I Have a Marvel Problem

We just can’t. We stood by their side through countless deaths/returns to life, retcons, cancellations of good books, questionable choices of artists and writers, PR scandals, offensive decisions, but this is too much. Retconning Wanda and Pietro Maximoff into no longer being Magneto’s children, into probably no longer being mutants, Jewish-Romani either, is simply too much. It’s the latest of a series of screw-ups, of “f*ck you“‘s to the loyal fanbase that stood by their side in their worst moments, that made campaigns in support of Marvel and their books, that defended them from criticism, that asked for patience when they made attention-grabbing decisions that would be undone months later. No more.

We must let our discontent be known, we must write Marvel expressing our disgust at their lack of respect to their fans. They take us for granted, think we’ll just accept anything they throw at us, any status quo changes. We must show them they’re wrong. Here is information on how you can contact Marvel. Tom Brevoort, the editor in charge of AXIS, can be found on Tumblr. Don’t hesitate to contact them, but I ask that you remain as polite as possible so that our concerns will be heard, not disregarded as another case of “the internet overreacting”. Also, though Rick Remender was the one to write said issue, and though we all have our problems with his work, keep in mind that this is not on him, Remender is not high enough on the company to make such decisions, or to reverse them, so you can express your discontent to him, but please refrain from sending him hate, because, this time, it’s not his fault.

Others have expressed better than I ever could the significance of the Wanda-Pietro-Magneto connection, be it for how important it is to have such high-profile members of forgotten minorities in the comics, or for their own private history with the characters. Personally, the reason I connected so strongly with them is because, in their effort to come to terms with the fact they were related to someone who had wronged them so severely in the past, I saw my own struggles to deal with my abusive father. Their courage and strength inspired me, told me I mattered, that I could survive this. And now Marvel is throwing that to the wind. These aren’t “just stories”; these characters are part of our life, and by disregarding thirty years of growth, Marvel is telling us that our own struggles are irrelevant.

We have to prove them wrong. Brevoort is always telling us about how we “vote with our pockets”; well, let’s follow his suggestion, then. They are erasing the Maximoff’s connection to Magneto and mutantkind, and possibly their Jewish-Romani heritage, all for the sake of corporate synergy, of making the comics fit into the little world they’re creating in the MCU? Good for them, but I’m afraid they can’t count on my money. Yes, I propose we boycott Avengers: Age of Ultron, as well as all the Avengers and Inhumans comics Marvel publishes from now on. We don’t watch it, especially not in the movie theater, andwe don’t give them the free PR they so desperately need from the fandom chatter. And, in sympathy to our fellow FF fans’ problems of seeing Marvel’s first family lose their comic series over movie rights shenanigans, I propose we do our part to make Fox’s The Fantastic Four the most successful superhero movie of the year (yes, I know it will probably suck, but Marvel deserves that, don’t you agree?). Marvel will say what we’re doing is “censorship”, or some other such nonsense that people who have never lived in an actual dictatorship love to repeat when they realize their bad decisions have consequences. It’s not censorship; it’s us, consumers, using our right of not supporting companies that lack a basic understanding of the meaning of respect.

From now on, this blog will no longer be posting panels from comic books published after this change. Actually, we’ll be ignoring everything that happened from Uncanny Avengers #14 onward. “You can’t ignore continuity to suit your own needs, that doesn’t make it any less true”, you say? I’m sorry, but the reason why Marvel has been around for all these decades, the reason why there’s any continuity these days to begin with, is the fans who have stayed by their side come hell or high water. But if now they’re saying we don’t matter, well, neither do their decisions, then. I’m also creating a blog called marvelusedtomatter where we’ll be expressing our love for the pre-2004 comics, for the stories published before their editorial decisions began to be informed by their movie plans. The idea is to post panels, edits, mixes, fics, fanarts, testimonies… everything, about how much Marvel meant to us once upon a time. I’m looking for co-mods, so if anyone would like to help out, send me a message.

