Gail Simone Claims Male Comic Creators Harmed Female Characters Because Of "Breakup Or Divorce"

Uncanny X-Men writer Gail Simone loves to court controversy on her social media posts, and now she’s posited that many comic writers killed off superhero girlfriends because they “had just gone through a breakup or divorce.”

Last year, Marvel Comics relaunched the entire X-Men line to try to reset lagging sales for what were once their bestselling books. Gail Simone was tapped to write Uncanny X-Men, the line's flagship title in the process.

ail Simone is known as a feminist and is somewhat of a troll on social media to court controversy through her postings and grow her following, which has been effective over the years. She gained much of her notoriety in 1999 by coining the term “fridging” for “women in refrigerators” as a literary trope in fiction where female characters face more harm than their male counterparts.

She created a “Women in Refrigerators” website. She called the situation sexism in pop culture, though it was really a trend in the 1990s to up the danger and violence in books by harming supporting characters, most of whom happened to be female in a male-dominated superhero market.

Though it was simply about supporting characters falling to harm, Gail Simone harped on fridging because of a recent Ron Marz penned Green Lantern book where the villain stuffed his girlfriend into a refrigerator after killing her, which the character opened his fridge and reacted with shock. Again, it was very clearly just an edgy shock value removal of a supporting character that had little to do with sexism, but it was used to propel Gail Simone’s career to new heights to “combat” such stories.

Ron Marz said at the time, “To me the real difference is less male-female than main character-supporting character. In most cases, main characters, 'title' characters who support their own books, are male. ... the supporting characters are the ones who suffer the more permanent and shattering tragedies. And a lot of supporting characters are female.

He elaborated, “I created her [Alexandra DeWitt] with the intention of having her be murdered at the hands of Major Force. I took a lot of care in building her as a character, because I wanted her to be liked and her death to mean something to the readers. I wanted readers to be horrified at the crime, and to empathize with Kyle's loss. Her death was meant to bring brutal realization to Kyle that being GL [Green Lantern] wasn't fun and games. It was also meant to sever his links with his old life, paving the way for his move to New York. And ultimately I wanted her death to be memorable and illustrate just how truly heinous Major Force was. Thus the fridge.”

Regardless of this explanation, Simone continued on this crusade that it was somehow a factor of sexism. Now, she’s doubled down on X while talking about the situation.

She started talking about the X-Men and not fridging, saying, “think this is an interesting topic. If writers write certain characters as assholes for years, is it really surprising if readers start to loathe those characters? I feel like this is the case with Xavier, Reed, a lot of authority and father figures in particular.”

To which a fan asked, “Too many writers projecting their daddy issues onto the characters?”

Here, she tied it back into men’s sexism claiming it was because of divorce situations with the writers, “I do wonder about this, sometimes. Like, the big secret of Women In Refrigerators is how MANY of the writers of those stories had just gone through a breakup or divorce. It was a LOT, some even confessed that was part of the reason for those stories.”

This seems in direct contradiction to what Marz said was a story element that had nothing to do with the character’s sex.

Considering this is a definitive fact for spider-man it seems annoying she didn’t point out OMD specifically rather than just talk around it in order to make some banal point that doesn’t make much sense across the industry.

Should I consider lifetime movies sexist as a man? Or look into how many “Romance novels” have Fabio or some identical type man on the cover?

Just say "Joe Quesada made One More Day to abuse his ex-wife" already.

Well duh. Even if they don't kill them off it can infect their writing anyways.

Lobdell implied Dick and Kory treated each other like shit in early RHATO because he got divorced around that time and believed nobody could be friends with an ex.

Don’t think she’s that wrong honestly. Kind of unprovable though unless you get weirdly into reading about creators lives.

Isn't this why early Spider-Man had Peter and Betty lining up to be a thing, but then it didn't happen cause the girl Ditko based her on didn't show interest in him?

She's a one-hit wonder. And I mean it was women in the fridge which is a dated but accurate statement about poor storytelling (I don't care about sexism), and she continues with a lot of statements. Not that bad as a writer, though. Although there are better female writers

He elaborated, “I created her [Alexandra DeWitt] with the intention of having her be murdered at the hands of Major Force. I took a lot of care in building her as a character, because I wanted her to be liked and her death to mean something to the readers. I wanted readers to be horrified at the crime, and to empathize with Kyle's loss.

Meh, it just sounds like poor writing rather than sexism.

Lmao isn't Del Arroz the one constantly replying to Simone's tweets while being constantly ignored

Ditko was always a sperg and the woman dodged a bullet, also if it was these days, Ditko would troon out of hatred against woman for dumping him or for being a molester like jimquisition.
Stan Lee saved Spider-Man and Peter Parker from Steve Ditko, he gave him Mary Jane Watson, got rid of of Gwen not the way he wanted seeing that she was going to survive and move to europe until a last minute change, and gave Peter a character arc growth before Marvel removed his College Degree.
If anything, Shooter and Lee cared more for Peter than fucking Ditko his own creator.

