The Need for Political Diversity in Comics 

I have both conservative and liberal friends that are comic fans. None of us read anything modern anymore. Haven't for years. We have had just about every argument you can have about superheroes. We've never debated the political views of Batman. It has never mattered.

It's not even political diversity. It's just opinion. People can't be framed as right or wrong all the time.

3:25 The Absorbing Man literaly making basic Reddit anti-sjw comments while fighting Jane Foster is without a doubt one of the most forced and wtf political injections I've ever seen in a comic. It's so absurdly surreal how unsubtle and overly in-your-face the author was that sometimes I thought I was reading a parody 😅

All you gotta do is look at when Denny O’Neil and Chuck Dixon were working together at DC. Two geniuses with polar opposite views who made magic together. It isn’t about agreeing or even liking each other (though Chuck and Denny were friends) it’s about having the same goal. Both those men wanted to make the best Batman and Bat-family comics possible and they more than succeeded.

Hiring creators that actually like and understand the Marvel/DC continuity and don't passionately hate the fans would be a good idea too.

Yeah crazy how it’s 2023 and just now when the entire industry has tanked they’re saying maybe we shouldn’t preach to our audience 💀 I grew up in an evangelical fundamentalist household, I came out as athiest when I was 13, and currently my family doesn’t know about my sexuality, despite a number of comic book pros saying these books are for me I still can’t stand them, they remind me of the media I grew up with, the way that just about every character is turned into a section of the sermon

The scene in the 90s X-Men cartoon with Wolverine is praying in the church Ghana most powerful moments of that show and I guarantee you it would not be made today. Common American warm I can't be the only books that actually for political diversity

One of my favorite recent examples of an intriguing clash of ideology is the roof top scene in daredevil season 2 where daredevil is arguing with the punisher

Here's something they haven't tried in a while: how about *no* politics in comics? I know it'll be hard, it seems like half the characters started as propaganda, but I'm sure that if the comicbook writers put their bobbleheads together, they can pull it off.

That comic panel with the mosque climbing a skyscraper is absolutely hilarous 🤣 "what makes you think that i am a bother?" - "Oh, sorry! I apologise!" ...WTF??? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

For some reason the movie " Enemy Mine " comes to my head after hearing this. It's a Great movie in my opinion.

I think the funniest real world example of this problem being all in the execution and how you approach issues would be The Orville. A huge chunk of Star Trek fans that were pretty much called bigots for saying NuTrek is preachy trash all rallied around that Orville, who's entire major plot hangs completely around the gender of an alien child. I think that showed that the accusations were complete lies, to be honest. It's just that they made sure the debate followed universe rules, and approached the issue from a bunch of different views - and most importantly, gave it a viable reason to power some great sci-fi action by actually tying it to much larger plot threads - it never brought the plot to a halt, but seamlessly fueled it.

One example off the top of my head that sums up the argument is DC in the 1980s. They had Alan Moore and Frank Miller, two politically diverse professionals. What did you get? Swamp Thing/Ronin & Watchment/Dark Knight Returns.

One of the reasons I like coming back to your video's - despite how acerbic you can get sometimes - is *YOUR* diverse opinion. After all, if all headlines say the same thing, that's not news but advertisement.

As rule of writing I always try to give as many view points as possible because it's fascinating how depending where the lines in the sand are drawn good goes bad and bad goes good not just that but I hate cliches it's why my favorite comic books , games , movies and shows are the ones that break the mold by trying something unique even if it crashes and burns ( last few years on sonic ) I can still applaud it for being different

The party of tolerance, if you side with them…

Cyclops is for private property and secured boarders. 'Captain America, get off my island.

At this point these people can have marvel & DC. I’m open to making and buying new comics from different creators.

Honestly, just having "the other side" being hired means the writers can then *bounce ideas off each other* so you don't get random strawmen as villains. You get someone nuanced and "real," or understandable, but twisted by the villainy. For *both sides.* by causing these people to interact, you increase the depth of both sides' comics.

We don't need politics in comics. We don't want politics in comics.

you know all this reminds me of the animated show, justice league... the universe where they became justice lord. the batman vs batman scene in that episode was something special how one event changes everthing.

