By David Futrelle
Like the titular character in The Princess and the Pea, the members of the Great Internet Lady Hating Machine have developed a truly impressive sensitivity towards the slightest perceived discomfort. And so it shouldn’t really come as that much of a surprise that a small army of perpetually outraged comics fanbabies are currently losing their collective shit over a milkshake selfie.
On Friday, Heather Antos, a Marvel comic editor who just happens to be a woman, tweeted a selfie featuring her and a bunch of her female co-workers enjoying some delicious beverages together. “It’s the Marvel milkshake crew!” she announced to her Twitter followers.
She was immediately swarmed by a squadron of fanbabies furious that such “fake geek girls” had made their way into Marvel’s inner sanctum.
https://twitter.com/BAR199323/status/891847749599199232
https://twitter.com/DiversityAndCmx/status/891978745715843072
You're right, @DiversityAndCmx. No life experience, the creepiest collection of stereotypical SJWs anyone could possibly imagine. https://t.co/ywIRk8UTYx
— DarkJester (@DarkJesterofOz) July 30, 2017
According to Antos, the private messages she got in response to her tweet were considerably less polite. “[T]he internet is an awful, horrible, and disgusting place,” she wrote, noting that she woke up Sunday, two days after she posted the selfie,
to a slew of more garbage tweets and DMs. For being a woman. In comics. Who posted a selfie of her friends getting milkshakes.
And yes, the fanbabies are still going at it today. For many of Antos’ “critics,” the selfie proved a perfect excuse to rant about Marvel’s alleged “anti-white, anti-men agenda.”
https://twitter.com/MonsieurBallin/status/891666775015694336
This is why marvel comics is killing the industry no one wants to be fem moaned feminist propganda in a superhero comic.
— Ceecko of one (@Ceeckoful) July 30, 2017
Maybe Marvel should just close shop. I'd rather that than see them lose their dignity for a Marxist agenda.
— Maeko (@MaekoDaekal) July 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/Red_Vanguard/status/891918378352472064
One fellow wrote out a mini-manifesto explaining how the eeeevil SJWs were destroying comics.
https://twitter.com/W00dlee/status/891874744802398208
The critics filled their angry tweets with an assortment of buzzwords that will be instantly familiar to anyone who followed GamerGate.
https://twitter.com/DiversityAndCmx/status/891875572741230592
https://twitter.com/CanuckCon/status/891822485305516038
https://twitter.com/darling_kun/status/891850198552653824
Not that the fanbabies didn’t have their own “narrative” to promote. One of the central tenets: that so-called SJWs only pretend to like comics.
https://twitter.com/thebechtloff/status/891705124405604357
Comics themselves were irrelevant, SJWs wanted another notch on their bedpost of Moral Victories. It was never about content, just control
— RJ Frazer (@rjfrazer) July 29, 2017
https://twitter.com/DiversityAndCmx/status/891674600475676673
Some saw the all-female selfie as a threat not only to men but to … white people in general, predicting an imminent White Genocide of Marvel characters.
Diversity for #Marvel Comics means get rid of all White Men.
— Veritas (@Veritas4UToday) July 30, 2017
https://twitter.com/thebechtloff/status/891515050502107136
It didn’t take long for things to get creepy.
https://twitter.com/thebechtloff/status/891503206282522624
Naturally, the reactionary fanboys turned on those who offered solidarity to the Milkshake Crew.
https://twitter.com/eldermeeseeks/status/891905588925521920
https://twitter.com/johndavidson83/status/891799233275322368
https://twitter.com/Daddy_Warpig/status/891857865140445184
And others tried to dismiss the whole thing as fake:
https://twitter.com/DoctorDooomile/status/891683546246643712
https://twitter.com/DiversityAndCmx/status/891985792591122432
https://twitter.com/laughingdrag/status/891834215377096709
https://twitter.com/DiversityAndCmx/status/891984421519314944
https://twitter.com/Stmpy_Mch/status/891916686953136128
Happily, at this point the “virtue-signalers” are winning. A wide assortment of non-reactionary comics artists, sellers and fans, female and male, have been showing their solidarity with the Marvel Milkshake Crew, filling the #MakeMineMilkshake hashtag with tweets like these:
https://twitter.com/PlinaGanucheau/status/891848514170433536
https://twitter.com/bookswpictures/status/891766052463325184
https://twitter.com/mollyjane_k/status/891742534074073090
Aaaand I do…
Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! by Kate Leth was fun as long it lasted (17 issues, 3 trades).