There is also the fact that Many female and male character assassinations since the 90's were based on writers going though a messy divorce.
Even Kerrigan in StarCraft BroodWar was based on Chris Metzen'sdivorce with his crazy coke addicted wife who took everything from him per cuntliforna's laws.

Also before someone asks, Hank's slap on Janet was based on a real episode Lee saw with Ditko that led to the Betty Brandt Incident

Nigga, what the hell are you talking about? Weirder than Objectivism, which objectively isn't weird. Are the weird shippers of fictional characters. Get a job

be white cunt

lie

Anon Babblemblr troons will defend this

basado

This cunt ruined comics with her tired misogyny grifting.

Gail Simone ruined everything, She was patient zero for the woke mind virus that infected the comic book industry.

admits to being a cunt

bros this time lolz she's sincere

She's a 50 year old walled bitch since she was born, she's lashing out like any incel would do.

Yea no shit. Authors draw from life experiences and what they wish. Going through a life changing event like divorce is going to seep into their writing somehow.

Shut up fag

I know you guys hate her but it's really not hard to believe male writers did shit because of their feelings. I mean it doesn't just have to be because they're mad about breaks ups.

Spider-Woman got babied because Hopeless he had kids he didn't want to have.

Claremont gave Nocturne a stroke because he had one and had to make someone feel his pain for god forbid it be a man of his age.

Didn't Judd Winnick make Speedy HIV positive because his gay friend died of Aids?

That's just the shit I remember in a few minutes.

for being a molester like jimquisition

Jim Sterlings a Pedo?
i woulden't be surprised if that turns out to be true

She's not wrong, but all she writes about in UXM is how much Gambit and Rogue fuck, and that's not any better. She can't write action or males properly, so sit down this one, fucktard.

Life experiences aint the same as take it on characters that aren't even yours.

Gail at least seems rather sex positive and willing to write Boys Adventure stories to some extent, unlike the following generation of feminist writers who are all weird puritans and misandrists who seem to find that fact their characters dress in garish costumes to beat up Villians in Garish costumes irritating and would have entire issues of Slice of life sitting and talking scenes

And didn't Pgil Collins write four albums specifically about his divorce?

She is a book you can judge by it's cover. I am not wasting my time with her words.

You literally cannot talk about spider-man on this board without the threads getting derailed into the weird Paul cuck shit and all of this started because of Quesada going through a divorce. But because Simone points it out now we've got to be contrarian and pretend none of that shit applies. Otherwise the wokies will get a win.

Well, I don't know about Gail Simone's story but I know pic related ended because the author got divorced, basically the author's relationship with his wife was the main source of inspiration and she often contributed ideas so he didn't feel like it made sense to continue it.

She might be an opinionated bitch, but she isn't wrong. Some of the very worst character decisions were made by dudes going through break ups and divorces and not being able to separate their real world issues with those of the comic's characters.
Not to defend Simone's HR Karen looking ass, but a broken clock is right twice.

Wait, Simone or April?

Gail Simone Claims Male Comic Creators Harmed Female Characters Because Of "Breakup Or Divorce"

That is true. Mary Jane is definitely the biggest example.

Shut up faggot, we've known that fact for decades now and one fat bitch voicing it isn't going to make us suddenly do an about-face.

There are anons ITT proving otherwise.

It's not just breakups.
Loeb killed the entire Ultimate Universe because his kid died.

And wrote hush

This bitch single handedly destroyed Cheshire's character after years of development

Anon Babble said this for years regarding Dan Slott or some other retard I can't remember, I just know that this has been a problem for years, not divorce, sometimes just as simple as "Don't like em."
Example: Ditko inserted Stacy, Lee killed her off and inserted MJ cause he wanted to.
Such is the case with anything written by committee rather than one creator.

This is the only one, and it's probably just (You) being a faggoty little Troon and trying to start shit.
Everyone who has half a brain knows that the sentiment is correct, even if the Karen who stated it is an over hyped grievance monger.

You cannot separate misandry from feminism anymore.

Yeah, Winick had Mia have HIV for HIV rep and in memory of Pedro, and Kyle Rayner's gay friend Terry got gay-bashed for a very special lesson on why bigotry bad.

For other lady writers, so many already examine Devin Grayon's out of canon remarks on SlaDick and BruDick and wonder how that informs her writing, along with her saying Dick thinks with his body and her disdain for women that aren't Barbara Gordon.

Del Arroz

The cuck who needs EVERYTHING to be some kind of pro/anti something or other for views while calling himself a "journalist" lmao

Journalism is reporting the facts, not stating your opinion.

But more on topic, The only thing I've actually read by her is the current Uncanny X-men, which is just "fine" but nothing special.

She clearly just wants to write a Rogue and Gambit book but was saddled with a team book and it shows, because none of the other characters are written to be even remotely interesting.

So while she may not be "sexist," her books certainly aren't as well known as any of the books with "fridging" involved

This is that dumbfuck substack blogger again isn't it? Garbage culture war outrage baiting as usual.

Sounds plausible. That also would explain the proto-school shooters vibes or Peter at the time.

