• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SEENIT

TV, Film, Broadband, Pay-TV, Games, Computing and Tech | News, Comment & Reviews

  • NEWS
  • FEATURES
  • ADVERTISE
  • Twitter

Too Much of a Good Thing: Is the Marvel Universe Sinking?

How much further can Marvel go before it falls out of fan-favour? Are dropping sales in comic books a sign that fans are losing interest? What’s next?

April 20, 2017 - Staff@seenituk

These days it seems that people – young and old – can’t get enough of Marvel superheroes. Comic books, film, television, and an unending stream of merchandise is everywhere you turn.  In fact – and as you likely know – Marvel got so hot over the past decade that the comic book juggernaut was acquired by Disney.

Many diehard fans of Marvel were concerned that family-friendly Disney wouldn’t do their favourite superheroes justice, but so far it seems that everyone couldn’t be more pleased with Disney making the universe more modern and complex with more diverse characters…well, mostly everyone.

In a recent interview with ICv2, Marvel vice president, David Gabriel, suggested that the company’s comic books have had poor sales due to readers’ showing disinterest in stories with diverse characters, such as those featuring non-white and female superheroes.

“What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity. They didn’t want female characters out there. 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,” Gabriel said in the interview.

His words sparked an outrage over Marvel’s diversity blaming. However, it is important to point out that this burst of outrage erupted from lack of facts. While Gabriel’s words may sound harsh they were also taken out of context.
What went viral and what everyone seemed to focus on was a sentiment from the retailers who expressed why they believed their sales were low at Marvel’s summit with comic book retailers.

Gabriel was present when these remarks were made and the summit was where the ICv2 interview with Gabriel took place.  In short: he was reiterating what he had heard from these retailers and explained that stories involving diverse characters, female characters, and new characters weren’t selling like the company’s core Marvel characters.

Who else isn’t happy about Disney taking over Marvel? Online gambling operators offering Playtech’s Marvel-themed content. This includes prominent online gaming websites such as bet365.

Back in 2013, the Walt Disney Company – Marvel Studios’ current parent company – made the decision not to renew Playtech’s license for the use of Marvel superheroes (e.g. Ironman, Spiderman, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, etc.) as themes for its casino games.

According to a representative from the parenting company, the decision was made due to Disney’s concerns that its image would be harmed by having its brand linked to the games of chance offered by Playtech.

As a result, all Marvel-themed content from Playtech – including its Marvel-branded slots and jackpot games -was removed from the websites of its clients on April 1st, 2017.

In spite of dropping comic book sales controversy and the end of Marvel-branded casino games, Marvel is still going strong on the film and television front.

With a brand new Spiderman movie hitting theatres in July and the continual release of the many Marvel TV series on Netflix, including two seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and the upcoming Defenders, there is still plenty of Marvel content that fans are going nuts over.

So, sure, not everyone is happy about the expanding Marvel universe. Some like the modern diversity and some still like the classic core characters. That said, ultimately, what all Marvel fans want is great entertainment.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Blu-ray and Gaming Top Buys

Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments is coming to 4K UHD Blu-ray

Coming to America is getting a 4K Blu-ray release

Season 2 of Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone is coming to Blu-ray and DVD

RECENT

Disney+ confirms air dates for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Loki and Turner & Hooch

ITV announces new Bear Grylls specials with Jonny Wilkinson and Nicola Adams

Reemah Sakaan named as BritBox’s new international CEO

The Secret Garden takes Number 1 spot in latest Official Film Chart

Popular

Sky bags first run rights to Entertainment One catalogue

Freesat adds BBC Sounds to app line-up

Coming To America sequel to get global release on Amazon Prime Video

Hitman developers announce new James Bond game

Featured

Ofcom calls for greater social and geographic diversity in TV and radio

BT Sport app now available on Now TV devices

StarzPlay is now available from Rakuten TV

Britbox – What does the new UK-centric streaming service offer?

ADVERTISE ON SEENIT

We’re pleased to offer a number of advertising opportunities to high quality brands including sponsored content, competitions and advertising placements.

Please contact us for details.

MORE FROM US

Copyright © 2021 · All Rights Reserved · Contact Us · Copyright · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy