Marvel's Cancelling Black Panther & The Crew, One of Its Most Important Comics Right Now. When Ta- Nehisi Coates and Yona Harvey’s Black Panther & The Crew launched earlier this year, it proved that big publishers like Marvel can, in fact, still tell timely stories about real world issues, like how police brutality devastates black communities. But now, after a mere two issues, Marvel has cancelled the series. In this incarnation of the crew, Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, and Misty Knight gather in Harlem to investigate the murder of Ezra Keith, a civil rights activist who mysteriously died while in police custody. With lines drawn between Harlem’s residents and the police seemingly trying to cover up Keith’s death, The Crew find themselves fighting to maintain the peace while also serving justice, and learning about the unknown history of other black heroes who protected New York during the Civil Rights Movement. Speaking to The Verge, Coates explained that Marvel chose to end The Crew due to low sales numbers, and that its current story arc would come to a close later this year in its sixth and final issue. Depending on how you look at it, there are a couple of different ways to interpret Marvel’s decision. On the one hand, it’s a company in the business of selling comics to make money. If, for some reason, a book isn’t selling, it makes sense a publisher would consider bringing it to an end. On the other hand, though, cancelling the only mainstream comic book featuring an majority- black team of heroes just weeks after Marvel’s VP of sales blamed the company’s drop in profit on books featuring women and characters of color is the definition of a bad look. What’s more, the cancellation feels incredibly abrupt. It’s as if Marvel chose the most nuclear option as a the solution to a problem without considering other, more thoughtful approaches. Regardless of how you feel about Nick Spencer’s Secret Empire, you can’t deny that Marvel has put a considerable amount of money and effort into trying to make sure the event is a success. In addition to getting the book coverage at major news outlets like ABC, the company also reached out to brick and mortar comics shops with a (poorly thought out) promotional plan designed to boost visibility. Even though it’s been plagued by accusations of glorifying Nazism and fascist regimes by way of Hydra, it’s clear that Marvel cares about Secret Empire. It’s difficult to say whether the same was ever true of The Crew. When Christopher Priest created the original Crew series in 2. Coates’ revival such an exciting prospect. While Priest is well known for his electrifying writing, part of what made The Crew such a refreshing series was that, in featuring a cast of characters made up entirely of people of color, they were all able to exist as people rather than being characterized as token minorities on predominantly white teams. In each issue that focused on individual characters, you got a deep and intimate sense of them in a way that felt informed by Priest’s own experiences as a black man. The Crew was a comic about black and brown heroes fighting gentrification in NYC. It was smart and spoke to a very serious concern affecting real people, including the characters. Sadly, after seven issues (and very little promotion), it too was cancelled. It’s difficult to say whether the same was ever true The Crew. It’s not exactly surprising that history is repeating itself with The Crew’s premature cancellation, but it is keenly disappointing. Comics are at a crossroads right now, and decisions have to be made about how the industry needs to change in order to sustain itself and cultivate new readers. We’ve seen that people are tired of major events, and it looks like we can expect a whole bunch of classic characters to come back from the dead soon. But in the long term, even that won’t be enough. Stories like Black Panther & The Crew deserve to be told not just because they’re socially relevant, but because they demonstrate how comics as a medium can bring people from all walks of life into important conversations they might not otherwise participate in. However, simply creating these comics is not enough. If Marvel (and other publishers) really believe in the messages of diversity and inclusion that it proudly preaches, then it’s got to get better about actually supporting these endeavors once they go to print. Leaked Documents Reveal the Hotel Lobby's Aggressive Plan to Undermine Airbnb. Airbnb can be an awesome service for frugal travelers, and it feels especially great to use when the only other option is staying at an overpriced boutique hotel in the same city. But the incumbent hotel lobby is hoping to highlight some of the weaknesses of the “short- term rental” service, including how it negatively impacts communities and allows unregulated businesses to thrive. A document recently obtained by The New York Times reveals the hotel lobby’s plan to thwart Airbnb’s business by pushing for bills to regulate the company at every level of government. Although we’ve known for years that hotel lobbyists have been fighting to impose regulations on Airbnb, the new document shows just how well- organized the upstart’s opponents are. According to documents from the American Hotel and Lodging Association—a trade group that includes the country’s biggest hotel chains, including Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, the Four Seasons and Starwood Hotels—the organization is planning a multi- pronged attack at local, state, and federal levels to prevent Airbnb from spreading to new cities across the country. Part of the strategy includes “aggressively countering” Airbnb’s claim that it’s just helping the middle class make ends meet “with a wave of personal testimonials of consumer harm.” The document essentially serves as opposition research and gives its members talking points about Airbnb’s alleged racism and taxation issues. According to the document, the association will focus its efforts on Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, and Miami, where Airbnb has yet to establish a strong footing. Gizmodo has reached out to Airbnb and AHLA for comment and we’ll update this post as soon as we hear back. AHLA’s powerful anti- Airbnb agenda isn’t all that surprising when you look at the precedent that’s been set in some of the country’s most popular travel destinations. Airbnb has already fought contentious legal battles with regulators in cities like New York City and Washington, DC. In October, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law that prevents New Yorkers from renting out their vacant apartments for 3. A $1.25 million settlement was distributed to 90 former Oakland Raiders cheerleaders this week as part of a class-action suit for fair pay. The cheerleaders alleged. Some animals are born with natural camouflage that allows them to hide in their native habitats. But what happens when the ebb and flow of the daily tides is. This is a very real graphic that appeared on very real American television sets last night. American political discourse is officially beyond the realm of parody. Airbnb can be an awesome service for frugal travelers, and it feels especially great to use when the only other option is staying at an overpriced boutique hotel in. Read the Latest Entertainment and Celebrity News, TV News and Breaking News from TVGuide.com. Let’s just throw this one in the science fiction category. Everyone knows humans aren’t even going to survive the next few decades. But what would happen if we.Transformers: The Last Knight looks like a bonkers film, but this clip is something else. I was a bit thrown by the Transformers butler, and thought that’d be the. Airbnb was driving up the price of rentals. The association claims this and other recent regulations affecting Airbnb as victories. The issue is that in both New York and Washington, Airbnb has led to a strange underground market where landlords can take rent- controlled buildings and turn them into unregulated money- making machines. Airbnb Brian Chesky CEO has publicly stated the company will be ready to go public in about a year, and investors estimate the company’s value to be about $3. By comparison, that is $1. Hilton Hotels current value and only $5 billion short of Marriot’s market capitalization. Airbnb could actually have a bright future as a publicly traded company—but first it has to run this next gauntlet of legal battles. The relevant portion of the AHLA’s Board Book is embedded below. The full book can be read here.
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