Marvel VP of Sales blames diversity for falling comic book sales

'People didn’t want any more diversity, they didn't want female characters out there'

Despite forming the basis for the multi-million dollar blockbusters that have recently overtaken Hollywood, Marvel comic book sales have been falling.

Well, Marvel VP of Sales, David Gabriel, spoke about what they believe could possibly lead to the decline, putting the blame on diversity.

“What we heard was that people didn’t want any more diversity,” Gabriel told ICv2 at the Marvel Retailer summit. “They didn’t want female characters out there. That’s what we heard, whether we believe that or not.”

H continued: “I don’t know that that’s really true, but that’s what we saw in sales. We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against.

“That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked.”

Later on, after the comments were picked up by numerous outlets, Gabriel clarified how Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, The Mighty Thor, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales, and Moon Girl continue to prove popular and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

In recent years, Marvel has made steps to diversify their roster of heroes, often to large critical acclaim. Falling sales because of this seems rather minimal: instead, most fans have questioned the price of comic books in recent years.

As iO9 points out, the average price of a Marvel comic in the US stands around $3.99 to $5.99. Over here in the UK, to purchase the most recent Mighty Thor you’re looking to spend around £2.49 for the 22-page comic.

Meanwhile, over in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Brie Larson will play the first leading female superhero in 2019, taking on the role of Captain Marvel.