Horrible Bosses: Ike Perlmutter Edition
The CEO of Marvel Comics Entertainment, Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, and his wife Laura Perlmutter donated over $1 Million to Donald Trump's presidential campaign. People are claiming you should boycott the whole Marvel company. If every angry fanboy who yelled "and that's why I stopped reading the big two ages ago" actually had stopped reading comics then sales wouldn't be up year on year for the last 7 consecutive years. So is it your moral duty to drop everything and walk away?
Ike Perlmutter saved Marvel from bankruptcy a long while back. There were other potential buyers including Michael Jackson, whose sole purpose of buying Marvel was seemingly because he wanted to play Spider-man on the big screen. Without him there simply wouldn't be a Marvel comics today. Yes we may have chosen the lessor of several evils back then but despite being quite the reclusive billionaire Ike has still being making headlines of late.
During the Sony email hacking last year that lead to a startling amount of bad press for Sony. This email from Ike to a Sony exec was released. Seemingly discussing Female superhero solo films. Now at the time Sony only had the Spider-man rights so we could have possibly missed out on a Black Cat, Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl or even a Spider-Gwen live action movie. He uses a film from 1984, as well as two awful rushed and ill thought out movies, to justify never making a female lead solo film again.
Clearly he didn't see the Hunger Games, Divergent series or many other female led action films before or since then. It's not like women are over half the population is it? It is! Oh well.
Whereas Marvel Studios got a break away from all of his nonsense, the comics division still has to put up with things like his banning of all Fantastic Four books and media appearances in toys among other things, due to him having an epic hissy fit about Fox still owning the rights and wanting to distance the books from the flop of a film that came out.
So we have a picture painted of a racist, misogynistic, man child, painted quite clearly, of the man that is sadly leading one of my favourite companies. It will come as no surprise then that he funded a man running for President who is so similar to himself.
Now Donald Trump, a man whose ex-wife claims raped her, uses unconventional tactics to get potential votes. He targets lower intelligence people who don't vote. He whips up ill informed masses of lower intelligence citizens with even more made up figures, and essentially fuels their racism with scaremongering. He picks on minorities to make the majority feel like a scared minority themselves and throws out ludicrous solutions to problems he's made up.
Whereas one might think that if a foreign worker that can't speak the language can get a job over you, who can speak the language, and are just lazy, then you're clearly not good enough for the job. I'd say maybe crack down on immigration laws, making them tighter, and force American citizens to apply for jobs. He would say let's build a giant wall to keep the Mexicans out and make them pay for it. Then the crowd cheers. That's a ridiculous proposal and it's incredibly racist, not to mention impossible. Note also, his plans to throw all Muslims out of America until they can better understand how they are trying to kill all Christians. Rather than noticing that, hey, all religions have extremist factions, you only have to read a history book to see that. But no he wants to throw hard working multicultural people out. It's scary how similar his views are to the Nazi party when they started out and yet no one sees it. The entire USA is a country built on people immigrating there around 300 years ago. To say immigrants are a problem in a country created by it is insane.
The man is full of contradictions, even his Make America Great Again caps were made in china, along with a large amount of his personal fortune who's products come from overseas, and cheap foreign labour. He's claimed bankruptcy multiple times himself. He uses so much investor money that when an idea or branch of his business tanks hard, it's up to others to front the cost and rebuild. He's so big he can't fail. He started with a $1 million loan from his father to make the fortune he has today. He has a reckless business attitude at best, yet people think he can save a country that is literally trillions of dollars in dept. I don't see the logic myself.
I've barely scratched the surface on the Mad World of Donald Trump but there is a documentary by the same name that goes way deeper if your into the kind of thing like informed decisions and proof. He does genuinely scare me because the last time people were that enthusiastic about a candidate, it was Obama, and he walked straight in. I'm glad for it, but I'm not here to debate politics, I'm here for comics news, so back on point...
The reason why Trump wasn't in the main debate is because the female Fox news presenter that was hosting the debate questioned some of his ludicrous ideas and pointed out logical flaws. No one else gets a say when he's there he just yells and screams his way, so it left him quite annoyed to be challenged. So in an interview afterwards he claimed the woman didn't like him because she was bleeding out of her vagina. Some kind of crude attempt to justify a woman disagreeing with his racist misogynistic views, as to being purely because she was on her period. Let that sink in a moment. Just wow. So Trump sets up a rally on an opposing network to fight for viewers. He does it for a veterans charity and starts up a website to take donations. However the veterans charity REFUSED to take his money on moral grounds, knowing who it came from and why, so the money all went straight back into fuelling his hate campaign. This is the campaign Perlmutter donated money to. So at the time he was believing it was going to charity.
