ComicsDiversity Interviews Tom Breevort! Blue Marvel News, Minorities in Comics & Mor

[babybro]

1) Our first question lies with the blue marvel. I would like to say thank you for this character creation, as he is the first black male considered to be at the elite of superheroes along with Thor, Hercules, Hulk, etc. Many are very appreciative of that, but where has he gone? We haven't seen him since his mini. There is a rumor spreading that Kevin has one guaranteed appearance of him before the year is out. Could you give us a hint as to where we might see him? And will he be making more appearances next year such as being placed on a team or a mini perhaps?

I don't know that Kevin has one guaranteed appearance of him or anything, but I can tell you that I've been thinking of the character in conjunction with a series that's coming up after SIEGE ends and the Marvel universe has a new paradigm. So stay tuned.

2) One statement you made that ignited the message boards was that black leads and female leads do not sell well. Mark Waid, your partner in crime defended this statement and elaborated on it. I for one have to agree with you, as it seems that many creators, retailers, and publishers believe the same thing. I was wondering if you could elaborate as to why that is? And what do you believe are possible avenues to fixed it.

I don't know that there's any simple way to fix this; it's been a problem since the days when the industry began, and has its parallels in other avenues of popular culture. In essence, black readers and female readers (as well as readers of any other particular type you might want to mention) are more likely to be brought into the fold to follow the adventures of a white male lead than the mass audience is to be convinced to follow a black or a female lead. There's a cultural or identification disconnect that happens, and which narrows the audience spectrum with characters of these types. I think the only thing to be done about it would be to continue to try to create and develop characters with greater depth and interest, and hope that this is enough to attract a wider and more diverse audience, and increase their popularity to the point where they can support a series of their own.

3) A few made mention to minorities never being placed as center role within events, as such placing a minority at center stage in these company wide events would catapult a minorities popularity to stages not seen since spawn. Do you agree that placing a minority at center stage is a mark for success and if so, is that partially the reason for doom war which places black panther as center stage?

When we're putting these stories together, we're not promoting a particular agenda; we're casting around to try to find the best, most involving, more successful story to tell. So yes, on some level, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, if there aren't minority characters whose stories are as likely to spark with a wider mainstream audience. But Doomwar is about telling the story of Doomwar, nothing else, which happens to grow out of the events in BLACK PANTHER over the last year or so. We're not shy about doing something like this, if we see an opportunity and the story is right.

4) I for one always believed that marvel has pushed the envelope when it comes to diversity, far better than DC in any case. But due to your audience, is there only so much you can do? Are your hands partially tied when it comes to featuring diversity
within comics?

Comics are a business first, so we need to make educated decisions abotu what we think is going to be the most commercially successful. That said, we do spend an awful lot of time considering ways that we can be more culturally diverse (without resorting to artificicial quotas or the like), as we understand that there's both an expectation and a responsibility that Marvel Comics has to represent the wide world that we live in effectively.

5) A concern that is felt in many parts of the black community is the "death of the black mutant." Due to D-day for mutants, almost all the mutants are gone. And the black mutants that did existed have been either depowered or killed. So many believe that marvel is stuck in a corner when it comes to having black mutants. Do you feel that marvel is in a runt when it comes to this situation?

I don't know that I have a good answer for you here, in that I haven't really considered the situation of the "black mutant." It's just not something that's on my radar particularly. I don't think that being a mutant is the only bar by which a black character could become successful. And the same thing could be said about the possibility of further mutants within any demographic.


Tom B

The full article can be found at http://comicsdiversity.atspace.com


Some great information right here, and I cannot wait to see what Tom has for blue marvel after Siege. But I'm a bit surprised that Tom didn't know about the What If issue with Kevin that had blue marvel in it. But since he's a upper level boss, he probably doesn't pay too much attention to the smaller details.
Tom by the way is a great guy, just wanted to point that out.

[Sighphi]

I for one always believed that marvel has pushed the envelope when it comes to diversity, far better than DC in any case.

WRONG!!!!


!!

[The Cool Thatguy]

Originally Posted by Sighphi

WRONG!!!!


!!

They certainly pay better lip service ;)

[Excelsior]

DC did cast Halle Berry as Catwoman. Which was a bold move.

And Director Kenneth Branagh has cast the Wire' star Idris Elba in the upcoming film version of Marvel Comics' Norse God adventure 'Thor'.




