Hey, That’s My Cape! – Comic Books, Race, Change, & Hate
Diversity in comic books. It’s been a hot button topic for a long time. Whatever their specific reasons, there are two very vocal camps; those who welcome changing familiar superheroes with ethnically and racially diverse characters and those who hate it. That’s overly simplifying things, sure, but that is really what it boils down to isn’t it? Don’t believe me? Read a few message boards or articles pertaining to the new Ultimate Spider-Man.
Some really disgusting comments were made online after the announcement of Miles Morales, a half-black, half-Hispanic character, taking up the mantle from the deceased Peter Parker in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. I’ve been on the internet, I’ve seen disgusting, this was a new low.
Read my thoughts on race, superheroes and fan reaction in this week’s Hey, That’s My Cape! at Newsarama.
I agree with the premise of the post in that there are MANY characters that really are interchangeable – Perry White being one of them, yet must point out one inaccuracy. You mention Storm as being African and part of her identity, etc. but in the same post criticize those who were against the casting of Idris Elba in Thor. Well the character of Heimdall is a Norse God. Would you be okay with an African God being white? Mythological Gods have always represented their followers…so in a way Heimdal being white IS essential to his character by your own reasoning…
Then again…comic book fans generally get way too riled up over anything and everything…
"Yes Mike, you are correct. In my opinion Superman can be any color. Storm can't. It's not an inconsistency. Why? Her name is Ororo Iqadi T'Challa. She was CREATED as an African. Superman is from an alien race. He was created as a white man (in an era where that was the norm) but there is nothing about him that says he MUST be a certain ethnicity. Peter Parker is a kid from Queens. Sherlock Holmes is British. Is everyone in Queens white? Are all British people white? There's no reason a person of color couldn't play him in the future.
The "i'm not a racist but…" routine doesn't fly here. Sorry."
Yet, all African's are obviously "of color". It isnt racism its ignorance. Why perpetuate that ignorance by simply taking the stance that there isnt any value in the characters as created and presented.
Spiderman's demise comes across as very contrived. Marvel and DC keep killing characters off and bringing them back to sell comics.
That's their business.
Since it's contrived, why not have the new Spiderman come from an alternate Earth? In a parallel universe, a kid of color gets bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker.
That could work.
Yeah. I like that idea. :)
Beyond that, I find it boring to kill off major characters and bring them back. Their deaths get pretty meaningless and soap opera-ish.
I am severely on the fence about this new Spidey, but for all I care he could've been an f2m transgendered Asian (not that either comic book powerhouse would have the guts to publish that).
I'm on the fence just because of how damn contrived this is, and how much it reeks of plot convenience. So Peter Parker's dead, and before there's even a chance for grass to grow on his grave a new kid, who happens to also live in New York, be roughly Peter Parker's age, happens to contract powers largely identical to Spider-man's.
Riiiiight~ The real ballsy thing to do would've just been to end the comic there and then.
Or at least to let more time pass between the old and new Spider-men, or to have it be someone of a completely different age category than him, or in another part of the world (you don't see many Lithuanian or Luxembourgian superheroes), or whathaveyou.
And for curiosity's sake, are there any heroes who are white that can't be race swapped?
Additionally, I think an Elseworlds type of deal Storm could easily be a girl/woman from the plains of Mongolia who is hailed as nothing short of a goddess due to her ability to make it rain. After all, if an Indian kid called Pavitr Prabhakar can be Spider-Man in a what-if comic, then Storm can easily be Asian or Native American in a what-if comic.
The only thing I take issue with concerning the new Spider-Man is that the way they announced it feels a little contrived. A little gimmicky. That's my only problem. I mean, of course I'm mourning for Ultimate Peter Parker (He was my Spider-Man in the way that some people claim different doctors on Doctor Who) but of course I'll give the new one a shot. I only wish they had let it come about a little more organically, maybe have people read Ultimate Fallout 4without having made any kind of announcement. But now, because people are crazy assholes, I'll read it but the experience won't necessarily be the same as before because of all the hating that came before it. It's not going to change my mind, whatever I decide to think about the new Spider-man, but it'll be there in the back of my mind.
"Stunt" or not, I think it's a pretty shallow way of presenting equality. I'd rather back Steel, Black Panther, and the Milestone characters than a ham-fisted and insincere gesture like taking a forty to sixty year old white character and making him black.
Fans of Chasing Amy might like to recall the hilarious rants regarding Darth Vader etc and find some unfortunate truth in the notion.
