Marvel/Northrop Grumman Partnership Controversy

Overview

Marvel/Northrop Grumman Partnership Controversy refers to the online backlash against an announced partnership between Marvel and aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman. After Marvel announced the partnership and that it would host a panel with Northrop Grumman at New York Comic Con 2017 to talk about a series of planned crossover comics between Marvel's Avengers and characters from Northr0p Grumman called "N.G.E.N.S," Marvel fans voiced their anger online at the partnership, leading the Comic Con event and the partnership to be cancelled.

Background

On October 6th, 2017, Marvel tweeted^[1] an announcement that they would be hosting an event at New York City Comic Con the following day with Northrop Grumman (shown below).

Briefly, a poster advertising a comic book crossover called "Start Your N.G.E.N.S" featuring The Avengers and a group of Northrop Grumman heroes called "N.G.E.N.S." appeared on the Marvel website before being taken down^[2] (shown below).

Developments

Immediately Marvel received backlash from the proposed partnership, as Northrop Grumman is one of the largest defense contractors in the world.^[3] Twitter users were angry that Marvel partnered with a company whose products result in the loss of life. Many pointed out that Tony Stark, aka Marvel character Iron Man, had once sold arms but turned away from the practice when he realized he was contributing to global suffering (examples shown below).

Early the following morning, Marvel tweeted that the Comic Con event had been cancelled.^[4] Polygon^[5] reported that there was potential that the Comic Con panel would be protested. Marvel later confirmed to Polygon that the partnership with Northrop Grumman had been terminated. Their statement reads:

The activation with Northrop Grumman at New York Comic Con was meant to focus on aerospace technology and exploration in a positive way. However, as the spirit of that intent has not come across, we will not be proceeding with this partnership including this weekend’s event programming. Marvel and Northrop Grumman continue to be committed to elevating, and introducing, STEM to a broad audience.

The controversy was discussed on /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[6] There, a user suggested that the comic's attempt to liken Northrop Grumman to Stark industries contributed to the backlash, even going so far as to consider the crossover propaganda for the military industrial complex. The user pointed to an ad in the comic likening the two industries (shown below).

The controversy received media attention from Polygon,^[5] Washington Post,^[2] Wall Street Journal,^[7]

Search Interest

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External References