Black Superheroes
Posted by GreenSlugg Muse on Thursday, August 25, 2016
I was online today, and I came across a video of plans to have a Hispanic actress play Mary Jane, a traditionally white, red head female character. The video said that there were a lot of "a-- holes" who were opposed to this, and that those opposed just didn't like diversity.
Original Video: https://www.facebook.com/NowThisEntertainment/videos/1148439578550936/
My response to the video was that a lot of what's going on with taking white male characters and making them female or an ethnic minority is obviously pandering. From what I've read on the Internet, Marvel plans to make Wolverine into a transgender Samoan - something that doesn't even make sense given Wolverine's character.
Well, someone whome I don't know (a white man) responded to me that diversity was good, and how dare I expect all superheroes to look like me. They insisted that this is about diversity and it's not pandering at all.
-_-
Here was my response:
You can see it that way if you want to, but my view is that if you have an already established character, let that character live.
Mary Jane is a red headed woman. If we want to change it up, give Spiderman a black girlfriend, and name her whatever we want to name her.
But noticed that I am consistent. I don't want Static Shock to be made into a white man, and I don't want Captain America to be made into a black man. I also think that Gear, Static's best friend is perfect being a white blonde character.
I love diversity, and enjoy some of the new Marvel additions, like Dust.
That's how you create diversity, by creating new Characters.
When Wolverine is being made into a transgender Samoan, it doesn't make any sense.
As for it being about "MY" demographic - No, that's not what it's about. I don't want to see a blonde superman, even though I am a guy with blonde hair and blue eyes. Why? Because that's not who Superman is.
Or let's look at Cyborg, he is a young black man. That's who he is, and by taking that away, we are loosing part of the character.
On the other hand, Halle Berry as Catwoman worked well. I will admit the overall movie was terrible, but that actress as that character worked. Instead of being the traditional villain, they made her an anti-hero, and it made sense.
Don't get me wrong, there are times where changing a character works, and makes the character more interesting, and I love diversity as much as the next guy.
But putting black-face on a white character is pretty cheap.
There are a lot of well-done black characters in the comic book world that we just never hear about. Many of these are black characters created by black artists, and that's who these characters are.
A real movement towards diversity isn't splashing some black ink on a white character - that's lazy. A real movement towards diversity is bringing black characters, especially characters created by black artists to the front of the stage, and giving them the opportunity to carve out their own place in the world of superheroes.
It worked well for Static Shock, and it can work well for other characters as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HetoXQbIDs
Tags: black superheroes black superheroes super heroes heros super black superheros
