UPDATE: Very little progress on the series. At the moment I’m more focused on finishing the side project, which is almost at the end. This morning I killed an important character. I’ve known for weeks this was coming and I still cried over it. Luckily that scene is followed by a happier one which I’ll be writing later so I can put myself in a better mood. Then it’ll be done and I’ll have no choice but to work on the series. Or find (or create) another excuse not to. The drama continues…
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I’ve been trying to write this blog over almost a week now. The problem was my chosen topic: character diversity in writing. It’s a touchy subject…so ultimately I’ve decided not to touch it.
Here’s the deal: when I conceived the series several years ago, I made the conscious decision that my heroes would all be straight white men. I had my reasons. In the current political climate, that right there is enough to get me cancelled. I recall there was a flurry of condemnation over the Throne of Glass series, where Sarah J. Maas neatly paired up all her major characters in traditional boy-girl relationships. Even the one who proclaimed on the page he was bisexual. Even the one a segment of the readership insisted should have been a lesbian, regardless of how Maas, the writer and creator of the character, saw her. (Upon reflection, she probably should have been a lesbian, or at least bi. Maybe even asexual. Their scenes together were awkward, to say the least. Those two had no chemistry at all.) Readers blasted Maas for promoting “the het agenda.”
Welp, too bad. She’s the author. That’s how she wanted to write it. Apparently the readership was good with it too, because Maas became and continues to be a best-selling author. Maybe not to a vocal minority of fandom, but you can’t please everybody. These days it seems like you can’t please anybody.
So I’m not going to try. I’m going to go ahead and write my books the way I want to, the way the story tells me it wants to go. Anyway, just because characters start out white and/or straight doesn’t mean they have to stay that way. I thought the side project’s cast would be solid Caucasian. Boy, was I wrong. Turns out one character was African-American, which changed the ethnicity of two others, all of them playing vital roles in the story. That’s the way diversity is supposed to work. I feel my book is better now. They added to the tale. If having diverse characters makes no overall difference, if you’re putting (insert ethnicity/gender identity here) into your story just to check off a box, it’s tokenism and you’re short-changing everybody—you, your story, the readers, and the characters. It’s just as bad as exclusionism. And you’re going to get lambasted anyway no matter what you do, because there are always going to be people who scream just to hear themselves make noise. Please yourself. If your work has merit, it will find an audience.
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Here’s how you don’t do diversity right. (Disclaimer: the following rant is based on rumors that may or may not prove to be true. Only time will tell. Given the players involved, I’m inclined to believe the worst. The rant is also personal opinion. I’d be more than happy to be proven wrong, but…)
If you’re a Marvel Comics fan and/or a fan of Disney’s MCU, you’re probably one of the hordes excited at the news that the X-Men will finally, officially be joining (rejoining?) the Marvel Universe. Years back, before Marvel started making their own movies, they sold off film rights to their heavy hitters to other studios—Spider-Man to Sony, X-Men and Fantastic Four to Fox. Then Marvel Studios opened for business, and built an empire on their B-, C-, and D-listers like Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Then Disney bought Marvel. And then they bought Fox. They couldn’t pry Spidey away from Sony, but they were able to do a crossover deal to get Spidey on Disney-owned screens. And now, thanks to Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, it looks like we’ll soon get the true Marvel versions of X-Men and the FF, now that they’re back where they belong.
Wellllllll….maybe not so much.
Over the past few days I’ve been seeing articles and videos pop up regarding Disney’s plans for the X-Men. According to rumor and alleged leaks, Disney wants to race-swap several if not all of the X-Men because…well, reasons weren’t actually given. Which made me and several commenters wonder if they were going to make Storm white. Imagine the shit-show that would kick up.
I mean, why? Sure, the originals from the ‘60s were WASPs, but after the team went international in the ‘70s reboot that wasn’t an issue any more. As the cast continued to grow, so did representation. At one point Storm, the African woman, was leading the team. The X-Men have been diverse for years. Hell, Nightcrawler’s blue. What more do you want?
Apparently, what Disney doesn’t want is straight white men. It gets worse: according to the leaks and rumors, the plan is to deliberately lure fans in with the white versions we’ve already seen in the Fox movies (like Patrick Stewart’s cameo in MoM) then ease those versions out in favor of more racially-diverse ones. Why Bishop—who’s been black in the comics from Day 1—continues to be absent from the roster I can’t say, and it seems that neither can Disney. Do we really need a black Rogue (already hinted at)? Or an Asian Cyclops? Iceman’s already gay; maybe they’ll leave him alone. But what’s the point?
Here’s my theory, my personal opinion based on these unfounded rumors: it’s not about inclusion, or story, or upgrading characters to reflect the modern era. It’s about money.
For decades comic book writers and artists were work-for-hire. They freelanced for the companies. The characters they drew and the stories they wrote became property of the company. This was true for Marvel and DC, at any rate. I assume it was true for Harvey, Charleton, Fawcett, and the other companies. That was the industry. Comics were cheap, disposable entertainment for kids. The idea that some dweeb in tights would bring moviegoers into theaters worldwide to the tune of billions of dollars was undreamed of.
Enter Superman: The Movie and Tim Burton’s take on Batman. There was movie gold in them thar capes. The writers and artists who’d written those stories and designed those capes, costumes and characters naturally wanted a piece of the action. The companies said no, they owned the rights, they were entitled to reap the financial rewards.
Legal battles sprang up. You may have noticed the dearth of new, original characters from the Big Two over the years, and the growing number of independent publishers. Nobody wants to pour their efforts, let alone their heart and soul, into a character that could end up earning millions not just from movies or TV but from merchandising, for some corporate suit while the creators are scraping by on mac ‘n’ cheese. Things have gotten better over time, with more creators getting screen credit and therefore additional checks. But corporations run things now, and there are ways around doing what’s right.
Which is why I believe Disney is planning to race-swap, maybe even gender-swap, the white characters out of the picture. Those are the ones created by those hard-working writers and artists all those years ago. The people now demanding their fair share. But wait. Thor’s a woman now. That’s not who you created. This is a different character, derivative of yours but not your creation and therefore you don’t get any money. Sorry, writer/artist person, looks like you’re SOL. (Google Gerry Conway, Alan Brennert or Paul Dini with the key word royalties and let me know what you find. Or Jim Starlin, creator of Thanos, to find out where the real money in movies is for comics creators.)
And that’s why we now have a gay Superman (who’s not Clark Kent), a black Batman (who’s not Bruce Wayne) and why we’re liable to have a black Prof. X in the future. Because corporations are greedy and cheap. They’ve got 50 years’ worth of stories and characters to mine for gold, and they don’t want to share even a penny with the prospectors who discovered the mine. At least, that’s my take. When I sell the film rights of my series, I’m going to include a clause in the contract that they can’t race- or gender-swap any of my characters without permission. The series is erotic romance, with threesomes and foursomes and people doing it with vampires and werewolves, so I’d think race would be the least of their concerns. Stay tuned…
