'I'm a mixed woman,' Fumia tells me, 'so I would like to see more people color, and more people who look like me, or that I can at least somewhat identify with. Readers like Lisa Fumia, visiting Fantom from Tulsa, Okla. There's a new comics readership coming in - she sees them every day - readers who are eager for different kinds of heroes. Other potential reasons for a recent Marvel's sales slump? Cover price (especially compared to DC, whose 'Rebirth' relaunch featured reduced prices across their entire line, at least at first), and the fact that some of their top writers and artists are making the jump to independent publishers, where they can own the characters and the stories they tell.īut Ly is quick to point out that any readers and retailers who reject diversity aren't the whole story. 'Marvel's in a bit of event fatigue right now,' she says, 'because they've had two years of events, and people are a little tired.' The many, many headlines that followed - 'Marvel Blames Diversity For Sales Slump,' fueled a lot of online disbelief and outrage and thinkpieces offering alternative explanations for why Marvel's titles might be selling less.įantom's second-in-command, Leah Ly, wonders if Marvel's recent strategy of big crossover events - mini-series that require readers to buy many different titles - might have some customers shying away. It didn't much matter that only two of the retailers who attended the summit expressed misgivings about books featuring women and people of color, while the rest maintained that those books were selling well in their shops. He later clarified that even though some of those retailers weren't happy with recent Marvel decisions (decisions which include making Iron Man a young black woman - long story) the company's commitment to their increasingly diverse roster of heroes remained firm. I don't know that that's really true, but that's what we saw in sales.' That's what we heard, whether we believe that or not. 'They didn't want female characters out there. 'What we heard was that people didn't want any more diversity,' he said.

He gave an interview about some of the feedback he had heard at a sales summit with the country's top comics shop owners and managers. She's reacting to remarks made to the website ICv2 last week by Marvel Comics' VP of Sales, David Gabriel.

Xee3 changing comic book colors