The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog says that Elba will play Heimdall, the guardian of Asgard. Joining Chris Hemsworth in the title role and Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L Jackson, Natalie Portman and Irish actor Stuart Townsend.

If anything Both Comic companies can do a lot more when it comes to diversity. It is no surprise that Comic books have to be recast (when serialized into cinema) to reflect a more diverse world. Making women stronger characters and adding minorities.

Can you Imagine a Mighty Avengers movie. General audiences would have a problem with such a one tone-team.

[Sighphi]

Originally Posted by Excelsior

DC did cast Halle Berry as Catwoman. Which was a bold move.

And Director Kenneth Branagh has cast the Wire' star Idris Elba in the upcoming film version of Marvel Comics' Norse God adventure 'Thor'.




The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog says that Elba will play Heimdall, the guardian of Asgard. Joining Chris Hemsworth in the title role and Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L Jackson, Natalie Portman and Irish actor Stuart Townsend.

If anything Both Comic companies can do a lot more when it comes to diversity. It is no surprise that Comic books have to be recast (when serialized into cinema) to reflect a more diverse world. Making women stronger characters and adding minorities.

Can you Imagine a Mighty Avengers movie. General audiences would have a problem with such a one tone-team.

Elba as Heimdall and Samuel L is in the flick?
Oh man, this movie is going to suck.
This is mostly going to take place in the real world, isn't it?

[XPac]

Originally Posted by Excelsior

Can you Imagine a Mighty Avengers movie. General audiences would have a problem with such a one tone-team.

They've got Cho in there... that's a nice little dash of diversity.

[StoneGold]

Originally Posted by XPac

They've got Cho in there... that's a nice little dash of diversity.

And Pietro is half Jewish, half Gypsy. You don't find too many of them outside comics.

[RJ Whakamol]

Originally Posted by Excelsior

DC did cast Halle Berry as Catwoman. Which was a bold move.

And Director Kenneth Branagh has cast the Wire' star Idris Elba in the upcoming film version of Marvel Comics' Norse God adventure 'Thor'.




The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog says that Elba will play Heimdall, the guardian of Asgard. Joining Chris Hemsworth in the title role and Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L Jackson, Natalie Portman and Irish actor Stuart Townsend.

If anything Both Comic companies can do a lot more when it comes to diversity. It is no surprise that Comic books have to be recast (when serialized into cinema) to reflect a more diverse world. Making women stronger characters and adding minorities.

Can you Imagine a Mighty Avengers movie. General audiences would have a problem with such a one tone-team.

I have to admit that's a bit of strange casting choice, but I'm more familiar with the mythic version of Heimdall rather than the comics version.

[StoneGold]

Originally Posted by RJ Whakamol

I have to admit that's a bit of strange casting choice, but I'm more familiar with the mythic version of Heimdall rather than the comics version.

He's white too.


It's undoubtedly tokenism. Which doesn't necessarily make it bad, but it is what it is - they felt they needed a black guy in the movie, so they made Heimdall black. Looking at Kirby's slightly later New Gods work, I'm sure he would approve. Except for him not being called Heimdall the Black or Black Heimdall.

[Sighphi]

Originally Posted by XPac

They've got Cho in there... that's a nice little dash of diversity.

Originally Posted by StoneGold

And Pietro is half Jewish, half Gypsy. You don't find too many of them outside comics.

Think he might be referring to Version 1 which was a Antarctic White.

[StoneGold]

Originally Posted by Sighphi

Think he might be referring to Version 1 which was a Antarctic White.

You've lost me.

[Sighphi]

Originally Posted by RJ Whakamol

I have to admit that's a bit of strange casting choice, but I'm more familiar with the mythic version of Heimdall rather than the comics version.

Dude......they are Norse Gods.
Those are all European white dudes.
If there was a movie where the cast could be all white with NO trouble at all it was this one.

[Sighphi]

Originally Posted by StoneGold

You've lost me.

[StoneGold]

Originally Posted by Sighphi

Dude......they are Norse Gods.
Those are all European white dudes.
If there was a movie where the cast could be all white with NO trouble at all it was this one.

Like I said, Kirby managed to shove token black characters into two separate sets of Greek god analogues, with both the New Gods and the Eternals. You know if he had the idea in the 60s, it would have been Baldur the Black.

[[]D[]/\/\[]D @ Nite/So-tite]

Originally Posted by Sighphi

I STILL don't believe Stark is pure Caucasian.