Hi, everyone. It's your boy, Zach. And, uh, that's kind of a loud bird.
Come on. That's a little bit much. It's supposed to be, like, musical and pleasant.
That's just, that's nasty. Um, but, uh, anyway. So, um, uh, I am craving red lobster like you wouldn't believe, but I realize that is not a thing you can get delivered.
When you get delivered, it's dog shit. Like, you gotta be at the restaurant in the whole ambiance. It's not high-quality food.
Um, but anyway. So, um, I was gonna do a screen capture video on this, but I got a lot of shit to do. And, uh, Wes just absolutely dog-walked everyone covering this.
Uh, Thinking Critical, he covered it yesterday. It was his best video ever. It's probably the best.
I actually stopped in the middle to text a friend. I was like, this is award-winning. Like, this is... I'm speechless at how good the coverage was.
First half was 100%. Second half was 90% perfect, so the whole thing 95%. This is the best for covering comics in context fairly.
Uh, I don't think anyone's ever matched it. It was, it was a generational run of a of a video. Um, uh, so the thing is this is a hashtag.
It was DC So White, and now it's DC Blackout. Not created by DC, but created by fans of DC who want there to be more, uh, series, gotta be a series, in main continuity. Absolute line doesn't count, uh, for some reason.
Um, and it's very interesting the reaction, because basically nobody is picking up what they are putting down. The goal is, and the goal is just fine. The goal is, uh, we wish there was more, uh, DC series in main continuity that had black leads.
Um, but the way they're saying it, and the way they're promoting it, and the way they're pushing it, even people who are, like, really on their side are just saying, like, this ain't it, chief. First of all, it's a total boycott. Which means they're even boycotting the books by black people.
and so, you're just seeing these TikToks where they're like, what'd I do? I didn't do shit. I'm black making comics and you're protesting me. Um, and, uh, the other thing, like, they've got, like, a website, and, like, the first thing they say is they do, like, a quote, like, what about Absolute Green Lantern, which has a black female lead.
And that doesn't count, because it's not the main continuity, even though it's, like, the most popular line at, um, so the one thing I was impressed by, and I've kind of been impressed by all sides, like, at first glance I kind of look at this and say it's a very 28 thing, you know, we're protesting! But, like, everybody's acting better. Like, Wes absolutely killed it with the, you know, commentary, coverage, with amazing context. Uh, the guys who were pushing it, they did research.
Like, they basically did a master's thesis. They went back to, like, 1939 or something like that with DC Publishing. They got a list of every single series, many series don't count, um, with black leads, and it's not a lot of them.
Um, for some context, if you don't live in America, if you don't live in America and you watch American TV shows, you probably think 30, 40 percent of America is black. It's not. It's, like, 12 to 13 percent.
And it's kind of concentrated in a lot of areas. Um, so, you can live in areas that are, you know, like here, it's, like, less than 1 percent black. Then you go to other places, like, uh, New York City, I think it's, like, 30 or 40 percent black.
Um, but if you watch these shows where it's, like, it's set in Maine and, like, every third character is black, it's kind of funny watching, like, new TV shows right now because they aren't woke but there's, like, woke fossils. Like, if there's a sheriff, there's a 50 percent chance it's a woman. Um, like, that's just it.
Like, that's half of sheriff characters on TV shows are women. They're still gonna have, you know, there's this Stephen King show. It's basically Stranger Things.
It's literally like Stephen King watching Stranger Things and saying, like, hey, I can do that because I've literally done that 20 times. And so it's, like, his take on Stranger Things. I'm blanking on what it's called.
But, like, every third character is black and it's, like, in rural Maine. It's, like, okay. Um, but anyway, um, so, uh, the DC So White, DC Blackout guys, they did a ton of research.
Um, and, you know, the conclusion is black and white. No pun intended. In the history of DC, there have been very, very few black leads in comic series in the Maine continuity.
And currently, there are zero. And there haven't been any for about three years. Now, this just seems like one of those ones where it's, like, oh.
And then you go, uh, why not? And the answer is simple. It's because the DC black characters are mostly dorks and nerds. Or four dorks and nerds.
Black Lightning is a dork. The Signal is... I've actually shown The Signal to people and they thought it was a fake character created to make fun of lame DC black characters. It's like, no.
That's him. They're, like, just bright yellow. Yeah, he's kind of like the Batman of the day.
Yeah, I don't even know. It sucks. It's the stupidest thing ever.
They got Icon, which is Milestone. He's a nerd. You know? So it's a bunch of nerds and dorks.
And they got Vixen, who's pretty cool. And then they got a character I just found out about. Oh, God, I'm blanking on the name.
It's like Marilyn Moonlight. I'll make the picture of her in the thumbnail so you can see her. Probably the coolest character design I've seen in the last 20 years? I mean, this is awesome.
I looked it up quickly. It looks like it was the Joshua Williamson Superman run. Jamal Campbell designed the character.
