What do you think about changing the race/gender of well established comic book characters for the sake of diversity?

Lightspeed-Lemon

Entertainment & Arts

In recent superhero movies and TV shows, characters like The Human Torch, Nick Fury, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, Electro, and the Kingpin have all been changed from white guys to black. And the comics have given us a black Spider-Man, a female Thor, and a gay Iceman.

Most of these characters have been around since the 1960s and have a rich history. Do you agree with changing them now? I find it hard to justify since they'd never in a million years make Wonder Woman a man or change the race of Black Panther, Blade or Storm. Plus, anyone is free to make new characters of any conceivable race or orientation.

What do you think about changing the race/gender of well established comic book characters for the sake of diversity?

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What do you think about changing the race/gender of well established comic book characters for the sake of diversity?

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Most Helpful Girl

AzureGirl
mho 26%

I feel like if that's how they've been then they should stay the way they were. If they want to add more diversity they should create new characters instead.
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What Girls Said 5

fondue
mho 16%

Chalk it up to alternate universes. xD
Honestly, if the casting is good, I don't mind switching up the race for characters. I think Samuel L. Jackson makes a good Nick Fury. Also I think I read somewhere that the Nick Fury in Avengers verse was actual Nick Fury's son, who is black? All I know is in the Captain America comics he was white but, eh. And it's not like these characters are based specifically on their race, you know?
This does bring up a good question though - like, I'm okay with this but I'm not okay with Scarlet Johansson being cast as Kusanagi in the new GitS movie. o_o;;
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- Lightspeed-Lemon
  
  Yeah, I don't want ScarJo for that role either but it has nothing to do with political correctness. It's the simple fact that the Major is Japanese! And it's a Japanese property, set in Japan. I'm like, if you wanna change stuff then just make your own thing, but don't take someone else's creation and disrespect it.
  
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- fondue
  
  Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That was the problem that I think a lot of people had with this. They were deliberately trying to whitewash that character. It's ridiculous. Everything is Japanese. She's super Japanese. It's not like Hollywood can't afford to hire other actors.
  Racial diversity and sensitivity can be a good thing. I like the idea of that in comics and stuff because I feel like it starts introducing these ideas at a younger age. It's a lot better than a bunch of keyboard wielding SJWs on social media, in my opinion.
  The thing about Spiderman though, is that Spiderman is just a title - They didn't make Peter Parker black or anything, there just happened to be a Black/Hispanic kid that got bitten by another radioactive spider. So it's not like they're changing Spiderman.
  
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- Lightspeed-Lemon
  
  Well if that's whitewashing, then how can casting a black actor to fill a white role be anything but... "blackwashing"? Nobody calls it that because a huge double standard exists where we think it's fine to turn a white character black but not the other way around. I say all this being a visible minority myself. But I'm also half-white and believe diversity doesn't have to come at anyone's expense, it can be achieved by introducing new heroes or surrounding the existing ones with diverse supporting characters. They could give Lady Sif her own book instead of giving Thor a sex change. Or introduce Iceman's gay cousin instead of retconning Iceman's backstory. With the black Spider-Man, at least they found a clever way to do it. But that's the exception. Most of the time they're rebooting things and pretending what came before never happened.
  
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- fondue
  
  Dude, Avenger verse Nick Fury was black. It's old Nick Fury's son, who is mixed, who got his eye poked out by an enemy to look more like his dad. Then he shaved his head and took up his dad's name while his dad went into hiding or died or something.
  And while that's true, I think they thought that using already popular, well known characters would make more of an impact?
  At least they attempted to go and make a plausible backstory for this. Anyways any color-washing in the cinemas is weird. Ffs, they're making Christian Bale Moses. FFS.
  
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- Lightspeed-Lemon
  
  My understanding is that the movies rebooted Nick Fury as a black man. Only later did Marvel decide to make him black in the comics as well, so people wouldn't be "confused". The comic writers came up with a way to do it, but the change didn't happen organically, it was a directive from Marvel to harmonize their comic and movie universes. Personally I feel that since the comics are the original source material, the movies shouldn't be dictating what happens in them. But if you like it, that's great. At least the comics have done a better job than the movies at explaining or justifying some of these radical changes.
  
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- fondue
  
  No, sorry - you're right. I went back and checked the dates from the movies. I thought the comics had come out earlier than the Avengers movies and then I remembered the Iron Man 2 came out even earlier and SLJ was in it already so you're right.
  
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WhatTheHellAmy
mho 20%

That's the most stupid thing someone could do. I do not agree. I'm not sexist or racist or homophobic. But this is bullshit
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apple24
mho 20%

i don't care for comic but i say just make a new comic
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Anonymous

It's just a new interpretation. It's interesting to play around with established characters. Plus in comics there are a lot of alternate time lines, contradictions in canon, etc. anyway; there's definitely room for creativity
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Anonymous

I'm not all that invested in the skin color or sexual orientation of the characters, but agree that it's just as easy to make up new ones.
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- Opinion Owner
  
  Or gender. I didn't leave that out intentionally. Superheroes are generally defined by character traits and special featuresthst could go any which way.
  
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What Guys Said 3

jakeofalltrades
mho 7%

i think it is stupid, especially gender swapping them, a female Thor, really? and you are right they will never change it from a girl to boy or black to white, it basically tells people that it is wrong to be a white straight male
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Maxemeister
mho 10%

Why the fuck would u want to lose Samuel L. Jackson in a MARVEL MOVIE?
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- Lightspeed-Lemon
  
  I don't. Just questioning why they need to change characters in general. If you were a diehard fan of the Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD comics, you might feel differently. They could've just given Sam Jackson's character a new name.
  
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- Maxemeister
  
  Ahh, I see.
  
  Maybe it just wasn't realistic, because in this time period the workforce isn't composed of all white guys.
  
  That's how it was, back then.
  
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Anonymous

Bad idea in my opinion. I don't mind changing the race/gender of a well established comic book character so long it's not just for the sake of diversity. If there's a very good story behind it and it all makes sense then fine. If the characters are separate then fine. Like for example Nick Fury. I like both Nick Furys.
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- Opinion Owner
  
  Also, Black Panther comes from the Black Panther movement. Of course they wouldn't make him a different race.
  
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- Opinion Owner
  
  I mean the idea of him comes from that movement. Not his character. His character came from a fantasy part of Africa.
  
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