In this context, “queer” is being used an umbrella term for LGBT+ folks, including the male same-sex couple discussed in the article and the female same-sex couple mentioned as an aside, but possibly including any number of other families with kids who do not include a male and female partner gestating their own…

I feel like I’ve been to a number of weddings where the groom’s mom walked him down the aisle. That way, I guess, both new spouses are being “given” by their family.

For sure. My male partner, who’s a strong guy who lifts, has a jiujitsu blue belt, & is very outspoken, has been the victim of sexual harassment & unwanted touching. Confidence & physical strength don’t mean you can’t be victimized.

I think what qualifies as “success” will vary somewhat depending on who you ask, like with any large political/social movement.

This reminds me of the (equally mismatched) Lego X-Wings & TIE Fighters I made as a kid, only waaaaaay more ambitious.

Marvel and DC have both seen declining comics sales for decades, while Scholastic has shot past them as the #1 comics publisher in America (primarily targeting 10-year old girls). Which you would know, if you were paying attention to what’s been happening in the comics industry, instead of cheerleading an old business…

Sure. I’m talking about BoredPanda/BuzzFeed “10 weird foods that only Americans like!” or “This _____ saw _____, and you won’t believe what happened next!” kind of articles that pop up in your Facebook feed via advertising.

My guess is that somebody on the movie end was hoping the comics guys could come up with some ideas for what to do with Bucky other than become Cap or join a secret agent team, and overrode the accounting department. Having him on the Thunderbolts was a better idea; too bad the art on that series was so terrible, and…

I’m a little baffled by the idea of a government-backed cryptocurrency. Isn’t that just..... a currency?

Really? I swear I remembered it getting a long run. Maybe it’s just that it outlived some other titles that I actually liked and which sold better, so I had bit of a chip on my shoulder, lol.

Yeah, scientists have been saying for years, at least, that there were single-celled anaerobic organisms evolving on earth for ages before oxygenization.

Thanks for this, this article had me face-palming. Glad to know that there was maybe some actual news or science somewhere in this development, and it just didn’t make it into this article.

A lot of evidence points to our ally Saudi Arabia and yet that’s not the mainstream view.

It’s not just an iPhone thing; I have a Galaxy 7 and I get that a lot, though more on Facebook clickbait articles (I know, I know, I should know better than to click on them....) than Kinja sites.

I’d be surprised to hear that sales have declined that much since like 2016, but the overall trend in that direction goes back decades, no? It’s not that the “diversity initiatives” of the last 5 years or so drove the core market away, it’s that the core market is unsustainable and has been shrinking since at least…

I think that offering these titles as as stand-alone graphic novels may be the way to go, rather than trying to sell them as monthly issues like they do with Spider-Man etc.

Yeah, I think that’s especially true for certain reader demographics. I suspect that the market crossover between “wants to read lots of stories about queer female superheroes” and “has a pull list at the comic shop” is probably not super high. Marvel might want to consider offering certain titles as OGN only, since…

I dunno, Marvel definitely has, in the past, faithfully continued to publish awful books that sold terribly but starred straight white dudes. (Ales Kot’s absolutely bizarre Spaceman-Bucky-Barnes comic from a few years ago comes to mind; it sold like 10k issues a month and basically nothing coherant happened in the…

I wonder how much of a role the different business models and target audiences of Marvel/DC vs indie publishes plays in these decisions?

I’m going to guess that this is a big city/ small town divide. In big, dense metro areas like DC, NYC, etc, everyone uses public transit, rich and poor. Even members of Congress & high level guys at the Pentagon, which means you get weird ads on the Metro for fighter jet models & stuff. And a lot of people do use…