How many firsts can Marvel push into a failing franchise before it completely collapses?

Well, in one show, they crammed in a few, but my favorite is the pride they exude for having a deaf Native American woman lead their crappy show.

If I were a deaf Native American woman I might ask to be included in a franchise that wasn’t dying as quickly as the victims of Thanos.

Marvel released a trailer for "Echo," the first superhero series ever to center on a deaf and a Native American character. https://t.co/f1a7DqvcsM pic.twitter.com/yHqJjNvpB7

— Variety (@Variety) November 3, 2023

Disney has been on a mission to see how many of its profitable franchises it can destroy, and I have to say that they have been on a roll lately. Star Wars was the first of the franchises they took over and destroyed, although I have to admit that George Lucas gave them a good head start. (NSFW)

But in recent years Disney movies, and Marvel is owned by Disney, have become parodies of themselves. So much so that even South Park can’t do justice to just how predictable and woke they have become. Movies are nothing more than vehicles for Social Justice activism.

The Marvel series “Echo” — which debuted its inaugural trailer on Friday and premieres on Jan. 10 — contains several firsts for the company. It’s the first Marvel Studios production that will debut simultaneously on Disney+ and Hulu, the first that will have every episode available to binge at once and the first that will be rated TV-MA. And most importantly to director and executive producer Sydney Freeland (“Reservation Dogs”), it is the first superhero series ever to center on a deaf and a Native American character: Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), who made her debut in the 2021 series “Hawkeye.”

“Representation was extremely important to myself and to everyone on the crew,” Freeland said at a press event for the series in October, where she was joined by executive producer Brad Winderbaum (who’s also head of streaming, television and animation at Marvel). But while the filmmakers said the show had Indigenous and deaf representation in front of and behind the camera, there were further efforts made to ensure a high level of authenticity during production.

Freeland — who is Navajo and grew up on the tribe’s reservation in New Mexico — said she “grew up reading Marvel comic books” and attending powwows, a traditional Native celebration that involves dancing, drum playing, singing and community. “Powwows to me was like somebody in Anaheim going to Disneyland.”

I must admit that I haven’t seen Hawkeye and have no idea if it is any good. Certainly, a Native American superhero is a great idea; there is a lot of mythology (both Native American and American Western mythology) to mine for ideas, and people are fascinated by Native culture. And there is nothing wrong with exploring the theme of clashing cultures, tangled and difficult histories, and racial resentment (if that is a theme).

All are perfectly fine, even smart plotting, for superhero movies. Superheroes with checkered or tragic backgrounds work. Look at Batman.

But putting “representation” and “first-ever” is pathetic. For God’s sake, Beege just wrote about another stunning and brave “first.”

For the first time in Navy history, the service has promoted a female mortician to senior chief petty officer. https://t.co/zmIPyWTUjo

— Navy Times (@NavyTimes) October 24, 2023

“First female mortician Chief Petty Officer…” FFS, as Beege would say. Nice for her, but hardly historic. Congrats.

You can see how desperate Marvel is to recapture the interest of people, and how little they seem to understand what interests people.

It’s the first Marvel Studios production that will debut simultaneously on Disney+ and Hulu, the first that will have every episode available to binge at once and the first that will be rated TV-MA. And most importantly to director and executive producer Sydney Freeland (“Reservation Dogs”), it is the first superhero series ever to center on a deaf and a Native American character…

Well, whoop de do.

Two can play at the identity politics game, and already some conservatives are making fun of the fact that Marvel rewrote the backstory of the character, changing both the tribal identity of the character, and choosing a Native American whose background matches neither the original backstory nor the new one.

It’s unacceptable that a Mohican member of the Menominee Nation is playing a Choctaw Indian in the year 2023

Were there no Choctaw actors available? Does Disney believe the Choctaw are naturally poor thespians?

I’m sure Alaqua Cox is a fine woman but she should know better https://t.co/MR8mtUQ0Df pic.twitter.com/ZjIkSixGjh

— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) November 3, 2023

Is the actress committing cultural appropriation? I dare say she is colonizing a different tribe!

Marvel released official Trailer for 'Echo'

The first superhero series ever to center on a deaf and a Native American character.

streaming January 10 on Disney+ and Hulu. #Echo #MarvelStudios pic.twitter.com/iwRIMAQO2Q

— Billi Pop (@Billi_Pop) November 3, 2023

It tells you something important that Disney has continued down the SJW path despite the increasingly negative reviews and the disappointments at the box office. The feedback has been dismal, both critically and more importantly at the box office, but Disney keeps pushing out ever more ridiculous dreck. And it’s not like they haven’t been warned. (NSFW)

As with many things, the wags on the internet have coined a term for the people pushing the worst of social justice ideology into corporate America: AWFLs, which stands for “Affluent White Female Liberals.” It is the HR and DEI departments, empowered by executives like Kathleen Kennedy at Disney who have tried to shove this dreck down our throats and mostly succeeded.

Through some misguided sense of guilt, they have sought out and empowered the most resentful people in the world and held them up as heroes for the rest of us to worship.

So here we are, in a world where the biggest and richest entertainment company in the world has collapsed to the point where they care more about representation than, well, entertaining people.

Marvel, whose main audience of young men was simply unbearably toxic to the AWFLs,  has been shoved aside in order to pursue the nonexistent massive market of resentful females who prefer being lectured rather than being entertained.

Perhaps Echo will turn out to be good despite the SJW advertising. It could happen, if only by accident.

But I doubt it. When the Director leads with how having a “diverse” character is the most important thing to be proud of, expect the worst.