Marvel’s VP of sales, David Gabriel, had a unique theory as to why comic sales are decreasing for the company. Gabriel argues that there are too many “female characters.” Moreover, he asserted that there were too many “diverse” characters. Gabriel believed that their comic-book business did not focus on the core classic Marvel characters.
“What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity,” Gabriel explained to iCv2.
Gabriel added: “That’s what we heard, whether we believe that or not. I don’t know that that’s really true, but that’s what we saw in sales. We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against. “
Gabriel later contacted iCv2 to clarify his comment stressing that new superhero such a Squirrel Girl and Miss Marvel are popular.
“Discussed candidly by some of the retailers at the summit, we heard that some were not happy with the false abandonment of the core Marvel heroes and, contrary to what some said about characters ‘not working,’ the sticking factor and popularity for a majority of these new titles and characters like Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, The Mighty Thor, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, and Moon Girl, continue to prove that our fans and retailers ARE excited about these new heroes,” he said in a statement to iCv2 to clarify his original statement.
Overall, the comic business is huge for Marvel. In fact, Marvel is currently filming several various major feature films in Atlanta, Georgia. Marvel Studios is now filming the incredibly different ‘Black Panther’ movie with a predominately black cast. Also, Marvel Studios is now filming ‘The Avengers: Infinity War, which features a diverse ensemble. Following those two movies, Marvel will start shooting ‘Ant-Man 2’ to followed by ‘Captain Marvel.’
Needless to say, the initial reports of Gabriel’s comments towards diversity causing lower sales was quite surprising. But, examining Gabriel’s clarified statement it is clear that diversity is not only important for society it is popular in the comic book community.