Someone Woke Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed – An Essay Response

While perusing my Google News feed, I came across this article on Cosmic Book News, written by Matt McGloin. To say that this made me chuckle would be an understatement. Sadly, it wasn’t a mirthful laugh. Rather, it was the sad laugh of someone who is reading the brain droppings of an over-reaching baboon who I’m surprised can string together a coherent sentence. The basic premise of McGloin’s argument is that Marvel Studios has become too “woke” and that is why their new series Hawkeye is failing.

While I’m loath to send traffic his way, I figured this would be a good chance to enjoy ripping someone apart for their asinine, click-baiting malarky.

The study McGloin pulls from was highlighted by Deadline, which pulled the information from Samba TV. The numbers Samba TV found for 3 million households is that 1.5 million Disney Plus subscribers watched the first hour of Hawkeye in the first five days and only 1.3 million watched the second episode within that same period of time. Could this be due to the Thanksgiving holiday and people focusing on spending more time with family rather than watching television?

Not according to McGloin, who thinks it’s because of “woke” culture.

Never mind that WandaVision, which I’ve covered in previous reviews, was a female-led show that did about the same numbers (1.6 million over its first five days). And The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did better at 1.8 million viewers over its first five days. The real issue, according to McGloin, is that Marvel is moving away from the established characters and introducing new “woke” characters (meaning non-white male leads).

Apparently, for someone like McGloin, it’s a bad thing when Marvel doesn’t let men lead the shows and be heroic. As a cisgender, pansexual white man, I just have this to say: blow it out your ass, McGloin.

Comic book shows like Hawkeye, WandaVision, and films like The Eternals are not “woke”. They are examples of Marvel Studios stretching their limbs to provide more representation in an attempt to bring in new and different fans. People like McGloin have become far too complacent, expecting Hollywood to only cater to them. The fact is, Disney is a business, which means they want to expand their potential profits by trying to appeal to the largest demographic possible. This includes women, people of color, people with disabilities, etc.

If you don’t like the show, at least find an honest reason to not like it other than the fact that Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton isn’t the lead character (that would be Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop). The fact that Kate Bishop has been a well-established and well-received addition to Marvel Comics since 2005 as a member of the Young Avengers (which all of the recent Marvel shows has been teasing) is immaterial to someone like McGloin.

Let’s face facts: aside from Chris Hemsworth, the majority of the actors that made up the bulk of the first three Phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have either decided not to renew their contracts or are only making sporadic appearances moving forward. The exception in this case was Scarlett Johansson, who encountered a far different issue earlier this year with the release of Black Widow. This means that new heroes are needed for the films and television shows and that opens the door for more representative actors and characters to be brought forward, such as Maya Lopez/Echo, Sylvie (from Loki), Sam Wilson, etc.

This change is a good thing, primarily because it has the potential to expand the fanbase, which means more interesting stories that can be told, as well as (and let’s be honest, this is the real goal of Disney) more money in the coffers for Marvel Studio content. Part of me thinks McGloin and people like him only post screeds like this for the clickbait and the echo chamber in the comments. The other part of me… well, let’s just say my sour opinion of humanity didn’t improve after reading McGloin’s article.

If you enjoyed reading this essay, consider clicking the Buy Me A Coffee button to the right and becoming a Member or sign up for my Patreon here. Members and Patrons get early access to posts like this, as well as exclusives only available on those sites.