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When you decide to publicly release something, you have to accept that you no longer have any real control of how it is discussed and perceived, by fans or critics or peers.
You can of course respond to the discussion around your work however you see fit, but trying to control how people react to anything once you’ve put it out there is impossible.
Likewise, it’s a mistake to view criticism as something that exists to serve the work rather than something that exists in communication with art. Criticism can be a lot of things but it’s never really something that exists strictly for the benefit of the artist.
I think comics in particular struggles with this so much because for most of its history, the outlets that covered comics were primarily rooted in fandom and the criticism that happened within them was often either coincidental or auxiliary.
Because the fan culture was so dominant in comics coverage for so long, the industry has had a difficult time separating fans and critics and keeps pressuring the latter to be more like the former.
So while I don’t disagree that comics critics should always endeavor to educate themselves on comics craft and history as much as possible, I think it is generally comics creators who need to be reading more criticism if they want to engage with and understand it.
Because whenever these kerfuffles over critiquing comics pop up (which is often), a large contingent of comics creators display a shallow understanding of criticism and usually struggle to point towards any examples of “good” comics criticism when pressed
At the end of the day, if you’re a creator, you do not need to engage with critiques of your work. In fact, I think most critics would agree it’s better if you don’t. But if you insist on doing so, you must understand criticism is its own separate field and you don’t control it
