By now, if you follow comics, you’ve heard that Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s fundraiser last night. Under normal circumstances, a CEO making a generous donation to aid American veterans would be laudable–and probably not newsworthy in and of itself. But given the concerns raised over the questionable way in which The Donald has solicited donations, and the fact that several major veterans groups have rejected his money, a lot of people have been left wondering: was this really a donation to benefit veterans? Or was it a donation to benefit Donald Trump? And if it was the latter, what does that mean for fans of Marvel comics? Did the money come out of Perlmutter’s private fortune, or did some portion of what you spent on your Marvel pull list support a political candidate who wants to deport millions of immigrants, build a wall along the Mexican border and require religious minorities to carry ID badges?
I have no easy answers to these questions. In an ordinary election cycle, I’d say that when the CEO of an entertainment company supports a conservative candidate while also fostering diverse creative talent within his company, it is a sign of a healthy democracy. Being a Republican is not a crime. However, this is not an ordinary election cycle, and Trump is not an ordinary Republican. The irony that Ms Marvel was launched on Perlmutter’s watch–while Donald Trump would like to prevent Muslims from even entering the United States–was not lost on the mainstream media, nor on me.
Rather fortuitously, I’m down in California on Marvel-related business at the moment, so I had the opportunity to talk all of this over in depth with a bunch of people who have been at the company a long time, and whose opinions I value. But after we talked, I found myself with more questions than answers. Can we separate a CEO from the company he runs, or the company from the creators, or the creators from the art? Should we?
People understand that in today’s world, we vote as much with our dollars as we do with our ballots. We don’t want the things we buy and enjoy to support bigotry and injustice. The real possibility of a Trump presidency is terrifying to those who would prefer not to live in a dystopian autocracy, and for obvious reasons, the idea that the CEO of Marvel supports Trump makes a lot of readers seriously concerned. Yet–frustratingly–boycotting books you love will not take a single dime out of Perlmutter’s pocket, much less out of Trump’s. It will, however, kill the books.
This is the great catch-22 of corporate art in any form. ( And it’s something I think about a lot.) It’s the flaw inherent in the system. There’s a lot I can’t say, so let me just say this: follow your conscience. I am going to continue to work on Ms Marvel, for the following reason: I have never, in my entire career, seen a character and a story light people up the way this has, and I need to see it through a little longer. (Unless of course I get fired for talking about this shit, in which case, it was nice meeting you all.)
In the meantime, there IS something proactive we can do in the wake of this controversy. Several wonderful veterans’ organizations will not benefit from Trump’s money because they refuse to be political footballs. One of those organizations is the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). A dear friend of mine works very closely with this group, and I have been deeply impressed by what I’ve learned from him. These are people with a perspective on the wars of the last decade that you will not hear on CNN. Let’s help them get the support they need.
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