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Good times indeed.

Add in, start selling comics outside of comic shops.

Diversity is fine when its done organically and well.  Its a bad thing when its done as an agenda (and thereby forced on people) or by way of tokenism.

Both recent Marvel, and DCYou before Rebirth, were examples of the wrong way.  An editorial agenda is laid out, "We want our line to be more diverse in these ways."  So they go out and find minority characters of all kinds and give them books, whether they're books that have any real sales potential, expecting people to buy the books solely for diversity's sake.  Then you have SJWs online who accuse anyone who criticizes those books of being racist/sexist/homophobic/etc.  People are interested in well told stories about interesting characters, not virtue signaling by way of comics purchases.

I think this is what the sales guy was trying, unartfully, to get at.  That diversity, in and of itself, doesn't sell comics.  People aren't going to buy a comic with a female lead just because it has a female lead.  Add to this the twisting of existing characters, like the fact that Iceman's upcoming first ongoing series is going to focus primarily on his 'newly revealed' sexuality, and you have a recipe for low sales.  LGBT readers aren't going to buy Iceman just because he's now gay.  Fans of Iceman aren't interested in reading a gay romance comic just because the lead's name is 'Bobby Drake'.  If and when it doesn't sell, people will say, "Oh, people aren't interested in buying comics about gay characters" and use this to either try to shame comics readers, or as an excuse never to give a gay character a solo series again.

Within recent Marvel, the new Ms. Marvel is an example of doing it right.  The name has been handed around by a few characters in the past already.  They created a new character, with new powers, who happens to be female and Muslim, and they've focused on writing a fun comic featuring her superheroic adventures.  And sales-wise, its been relatively successful, and comics fans have mostly embraced her.

Just make new, interesting characters of various backgrounds, and when they become popular enough to support their own series, give them one.  Leave the agendas aside.  Its not rocket science.

I believe Sam Wilson was made Captain America because he became very popular in the WINTER SOLDIER movie--a bit of illogical reasoning.  I wonder what might have happened if they had just given him a high-profile FALCON comic with a good creative team instead.

I sometimes think Marvel doesn't like Steve Rogers as Cap.

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I think writers these days, by and large, don't know how to write a truly heroic, selfless character anymore, without giving them feet of clay.  You'll notice, when they did bring Steve back, they promptly turned him into a villain.

-C!