Jem and the Holograms (the current IDW comic) by Kelly Thompson was too… I mean I’ve no clue what’s the plan with it since the ongoing ended, because there are still minies so O.o
I still think that Kathryn Immonen’s Sif focused run on Journey Into Mystery (issues #646-655) is criminally under rated too.
Well, yes. I’m mostly a Marvel reader. ^^;
I knew I was out of touch with the comics scene, but – superhero comics have surrealist artwork now? Is it all like “Quick, Robin! Throw me the fish stapled to the portrait of Whistler’s mother! We’ve only got a few seconds before the clock melts into the bowler hat!”?
@kiki
Most don’t, but some definitely*. Also there is probably no other genre of fiction as in love with metafictionality than superhero comics. Why? 🙂
* Doom Patrol being one of the oldest offenders. I mean this is one of their enemies: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Dada
@Robert Walker-Smith
I know that I’m fighting a battle that’s probably already been lost here, but seriously, please read what Poe’s law actually states. If someone is indistinguishable from a random internet sexist asshat, it seems fine to treat them as such.
If these whiners don’t like that there aren’t enough white cis hetero thin able-bodied attractive male main characters in comic books, why don’t they write their own comic books instead of asking creators to pander to them?
\
That might not be too out of place in a Adam West era Batman story
Because they’d just end up being bargain bin Frank Millers.
Just on the topic of superhero comics, one book that I don’t think gets nearly enough love was the 90s version of Excalibur. Granted, it was a British team, so probably didn’t get a lot of distribution in the States, but what I loved about it was the fact that several of the stories were just them hanging around their Lighthouse when inter-dimensional oddballs just crash the place and don’t leave. One arc I remember had Nightcrawler breaking his leg and as he’s hobbling to the bathroom, an alien with a sword just crashes through the shower and starts taking swipes at him (who eventually chills out and sticks around as a member of the team for a few issues). Another had them fighting another team of dimensional travellers who have their hit contract cancelled and are stranded on Earth, so Excalibur has to handle all their bizarre household behaviours (like eating Kitty Pryde’s stuffed animals) until they can find them a portal home.
Plus the Captain Britain Corps was hilarious to watch in action. Particularly whenever Hauptmann Englande (from the obligatory “Nazis won WWII” universe) showed up just to try to upstage the Earth-616 CB. One of their major beefs was always that Captain Britain wasn’t wearing the right uniform from his own Earth and they dragged him before their committee of alternate-world CBs, where Brother Brit-man and a leftover from the Boer War argued about whether he should be flogged for his dress-code violation.
I miss that goofier stuff. Grimdark’s been done to death recently; I could sure go for a sentient time-bomb chicken leaping out of an egg when you’re trying to make omelettes one morning.
not seen mentioned by anyone so throwing these names out there:
b*tch planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick – basically its a prison planet where all the non-compliant women are sent.
I also suggest Kelly Sue DeConnick’s past runs on Captain Marvel. Hopefully they take the best bits for the movie that’s coming.
Clean room and Red Sonja by Gail Simone are ongoing
If you can get the trades Gail Simone’s bat girl run is good.
Trades of Angela asgard’s assassin/queen of hel by Marguerite Bennett (co-writer) Tom Brevoort said they were the most cerebral comics he’d read and then cancelled them. He’s a fedora wearer… literally.. and you guys know the type.
Erica Schultz is rebooting Charmed for dyamite.
I also second the suggestion for the Miss Marvel and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl books.
…
That character was recently seen in Rocket (the current Rocket Raccoon series, committed… I mean, written by Al Ewing).
The only reason why the “Fake Geek Girl” is an insult lobbed at women who like comics and videogames is because these manchildren simply cannot accept that these women aren’t romantically interested in them.
It forces them to admit it’s not their geekiness that prevents them from being in a healthy relationship but their toxic mindset that women are somehow their property.