I don't know what the fuck she does. She's cool as fuck. I would just auto read a book with this character because she looks so fucking cool.
Which is the problem. And it's the kind of thing that nobody's really talking about. It's a very simple... because, you know, in the... I think it's the main video promoting this.
You know, he's explaining. He's like, you know, well, over at Marvel, they have a bunch of black characters who sell well. And they've consistently sold well.
Yeah, Black Panther is cool. Blade is cool. Storm is cool.
Luke Cage is cool. Night Thrasher has cool armor. He's actually a severely autistic guy if you read the comic.
But just the coolest design for vigilante armor ever. It's the simplest thing. Why do the DC black characters not sell? Because they're dorks and nerds.
They're lame. That's it. A lot of work is being done to not talk about the Icon and Rocket.
Like, they look stupid as fuck. Yes, I know there was good stories written for them 30 years ago. But then you hand them off to okay writers.
You hand Static off to Vita Ayala. And there's this whole group of just like, oh, we gotta get Brandon Easton writing Mr. Miracle. It's like, I don't even think Brandon Easton is excited about that.
Like, you got a bunch of lame ass nerd characters by lame ass nerd writers. Like, there's nothing cool there. I also will very strongly argue one of the points from the, I think he's the main organizer of DC Blackout.
He's like, so they threw out all these rules and I'm telling you, go on TikTok. Black people, black fans, black pros are like, what? It's like, we need to have one to three series with black leads. And then they can't be canceled for I think it's like two years.
So this is beyond like affirmative action. This is literally a level of privilege that doesn't exist for anyone. If you remember Absolute Batman when Scott Snyder was promoting it, he was humble as fuck.
He was talking like they would be lucky to get a year. And even when it started, it initially sounded like the Absolute line was only going to last for about two years because he didn't want to assume anything. And that's with Batman and Scott Snyder himself and Nick Tragoda.
And they were humble as fuck. I'm like, I don't know if this Batman book will sell. Batman books always sell.
I don't know if a Scott Snyder Batman book will sell. They've always sold. And even that, they went in humble as fuck.
What is that bit from Indiana Jones? Only the penitent man will pass by. And then Indiana Jones is like, oh, a penitent man would be on his knees. And then he does a forward roll.
I guess technically he was getting down to his knee and then he saw that blade, so he did a forward roll. I would just be like, you know what the penitent men do? And then you just start rolling around. But anyway, so a lot of people were talking about it, but I think I have something to contribute.
I can just say the most obvious thing. DC black characters are fucking nerds. They're dorks.
They're dweebs. They don't even look cool. They don't even... Dwayne Taylor is a fucking autistic nerd.
Super autistic if you read the original series. It's clear. It's funny.
I was making fun of my friend. I was joking about he's autistic. I was like, you would name your kid Xavier, wouldn't you? And he's like, yeah, totally.
I was like, yeah, that's autism right there. But yeah. Okay, so you're getting all up in your feelings and there's nothing that makes the signal cool.
There's nothing that makes the signal sell well. Static, you have the best case, but then you get into... there's all the other thing. And this happens for every black writer.
They are hamstrung by the shouldas and the wouldas and the couldas. Oh, you can't do that. You can't have that happen.
You can't have the character say this or be that. I was joking with myself about Matt Murdock, Daredevil. The way he is described, it's fucking insane.
Like, it's been... so what is he from, like 1964? So it's been like 60 years. What if a superhero was blind? What if he was a lawyer? What if he loved pussy? No, you don't understand. He loves pussy.
And pussy loves him. What if his sidekick was like this fat goofball doofus? What if he banged every single chick? What if he was a ninja? What if he had amnesia? What if he went to prison two different times? We kind of pretend he just went once and the first time he went there, he said, oh, I'm not Daredevil. And everyone's like, you're clearly Daredevil.
He's like, no, I'm just a blind guy who's really good at fighting. I'm beating up every single person. What if he had his own ninja clan? What if he went to a bar and he was kind of drinking and he got hit on by this chick who looked like Gene Simmons and it was actually the devil and then he kissed the devil but other people saw him kissing a dude and then what if it was Mephisto? What if Mephisto grew to be fucking 60 feet tall and then he fell down to the ground and they're like, hey, Daredevil, that was pretty crazy.
Let's go finish our beers. And that ain't 10% of the craziest shit you've done and you can do with Daredevil. What happens with every black character, especially DC? Oh, I wonder if he's going to be a teacher or a social worker.
Maybe he teaches at the social work college and he teaches people to be social workers. I wonder if he'll be really nice. One of the things I liked about Isom, when he first came out, is he was a fucking asshole and he was petty as shit and he bragged about things that nobody would really brag about like, I run a feed store and all my employees love me.
It was clearly just Eric July writing himself and I thought like Eric was in on the joke. I didn't realize he actually thought Isom was cool and a role model. Like, no, this is you.
He's like a blowhard guy who brags about like, I used to run track. Nobody gives a fuck if you used to run track. But it was some personality.
