Marvel and DC Writer Mark Waid Rejects Mark Millar’s Call To Root Out Comic Book ‘Cancel Pigs’, Dishonestly Paints … – Bounding Into Comics
Comic Books
In an unsurprising drawing of battle lines regarding the newly-reinvigorated battle to rid the industry of one of its worst elements, veteran comic book writer Mark Waid has responded to colleague Mark Millars recent declaration of war against cancel pigs by not only dismissing it as a cry for attention, but also disingenuously attempting to write off its supporters as being composed of nothing more than the Alt-Right.
RELATED: Mark Millar Takes A Stand Against Cancel Pigs, Calls On Creators And Fans To Never, Ever Appease Or Encourage Their Cruelties
Offering his thoughts on the comic book industrys latest turning point, as sparked by Millar after some of the industrys loudest voices sought to bully retailer Glenn OLeary over his very real criticisms of their current output, via a December 13th post made to his personal Facebook page, the current writer of DCs Batman/Superman: Worlds Finest Vol. 1, Teen Titans: Worlds Finest Vol. 1, and Shazam! Vol. 5 followed in the condescending footsteps of said bullies and opined, And like a falling star rocketing across the sky, another former comics superstar whose heat is fading chooses to cry for attention by blaming the industry, his peers, and the audience rather than taking stock of his own professional progress, admitting that we are often the authors of our own fate, and finding the courage to reinvent himself and stay relevant.
Its really Not. That. Hard, he continued. My stars not gonna burn forever, either. No ones does, and accepting that fact gracefully is a sign of emotional maturity. But if I ever, ever become That Guy, every single one of you has permission to slap me upside the head and force me to re-read the above paragraph as many times as it takes to sink in.
Following its publication, Waids post would be met with a bevy of responses from both supporters and critics, the latter of which he would use as jumping off points to further his argument.
Sharing the video of OLearys now-famous rant against the industrys turn to self-validation over good storytelling, fellow FB user Classic Marvel Era asserted, There are somethings that cant be agreed with but clearly there is a disconnect between the Big 2s editorial, the LCS owners and the readers: and Mark is not wrong to highlight that.
More quality story telling is needed, they detailed. Theres a reason why you, Joe Q, Kurt Buseik, Donny Cates made a mark that still wows the readers to this day.
Dismissing both the fan and OLearys frustrations, Waid proceeded to condescendingly declare, All this complaint about how comics are dying because familiar characters are being written out of character by people who want to self-insert their own political causes or turn them into SJW mouthpiecesbut not one single legitimate example given.
RELATED: Comic Book Pros Mock, Deny Complaints From Veteran Shop Owner Regarding Abysmal State Of The Market: His Business Is Dying Because He Refuses To Change With The Times
Proceeding to present one of the most dishonest reads of the entire situation that perhaps will ever be raised throughout the entire debate, Waid then questioned, Not one. Who? Superman? Batman? Green Lantern? Flash? Wonder Woman? Spider-Man? Captain America? Daredevil? Iron Man? Nightwing? Harley Quinn? Damian Wayne? Seriously, what am I missing here? Have these complainers read a single Marvel or DC comic in the 2020s?
Well they have and so have we, Classic Marvel Era pushed back. Since we focus on Marvel Comics, the Captain America series by Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the bad examples (which seemed like a political manifesto shoved inside a comic unlike the writings of Kirby, Gruenwald and your very own Operation Rebirth) followed by post Hickman X-titles and most recently The Punisher by Jason Aaron.
Furthermore, shrugging an LCS owners opinion by simply questioning if they have read recent comics or not sounds a bit condescending, to put it mildly, they continued. Lets assume youre right but theyre the ones bearing the brunt in the form of loss of sales and possible business closure. Theres your POV, theres Millars POV, therere LCS owners POV and the truth is somewhere in between. Frankly youre too benevolent when it comes to todays comics which is surprising considering the kind of work you have produced for our favorite Marvel characters namely FF and DD.
Proceeding to immediately prove just how dishonest his above dismissal truly was, Waid then admitted, The Captain America series by Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the bad examples (which seemed like a political manifesto shoved inside a comic unlike the writings of Kirby, Gruenwald and your very own Operation Rebirth) followed by post Hickman X-titles and most recently The Punisher by Jason Aaron.
Cap hasnt been written by Coates for some time now, said Waid as he attempted to shift the goal posts. The Punisher book thats being published today isnt reflective of your complaint. Isnt that what you wanted? Why are you arguing so hard for something you already have? As regards the current X-books, I need you to be more specific about your complaints. In what way are they any more SJW then they have been for decades?