Hawk and Dove have a lot of potential!

The early days of comic books provided a creative space for Jewish writers and artist who couldn't find work in the wider publishing world. Perhaps comics could become a refuge for the conservative intellectuals that have been sided lined for politics being all raw emotion all the time. An intelligent back and forth of ideas would feel like a bit of escapism.

Thank you for saying it. You don't have to like or read the book that goes against your political views, But having political diversity between things like comics helps. Hell it might even reactivate proper political conversation instead of bashing

Thanks, JSG, for this vid. In all the clamour for 'diversity, representation and inclusion' we have listened to in past years, diversity-in-politics was something I (and I am sure many others) had not considered. It is a concept that needs to be spread widely, and injected into all organisations with a glaring ideological slant. Further, we can make attempts to close the gap between Right and Left in wider society. The blessed peacemakers have to step up. I will pay this idea forward wherever/whenever I can.

I've pretty much just dropped fantasy and scifi from my life. It's sad because they were my entire childhood; but it become quite clear that there are powerful vested interests that don't want there to be any place for me in a community about them. Conservatives are generally more interested in reality than fiction; I think it's time I focused on that.

This is all very well, but beware of the "fig leaf employees", that is someone that is solely hired to be pointed at to say "hey look, we do have opposing views in our company" as a way to silence external criticism.

Haven’t we been saying this since 2008/2014 to forever

The damage is already done. Its going to be very difficult for the comic book industry to regain the trust of the readers they have lost.

Well about got damn time

Yep

Who cares about CBR? Well, the reaction videos will probably get more views than the original CBR article...

I love manga.

Agreed. When one side is censored in the industry it makes for boring stories. If everyone is Han Solo, then no one is Han Solo. The way one side will demonize the other makes those characters reek as inauthentic. If I want to be slammed with propoganda Ill watch msnbc.

I agree but unfortunately a lot of people from both far side of the spectrum are doing the best to put themselves in position where they have power. It doesn't matter if the company suffers. It doesn't matter the fan base offers long as they get the political view out. There were to watch the world burn than to do anything that might help or get someone to understand their side do debates and conversation. Instead of using Chromebooks as a medium to open up dialogue, the rather make dialogue one-sided and put the fingers in their ears and rumble out of noise to drown out anyone else's personal views and opinions.

No one talks about the editors and its effed up. They ask for these stories

I haven't read Green Lantern/Green Arrow, but I've seen the stupid page where some black guy chastises Hal for not doing anything for black people being posted as some powerful moment, and figured if that's what people think it's meaningful it really doesn't have much to say.

The need for diverse beliefs and perspectives is crucial for good storytelling. Imagine instead of having the conservative be blindly against people crossing the boarder, they had the conservative witness a family die trying to cross or an illegal immigrant rapes a lady they know. This makes people's reasons more rational and gives pause for thought. Far more level handed than the blank stance that person "A" is a bigot/racist/phobic and therefore best to punch first ask questions never.

3:15 what the hell is that

FIRST! BOOM, NAILED IT!

The issue now is trust. A lot of these far left weirdos have shown their true colors and I wouldn't fault a right-leaning creator or even a moderate/centrist for believing the cancel crowd still has a knife hidden behind their back, waiting for a chance to get them fired over a microaggression. There's also the trust of the customer, who they've insulted repeatedly in favor of clowns who have never even read the books. Creators of differing views are better off doing their own thing, or teaming up with an artist/writer to bring their story to life. The big two especially are damaged from their total embracing of one political side, and a half-hearted "sorry" won't fix it. It'll take years to fix and some people were burned so much that nothing will bring them back.

CBR published this article SEVEN YEARS TOO LATE. It's like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic- after the captain sailed the ship into the iceberg, reversed propellers, sailed the ship into the iceberg AGAIN, reversed propellers AGAIN, sailed the ship into the iceberg AGAIN...

The problem isn't politics in media. The problem is Twitter discussion politics in media.

