Marvel has lead the attack on diversity in comics for a while now almost to the point of annoyance for some. Either to the good or bad its not uncommon to pick up a Marvel comic these days and be bombarded by unrecognizable faces of color and female heroes who used to fit the traditional mold of typical white males. In May "Captain America: Civil War" became the first mainstream movie to co-star three black heroes: War Machine (played by Don Cheadle), the Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). But has there effort to diversify paid off?
Well, the sales of the new Black Panther #1 seemingly indicates a change could be on the horizon. This marks the first time in history that a black superhero could have the highest grossing comic of the year with a whooping total of 253,259 units sold for the month of April.
|
1 |
Black Panther |
1 |
$4.99 |
Marvel |
253,259 |
|
2 |
Star Wars Poe Dameron |
1 |
$4.99 |
Marvel |
175,322 |
|
3 |
Dark Knight III Master Race |
4 |
$5.99 |
DC |
143,055 |
|
4 |
Star Wars Special C-3PO |
1 |
$4.99 |
Marvel |
120,841 |
|
5 |
Batman |
51 |
$3.99 |
DC |
101,922 |
|
6 |
Gwenpool |
1 |
$4.99 |
Marvel |
100,852 |
|
7 |
Star Wars |
18 |
$3.99 |
Marvel |
98,880 |
|
8 |
Darth Vader |
19 |
$3.99 |
Marvel |
76,965 |
|
9 |
Harley Quinn & Suicide Squad April Fools Special |
1 |
$4.99 |
DC |
75,354 |
|
10 |
Amazing Spider-Man |
10 |
$3.99 |
Marvel |
73,643 |
And most notably, though released in May DC Universe Rebirth #1 was beaten by Black Panther! And it was a highly advertised high media event. Hence why I believe Black Panther has a pretty good chance of ending 2016 on top. Which is a huge win for diversity in comics!
|
1 |
DC Universe Rebirth |
1 |
$2.99 |
DC |
235,791 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So maybe this is a good sign of things to come. Black Panther out grossing major comic events and leading comic sales more than half way through the year is no easy task for a hero of color. The book is high quality though.
Marvel has the Black Panther movie coming in February of 2018 which looks to have some of the greatest talent working on it. Also Luke Cage and Jessica Jones on Netflix. Captain Marvel coming in early 2019. It seems we've been doing a good job of supporting diversity in comics. Let's keep it up, because more diverse heroes made simply means more heroes will be made. And in the end thats what we really want, right?