Writer isn't going to care if it is there char or not when a job is job and they get "idea" that X char would throw readers for loop if something happened to said char that just incidentally happened to the writer.

We knew it from one more day

Weirder as his best friend was a pornographer and he helped Ditko to "release" his frustration with his chicks.

I definitely care what the talentless 50 year old fat woman has to say

Theyre fictional characters. No one was harmed. Just fucking write them different. Preachy bitch.

How do you get a job in Hollywood filmmaking? Like you think there'd be some tradeoff, take a smaller paycheck for a more laid back job drawing superheroes, but Jesus Christ you just get paid less for nothing.

that had little to do with sexism

Good to know that Anon Babble loves getting cucked by Paul. Everyone in this thread is buying ASM like a good little paypig. Enjoy your non-woke Spider-Man comics, fags.

I mean Loeb literally crashed the Ultimate line with no survivors because of what happened with his son, I feel like she isn't saying anything we don't already know

Delusional nonsense that not even she believes.

This is nothing she hasn't been saying since she coined "women in refrigerators" in 1999. Why give it attention now? It's not like she's written anything notable since her Birds of Prey run.

Claremont gave Nocturne a stroke because he had one and had to make someone feel his pain for god forbid it be a man of his age.

In fairness, that was supposed to be an "it can happen to anyone" story.

IIRC John Byrne was going through a divorce or had just gone through one when he was working on West Coast Avengers, and had Wanda lose her husband and kids and get repeatedly traumatized until she snapped and turned evil.

Nah, that was John Byrne being a waifu fag

Suffer bitch, haha

male comic writers are immature, emotionally retarded, anti-social idiots

whoa what a surprising revelation
im so shocked by this information i nevet expected it

It's a little of both things. It's a waifufag seething about a heroine who married her first serious love interest but it's a guy he doesn't like and refuses to self-insert as, and he's seething even harder because they had kids, but there's also the repeated abuse and victimization of Wanda at the same time, which was the divorced writer aspect of things.

All I heard is "Writers taking inspiration from their own lives makes me uncomfortable when their lives don't reflect my emotional needs" which is a fine point but doesn't really do much over here in the comics aisle.

She’s such an insufferable fat cunt

harmed fictional characters

This stupid bitch harmed an existing company any destroyed the livelihoods of many actual people, consequently. Now she's trying to be toxic (again!) to the entire industry, and destroy more peoples' livelihoods.

SHUT THE FUCK UP HOLE

Quesada is literally the biggest piece of shit faggot imaginable. He also made X-23 into a teenage prostitute drug addict when introducing her to the comics despite that being completely at odds with her personality and origins in X-Men Evolution, purely as a move to spite people for making something more popular than his OCs

she's not exactly wrong Peter David killed Betty off in Hulk because he got divorced

His hateboner on marriage has continued to poison Marvel fans already, but then you factor in so much else he's wrought.

He and DiDio.
Reminder that he had Sue Dibny raped and Ralph murdered in Identity Crisis not only for shock value.

fat cunt has whisper network of backroom jews and tranny cult members to attack anyone and everyone. basically blackmailed her way into jobs.

And then the lesbians of Batwoman couldn't get married as heroes aren't supposed to be married or happy.

If writers write certain characters as assholes for years, is it really surprising if readers start to loathe those characters

No but it is disappointing. I don't want to go all Beastfag but that 100% happened with Beast and the modern X-Men fandom. It's kind of happening with MJ now too thanks to Slott's bullshit and now Wells's bullshit

DiDio and LEE also hated Lois Lane and ruined her in New52 and tried to push their wondersupes fanfic like a bunch of retarded children writing comics with their dick, Even Johns was livid over this, and those 2 retards using "its how i grew in thee 70's" fallacy.

Ralph wasn't murdered in Identity Crisis, non-reader.

Matt and Elektra

Then why did it take all the way until Zdarsky to do it? Didn't Quesada leave Marvel by that time? I thought Marvel was still following Miller's autism rules about "Elektra has to stay out of Matt's life to make my ultra serious comic book death that immediately got undone mean something!"

X-Men and not fridging

If writers write certain characters as assholes for years

Xavier

the funniest part of this is X-Force just killed Surge and the entire plot of From the Ashes is another "Xavier bad" story. Is Brevoort going to fire her to protect the most amazing and popular X-Men status quo of all time?

Yeah, Identity Crisis knower wannabe should know he died in 52, after DiDio cucked the original intended storyline where Ralph does get Sue back in a happily ever after.

Again, it was very clearly just an edgy shock value removal of a supporting character that had little to do with sexism, but it was used to propel Gail Simone’s career to new heights to “combat” such stories.

That's waht fridging means now according to Tv Tropes, shock kill a useless character so you have a fake sense of drama.
Like Morph in X-Men 97 season 1 and no one give a shit about JJJ son in Spider-Man 2

And yet we learned that Chuck was "Le Bad" was because of the tumor messing with him hard, and old chuck aka the Professor Charles Xavier people grew with was buried by this tumor forcing the general persona.