MY TWO CENTS: Diversifying Characters in the Big Two…why I am disappointed.

Well it’s been a couple of days since the big changes have been announced all over the net.

And I have been on here reading the opinions of many, this change has apparently divided Comic Vine.

On one side you have those that are either happy or interested to see the new change and where the story lines will go after the mantles have been turned over.

Then you have the other side that is not so happy with the change. Many feel that it is damaging to the character, and downright insulting to comic book reader’s intelligence.

I was debating on whether to jump onto one of the discussions with my opinion, or start one of my own.

After reading the latest discussion posted on this topic, I decided why the heck not, I’ll just write my own view as to why I personally do not like this change in a well thought out blog.

If it was just for storyline sake, I would be more than happy with Marvel’s updates to their main characters.

But as stated blatantly by Marvel, this is nothing more than a marketing ploy to draw in a female audience, and I am also guessing with the change to Captain A, a more diversified audience namely African-Americans.

My question to Marvel as a black male reader, what makes you think I would enjoy reading about a black character being Captain America knowing it is more of a marketing ploy and not for storyline sake?

I believe affirmative action and political correctness does not belong everywhere, especially not in my comic books.

If you wanted to build my interest, why not start by building up the black and women characters you already have?

Why not make interesting and gripping origin stories creating new super heroes that can captivate and draw me in?

This whole change would be even cool and interesting if it was truly a "changing of guard" or turning over of the mantle like Miles Morales taking over the mantle of Spiderman in the Ultimate Universe.

But we know that this is only a temporary change, Rogers will be back as Cap, probably by the time the movie is out, and Thor will be holding his hammer again probably around the same time.

So to me if feels like, “Let’s put a black guy in the red, white, and blue, and let a girl hold the hammer so that readers of that ethnicity or sexuality can identify and be drawn into the world of legendary characters created by Stan Lee, and we’ll make a lot of money as well for a little while till we change them back.”

And another thing, and this is again my opinion, I personally do not want to read about a character built off of another man’s legacy.

Steve Rogers BUILT the Captain America legacy, it doesn’t matter who else worn the suit after him, people will forever identify him as Captain America.

I want to identify with characters that can built their OWN legacy and stand with the likes of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and even Superman.

It can be done, but as usual it seems no one wants to do it, it seems like it’s better to make characters like Black Panther, Luke Cage, and Storm secondary characters, and on occasion give a character like Falcon a primary role for a little while holding the mantle of one of the top three in Marvel. Why because our President is black, and Dr. Dre became a billionaire?

Not to mention, the role change and the recycling of characters has been done so many times in my opinion it is sickening.

We had a female Ghost Rider for a while, and Johnny Blaze came back and reclaimed the title!

Now we got another Ghost Rider, only this one drives a car!

Bucky Barnes was Captain America up until the Fear saga, Steve took it back, and now we’re back to another change, which will eventually go back to Steve taking the mantle again, and once that is done it’s not going to do ANYTHING to build Falcon’s legacy, he will go back to just being Falcon a secondary character, and the same thing will happen to this female Thor.

This may very well turn out to be very an interesting and thrilling change, so please do not take this as a deterrent to go and buy the issue and check it out.

I for one, don’t want to read about an African-American Captain America, or a black Superman for that matter.

I want my own heroes, with their own unique names, that can both build and earn their own legacy, and captivate readers for years to come based on that.

That is what I want as a black reader…

And if Marvel and DC are too lazy to do it…then I’ll just do it my damn self…

That’s my two cents…thank you for reading.

i wish black Panther was an A-list character and luke cage.

Personally, I feel that if Marvel wants to build up Falcon's credibility as a character, instead of trying to build a fan base for him as Captain America, they should instead simply work on improving his character as Falcon. With Falcon's character getting some spotlight following his appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I can understand Marvel wanting to push the character more...but doing so by making him Cap isn't going to solve the real problem.

The problem is that ultimately, current comic book Falcon is pretty lame. He has an outdated backstory, his powers aren't that impressive, and he's just not that useful aside from giving Cap some backup during a fight. I know fans tend to dislike it when Marvel changes things in the comics to fit more with that of their movie counterparts, but I seriously believe Falcon should an exception.

His movie counterpart was so much more interesting than his comic counterpart and related better to Cap, in my opinion. He was a former soldier, who after losing his partner basically gave up being a soldier, but was inspired once more to fight for his country when Captain America came to him for help. His flight-suit was grounded more in reality and making him a soldier would give him a reason to use firearms (like in the movie) as well as help him relate to Cap better. Overall, if Marvel decided to revamp Falcon's origins to fit more with that version, I really would not have a problem with it.

