Let's talk about this for a moment and then let's stop talking about this.
As a brand new website for news on Marvel and DC cinematic universes, it is important to establish what is and isn't news and where bias is constructive versus destructive. Supermatic, our website, began with a notion of creating this complex timeline of the different cinematic universes in one with no inherent bias of one over another, specifically no bias based on reviews or demographics. No, this isn't how the internet works as a whole and we are well aware of that. An interesting case of this phenomena would be the news bustling all over the internet that The Marvels' new trailer is the most disliked teaser trailer of all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
"‘The Marvels’ Trailer Becomes Most Disliked in YouTube History Due to Women Superheroes" A headline by Jezebel
"The Marvels Is The MCU’s Most Disliked Trailer On YouTube Because Of Course It Is" A headline by Screen Rant
"Dislikes on ‘The Marvels’ trailer tracking over 3000 percent ahead of ‘Morbius,’ which pretty much says it all" A headline by We Got This Covered
So, what's the problem? This is undeniably true news. Yes, we will repeat, The Marvels has the most disliked teaser trailer of the MCU. Do you know what trailer would have the most disliked trailer after The Marvels? The Marvels 2, She-Hulk: The Movie, or any movie about an LBGT+ representative superhero; those movies will then top this record set by The Marvels, and we at Supermatic will not be posting about it.
Submitting an article about this phenomenon without immediately addressing the social problems within the article's headline is a problem. Not only does it fester an overall news distortion, but the news distortion it festers is against the movie and the CBM genre as a whole, which in no way helps the community. Therefore, before we get further ahead of ourselves, let's address the problem.
These movies and these trailers are densely put down and disliked due to generalized sexism, racism, and homophobia in the comic book community.
We could source thousands of sexist comments on The Marvels trailer alone via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and reposts, but there is no need to do that. There is no need because every single news outlet out there is already doing that. A monotonous social outrage sparked in the community is only fodder for conventional news outlets to run with and continue the fodder. However, in a day and age where this will not affect Disney's overall profit margin or expectations, it is pointless that so much press is giving so much attention to a ridiculously sexist story.
Here are some stats for you as a community.
Low-Rating CBM Entries | | |
|---|---|---|
Title | Tomatometer Ratings | YouTube Dislike Percentage |
Batman v Superman (2016) | 29% | 5% |
Suicide Squad (2016) | 26% | 4% |
Dark Phoenix (2019) | 22% | 6% |
Iron Fist (Season 1) (2017) | 20% | 3% |
Morbius (2022) | 16% | 4% |
Women-Led CBM Entries | | |
Title | Tomatometer Ratings | YouTube Dislike Percentage |
Captain Marvel (2019) | 79% | 9% |
Stargirl (Season 1) (2020) | 94% | 10% |
Supergirl (Season 1) (2015) | 88% | 18% |
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) | 80% | 41% |
The Marvels (2023) | 56% |
Hundreds of reviewers in the community contribute to the reviews posted and calculated though Rotten Tomatoes, the largest site for film and TV reviews. In the above diagrams, notice how inconsistent the reviews of these TV shows and movies are from the percentage of those disliking their teaser trailers. A great example that We Got This Covered goes into is the dislike count between Morbius and The Marvels. One movie, Morbius ranks amongst the worst-reviewed superhero movies of all time and is well-known as a universal flop in film history. It has a 4% dislike ratio on it's teaser trailer. One movie, The Marvels, has not come out yet. It has a 56% dislike ratio on it's teaser trailer.
This article is not coming out in attempts to sway audiences in favor or against The Marvels as a movie, rather, in hopes that someone sees it and says, "wow, it is sexist to assume a movie about three female protagonists is automatically going to be terrible." This is considering that we already have several male-collaboration entries to lean on: The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Batman v Superman, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, need I go on?'
Regardless, fine, the internet has decided to be misogynistic and dislike a YouTube video. We, as press, acting like this is news creates a community of hate; it fuels the fire already deeply embedded in this comic book community. Why would we want that? The truth is that this is not news.
As journalists— let's please move on.
תגובות