Turning to the claim that he was too benevolent when it comes to todays comics, the writer argued, Im not benevolent; I simply acknowledge that not all of these comics are written to my specific taste, any more than the war and romance books were when I was a kid.
Or any more than half the DC and Marvel superhero line when I was a teenager, recalled Waid. And thats perfectly fine. Just because I dont like something doesnt automatically make it bad. Im not trying to minimize the fact that there are real problems in the industry right now. But strawman complaints about comics that simply dont exist arent helping.
Further expanding on his argument in reply to a since-deleted post from user Getsmelifted Amvs, Waid once again turned his nose up at readers and claimed, The overall complaint is that major classic characters are being written out of character, causing their books to fail. Tim Drake, Jon Kent, Iceman, Star-Lord? Those count as major classic characters? Do we really believe that the industry is ailing because of three mini-series and Star-Lord?
However, it would be in response to a separate user, Steven McKee, that Waid would confirm just how disingenuous his arguments truly were.
I love your work Mark but seems anybody who tries to highlight the issues that the industry is facing either gets piled on or in this case his star is fading and looking for attention, replied McKee to Waids original post. Mark [Waid] said he hasnt relied on income from comics for a long time. See rather than this tit for tat that we are seeing throughout the fandom maybe people should actually try get together and try to fix whats wrong. I am by no means an expert only a consumer but all this doesnt seem to be helping matters.
In turn, Waid made a play at fear-mongering and declared, I think a lot of us would just rather see the industry burn down than get together with the alt-right.
I know I would, he continued his rant. Sorry. And I call bullst on anyone who tries to highlight the issues gets piled on. I think its far more accurate to say anyone who wants to blame everything on SJWs gets piled on or anyone who wants to complain that their favorite characters are being written as political mouthpieces but cant provide any examples of this is being piled on.
Eventually, Waid would exit the conversation, leaving the discourse to take on a life of its own within his replies.
However, the next day would see the Marvels Champions Vol. 2 author offer one final (at least for the time being), backpedaling statement regarding his recent take, beginning with the admission that Yep, The mainstream superhero comics industry is having a rough time of it lately. Few people are saying otherwise, and my heart goes out to struggling retailers.
Proceeding to once more misrepresent his opponents arguments, Waid continued, Steps need to be taken, and even the alt-right loudmouths make some good points. But when make better comics! becomes make more comics that are to my own personal taste!, thats a solution I cant get behind.
Badly produced comics sure arent helping, and there are a bunch out there, but neither is pretending that bad superhero comics is some new phenomenon, he concluded. As someone whos been reading them for nearly 60 years, I can promise you that many of the ones you remember with nostalgic fondness because you liked them as a Middle Schooler were just as bad compared to the actual classics of the day. Just because you and your friends dont like something doesnt automatically make it empirically bad.
NEXT: Marvel Comics Executive Tom Brevoort Denies Industry Is Dying, Instead Argues What Is Likely Happening Is That The Market Is Changing
- Nicki Minaj Is Cozying Up To Ben Shapiro And Its A Good Reminder For Us All - Yahoo Canada Sports - February 6th, 2024 [February 6th, 2024]
- Alt-Right Wackadoodles Now Impersonating the NorCal Journalists Who Exposed Their 'Zoom-Bombing' of City Meetings - SFist - February 4th, 2024 [February 4th, 2024]
- ICYMI: Trump loses in court again, and Taylor Swift broke their alt-right hearts - Daily Kos - February 4th, 2024 [February 4th, 2024]
- The alt-right saw Taylor Swift as an 'Aryan goddess.' She shook them off as 'repulsive' - Daily Kos - February 4th, 2024 [February 4th, 2024]
- How the Welsh flag has been hijacked by the far-right in Brittany - Nation.Cymru - February 4th, 2024 [February 4th, 2024]
- Doja Cat Responds To Backlash Over Alt-Right T-Shirt: 'It's Not An Attack' - HipHopDX - December 17th, 2023 [December 17th, 2023]
