a rather red county just outside of Orlando. I'm vaxxed, but I don't know how many people around me are. I didn't go see Black Widow, so I'm probably going to wait for Shang-Chi to come to Disney+. That said, I will brave the theaters for Dune. Now, here's where I get to the meat of the Disney part of the title.

A bunch of critics watched Dune and said that people should watch it in the theaters instead of on HBO Max, as did Denis Villeneuve. People lost their minds because we're in a pandemic, and telling people to go to theaters is irresponsible. That's valid. As a Dune fan, I'm willing to take the chance and see the movie on the big screen. This is a story I love, from an artist I respect, full of amazing actors. I'm vaxxed, I'll risk it. However, I have the option to not risk it. I can watch the movie at home OR I can go to a movie theater and see it. That's a great option to have. So, while I get why people are angry that they are being told to watch the movie in theaters, there's at least the option.

An option Disney gave no one with Shang-Chi, and you all ate it up.

Bob Chapek, in an investor's call, told them that Shang-Chi was going to be an experiment. Liu got mad at him on Twitter, saying the movie was a revolution, not an experiment, and I'll be honest, it felt kind of scripted. Here's the thing- Chapek didn't mean the movie, being written, directed, and starring Asian Americans, was an experiment. He meant the release strategy. Disney wanted to see if they could put one of their movies only in theaters during this pandemic and if it would be successful. Well, guess what, sheep? You proved that Disney doesn't have to put movies on Disney+ or care about people who can't or don't want to go to the theaters for a variety of reasons.

So, was there an outcry? Were there editorials about Disney doing this, calling them irresponsible? Were there tweets calling them out? Did fans rebel? The short answer is not in any numbers. Nowhere near as many as talked about some critics and the director of Dune saying that people should watch the movies in theaters… while viewers still had the option to watch it at home.

Let's be clear- Disney does not care about people's well-being. They aren't putting extremely tame wokeness in their movies because they are SJWs. I've worked for Disney at the Walt Disney World Resort, and they are really inclusionary behind the scenes, but one always gets the feeling they are doing it because getting sued costs money. Here's some inside baseball- when Cast Members sexually harassed others, they weren't fired but moved to other areas in the park while being "investigated," but nothing ever really happens to them. So, Disney uses wokeness to appeal to customers. They don't care about Shang-Chi being a big deal for Asian-Americans. They only care about appealing to that community, appearing woke to everyone else, and making money. Do you think they've changed the protocols at the parks because they care about guests getting sick? Nah, man, they don't want to get sued or be a superspreader site, which would give them a bad image.

Disney does to people what people will allow them to and still pay for. So, while a bunch of people dragged Villeneuve and critics because they had the temerity to say a film made for the big screen should be watched there, even though there is an option to not go to theaters to experience the movie (which, yes, I must reiterate), Disney gave no option, and everyone is praising them for it. So, they've learned what their audience will do, and now they'll act accordingly. They've learned they don't have to get sued by an actor for breach of contract like with Scarlet Johansson and Black Widow- they can just release things in theaters.

So, good job. You've all taught Disney they don't have to care about your safety.

This brings me to the fans. Look, I love Marvel and Disney. I'm a passholder and go to Walt Disney World several times a month. I worked there and grew up going there. I grew up during the '90s Disney Renaissance. I can sing "A Part Of Their World", "A Whole New World", "Circle Of Life", and several Beauty And The Beast songs. My two-year-old has almost all of the Princess dresses. I LOVE Disney. Just like I love Marvel.

Because I love Disney and Marvel, I try to hold them to better standards. When I found out that Al Ewing knew he was working with a proud anti-Semite who supported a fascist and talked to Marvel about it and nothing happened until their best-selling, critically-acclaimed book ended, well, I got pretty angry at Marvel. There's no excuse for that. When I see a bunch of people praise Disney for releasing a movie only to theaters during a pandemic that has been made worse because a bunch of people refuse to take any safeguards but drag some other people for just saying they should watch a movie in theaters, but they totally don't have to (God, that was a sentence and a half, wasn't it?), I get mad, both at Disney but also at the fans.

Look, in both the Bennet case and the Shang-Chi one, there was smoke. Bennet did some anti-Semitic art in one of Marvel's most prominent books, and Disney told us Shang-Chi was theaters only. As a fan base, if we had held their feet to the fire on both of those things, there's a good chance it could have gone differently. Bennet could have gotten dealt with earlier, and Disney could have done a dual release on Shang-Chi, so the most vulnerable to COVID could have watched it at home. We didn't, though, because it's Marvel and Disney. We got what we deserved from them. They learned no lessons because we didn't make them learn them. Disney and Marvel need to do better, and if they don't, we need to MAKE them do better.

So, yeah. That's all I'm going to say about it. Be a fan. Love things. It's great to be a fan. However, when you love things and the people who make them do crappy things, hold them to a higher standard. Call them out and vote with your wallet. They don't care about you. They care about your money. It all goes back to my Substack article. Remember that one?

Be a better fan.

See ya next time… unless this pisses off Disney.