Thanks to all of the 445 backers and counting. In the meantime, Disney bans smoking in all Marvel films, and presumably, comics.
Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark has got some pretty bad habits, like drinking too much, sleeping around, and accidentally inventing genocidal artificial intelligence. But one thing he’s never going to do is light up a cigarette, says Disney; they will “absolutely prohibit” the depiction of smoking in all Disney films with a PG-13 rating or under, including those made by Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm.
Chairman and CEO Bob Iger reiterated Disney’s current policy at a shareholder meeting yesterday (March 12), noting that the only exception is when films depict real-life historical figures who were known for their tobacco habit. “For instance, we’ve been doing a movie on Abraham Lincoln, he was a smoker, and we would consider that acceptable,” he said.
This isn’t the first time the Avengers have shied away from cigarettes, of course. When Joe Quesada first stepped up as Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics in 2001, he implemented a similar ban for all the main Marvel characters — having lost a grandfather to lung cancer, he believed that depicting smoking in comics encouraged the behavior. Issues in the Marvel back catalog remained unchanged, but recently new trade collections have had their cover art altered to reflect the company’s anti-smoking policy.
Dynamique is unimpressed.She finds fascist anti-smokers to be unendurably ennui-inspiring. The only thing she hates more are flats. Stand with her and support Alt★Hero.
As promised, we’ve added a second page to Dynamique’s story. Check it out on the campaign page. Check back every day for new pages, character sketches, and quite possibly, new rewards and stretch goals.