Last year, Marvel received a letter from the mother of a young fan, Anthony Smith, who had hearing difficulties, and had been told by doctors that he would require a hearing aid. The mother was wondering if there were any heroes who had ever had hearing difficulties, who might serve as the inspiring spark for Anthony to accept the hearing device.
On getting the letter, editor Bill Rosemann not only pointed her to Hawkeye, who has in the past suffered from hearing problems, but also spread the letter to the Marvel offices.
And that’s what led Marvel to create a new character called The Blue Ear, who doesn’t let his hearing problems stop him from saving the day. Created with Marvel staffers Manny Mederos and Nelson Ribeiro, the character is based on Anthony himself. You can read Blue Ear’s origin story in my original post announcing the character,
Now, though! That’s not the end of The Blue Ear’s work with Marvel. Last month Marvel held a special event honouring him, as they partnered with Phonak, a hearing aid supplier. Anthony and his family were invited along, as Marvel unveiled a new poster which will be distributed nationally, in which we see Iron Man meet a young boy who is being bullier for having a hearing aid. Written by Christos Gage and drawn by Paco Medina, the poster encourages people to never feel like they should be ashamed of their disability:
The event also saw Iron Man attend in person – awfully nice of him to teleport over from the 616 Universe – and meet Anthony. After receiving a copy of the poster from Iron Man, the Avenger also then gave him a second gift – an Iron Man costume of his own.
Which, he immediately put on.
As I said last time – isn’t it now time for The Blue Ear to join The Avengers?
This is really cool. I also have hearing aides and not needing good hearing to enjoy them is part of what made me love them so much.
This poster collaboration between Marvel and Phonak was NOT a good move on Marvel’s part. It’s insensitive and demeaning, because it sends the message that deafness makes you lesser of a person, and that you can only be normal and happy if you can hear again – which, I assure you, does not happen in many cases with hearing aids. I have no issues with what Marvel did for this particular kid, but this poster is going to be disseminated widely and be seen by many children for whom hearing aids don’t work. Imagine being a child who can’t hear, who can’t understand speech even with a hearing aid, sitting there looking at that poster with its implicit message that you can’t perform better or be happy if you can’t hear even with the “aid” of technology. How painful.
I wrote a column about this before I saw the exact poster. I suggest you read it and the comments below it at http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-933554 and think real long and hard about the messages this poster is sending to children who should always be told they are wonderful human beings in the first place, even without technology.