Now Marvel comics itself is a company. At the end of the day they have to make a profit to show shareholders they are doing good with their money. The amount of money the comics arm of Marvel makes is absolute peanuts in the scheme of what the movies make and that still is peanuts against what the Disney conglomerate makes as a whole. You could very easily loose the profits and costs of the comics arm in a rounding error in the scheme of the money that Disney has. It is a business none the less. They will be making decisions to get good press and make share costs rise.
Like the Marvel comics hit and miss diversity push, some have worked well, others not so much. Wether it's hispanic/black Miles Morales, Muslim Ms. Marvel, Romany Scarlet Witch, black character in his own right Falcon becoming the New Cap, Female Thor or so on. Don't start back with the whole diversity for the sake of diversity, it makes sense that the fictional world you are selling reflects the real one you are selling it too. Sure Falcon won't be Captain America forever nor will Jane Foster be Thor forever, that's the cyclical nature of comics. When one writer finishes you put the toys back in the toy box for the next writer to start with the blanc slate. That's just the way things are.
All of these choices got good press and more readers in. It helps the business. But surely someone okayed these choices or at the very least had a chance to say NO before a single one hit the stands. So why the discrepancies? Why push for female and minority characters and creators and then fund a candidate that is preaching the opposite? Well the money came privately from Perlmutter for one. It's not from the company itself. So it could be seen that Ike is preaching one ting to shareholders and press and doing another in private. He's a business man right?
Should you boycott the company? After all Ike's personal fortune is funded by his job surely? It stands to logic that if everyone stopped buying the product they are selling that he wouldn't have a job. Or would he just interpret it that no one wants the diversity push he's selling and twist the figures to show his xenophobic misogynistic ways were well founded? We go back to all white male heroes and just reprint Amazing Fantasy #15 on a monthly basis, which would seem to be the only way to keep the angry vocal fanboy happy (on classic newsprint of course).
If you boycott every corporation that had ties to questionable press, you'd have a very moral high ground, sure, but you wouldn't be able to buy anything or enjoy any entertainment media at all. You'd live in a cabin in the middle of nowhere and have to farm your own food. Now I'm all for taking the consumerism and gullibility back a notch or two. I grow my own veg and barely eat fast food, I prefer a local comic shop to ordering on Amazon. I'm purchasing solely from handmade Etsy sellers for my Valentines gifts. It's nice to support the little guy. I'd like others to do the same (read more small press comics and books too!).
Who's the little guy in this situation? The staff at Marvel. From Creators to editors to printers. Anyone between management to the owner of your comic shop. If say the writer of Ms Marvel, G Willow Wilson, a Muslim (note: it's a religion not a terrorist group just in case your not aware) didn't like it, should she just walk away? She made this minority character that she's really competent at writing her. Books, even comics have a way of teaching and informing young readers of tolerance and respect. So maybe young Muslims need this character? So they have a voice in the made up land. Can Wilson walk away from a job? I imagine the small pay that comics gives you isn't going to leave her with much savings, but all of these creatives need food on the table and a roof over their heads. Not to mention the medical insurance (America I just don't understand you, I love you but, just, I can't even). Could she walk away and get work at say Image or another independent publisher, sure but would she keep her readership? There's some crossover but it's not direct.
Could your Local Comic Shop survive with already dwindling DC sales as well as no Marvel fancies? I doubt it. Image is storming the sales charts and rightly so but I don't think comic shops could survive without the big two companies. That's too big of a chunk of income gone. Not everyone will stop buying A and start buying B instead. A lot of people would just stop all together.
