Photo by Anna Goellner

These resolutions aren't ordered by importance, but if superhero publishers only make one pledge in 2014, this one matters most; we need more minority creators in the industry. More editors, more pencillers, inkers, colorists and cover artists, and, perhaps most importantly, more writers. If the people making comics are as diverse as their potential audience, the comics they make are more likely to reflect and appeal to that audience.

We've singled out writers for a couple of reasons. First, the industry is heavily focused on writer-led projects. Second, the lack of minorities among writers is especially noticeable. To the best of our knowledge the only non-white writers currently working on any Marvel or DC books are Greg Pak, Francis Manapul and Felipe Smith (and two of those are on books not being published yet). There are no black writers at either company. The only openly LGBT writers that we know of are Marc Andreyko and James Tynion IV (who recently wrote about his bisexuality for the first time).

The publishers can claim eight superhero titles written by women (Captain Marvel, Avengers Assemble, Ms Marvel, Batgirl, The Movement, Catwoman, Birds of Prey and Harley Quinn), and that's only two more than Charles Soule is writing on his own. We don't mean to suggest that Soule should write any fewer books -- he's impressively prolific -- but that all the women in the industry might be offered many more books. Kathryn Immonen and Marjorie Liu have no mainstream titles at present.

It takes a pro-active effort to convince people from marginalized groups that they're welcome in any industry where their presence isn't well established. That's hard to understand if you're part of the majority and are used to seeing people like you in the business. People in the majority tend to assume that any effort to extend an invitation to minorities - any action that affirms their welcome - is unfair. In fact it's a fair and equitable corrective to decades of institutional affirmation towards the majority.

In simpler terms; any publisher who says "we're just looking for the best talent" without making an active effort to court minority talent is really only looking for the best straight white male talent, because they're the people who know the industry has a place for them.

Resolution: DC and Marvel need to change the way they think about talent and start actively courting minority creators. They need to show that everyone is welcome by actually welcoming these people in.