Sigh. Here we go again…

Just when it looked like Marvel actually cared about inclusion, off they go and cancel their only series starring a superhero with Down syndrome, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, which will end with issue #50. Marvel’s excuse? They didn’t really give one. Some are trying to tie the book’s cancellation to abysmally low sales, but shouldn’t representation mean more than profit?

Maybe if Marvel had not hired an able-bodied male (who’s also straight and white, I might add- just sayin’), then those sales numbers would have looked different. News flash! Able-bodied men can’t possibly represent the experiences of a character with Down syndrome, you 👏 BIGOTS! 👏

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl was launched among an unquestionably needed revamp of Marvel’s flagship characters, but the only efforts that Marvel made was change Iceman from straight to gay, Thor to a woman, Captain America to black, Hawkeye to a woman, Captain Marvel to a woman, Wolverine to a woman, Hulk to Korean, Miss Marvel to Pakistani Muslim, and Iron Man to a black teenage girl.

It’s like they weren’t even trying. Way to lift up those marginalized voices, Marvel.

Now that The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is cancelled, what mainline Marvel superhero book can teenage girls with Down syndrome who love the science go to find a character that they can possibly identify with?

Zero.

Shitty move, Marvel. Super shitty.

*Update: it has come to our attention that Squirrel Girl does not actually have Down syndrome and is actually just drawn very, very poorly. However, we will not retract any of our above points because we’ll never apologize to ableist, sexist, racist misogyphobes! #Resist!

Source: Bounding Into Comics