It should also be noted that Marvel sales are tanking because of the whole effort behind the White supremacist faction at Marvel trying to turn Captain America into a Nazi, and even normalizing it by having him lift Mjollnir to deem them worthy.
@Scildfreja Unnyðnes
So just to give you my two cents as a South American I really DON’T see that happening. Mainly because Argentinians, Chileans and Brazilians DETEST each other and there are precedents of the opposite happening.
During the war of “Las Malvinas” (Fakland Islands) between Argentina and England, Chile was the only South American country which provided military aid to England and allowed them to land their military planes in Chilean territory. They have detested each other since.
As for Brazilians and Argentinians: they detest each other on account of their soccer rivalry. It gets to the point where they actively cheer for any other team, even if it’s from Europe or any other region, when they make it to the finals of the World Cup. And you’d think that wouldn’t bleed into the political scenario, but as someone who’s been to Argentina and who has family living there, you’d be surprised to find out how deep that rivalry runs.
As for suggestions of countries that are cool with each other in this region of the world: Argentina-Uruguay-Peru; Colombia-Brazil-Ecuador; Colombia-Peru-Brazil; Uruguay-Peru-Paraguay; Bolivia-Venezuela-Ecuador. Good guy Uruguay gets along with everyone (except Chile).
Ehhh… I wouldn’t put all the blame on Hydra!Cap. It’s just the latest fuck up in an incredible line of fuck ups*, and outdated mindsets**.
* Most of their events since Secret Wars 2015 were disasters that everybody hated (Avengers: Standoff, and Monsters Unleashed were the only ones who reached “meh”). They apparently don’t know how to market to people not already in their audience. Or don’t know how to market, period, see the first Legacy initiative announcements being mistaken for a variant cover month…
** Over reliance on the direct and speculator market. “No such thing as bad press” mentality. Over saturating the market which hurts the books before their readerships could stabilize. High-prices which they always attempt to raise. And so forth.
@Malitia
Well it’s not entirely on Hydra cap but it was a major fuck up. Other things that may count as fuck ups have been killing off popular characters such as Wolverine and Deadpool, just to spite Tweentieth Century Fox who won’t relinquish their rights to X-men and Deadpool, respectively.
Deadpool is alive. That was just a joke* for Secret Wars 2015 which killed off almost everybody just to recreate them at the end of the event. There are two Deadpool ongoings currently, he was (is?) also in Uncanny Avengers, and there are also the minis, and the countless cameos.
Wolverine… yeah. he is nominally dead. There is an Old Man Logan though in at least 3 X-Books and his solo. And that’s not counting all his children and clones. ^^;
* He got to haunt his then wife’s tie-in.
If you want to know who did get the truly shitty end of the pissing contest (I’m mixing metaphors again, aren’t I?): The Fantastic Four.
But those characters aren’t dead, just half of the team is off to rebuild the multiverse.
@Malitia
Really? Wow, I guess I haven’t updated much since comics are hard to come by where I live. Sad that Wolverine remains dead, but I guess that will remain as such until the rights to X-men expire for Fox (or at least until they cut a similar deal they did with Sony and Spiderman).
Everyone always forgets that Marvel let Spencer make Magneto into a Nazi too.
@PaganReader
I cannot confirm or deny this. I’ve seen the cover, but I’m trying to ignore this event as completely as possible (kind of a futile endeavor several of my books tie-in, but I’m trying), so I’ve no clue how the factions actually are in it. :/
@Scildfreja:
Where’s the subsaharan African culture? 😛 We always get left out. Ethiopians are something very different from the rest of Africa.
4srs though, it looks interesting.
I’m speaking as outsider, so please everyone feel free to let me know if I’m spouting nonsense here.
Maybe it’s not just content that’s the issue? It’s my understanding that historically a big part of comic culture has been hanging out at the comic book store. The past couple of decades, it’s been more and more difficult for independent book stores -whatever they specialize in – to stay open. Since Amazon has become such a behemoth, that’s really accelerated. Maybe the lack of physical locations for fans to meet and congregate has caused existing fans to drift away from the culture and potential fans to not be captured? I know I used to be way more invested in music when I would go to music stores and flip through the used CDs. There was something about the environment where I was at a physical location, seeing the album cover art, seeing posters and hearing cool music playing in the store that really facilitated interest. Downloading or streaming online just isn’t the same. It’s no fun. I don’t think piracy is the only thing hurting music sales. Music is an art form and iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc. are sterile. They make you feel more like you’re consuming a product than engaging with an art form. Maybe that’s how it is with comics now that people more and more have to order online?