Sam won't be Captain America forever, he'll eventually return to his role as Falcon and once he does he'll still have the same problems I've mentioned already. He may get some new fans as Cap, but if Marvel truly wants to improve his character and make him more marketable for modern readers, they're ultimately going to have to go to the source of the problem and figure out how to modernize the character for today's generation of readers.

She has an ongoing now...

Ok

@blue_son:

RIGHT ON THE MONEY, BRO.

I agree with some thing and others I don't. Good write up though.

@blue_son: it's one of the few times I wholeheartedly agree. The immobility and stagnation of the big two is why I stopped reading them. Every "big change" they make is just a way of luring big bursts of small audiences. Rinse and repeat.

@blue_son:

You make some good points. Although I felt like Miles Morales was a marketing ploy as well. Ultimate Spider-man was the younger, single alternative to the married Spider-man in the main Marvel Universe. But once sales started to plummet for the Ultimate Marvel line and regular Spider-man became single again, Ultimate Spidey was redundant so they used a well known brand once again as a marketing ploy, IMO.

To be fair to Marvel, it's harder to introduce new characters in today's current climate where comics are not considered a mainstream form of entertainment and the audience is shrinking continuously, let alone new characters that happen to be minorities.

I don't feel too bad about a female Thor and Falcon as Captain American considering the history of the characters. Thor's hammer itself says "whoever is worthy shall wield the power of Thor" and so far there's been a space alien "Thorse" who wielded the hammer for a while, then there was the time Thor was a frog, and some guy named Eric Masterson was Thor. The Falcon has a lot of history with Captain America so it kind of make sense, and Bucky was playing the role for a while too.

That said I agree with you. I wish there were more prominent ethnic minorities as superheroes instead of having to settle for The Atom II, or the Spider-man of some alternate universe.

One thing I still like about the early Image superheroes is that some of the most popular ones at the time happened to be black and it was never hyped up or done as a promotional gimmick like Spawn and Shadowhawk.

Jack-In-The-Box was pretty cool in Astro City.

For Asian and Latino superheroes I can't think of many that that weren't on a team or part of a legacy.

A very reasonable and thoughtful post. I can't relate to your problems but I can sympathise and I agree to an extent. Miles Morales is one of the exceptions to the rule since in the Ultimate Universe Peter actually died, allowing Miles to fully embrace the legacy and make it his own.

However, characters that will not hold the title for long will not benefit particularly from the change. Like you say, we need characters that build up their own profile and connect with audiences without relying on the reputation of established white characters as a crutch, because once that crutch is taken away they may well topple over.

That being said, when taking the stories and characters on their own terms without all of the real-world considerations and politics, these changes and stories can be perfectly fine. Will Val-Zod, the black Superman, be the groundbreaking change for black superheroes? Probably not, because he's an alternate-universe character whose identity is based off of a white hero. However, that doesn't necessarily make him a lesser character - he can still be interesting in his own right by way of the stories he is a part of and the differences in his personality and backstory to the original.

The same may hold true for the new Thor and Captain America. Real-world politics aside, I will be looking forward to seeing how the stories play out and what kind of character beats we'll get, not just with Sam and the new Thor, but with Thor Odinson and Steve Rogers as well. It's all down to the writers at the end of the day.

@blue_son: Your formatting sucks and you've asked some pretty easily answerable questions, but at least your post shows you're being somewhat rational about things and not just condemning the whole female Thor decision because you think the idea is silly.

@squares: Well that was uncalled for.

Beata

@spidey_jackson: Your concern for Blue Son's feelings is absolutely touching.

This post amuses me.

I've got to agree with what you said pretty well

changing an existing character who is just gonna change back doesnt add much either, but when people say falcon sucks, it can be said he was cap

also comics largely seem to lack diversity and writers dont want to create new characters cause if its not a likable character, then whoops

for example there doesnt seem to be many native american heroes, but one of my favorite writers(Jeff Lemire) created 2 since the new 52 started

YEEEAH!!!

A lot of this

Didn't read. The format is killing me. Will try to read later.

Black Panther has the potential to be and is a great character. The only reason Marvel doesn't promote him more is because as a pre-existing character, Black Panther won't move the general media and the Tumblr won't go all "look how deverse Marvel is".
So they are stuck with gimmicks and forgetable knock-offs and Marvel's history proves me right on the forgetable part.

@blue_son: I was just talking about this very thing with a friend of mine on Facebook. And we came to the same conclusion.

I really think they're trying too much at once, it all feels so forced