As you may have noticed, I haven’t been posting on my Marvel blogs for a while. Those of you who regularly discuss comic books with me are aware of my general disappointment with Marvel these past few months. They cancelled All-New X-Factor and She-Hulk, they killed and brought back characters just to be used as plot devices again and again, they gave up on any pretense of caring about character development over “epic events”, they sank my ships, demoted their classic symbol of the fight against oppression… they let corporate synergy and their failure to comprehend 21st-century demands substitute good stories. For much of this year, some of the Marvel books I used to love have either started to bore or to annoy me, but after today, I’m now angry, angrier than I’ve ever been at a piece of entertainment.

By now, most of you know what happened on AXIS #7 (from this point on, there will be spoilers). If we’re being honest, we all knew something like this was coming, we’ve known for two months, ever since that "No More Mutants" teaser in NYCC. I’m among those who tried to stay optimistic, to believe that Marvel wouldn’t betray their fanbase and their history this way, that, even if they made Wanda and Pietro Inhumans, there would be a logical explanation for that, preferably from their mother’s side, and all would be well. Instead, they decided to throw over thirty years of internal struggles, of identity issues, for three characters, all so that the comics would be better aligned with whatever mess they have planned for the Maximoffs in the MCU, where they can’t use Magneto or their mutant connections for their backstory? I’m sorry, but that’s too much for me. And before you say there could be another explanation for why Wanda’s spell didn’t affect Magneto, I would agree with you if not for all the other influence the MCU has had on the comics, or how the solicits for next year’s Uncanny Avengers has let us know “important reveals” will come up about Wanda’s and Pietro’s past, and that they have something to do with the High Evolutionary, and certainly continue on the Axis and “No More Mutants” subject. 

"Damn Remender!", you say. If only it was so easy as to just blame him for these changes, if only we could know that a different writer would waste no time in fixing this mess! But, for once, this is not on him. He’s the guy that killed Wanda and Rogue last year, that’s true, but huge changes like Steve Rogers losing the super-soldier serum, inverted Tony Stark, the Maximoff Twins no longer Magneto’s children, or mutants? Those decision’s come from higher up, probably following on directives from Marvel’s - or Disney’s - executives. So if we want to blame someone, we should probably blame the executives, and capitalism, and whoever made the bad decisions that led to Marvel going bankrupt in the 90’s and selling the X-Men movie rights to Fox, the beginning of what we’re seeing now. 

And yes, I know that Wanda and Pietro haven’t always been Magneto’s children, and that they’re so much more than that, and I agree with you. But they have been his children for over thirty years, they have struggled with the resulting identity crisis from learning that the man they hated so much was their father, just like Magneto struggled with the knowledge that he hurt his own children many times over to achieve his goals, even coming to acknowledge (more than once, which is nearly unheard of for him!) how he wronged them, and how that might not have been his best choice. Being related has defined who these characters are today, has led to more growth than any other retcon in their histories, and still had the potential for so much more. And, like it or not, many of us, the people who got into superhero stories in the 90’s or after, first heard of Wanda and Pietro by their connection to Magneto. I, myself, first saw them in the episode of the X-Men Animated Series where they learn that Magneto is their father, and, a bit older, I fell in love with them after reading about their struggles with this knowledge. Yes, they’re so much more than just that, but those characters have gone through so many changes in the last decade, so many different motivations, personalities, team affiliations, that the simple fact that “Wanda and Pietro are Magneto’s children” remained the only constant in their characterization, the only thing to give comfort to old fans, to reassure us that they were still the same characters we loved, even when it didn’t look like it. And now that’s gone, along with the whole excuse for the chaos that was the Decimation and the Twins’ history in the past decade. Thrown away, just like their connections to real-world minorities will probably be soon enough. Marvel is letting me know they don’t want my time or my money, and I’m happy to oblige.

I have spent the last several hours struggling, but I’ve come to a decision: I’m putting my Marvel blogs on hiatus. I don’t know how long that hiatus will last, or if I’m ever returning to them, only that they stopped being a fun obsession to become a burden. And this is not just about the Maximoff reretcon; as I said above, many other of Marvel’s decisions have been making me feel alienated for months, but I didn’t want to make the hiatus official for fear of upsetting anyone. I’ll still be on Tumblr, over at maximoffmartell, if you’d like to talk to me about anything or follow my thoughts on what recent comics I’ll still be reading. I’ll never stop loving these characters or being grateful for the wonderful times I’ve had with all of you, followers. But it’s time to move on.

See you around.

Love.

↳ Fantastic Four Annual # 1