The Marvel Scandal
By: Chyra Davis
Comic book/movie banned?
Imagine you want to go to a book fair to get this comic book, and when you get to the shelf you see that the mayor got there before you and banned the comic book from being sold just in your city. In the Marvel collection “Avengers: The Children’s Crusade” there is a drawing that got the attention of the mayor of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The mayor of Rio de Janeiro was dishing out a lot of hate to Marvel and giving a lot of backlash to the company because he was upset with a kissing scene that involved two men, a kiss between two superheroes that Marvel fans know and love, Wiccan and Hulkling.
This kiss scene was not new. The Marvel collection Avengers: The Children’s Crusade was published over 10 years ago. It is true that this comic book did not get a lot of attention or backlash in the US when it was published. But this year, in 2019, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro said to newspapers that it was bad behavior and “we won’t accept it here.”
The investigtion:
As a reporter, I wanted to dig down deeper. I went to a comic book store near my dad’s job and asked if they had The Avenger’s: Children’s Crusade comic and they told me they had to get rid of it. I was confused because Avengers really sell! Why wouldn’t they have the comic book? I asked if they could tell me why and they said they couldn't. I told my dad he we was confused too. My family and I are big superhero fans and will be the first ones to buy the comic book or even go out to the movies. When I heard they were giving all this backlash to Marvel about this movie I had to see for myself. I wonder why the comic book store made the decision not to carry Avengers: Children’s Crusade. I also thought to myself how did the LBGTQ+ community feel about what was going on. Were they happy that someone is putting out a message or do they feel as they are being targeted and made fun of?
I went back to the comic book store and asked if I could sit down with the manager and talk about what they thought about what was going on. The manager agreed, but did not want me to put their name or the comic book store name or address. I guess the manager thought they could get backlash for what they said and could lose a lot of business. I could understand that, but I was happy that I could finally get some answers. My dad wanted to go in there with me to ask questions for himself too and to help me out with an adult point of view of what’s going on or what the manager was trying to tell me. During the interview, he told me that they had to get rid of the comic book because it showed bad behavior and they did not want that in their store. They said they wanted a clean place for people to walk in. I also thought if they got rid of the books because of that, what would happen if they seen a trans person walk in, would they tell them to leave or let them stay? I had so many questions in a short amount of time. The questions I asked, he seemed to rush them and have some type of attitude. We had to stop the interview earlier than I planned because the manager was getting impatient, so I didn't get all the answers I wanted.
But here's what I know: no book should be banned or censored because of a kiss between two adults. This is a message to people out there who don't know who they are or want to be. Anyone can be a superhero if they want to be.