- Soda Jerk's Hello Dankness The Brooklyn Rail - Brooklyn Rail - October 5th, 2023 [October 5th, 2023]
- What We Know About 'Microchip,' the FBI's Far-Right Judas - Southern Poverty Law Center - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- 'Against All Enemies' Explores Why Veterans Are Drawn to ... - Military.com - June 30th, 2023 [June 30th, 2023]
- The American alt-right wants to set up shop in the UK - Tortoise Media - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- What you need to know about Princeton's James Madison Program - The Daily Princetonian - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Make a noise and make it clear! How John Farnhams Youre the Voice became Australias anthem - The Guardian - May 20th, 2023 [May 20th, 2023]
- Succession recap: season four, episode eight nothing is more sadistic than the words Is that even true? - The Guardian - May 16th, 2023 [May 16th, 2023]
- How younger voters will impact elections: How legacy media and social media impact old and young voters - Brookings Institution - May 16th, 2023 [May 16th, 2023]
- Is Mencken Based on Trump in 'Succession'? He's an Alt-Right ... - Distractify - May 16th, 2023 [May 16th, 2023]
- Irish Times apologises for hoax AI article about womens use of fake tan - The Guardian - May 16th, 2023 [May 16th, 2023]
- The Best Books to Read in 2023 - The New York Times - May 16th, 2023 [May 16th, 2023]
- The Reinvention of the Latin American Right - NACLA - April 13th, 2023 [April 13th, 2023]
- Pentagon leaks: how much damage will they cause? - The Guardian US - April 13th, 2023 [April 13th, 2023]
- Frog Decor Is Living in My Head Rent-Free - Architectural Digest - April 13th, 2023 [April 13th, 2023]
- Five Ways to Have More Constructive Disagreements - Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley - March 30th, 2023 [March 30th, 2023]
- Succession: The real people who inspired the HBO hit - VOGUE India - March 28th, 2023 [March 28th, 2023]
- The web firm that wants to stop you getting 'cancelled' - BBC - March 28th, 2023 [March 28th, 2023]
- Dutch Elections Produce Another Popular Wave But the Same Prime ... - Foreign Policy - March 23rd, 2023 [March 23rd, 2023]
- Trial of 2016 Twitter Troll to Test Limits of Online Speech - The New York Times - March 23rd, 2023 [March 23rd, 2023]
- John Krull: Waiting for the waves in Nebraska - Kokomo Tribune - March 23rd, 2023 [March 23rd, 2023]
- Denver's Black, Jewish communities focus on shared history of ... - The Colorado Sun - March 23rd, 2023 [March 23rd, 2023]
- The Dangerous Subtlety of the Alt-Right Pipeline - February 26th, 2023 [February 26th, 2023]
- How the Alt-Right Happened | American University, Washington, DC - February 10th, 2023 [February 10th, 2023]
- The Women Behind The 'Alt-Right' : NPR - NPR.org - February 10th, 2023 [February 10th, 2023]
- Kanye West Praises Adolf Hitler in Alex Jones Interview Billboard - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Michelle Malkin Fired After Defending Nick Fuentes - Mediaite - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Netflix Removed Kanye's 'Harmful Alt-Right Beliefs' From David ... - November 22nd, 2022 [November 22nd, 2022]
- Where Are All the Women on This Alt-Right, Anti-Choice, Toxic ... - November 22nd, 2022 [November 22nd, 2022]
- Forbes Gets Punked - Labels FTX Former CEO's Girlfriend a "New Darling ... - November 22nd, 2022 [November 22nd, 2022]
- Alt-Right Picks Wrong Side in Dutch Farm Crisis - November 22nd, 2022 [November 22nd, 2022]
- Is that an OK sign? A white power symbol? Or just a right-wing troll? - November 1st, 2022 [November 1st, 2022]
- Dark Enlightenment - Wikipedia - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Shapiro poised to break spending record in governor's race after raising $25M this summer - Pennsylvania Capital-Star - October 1st, 2022 [October 1st, 2022]
- Alt-right conspiracy theorist, Stop the Steal and Pizzagate pusher ... - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- What the Woke Left and the Alt-Right Share - Project Syndicate - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Mothers of the movement: Leadership by alt-right women paves the way for violence - The Conversation - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Who is Ryder Ripps, Artist Trying To Take Down Bored Ape Yacht Club ARTnews.com - ARTnews - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- White nationalism, fueled by social media, is on the rise and attracting violent young white men - Arizona Mirror - August 24th, 2022 [August 24th, 2022]
