Those "singular geniuses" aren't producing anything truly creative or unique, they're just typing "x in the style of Joe Quesada" (or whomever) into a textbox. AI isn't erasing the gap, it's just making the theft of other artists' work easier, and putting the artists themselves out of business. All for software that doesn't even allow real freedom of creative control, or autonomy of vision - the best you can ever do is hope to get an approximation of a concept that probably still has to be run through Photoshop or something to keep everything on model and fix all of the six-fingered hands.

If you can't afford to pay real artists to draw for your comic book, maybe you shouldn't be in that business?

You're responding to your own argument here, not mine. I'm saying the next generation of artists will be blessed with tools that greatly expand their capabilities. Arguing otherwise, is like saying Photoshop, or VFX, did nothing to push art forward over the last 40 years.

Obviously, AI training data is a touchy topic. I completely agree artist should be compensated. To what degree is a hard question.

As to whether or not I should be making comics- I have story to express and there are tools available to express it. I really don't care what you or anyone else thinks about the validity of that expression. That's what makes it art. You talk like someone who has never produced art.