Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter has been a Donald Trump supporter likely from the beginning.
But now, as the reality of a Trump administration dons on feminists and social justice warrior comic book fans, they’re struggling whether boycotting Marvel will punish Perlmutter’s insubordination, or just cut them off from Marvel’s increasingly progressive works.
Anti-Trump activists, calling themselves #TheResistance, have launched a series of protests and boycotts aimed at punishing corporate CEOs who toe the Trump White House’s line.
But Marvel Entertainment has brought the philosphy behind the protests—to harm anyone who complies with Trump’s agenda—to a screeching halt. After all, boycotting Marvel might mean that social justice warriors would be hurting other social justice warriors.
Unlike Uber, which protesters can find alternatives to, or Tesla, whose products they probably can’t afford, Perlmutter—who gave so much money and support to the Trump for President campaign that he earned a shout-out as one of Trump’s favorite businessmen last month—presides over an empire that includes a swath of social justice comic book heroes, including women, feminists and even teenagers of color.
“There is nothing fundamentally wrong with boycotts and they can work, but the problem with trying to hurt someone like Perlmutter or the CEO of Uber Travis Kalanick is that there are a lot of people between our money and them,” wrote one activist at Bleeding Cool. “[It’s] not Perlmutter or Kalanick who will be affected by a boycott but the people who drive the Uber cars on a daily basis and the various creative teams behind Marvel comics.
That includes the authors of Ms. Marvel, which features a Trump-hating teenage Muslim girl in the eponymous hero’s most recent incarnation; the team behind Mockingbird (who appeared on her own cover in an “ask me about my feminist agenda” shirt); and even the team behind The Unstoppable Wasp, where the big bad guy is the superhero Patriarchy.
A swift end to Marvel means a swift end to the only comic books they’ve ever read. It’s enough to almost make you wish they weren’t so self-aware when it comes to Marvel’s bipartisan administration.
But lest you think they’re settled on whether to stick it to the Spandex-suited man, the SJWs behind the potential boycott want you to know that they’re struggling—because using one’s freedom of speech to support someone opposed to their agenda is an oppression that will not stand.
“To hurt Ike Perlmutter we risk losing all of the progress the various creative teams at Marvel have made over the last several years. However, if we do nothing then we risk complacency and nothing changing.”