If you want to give up Marvel comics, something that you are a fan of for the moral high ground. Good on you. I admire your morals. I like the stories I consume from all publishers, but I'm a Marvel fan first and foremost. It's like half of my pull list and I read it for the stories, art and creatives involved. I wouldn't risk putting them out of a job or my Local Comic Shop out of business. That's just me though. Each to their own. At least for the time being I'm still happy to support Marvel's diversity push, good stories, and amazing local comic shop, with my hard earned cash.
 |
| You've got to Ike, for your right, to paaaaar-tay! |
During the Sony email hacking last year that lead to a startling amount of bad press for Sony. This email from Ike to a Sony exec was released. Seemingly discussing Female superhero solo films. Now at the time Sony only had the Spider-man rights so we could have possibly missed out on a Black Cat, Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl or even a Spider-Gwen live action movie. He uses a film from 1984, as well as two awful rushed and ill thought out movies, to justify never making a female lead solo film again.
 |
| Female heroes do quite well at the box office these days... |
Clearly he didn't see the Hunger Games, Divergent series or many other female led action films before or since then. It's not like women are over half the population is it? It is! Oh well.
From: "IP"
To: "Lynton, Michael"
Subject: Female Movies
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2014 05:32:50 -0400
To: "Lynton, Michael"
Subject: Female Movies
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2014 05:32:50 -0400
Michael,
As we discussed on the phone, below are just a few examples. There are more.
Thanks,
Ike
1. Electra (Marvel) – Very bad idea and the end result was very, very bad. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=elektra.htm
2. Catwoman (WB/DC) - Catwoman was one of the most important female character within the Batmanfranchise. This film was a disaster. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=catwoman.htm
3. Supergirl – (DC) Supergirl was one of the most important female super hero in Superman franchise. This Movie came out in 1984 and did $14 million total domestic with opening weekend of $5.5 million. Again, another disaster.
Best,
Ike
This is probably the main reason why you would not see a Black Widow solo film, and also why Marvel studios eventually had to split away from it's comic division. A recent reshuffle at the end of last year now has Marvel studios head Kevin Feige sidestepping Ike Perlmutter and reporting directly to Disney studio head Alan Horn. Too many times did he stand in the way of films and even Netflix series being made that they now no longer report to him. This is probably the only way Feige could get the Marvel female solo led Captain Marvel and minority hero Black Panther to still make their release dates without interference. At least we got the Marvel/ Sony agreement to share Spider-man on the big screen after all of the leak business, and the under performing of the Amazing Spider-man sequel, right? Silver Linings I guess.Ike
 |
| Plenty of Female Spider heroes out there. |
Whereas Marvel Studios got a break away from all of his nonsense, the comics division still has to put up with things like his banning of all Fantastic Four books and media appearances in toys among other things, due to him having an epic hissy fit about Fox still owning the rights and wanting to distance the books from the flop of a film that came out.
So we have a picture painted of a racist, misogynistic, man child, painted quite clearly, of the man that is sadly leading one of my favourite companies. It will come as no surprise then that he funded a man running for President who is so similar to himself.
Now Donald Trump, a man whose ex-wife claims raped her, uses unconventional tactics to get potential votes. He targets lower intelligence people who don't vote. He whips up ill informed masses of lower intelligence citizens with even more made up figures, and essentially fuels their racism with scaremongering. He picks on minorities to make the majority feel like a scared minority themselves and throws out ludicrous solutions to problems he's made up.
 |
| Hey I've filed for bankruptcy 8 times, I'll run your country for you, sure! |
The man is full of contradictions, even his Make America Great Again caps were made in china, along with a large amount of his personal fortune who's products come from overseas, and cheap foreign labour. He's claimed bankruptcy multiple times himself. He uses so much investor money that when an idea or branch of his business tanks hard, it's up to others to front the cost and rebuild. He's so big he can't fail. He started with a $1 million loan from his father to make the fortune he has today. He has a reckless business attitude at best, yet people think he can save a country that is literally trillions of dollars in dept. I don't see the logic myself.
I've barely scratched the surface on the Mad World of Donald Trump but there is a documentary by the same name that goes way deeper if your into the kind of thing like informed decisions and proof. He does genuinely scare me because the last time people were that enthusiastic about a candidate, it was Obama, and he walked straight in. I'm glad for it, but I'm not here to debate politics, I'm here for comics news, so back on point...
The reason why Trump wasn't in the main debate is because the female Fox news presenter that was hosting the debate questioned some of his ludicrous ideas and pointed out logical flaws. No one else gets a say when he's there he just yells and screams his way, so it left him quite annoyed to be challenged. So in an interview afterwards he claimed the woman didn't like him because she was bleeding out of her vagina. Some kind of crude attempt to justify a woman disagreeing with his racist misogynistic views, as to being purely because she was on her period. Let that sink in a moment. Just wow. So Trump sets up a rally on an opposing network to fight for viewers. He does it for a veterans charity and starts up a website to take donations. However the veterans charity REFUSED to take his money on moral grounds, knowing who it came from and why, so the money all went straight back into fuelling his hate campaign. This is the campaign Perlmutter donated money to. So at the time he was believing it was going to charity.