Great storytelling is what’s important. The Stories that aren’t political at all and are based on good writing, good characters , deeper lessons, morals and entertainment as well as the stories that do have political elements but are more focused on an engaging story,a well thought out lesson or idea behind it and interesting characters are the stories that make great entertainment. As my film teacher taught me Art before politics, always. The story & characters comes first whether the politics are subtle, secondary or completely non existent. There are two types of great stories when it comes to this method: stories that are apolitical with great characters, writing & moral lessons or none, and then there are stories that have political elements but put the quality of the writing and characters, & moral lessons first. Whether either type of story is apolitical or has political elements deep philosophy, morality, & mythology can often play a role in sharpening the story, once you form your morals for a story into ideas over just using them for government or social policy statements you can grab anyone within an audience no matter who they are or what they believe that is the gift of good storytelling Modern SJW’s unfortunately don’t have that gift because for them there is nothing deeper then the physical realm they see and often hate so instead of forming deep intelligent universal themes or ideas through the magic of storytelling they try to bend those themes or ideas to their will ,thoughts and beliefs. They can’t form their morals into ideas so often they come off as just government or policy statements without the feeling of anything deeper to an audience turning most people off whether they do or don’t agree with them or are indifferent to begin with.

In order to write a character from a different point of view than your own, and not make them a parody, you have to be able to articulate their point of view in a reasonable way. Your "foil" has to be able to make reasonable arguments and have a valid point on some level. It would be hard to find writers that would be willing to admit the other team has a point, much less convey that in a compelling and entertaining way.

Captain America Civil War was a good example of political diversity, for a comic book movie. Stark and Rogers each represented one side of an issue and both were presented as moral equals, even if their values and perspectives were different. I like how in Endgame they try to return to keeping civil and respectful discourse even if they still felt some personal grudges or unspoken awkwardness about their past differences.

The key for any writer is to portray people they disagree with religiously, politically, or ideologically as real people in a way that readers will recognize their actual point of view. If a villain has comical versions of a philosophy, you put someone in there to voice reason and speak for those who will point out that the villain is unhinged. The same with whatever your own POV is as the writer; put someone in there to dispute it. Nothing makes bad fiction faster than everyone with the "proper" viewpoint being "good" and everyone with the wrong viewpoint being a shallow stereotype and "bad". Christian fiction is a really good example. Some is good, of course, but a lot is really awful and for the same reasons that woke-religion fiction is awful. For one thing, the same "you can't show the bad stuff" rule pops up. A comic about how awful a world with Trump is showing bad things happening to people? Ha! Try a comic about a bad person converting but they're not supposed to have any actual bad opinions, use bad words, or do any bad things. The two are so closely paralleled that it's almost shocking.

Intellectual diversity is vital for good ideas. Totally, 100% agree. And it’s nice to hear Guy not take a shot at the right. Thank you.

Both Nerdrotics and Ddaycobra have recently shouted you out with high praise. Probably because you are Just Some Guy that is cool. 😎

The issue isn't politics, it is a lack of creativity. Comics always had a political message, the difference was, they had the creative talent to wrap those stories in a way that it was not in your face. The "creators" today, do not have that talent. They have never been pushed, or critiqued as part of their learning journey, as that can be seen as bullying or negative. But critique is a major part of growing as a creative professional. That is how you grow, and your ability matures.

The problem is the writers arent mildly political but very political and lack empathy. While psychological studies have shown that people who lean right have a slightly better chance of understanding the opposite viewpoint than people who lean left, the truth is the extreme of both sides have trouble (and little interest in ) seeing the viewpoint of the other. Writers have to have lots of empathy. They literally have ro put themselves in the shoes of people who are often not like themselves. Modern comic writers lack that empathy (and life experiences)which is why you end up with stereotypes at best when they write anything outside their own experience.

The problem is that if anyone to the right of Mao gets hired at Marvel, they'll almost certainly be harassed out by the current crop of crazies. I think comics are just doomed. Let manga rule the world.

