The LGBTQ+ community is definitely not happy with Marvel as the comic giant released the characters of their new comic, “New Warriors.” Although they’re proud to introduce their first non-binary characters, it seems like creators Dan Kibblesmith and Luciano Vecchio missed the mark when they named them Snowflake and Safespace.
According to Marvel, the two are psychic twins. Kibblesmith describes them, saying: “Snowflake is the person who has the more offensive power, and Safespace is the person who has the more defensive power. The idea is that they would mirror each other and complement each other.”
In modern times, the term snowflake can be used in two different way: to either describe someone’s hypersensitivity or to call someone who thinks he/she is special or cut above the rest. Partnering someone named after this term with offensive powers just proves to show how problematic the creators’ idea of the LGBTQ+ community is.
Another thing is how it’s ironic for them to be calling the other character after safe spaces (which is also another manifestation of their problematic mindset) because the foundation of the comic is far from being a safe space.
When members of the LGBTQ+ community heard the news, they took to Twitter to express their opinions. Here are some of our favorite reactions:
as a black nonbinary creator this is extremely tone deaf and ugly. “Snowflake” “safespace” are you deadass
Hire black nonbinary creators instead of cis white folks thanks https://t.co/NXFuToiOt1
— commissions in progress ? (@yakfrost) March 18, 2020
The worst part of this is that a cisgender white person could come up with good characters that represent the LGBTQ+ community, but this just reeks of a poorly made attempt to appeal to the younger generation.
— Mewaddlee (@Mewaddlee) March 19, 2020
The reaction to the new Marvel characters “Snowflake” and “Safespace” pic.twitter.com/AvYN2tTrSC
— This Is A Nighteye Fan Account (@BlazikenWreckMe) March 18, 2020
Personally, I found the fact that Kibblesmith had to emphasize n how Snowflake had offensive powers while Safespace had defensive ones as unnecessary. It just proves that they didn’t take the time to understand the community they were trying to represent, instead resorting to harmful stereotypes.
We’re hoping that they won’t repeat the same mistakes in their future work. They should take notes from comics like “No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics” (an anthology of queer comics from the late 1960s to the late 2000s) and “Kim & Kim” (the adventures of a queer woman and a trans woman), which take into consideration real-life experiences and a person’s nuances—not stereotypes that defeat the purpose of proper representation.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
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