“What’s Fan-tagonism?”, you say. I’m glad you asked.
Fan-tagonism is the practice of a creator intentionally inserting inflammatory or divisive nuggets into a property to get a rise out of people. Sometimes it’s done for sadistic amusement. Other times, it generates attention for whatever the creator is producing. Regardless of the reason, the net result is outrage and upset from a subset of that property’s audience.
“Can you give us an example?”, you may wonder. Of course. How about several?
Let’s start with Harley Quinn #18. Here, Harley takes an evening stroll with Luke Fox to talk about his newly assembled Suicide Squad when all of a sudden…
If you read the issue (I have), that thought bubble came out of nowhere and generated a surprising amount of Internet vitriol. The dialog is filled with current-day Twitter buzzwords that serve no purpose and make no sense within the context of the conversation before and after the panel.
The creators never explained why this bit was inserted, but it generated a fair amount of Internet buzz and brought a significant amount of attention to a poorly selling Harley Quinn series by Comics News outlets.
If the dialog serves no purpose and makes no sense in context with the panels before and after, it’s reasonable to conclude that it was inserted for another purpose than to tell the story.
How about another?
In the recent The Joker: The Man Who Laughs #8, the backup story is a wonky, standalone sendup of Silver Age comics, or at least that’s what the writer claims the story is intended to be. In this case, a particular panel captured attention because the Joker is “pregnant.”
Within the context of the backup story, Joker isn’t pregnant by any traditional definition, and the method of birth is equally unusual. If you looked solely at the pictures and didn’t know Joker stated he was pregnant in that first panel, you’d think he was suffering from severe abdominal distress.
So, if the Joker isn’t truly pregnant, and his condition could be explained in multiple ways without describing his predicament as giving birth, why did the creator intentionally turn the Joker’s predicament into a faux pregnancy?
It could simply be a joke; a poor joke, but a joke nonetheless. However, the creator’s online penchant for needling the fans makes it possible that the Joker was presented as pregnant primarily to annoy a certain segment of comic fans who would find the panels irreverent.
Let’s do one more. Hot off the presses.
In Dark Web: Ms. Marvel #2, a mosque (the actual building) comes to life after exposure to demonic energy from Limbo. When the mosque attendees try to communicate with the mosque, the mosque immediately becomes concerned with… misgendering?
Within the issue, and the event as a whole, inanimate objects spring to life, attack, and eat people. Not only does this mosque act out of character for the event, but the call for proper pronouns also makes no sense since inanimate objects would have no frame of reference to make such a request.
In other words, the creators placed this wild, tone-deaf bit of dialog in the story for a reason other than coherence with the rest of the story. Why? I’m not a mind reader, so I can’t say for sure, but it seems the creator is trying to make a point about inclusivity and respecting pronouns, regardless of the source.
On its face, this weirdly offputting signal of virtue takes an already awful comic and makes it worse. If a dialog or scene doesn’t make sense in context, the only option to consider is that the creator put it in to make a point that gets people talking, whether positively or negatively.
Do you see the pattern emerging? Little snippets peppered throughout comics. Snippets that have no bearing on the story or make sense in the context of the scene. Snippets that have only one apparent purpose, to garner attention by annoying people and/or generate controversial buzz
The frequency of these snippet appearances seems to be increasing, and it bodes poorly for an already floundering Western Periodical Comics market.
Why? Because Western Periodical Comics sales are down to a fraction of their numbers compared to twenty or even ten years ago. The Big 2 are pumping out events with increasing regularity to get attention (See Dark Web, A.X.E. Judgment Day, Dark Crisis [on Infinite Earths], Shadows of the Bat, and more in 2022 alone), but the events don’t have any lasting impact on the title lineup and aren’t generating any positive buzz.
When you’re creating “big” events and can’t get positive attention or a sustainable uptick in sales, Fan-tagonism is the strategy of last resort. Quick-hit controversies fill out the news cycle and garner morbid curiosity. It smacks of desperation.
“Where’s the measured, thoughtful Gabe? Why so cynical?”, you may wonder.
My friend, I love comics and have for as long as I can remember. I’m old enough to have been in the theater when Christopher Reeve made you believe a man could fly. I still have a first-edition copy of God Loves, Man Kills because I bought it when it originally came out. I remember getting into a weekly routine, visiting my LCS when Bane broke the Bat. And I Marvel (heh) at what was accomplished with the first three phases of the MCU.
Whole universes of storytelling have been told, and infinitely more are yet waiting. With all this vastness of possibility, the Big 2 have devolved into cheap gotchas to get attention, like a floosie willing to do cartwheels if you throw her a dollar.
It saddens me that the Big 2 have sunk this low, and it angers me that there isn’t a single decision-maker in either DC or Marvel willing to step up, put a stake in the ground, and insist on making things right.
So far, 2023 is off to a rocky start. I sincerely hope, for the future of DC and Marvel, that a turnaround is coming… soon.
What do you think? Am I being a Grumpy Gus… err, Gabe, do you feel the same, or is there an important point I’m missing? Speak your mind in the comments section below.
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I am even more cynical than you. I don’t give credit to these writers and artists for planning to fanbait. I lean more towards these are examples of how the creators think and see their readership. I don’t think they are even aware of sales impact, nor do I think they care. I think this their version of solid writing and that this is their version of good story telling.
For evidence, I look at the interviews with these writers and artists vs writers and artists of better quality. Good writers talk about wide ranging books they’ve read and the life experience they’ve had. Newer writers talk about how they have sex and politics.
Excellent feedback. Thank you.