True indeed!

I don’t read a lot of Marvel and DC comics for a lot of reasons, but as a black self-publisher I think it is important to cover the activity of minority characters and creators, especially at the major publishers. This story is huge, because it represents a reversal of Marvel’s unspoken policy.

I have long been a champion of expanding the readership base of comics. Sites like yours (and mine) can do something to encourage the fans that exist in our culture, and to some extent draw in new readers via highlighting the tangents with hip hop and other elements of pop culture, but only consortium-backed corporations like Marvel and DC have the financial muscle to really GROW the readership.

I am always skeptical as to whether they really WANT to grow readership, but attempts to at least recognize the spending power of black consumers (or that white consumers might actually care about black characters) are always newsworthy.