If there's one thing about "diversity" that comics need now, it's a respectful portrayal of different political views, like the one the stories of the past decades did. Heck, the main reason "Watchmen" is so great is because all of the main characters have radically different ideologies from each other, and yet no character is portrayed in a more heroic way than the others, As it can be seen with the "philanthropic" Ozymandias killing millions of people as a way to save the world and the "monstrous" Rorschach giving his life to bring Adrian to Justice. A moral duality like that would be simply unthinkable today. Nowadays, SJW authors wants you to 100% agree with the ideology of their perfect protagonists, depicting any other character who thinks slightly differently as a simply villain, something that obviously causes rejection in most readers. Leaving aside what you think about the use of politics in old comics, something quite admirable about them is that they treat characters who think differently. Is it THAT difficult to respect an opinion different from yours? 🤦

This what many Japanese manga doesn't have, hence why they're more popular than comics.

This extends into real life as individuals as well; it’s almost as if having a mix of beliefs and ideas makes you a more logical, well-rounded person, instead of just being progressive or conservative…

I’d love to see more movies like Capt. America Civil War again where everyone is divided on a tough issue but they all have good reasons for that disagreement. I feel this is one of your best videos. Well said.

All In The Family is a good example of how different viewpoints make for better stories

[Archie comic-books are the epitome of playing it safe for decades imho!😋]

Too bad it's far too late.

In my friend group, we had 2 conservatives (one of whom is bisexual), a centrist, a guy who doesn't care about politics at all, one guy (myself) who only cares about politics for the memes, a moderately left-leaning dad, and a far-left afrocentrist. We never had any issue until the latter guy tried to convince us all to think like him. We sort of ignored that and took everything he said with the smallest half grain of salt. He left the group because he views us as problematic now when before his Great Imposition there was no issue. Most people don't care if you bring politics into something just as long as their side is represented fairly and you DON'T try to push your politics or agenda on them.

Almost like tension equals drama.

“If you expressed those left leaning views in right leaning circles, you’d be cast out”. Patently false. It’s well documented that people who are right leaning are more tolerant of a different opinion than those on the left tend to be. Imagine being critical of something you know next to zero about apparently.

The politics haven't become muted. One side has been gagged while the other has been given a bullhorn.

0:07 If only someone…anyone… Just…Some GUY… had suggested this for years.

At the end of the day, we don’t just want political diversity. We want writers and companies to stop acting like their mindset is the ONLY right viewpoint and to stop using their biased opinions as the framework for all of their stories.

The people steering the ship have just now noticed all the rats are gone and its sinking. Too bad its too late for them.

LOVED the Green Lantern - Green Arrow series!

The problem is that they and them don’t read comics, We do or did 😒

So after years of disowning conservatives from within the industry, arrogantly going on Twitter to shit on customers (some of whom WEREN'T conservatives) and almost killing the comic book industry from within, now all of a sudden they wanna sweep that discourse under the carpet like it never happen. "Why can't we all just get along?" Because of you.

.... and to think....it only took a few downed companies, lost of mkt (throu manga) to RELEARN that.

The SJW PC 'WOKE' Garbage Agenda destroyed Comics and Comic Book Stores! I know, I owned my own Comic Book Store for 24 years! All my customers dropped every Marvel and DC Comic in 2010!

Movies, Late career Stephen King novels, TV shows, and comic books...why does EVERYTHING have to be used these days to 'TEACH' us MESSAGES? Why can't they simply be ENTERTIANMENT? I mean, honestly, 'Salem's Lot, Night Shift, Shining, all of these books were published by Stephen King and none of them have THE MESSAGE in them. Movies like Body Heat (1981); Back to the Future, Howling, none of them contain The MESSAGE. TV SHOWS 'Charlie's Angels (1978); Waltons; early episodes of Bewitched, Mission Impossible and even Buck Rogers were all entertaining, and did not contain The MESSAGE. Marvel comics from the late 1960s and early 1970s like Inhumans, Avengers, and FF did not contain The Message, and today all of these things are thought of as CLASSICS, but the crap being produced to INDOCTRINATE and SOCIALLY ENGINEER humans is going to be swept into the garbage bin as soon as this PC fever breaks.

3:22 Is that a joke? That living Mosque was literally complaining about pronouns? Geez. Now I remember why I don't read comics anymore.

