Not Your Father's Comic Books

[Music] Batman! [Music] Comic book superheroes It's Superman! Superman… Batman… Spiderman…. These franchises made DC and Marvel billions. But have you noticed? The comics today are different. The new Superman, Jonathan Kent, will be bisexual. Here he is kissing his boyfriend. Robin is now bisexual too. This upsets comic creator Eric July. Why? Let's make the world better for gay people. He became bisexual out of nowhere. It was so obviously something that was done for political gain. But the writer of the gay Superman story says gay people thank him. People saying they saw this news and burst into tears. They make it seem as if the only way that you can relate to a character is because he, you are, you're gay and that character's gay, which is nonsense. My favorite character has been Batman. I ain't got Bruce Wayne money and I'm not rich like that. And I'm certainly not white. July points out that there have long been gay comic superheroes. But what’s new is that DC and Marvel are changing the identity of established characters. The new Batman is Black. Sun Spider is like Spiderman, except she’s a lesbian who uses a wheelchair. And Iron Man is a teenage black girl. Maybe this is progress. When I was a kid, all the characters were white. So it's a good thing more are non-white. But they've been just reduced to just being an item to pander to certain audiences that aren't really buying into it. They sure aren’t. Marvel and DC no longer have the best-selling graphic novels. Now the best sellers are manga books from Japan. Often they aren't even in color, yet now they’re the biggest sellers. Marvel and DC’s aren’t even in the top 20. They turned off their audience by focusing and hyper emphasizing the social justice element of it. Does the evil character M.O.D.O.K. look familiar? The face of that character obviously was Donald Trump's. They wanted to paint him as a villain. It's bad art. Marvel hired leftist writer Ta-Nehisi Coates to write a Captain America series. Coates turned the villain Red Skull into a bizarre version of Jordan Peterson. The comic promotes equality now. Stop hate now. That's a good thing. When you have to tell your audience by let's say a character holding a sign during some protest, that certainly tells me you're not that creative. But protesting is what superheroes do now. Here’s Superman’s son leading a strike for the climate. They’re a vehicle for these advocates for social justice. Brought to us by capitalists. [Music] These people aren't stupid I assume. I thought that capitalism would be a break on the silliest of the woke world. But in this case, they're just sabotaging their own projects. It's basically mainstream modern let’s say leftism. Some people are like “Will you please get your politics out of my comic books?” This comic writer mocks her critics. Captain America is a social justice warrior! And if you don’t like my politics, don’t buy my book. These guys are writing material for their peers. So even if the son of Superman falls completely off the charts like it did, right? It's still a win in their mind. Marvel even named some superheroes “Snowflake” and “Safespace.” Snowflake is nonbinary and goes by they/them. [Laugh]  Okay, that's fine. It is. I guess you could make that argument. But the fact that he was leading with that I think was the problem. She’s a group home and foster kid who is volunteering at a senior center. Fan reaction to this preview video was horrendous. Marvel decided not to even release this comic. I wanted to ask Marvel and DC why they seem fine with losing market share, but they wouldn’t talk to me. At least their loss gives new opportunities to independent creators like Eric July. He just released his first comic. Here’s his superhero. [Music] And he has plans for more. You've raised more than 3 million dollars. Yes, 3.7 million dollars. This is something that people wanted. The market will decide that. But July understands something that Marvel and DC apparently no longer do: Capitalism is about giving more people what they want. [Swoosh] Are we at Stossel TV giving you what you want? Please, let us know.

Channel: John Stossel

Views: 142,195

Keywords: John stossel, libertarian, free market, Eric July, Rippaverse, Isom, woke, woke comics, Eric D July, young rippa, snowflake, safespace

Id: 9Zi1cLJyBoQ

Length: 4min 57sec (297 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 20 2022