Could be talking out of my ass here, but just a thought!
@weirwoodtreehugger
I’m not that qualified either (not from the USA; I read mostly in digital) but that’s seems to be a problem too. But the direct market (comic book stores) are an incredibly convoluted topic. (Has stuff like US comic book distribution basically being a monopoly, the speculator market being a thing, the comic book crash of the late 90s being a thing etc.)
@Axe, thank you for your reply! You have the same concerns I’ve had, so that’s a relief. I didn’t dig deeply into the culture of the Selassian League in my description of them (The EAI culture), because I don’t know if the corrections I was planning on making were significant enough to overcome them!
I feel like I’m sort of caught in between a rock and a hard place based on the worst of western stereotyping. If my description of their culture is “extended family groups and focus on local community,” I worry that a white western person will read that as “tribal” and fill in the blanks with racist nonsense. Especially considering how the mere word “Ethiopia” can often engender thoughts of starvation and mud huts instead of one of the worlds’ most vibrant and growing economies. I’m having a real problem quashing those racist and uninformed sentiments without also white-washing the actual culture!
To give a bit more depth on what I’m working with right now; the Selassians organize themselves democratically in a republic, with each community group having a representative. Socially these community groups are basically a small set of extended families, typically all working together in the same or related professions. There are problems with this sort of organization: They’re patriarchal and the “vote” of a community will more often than not represent the wishes of the patriarchal heads instead of the needs of the community. This can lead to a lot of ignored groups, and I intend for this sort of community strife to be a major focus of their culture right now, leading to a fragmentation of the community group into smaller units.
(The intention there is to represent the fragmentation of the traditional Ethiopian culture caused by urbanization and the current flight to the city. Provide a metaphor for modern-day issues, etc, etc.)
That’s the sort of goals I have for that culture – I want to blend together the trials of the modern day Addis Ababa and its outskirts with a touch of medieval and colonial history, and then translate it into a science fiction setting where there’s no multinational corporations hindering their growth.
But you’re right – the very concept of “advanced” is a Western one which I don’t necessarily want to carry into this project! Frankly, all of the players in the world I’m working on are “advanced” by those metrics, almost equally. I need some new metrics!
Thank you for commenting, and I will try to correct. If you have other thoughts I’m delighted to hear them!
@Diego, thank you! I didn’t realize that you all detested one another so much (ah, national politics, goodness me). That’s certainly something I would want to carry into this project. I really want to tell some of the stories of fighting for independence that took place in South America with the cultures involved here.
Odd as it may sound, though, that encourages me to use Argentina, Brazil and Chile as models even more (though I can’t believe I forgot about good guy Uruguay). This nation (Verdentinia) is supposed to be fractured and boiling with internal divisiveness. They’re mostly unified because of a common threat, but have some very deep-seated rivalries and differences. Specifically, some of the states within that nation are deeply invested in continuing the war to try to liberate others, while other states would rather just sue for peace and work on rebuilding.
(I’d be lying if I didn’t say this is also supposed to be a metaphor of the current fractured zeitgeist of the United States, minus the fascism.)
You’ve chastised me to do my homework, though. You’ve shone a light on some huge gaps in my knowledge, and I’m very grateful. I’ll go back to doing some basic research and history reading before I pile into that again. And if you have other thoughts, or things you might be cool to add that would make the cultures feel more right, I’d be happy to hear!
Thank you all!
That is simply awesome. Now I must read that.
@PaganReader Oh, yeah, I remember. The canon Auschwitz-survivor of the Marvel universe. Gotta love those great decisions. Why not make another Clone War issue too?
@Gussie Jives
This is the series (seems to be a stealth mini, or canceled at issue #6 ^^; stealth mini is more likely though Rocket Raccoon and/or Groot comics are generally that.):
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Rocket_Vol_1