Now Marvel comics itself is a company. At the end of the day they have to make a profit to show shareholders they are doing good with their money. The amount of money the comics arm of Marvel makes is absolute peanuts in the scheme of what the movies make and that still is peanuts against what the Disney conglomerate makes as a whole. You could very easily loose the profits and costs of the comics arm in a rounding error in the scheme of the money that Disney has. It is a business none the less. They will be making decisions to get good press and make share costs rise.
 |
| The last big All New All Different soft relaunch. A lot of new issue 1 jumping on points, featuring, a lot more diversity than ever before. |
Like the Marvel comics hit and miss diversity push, some have worked well, others not so much. Wether it's hispanic/black Miles Morales, Muslim Ms. Marvel, Romany Scarlet Witch, black character in his own right Falcon becoming the New Cap, Female Thor or so on. Don't start back with the whole diversity for the sake of diversity, it makes sense that the fictional world you are selling reflects the real one you are selling it too. Sure Falcon won't be Captain America forever nor will Jane Foster be Thor forever, that's the cyclical nature of comics. When one writer finishes you put the toys back in the toy box for the next writer to start with the blanc slate. That's just the way things are.
 |
| Miles Morales was one of very few characters that made it over from the now finished Ultimate "modern" Marvel imprint, due to his popularity and high sales. |
Should you boycott the company? After all Ike's personal fortune is funded by his job surely? It stands to logic that if everyone stopped buying the product they are selling that he wouldn't have a job. Or would he just interpret it that no one wants the diversity push he's selling and twist the figures to show his xenophobic misogynistic ways were well founded? We go back to all white male heroes and just reprint Amazing Fantasy #15 on a monthly basis, which would seem to be the only way to keep the angry vocal fanboy happy (on classic newsprint of course).
If you boycott every corporation that had ties to questionable press, you'd have a very moral high ground, sure, but you wouldn't be able to buy anything or enjoy any entertainment media at all. You'd live in a cabin in the middle of nowhere and have to farm your own food. Now I'm all for taking the consumerism and gullibility back a notch or two. I grow my own veg and barely eat fast food, I prefer a local comic shop to ordering on Amazon. I'm purchasing solely from handmade Etsy sellers for my Valentines gifts. It's nice to support the little guy. I'd like others to do the same (read more small press comics and books too!).
 |
| Ms Marvel is a legacy character, now more famous than her predecessor. |
Who's the little guy in this situation? The staff at Marvel. From Creators to editors to printers. Anyone between management to the owner of your comic shop. If say the writer of Ms Marvel, G Willow Wilson, a Muslim (note: it's a religion not a terrorist group just in case your not aware) didn't like it, should she just walk away? She made this minority character that she's really competent at writing her. Books, even comics have a way of teaching and informing young readers of tolerance and respect. So maybe young Muslims need this character? So they have a voice in the made up land. Can Wilson walk away from a job? I imagine the small pay that comics gives you isn't going to leave her with much savings, but all of these creatives need food on the table and a roof over their heads. Not to mention the medical insurance (America I just don't understand you, I love you but, just, I can't even). Could she walk away and get work at say Image or another independent publisher, sure but would she keep her readership? There's some crossover but it's not direct.
Could your Local Comic Shop survive with already dwindling DC sales as well as no Marvel fancies? I doubt it. Image is storming the sales charts and rightly so but I don't think comic shops could survive without the big two companies. That's too big of a chunk of income gone. Not everyone will stop buying A and start buying B instead. A lot of people would just stop all together.
If you want to give up Marvel comics, something that you are a fan of for the moral high ground. Good on you. I admire your morals. I like the stories I consume from all publishers, but I'm a Marvel fan first and foremost. It's like half of my pull list and I read it for the stories, art and creatives involved. I wouldn't risk putting them out of a job or my Local Comic Shop out of business. That's just me though. Each to their own. At least for the time being I'm still happy to support Marvel's diversity push, good stories, and amazing local comic shop, with my hard earned cash.
Horrible Bosses: Ike Perlmutter Edition
Reviewed by Matt
on
02:53:00
Rating:
Reviewed by Matt
on
02:53:00
Rating:
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