It was something original. And then you're like, oh, this guy can barely read the writer of the character. You go, okay, so I'm not going to stick around.
But it was something. It was something. I just did a community post yesterday about like, by the way, I'm really liking Spider Noir a lot.
But remember that scene from Batman 1989 where he's going to go escape. He's got the I'm blanking on the name of the tool, the grappling hook gun. And he asks Vicky Vale, he's like, how much do you weigh? She's like, I don't know, like 108.
Even when I was a kid I knew that shit wasn't true. I didn't know anything about a woman's weight, but I knew she was not 108 pounds. So then they try, they go up, doesn't work later on.
He's like, you don't fucking weigh 108 pounds. That's some personality. That's some something interesting.
He's not just generic hero man who always does the right thing. And he's also a teacher and a social worker. You guys are just ignoring the problem.
These characters are fucking nerds. They're made by nerds for nerds. Oh, the thing I was really going to argue with was the DC Blackout guy.
He was like, oh he throws this in as a by the way, like this wasn't the plan the whole time. Also, these black characters can only be written by black writers. And then his reasoning was not examples of good stories written by black writers but simply black writers being black.
That was it. And I was like, this is the part where you would have named the really good stories that like Brandon Easton wrote. Or Stephanie Williams.
But you can't do that. I mean We don't even need to get into the beat. Um, but you know, this is where you talk about like you know, Brian Edward Hill writing Killmonger.
But you didn't do that. You just said unnamed black writer is the only choice for unnamed black character because he's black. I don't agree.
Uh, I think my analogy that I was making first to myself and then to you is you get all these soldiers to the platoon. And the equipment and the radios and the weapons and the vehicles were made by like different people. A lot of times they were like made by.
If you get an Italian guy, you don't go like, oh this gun was designed by an Italian arms manufacturer. So, Italian guy you go on the Italian gun. Because you're going to understand it better.
No. You just put random people on random shit. And some of them are good so you keep them on that.
And some of them suck so you switch them out to something else. This whole the black characters can only have black writers. That is to blame more than anything.
More than anything. Because let me tell you some cracker ass crackers have invented flawless black characters. Blade.
Storm. Night Thrasher. I'm always going to mention him.
Black Panther. You got a couple of Jewish guys. You got Jack Kirby with his frickin' belt at his frickin' sternum.
Writing the coolest black creating the coolest black character ever. I just did a little shrug. A little shrug like, see what I'm saying? That was not conveyed.
That was not properly conveyed. So the problem is the DC black characters are nerds. And they're not very good.
Marvel black characters are good. They're currently saddled with a ridiculous rule that only black people can write black characters. Created by white people.
I say you know, just treat it like the army. Just throw random people on random books. They sink or swim.
If they do good, you keep them on it. If they aren't a good fit, you switch them out. I guarantee you Brian Edward Hill would write the best run of Daredevil you ever saw.
But he doesn't get put on that. He only gets put on black characters. And so this and again, it's I mean, the call is coming from inside the house when you're saying oh, it's gotta be black characters and only black writers.
Then you're gonna get a bunch of Brandon Easton Eve Ewing Stephanie Williams shit. Do you think Chip Zdarsky would write a pretty fucking cool Blade series? Because I do. I guarantee he would.
Just like Anacenty did a great fucking job on that Storm miniseries from a few years ago. Anyway, it's getting hot. I believe I've made my point.
Go check out both sides of the story if there are even sides or if there's just different points of view. DC Blackout Blurred Without Fear That's the main like explaining the whole movement. And then Wes on Thinking Critical and I believe I've contributed something to the conversation.
I love black characters. I absolutely freaking love them. But the elephant in the room is the DC ones are fucking nerds.
Almost all of them. And their costumes are dorky. So maybe work on that.
Anyway, thanks for watching. Bye.
[SPOILER/]
Arguing with the previous retard for a few days straight *and probably for his own amusement* over this made up disinformation was bad enough, I'm not going to waste more of my time just to do it with another.
almost 4 years of this profusely debunked and completely asinine disinformation is more than enough to not take you seriously by now, and I don't. 
The one thing I learned about Eric July haters or Rippaverse success deniers is they say what they say either because they don't like Eric July or because they have fun doing it.... I don't waste my time with people that say the crap they say for EITHER reason, not at THIS point in time.... I don't like the Absolute DC Comics, but you don't see me going around insulting them or accusing other people of buying them for reasons other than enjoying them. It's like this with every brand and company you either like it or you don't, the fact we have people trying to dictate what's good and what isn't when the market clearly says otherwise is mind-boggling. 
I mean really it's as simple as that, it's not complicated at all. I mean they did the same thing to spawn and Todd McFarlane when Image first came out, and now we have people practically kissing his ass at this point. Goodreads is a review site for independent readers, and even there the Rippaverse have more good reviews than bad....ratings too. You know what is sad? Everything I'm saying should be common sense, and can be proven with even the tiniest bit of research but apparently in this day and age it isn't and people have become lazy.