Tbh....unless you're Punisher, Captain America or X-Men that have politics embedded in their stories...I'd rather have no political views at all. Just fun comics again.

most authors these days don't care to make a good comic, they care to make a big flashing sign that says "I"M PART OF THE LEFT"

Something people forget with the "x-men were inherently political" view, is that ANYONE could be an X-Men. Nightcrawler was a Catholic who looked like a demon and he fought side by side with Colosus who was an atheist.

The only reason they talk about it now is because the writing is on the wall... CBR and the Comics Industry is going down in flames and they (the writers) will soon be replaced by AIs. All I can say to them is ...TOO LATE!

It's not just politics but also life in general. Almost every writer is a copy and paste of each other except maybe race and sexuality and even then they try to collect as many as they can like their Pokemon cards. Tolkien's experiences in WWI and growing up in Great Britain during the height of its power shaped LOTR, Ernest Hemingway's crazy and amazing life gave us For Whom the Bell Tolls and Erich Remarque in nationalist Germany and surviving the horrors of war with All Quiet on the Western Front. All these writers from comics to movies to tv have no diversity amongst themselves except the superficial. If asked about upbringing, school, first job or any other experience that would help shape their writing is all the same and it shows.

Political Diversity from a US perspective is laughable. The absence of a left wing party of any significance from the political spectrum in the USA leaves discussions such as this utterly skewed.

In the 70s, that genre stagnation and stifling political environment led to a massive breakout in the UK of amazing comics - 2000AD being the flagship. Pop culture may be more fragmented, and have stranger transmission channels these days, but the optimist in me sees comics, film, and music as ripe for a new wave.

Let's see. American comics political diversity in their comics, sales are fairly "meh" can we agree? Japanese manga have next to no political diversity in their comics (or politics at all), sales seem to pretty much dominate the market. Let's take a trip over to Barnes and Nobles. American comics, 1 shelf. Japanese Manga, 8 shelves.

I don't think having politics in comics is the problem. The problem is when you constantly utilize politics in an agressive and divisive way to gaslight your main audience into relevance (it's not like that's something new tho). I think there's just so much divide nowadays (specially in mainstream media), and if you push too much too one side, eventually you can get a harder retalliation from the other side - and the cycle repeats. I prefer to stand in a middle ground where it's possible to see each side's points, even if it can be pretty hard sometimes - and I admit, I'm as partial as the next person, so there's that.

I'm a day late, but I'm here! Looks like conservatives buy shoes, too!

Politics pertaining to the comic worlds respective situation shows creative writing but when you keep implementing real world politics you become your own agenda, so to speak. Its preferable to exit our current worlds problems to visit another. Bombarding the readers with modern politics only overloads their tolerance and makes them reject the ideas completely. No matter how positive they seem.

Unless this was a statement from someone in charge of these comics, this article means nothing. I very highly doubt these companies will start looking for people with different views and i really doubt they'll ever include conflicting views in their books using anything other than strawmen.

Those jack@$$es drove the industry into the ground.

Oh there's definitely political diversity in today's comics, simply put the left are the heroes and the right are the villains.

Most of the best protagonists have flaws, most of the best villains have understandable motives. The leftist bubble that exists in media stifles the creative ability to create deep characters, specifically when it comes to political issues.

Cross over events would be a much bigger deal if the heros were people that didn't agree or sometimes even like eachother.

Is it even possible to fairly represent opposing points of view, when everything you have ever been told about them is just lies designed to make you hate them?

very convenient how NOW they want political diversity

And didnt he make a video about it?

Civil War comic is the best example of political diversity being a story about statism vs anti-statism

Making every villain conservative sounds like a business norm.

I thought thenhydra cap was an interesting take. I didn't see it with current politics but the idea of hydra actually controlling cap and the fact that he is so capable of bri ging down the heroes was very interesting.

Why would anyone vote for the uniparty?

We said this for YEARS and got called all sorts of shit. ALL they wanted was to take credit for what other people did... AFTER they fucked it up!

Sounds like more disingenuous talking points to me. How bout they just write stories about say, Batman stopping a bank robbery? I'd read that.

What people care about in comics is the entertaining story of good vs evil. We don't need someone preaching about communism. In fact, political diversity is how the woke movement got started.

Can we just tell stories in which we all can like.