Marvel’s New Heroes Bring an Overwhelming Negative Response
(edit: misspelling)
On March 17th, Marvel introduced new superheroes for their “New Warriors” series. Written by Daniel Kibblesmith and illustrated by Luciano Vecchio, the characters are meant to be as modern as possible. This, however, is where the problems arise.
While the heroes are supposed to be up-to-date and in-style, most fans see them as offensive and embarrassing. The first character the public was introduced to was Screentime, who has his brain linked to the internet. The problem does not lie in his origin; rather, in his back story. Marvel describes him as “A Meme-Obsessed super teen whose brain became connected to the internet after becoming exposed to his grandfather’s ‘experimental internet gas.’” Disregarding the poorly named and strangely chosen “internet gas,” his description paints him to be a middle-aged parent’s view of their child. This misunderstanding of modern culture is further represented in the next two superheroes, Snowflake and Safespace.
Unlike Screentime, fans are not specifically mad about their powers. The awkward problem that Safespace and Snowflake share is their names. Both are insensitive political terms, which is even worse when you understand the characters. Snowflake is non-binary and black, and the LGBTQ+ community completely disagrees with this choice in names. As Twitter user Jack Foster puts it, “Not to pile on & not to speak for the nb community, but gender norms- like blue & pink for example*even if you are wink wink flipping them* are exactly the thing non-binary folks want nothing to do with. This feels like it was created w/out input or research.” While Kibblesmith has said that “it’s this idea that these are terms that get thrown around on the internet that they don’t see as derogatory. [They] take those words and kind of wear them as badges of honor,” this does not excuse the titles in any form.
The next hero in this team is Trailblazer, a teenage girl whose power stems from her backpack. Some fans are questioning not only her powers, however, but her appearance. They question how she is able to be on a team full of powered people despite hers coming from a backpack with some divine origin. Her description adds that she often cannot control her powers. This backpack also causes an insulting comparison between her character and Dora the Explorer. Again, while the writer had good intentions for this character, they ultimately backfired.
In an attempt to be diverse, Marvel has arguably created one of its most insulting set of characters to date. Almost all these characters have received vast amounts of harsh criticism from readers. The exception to this is B-Negative, the vampire superhero of the group, who some have simply dubbed to be “edgy.” As of right now, there has been no response from Marvel, Kibblesmith, or Vecchio, but the situation does not look hopeful for this batch of warriors.
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