I picked a good week to talk about Marvel Comics.
Yesterday, at the Long Beach Comic Expo, Ms. Marvel won the 2016 Dwayne McDuffie Diversity Award. This is the second year of the award, and my second year attending. Both years, tears were shed, and the atmosphere in the room is one of family, community, healing, and hope. I haven’t attended that many award shows, but this awards show is unlike any that I have attended before. It’s not just about the award. It’s a safe space. A confessional space. And for that reason, I feel like it would be inappropriate to report on some of the things shared within that space. There is something about being in The Room Where It Happens, and I urge people to be in the room next year.
I will share this quote, from last year’s winner, Nilah Magruder, because I found it especially poignant:
"For the marginalized, the excluded, and the voiceless, the McDuffie Awards are for you." – Nilah Magruder, standing ovation #lbce #mcduffie
— Kate vs the Dissertation (@metakate) February 20, 2016
She earned a standing ovation.
G. Willow Wilson was not present for the event, but she created two videos ahead of time which were played in the room, one in response to being nominated (all nominees were allowed to make a statement if they wished to), and one in case Ms. Marvel won, which it did, thus creating a time paradox, with the past G. Willow Wilson accepting in the present, which is the joke alluded to in these acceptance tweets.
https://twitter.com/GWillowWilson/status/701216174965526528
https://twitter.com/GWillowWilson/status/701216460920623104
https://twitter.com/GWillowWilson/status/701217742636994560
So, Saturday was an important day, and the end to an eventful week for Marvel. The ComicsPRO event has led to quite a bit of attention on DC, but among other Marvel announcements and accolades, Marvel announced a new Deadpool series, Deadpool vs Gambit and shared this Kevin Wada cover.
I’m really surprised by this announcement for a couple of reasons. First, the Deadpool vs. series is really great. Hawkeye vs. Deadpool was fantastic for many reasons, but here are two.
But mostly I’m surprised that Marvel is doing this because Gambit, like Deadpool, is one of the few Marvel characters that Fox still has the rights to, and the Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum is just about to start principal photography in March, finally. In theory, the movie is still slated for an October release, which would mean, if my math is right, the final issue would coincide at just about the release date. Considering the fact that Marvel basically erased the Fantastic Four off the face of the earth and is in the process of turning mutants into inhumans and vice versa, this seems really fantastically generous on the part of Marvel.
Is this the new status quo? Marvel also announced a self-contained cross-X-book event called Apocalypse Wars, which is unsubtly evocative of X-Men: Apocalypse and this handsome motherfucker right here.
Are Fox and Marvel seeing each other as maybe friends instead of frenemies? Maybe Marvel will take the hint and restart the Fantastic Four series, and pick up where the numbering left off, which was right at #645, Marvel, in case you lost count. Don’t you want to hit 1000 issues like Detective Comics and Action Comics? If you did a biweekly ongoing you could hit issue #1000 in only 7 years. You could create a Fantastic Four movie for Phase Four. Just saying.
Moving onm the other big Marvel comics news this week are the May solicitations.
So, something happened when I wasn’t paying attention, and I only realized it when I was gathering links to talk about titles that have been released or announced this week, but David F. Walker will be writing not one but TWO new ongoing series. And this was done very quietly, without fanfare, and I think, this is how something like this should happen. It should happen every day, often enough that it doesn’t strike you as odd. Marvel is doing things right, in terms of recruiting new voices and having those new voices tell stories that they should be telling.
But I noticed that these stories seem to be the only stories that they’re telling. We have a Korean-American team writing the Korean-American Hulk. We have all-women teams for Hellcat and Mockingbird. We now have two all-black creative teams writing Black Panther and Power Man. This is good. This is progress. But stories about white men are still being written by white men, and the majority of stories at Marvel are still about white men.
Just something to mull over.
Oh, and this May Solicitation scored major points from a few of the Hamilton-obsessed members of WWAC.
In other cool comics news, I hadn’t paid any attention to the Guardians of Infinity series, but this article about how the co-writers of a recent issue (Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez and Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels. Yes that D.M.C.) decided to incorporate Afro-Puerto Rican mythology through the character Groot. Yes, Groot, via the Ceiba tree. And I think it’s awesome. As Miranda-Rodriguez explains in this interview:
We have this scene where an Afro-Puerto Rican grandmother recognizes Groot as the Ceiba and suddenly you open all of these doors to how that can become a part of his larger backstory and expand the Marvel universe with something from this actual history that people might not be familiar with.
More of this, Marvel.
And finally, it Marvel has been in the news recently for its politics–or, more accurately, for the political affiliations of Ike Perlmutter. Axel “In Charge” Alonso cryptically tweeted this on Friday.
Added Marvel logo so you know it's for real. pic.twitter.com/wieD77BdiD
— axel alonso (@axelalonsomarv) February 19, 2016
Is Loki running for President? Well, he wouldn’t be the first supervillain in the race. Ba-da-bum ching.
ICYMI
I have two Deadpool related things to share, because they’re both too good not to be shared. First, this twitter exchange between Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, and Ryan Reynolds.
@RobertDowneyJr @VancityReynolds Bullsh*t!! The cussing was my favorite part! (just don't tell my alter ego….or Kevin Feige….or my mom)
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) February 21, 2016
Click on the link for the full thread.
Second, in response to a petition to have Deadpool (not Ryan Reynolds) host Saturday Night Live, Ryan Reynolds posted this video, which is a riff on the infamous leaked Kanye West backstage rant.