I enjoyed your article on Newsarama and agree that it's disappointing that a vocal portion of the fanbase would resort to racial insults and things of that sort. I'm equally disappointed that, as you noted in the article, the possibility of a new character of whatever race would struggle to gain ground. I think that is the object of progress, not token gestures like giving 'them' one of 'our' characters. Which, granted, really seems much more likely to be about getting attention than anything as condescending as a deliberate us/them dynamic.
For what it's worth, I think the question of causality is something all together separate. One of the great charms of comics is/was their ability to tell serial adventures of characters beyond even their prose or pulp cousins. Representing a character's traits with some measure of rigidity doesn't strike me as something worth the scowl it now garners. That obviously goes far beyond the work of the colourist and the marketting to press, though.
And I frickin' love Black Nick Fury damnit! Even more than "normal" Nick Fury.
I'm agreeing with a lot of people, especially Nerdy Bird and Gerry.
One of the things I loved that was so different and fresh was seeing a Black Kingpin. When I was small, I watched the Superman series that had the racially ambigious Lex Luthor. Yes, he could've been Black OR White. That's what made him interesting!! He could've been mixed, like me.
Comic books should, in my opinion, have that wonderful part of a good author and artist, a great inker; a serious team but it shouldn't be the same junk over and over again.
I prefer my Batman to be White. But if I read a different comic and he were Black or Hispanic, I'd at least give it a try.
Besides, people die. And I frickin' love Peter Parker but after all the other HORRID things different authors have done to characters that weren't even "theirs" (like poor Barbara Gordon being paralyzed), I don't think dying is the worst human thing that could happen to Peter. I also don't think being Black is the worst thing that can happen to Spiderman.
What it comes down to is an ideal. Yes, we know the hero personally but we also know what they stand for! I think that is very important in the end.
Yes Mike, you are correct. In my opinion Superman can be any color. Storm can't. It's not an inconsistency. Why? Her name is Ororo Iqadi T'Challa. She was CREATED as an African. Superman is from an alien race. He was created as a white man (in an era where that was the norm) but there is nothing about him that says he MUST be a certain ethnicity. Peter Parker is a kid from Queens. Sherlock Holmes is British. Is everyone in Queens white? Are all British people white? There's no reason a person of color couldn't play him in the future.
The "i'm not a racist but…" routine doesn't fly here. Sorry.
Yeah, okay. Superman can be black, but Storm can't be white?
Your argument would hold a lot more water if you were at least consistent.
Call me a racist, if you will. I have no objection to strong characters who are ethnically, and whatever-other-ally you choose, diverse. They have a right to be their own characters. They should be all over the comic book pages. They shouldn't be presented as gimmicks for meaningless tokenism. "I'll see your Hispanic Blue Beetle and RAISE you a bi-racial Spider-man!"
Ooh boy.
Spider-man is Spider-man. He's Peter Parker. Peter Parker's ethnicity is established. Peter Parker is a white kid. Sorry. Danny Glover petitioning to be Spider-man is a form of celebrity dress-up. It's Halloweening. Laurence Fishburne as "Perry White" immediately renders the next Superman cinema trifle as something that can be ignored. Same thing as if you cast Meryl Streep in the role.
Sherlock Holmes is not Asian. Tarzan is not Italian. Shaft is not a white man. Neither is Black Panther. Batman is not Dick Grayson.
"Cool. Legacy. Change is exciting." Shut up. Call me when you make your own character, and tell me his race is irrelevant, her sex is irrelevant. Telling me you're replacing a white kid with a black kid but, by the way, race is irrelevant is a form of hypocrisy as vile to me as bigotry.
Guy's got melanin. So what? Race is an illusion; racism is for the deluded. The deranged commenters need their attitude adjusted, preferably by The Thing.
I'm a little tired of the fanboy rage in general on the internet, every time a change comes along. They complain they are tired of the same old thing, then complain when the companies try to change things. In this instance, I'm still not sure if I'm more offended as a Hispanic or as a comic fan. Excellent article as always. It's people like you that help drown out the crap.
Thanks for the fantastic article. I have read many comments that were pure bigotry and it affects me deeply. I'm intrigued with the decision of the new Ultimate Spiderman and I'm very curious to see what the story is going to be. Coming from a black man, I really disturbed by the hateful reactions. Thanks for bringing it out.
Those people who leave those stupid comments are not realiziing one of the things that makes the ULTIMATE Universe what it is is that when folks die, THEY DIE! Things like this happen, and ULT M is reflecting our world by that much. I think it's a great move. The original incarnation of these characters weren't exactly made that way because they racist, it's because the times didn't' call for it.
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Did people give Marvel this much lash out to Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury in the comics or movies?