- Flags of the alt-right, white supremacists - pennlive.com - August 22nd, 2022 [August 22nd, 2022]
- January 6 Hearings Rile up Alt-Right Extremists Online - Business Insider - August 22nd, 2022 [August 22nd, 2022]
- When Did Racism Begin? - The Chronicle of Higher Education - August 22nd, 2022 [August 22nd, 2022]
- Standing Against Transphobia: On School Boards & in the State Houses - LGBTQ Victory Institute - August 22nd, 2022 [August 22nd, 2022]
- How Rad-Trad Catholics Weaponized the Rosary - The Atlantic - August 14th, 2022 [August 14th, 2022]
- Five years after her daughter's death at the Unite the Right rally, Heather Heyer's mother reflects - WBUR News - August 14th, 2022 [August 14th, 2022]
- That's A Price I'm Willing To Pay: Wyoming's Rep. Liz Cheney Emphasizes Role In Jan. 6 Investigation And Expected Loss Ahead Of Tuesday's Primary -... - August 14th, 2022 [August 14th, 2022]
- State officials reaffirm access to reproductive health services post-Roe | Five for the Weekend - Pennsylvania Capital-Star - August 14th, 2022 [August 14th, 2022]
- In an environment of threats and fear, Kansans have the chance to create a more loving state - Kansas Reflector - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- Steve Bannon Found Guilty of Contempt Related to Jan. 6 Inquiry - The New York Times - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- The Wendy Williams Shows YouTube Channel Is Gone - Them - July 6th, 2022 [July 6th, 2022]
- 'Minions 2' And 'Stranger Things' Show The Power Of Original Franchises - Forbes - July 6th, 2022 [July 6th, 2022]
- Alt-Right Incels at Deep State Daily Stormer Site Celebrate Buffalo ... - July 4th, 2022 [July 4th, 2022]
- How 'alt-right' MAGA extremism has infiltrated the Libertarian Party ... - July 4th, 2022 [July 4th, 2022]
- Trump and his mob tried to overthrow American democracy and threaten to try again - Ohio Capital Journal - June 28th, 2022 [June 28th, 2022]
- Pacifism is the wrong response to the war in Ukraine - The Guardian - June 28th, 2022 [June 28th, 2022]
- Your Handy Guide to the Absolute Worst People in American Politics - Rolling Stone - June 19th, 2022 [June 19th, 2022]
- The Hysterical Style in American Academe - The Chronicle of Higher Education - June 19th, 2022 [June 19th, 2022]
- The Creators and Stars of Circle Jerk Just Want to Put On a Show - Vogue - June 19th, 2022 [June 19th, 2022]
- Your Take: The January 6th hearings - The Fulcrum - June 19th, 2022 [June 19th, 2022]
- The Depp-Heard trial has played right into the hands of far-right extremists. - Vox.com - May 23rd, 2022 [May 23rd, 2022]
- Madison Cawthorns Farewell to Congress Is a Signal to Dark MAGA - Vanity Fair - May 23rd, 2022 [May 23rd, 2022]
- Where the Buffalo Gunman and the Anti-Abortion Fringe Meet | Time - TIME - May 23rd, 2022 [May 23rd, 2022]
- We cant control guns or the internet. But we can watch kids for signs of extremism - WBUR News - May 23rd, 2022 [May 23rd, 2022]
- The rise of the radical right in WNY - Investigative Post - May 20th, 2022 [May 20th, 2022]
- Letter to the editor: Let's take a stand against racism - Addison County Independent - May 20th, 2022 [May 20th, 2022]
- What is the Great Replacement Theory? - Voice of America - VOA News - May 20th, 2022 [May 20th, 2022]
- Pride Center vandalized, it's not the first time - Bennington Banner - May 2nd, 2022 [May 2nd, 2022]
- 70% of female teachers have faced misogyny in UK schools, poll shows - The Guardian - April 17th, 2022 [April 17th, 2022]
- The far-right's vision of environmentalism has long roots in the US - NPR - April 2nd, 2022 [April 2nd, 2022]
- Interview with Matthew Rose on 'A World After Liberalism: Philosophers of the Radical Right' - Inside Higher Ed - April 2nd, 2022 [April 2nd, 2022]
- There is no silver bullet against misinformation. But there are solutions. - The Boston Globe - March 20th, 2022 [March 20th, 2022]
- How a 27-Year-Old Texan Became the Face of Russias American TV Network as It Imploded - Texas Monthly - March 20th, 2022 [March 20th, 2022]
- 'The Batman' Leans Hard Into the Emo Revival - WIRED - March 4th, 2022 [March 4th, 2022]
- The extremism visible at the parliament protest has been growing in NZ for years is enough being done? - The Conversation - March 4th, 2022 [March 4th, 2022]
- California county recalls top official, giving militia-aligned group a path to government - The Guardian - February 5th, 2022 [February 5th, 2022]
Tags: