So, Mehcad Brooks has been cast as Jimmy Olsen in the CBS drama, Supergirl. He joins Jack Larson, Marc McClure and Aaron Ashmore among others in playing the character.

It's called "color-blind casting". Michael B. Jordan has been cast as Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, in this summer's Chronicle 2, er, Fantastic Four reboot.

Characters like Jimmy Olsen and Dick Grayson are supposed to represent the audience. I'm not necessarily going to be an orphaned millionaire philanthropist or an in investigative journalist who is secretly an alien superman. I'm not going to be The Guy; The Hero. But I could be The Guy's sidekick. That's basically the idea behind Jimmy Olsen. He's me. He's you, too. He's our stand-in. Reading Superman or Batman in the comics, you and I see Jimmy, and we think to ourselves, I could totally hang out with Superman.

Lawrence Fishburn played Perry White in Man of Steel. Sam Jones III played Pete Ross in Smallville. Now Pete's another Jimmy Olsen. Pete's a pre-Jimmy. Now, let's set aside the personal problems that Jones has had and take a look at black Pete Ross.

Smallville was not necessarily "color-blind" when it came to diversity. Jones' Pete Ross could have been a window into diversity on the series. Did Clark ever have a teacher named Jefferson Pierce? No. When the Justice Society was introduced, where was Will Everett? Okay, Will Everett was a member of the All-Star Squadron, but he was Golden-Age, just like the JSA. Sure, Vic Stone was added as a founding member of the Justice League, but where was Mal Duncan?

Here's my problem with "color-blind casting": go big or go home.

If you're going to give me John Stewart, run with it. Go all the way. That's what Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams did with the character. They did not shy away from social relevance. Jimmy Olsen doesn't need to be groundbreaking, but he shouldn't be a caricature or a stereotype either.

The problem that I have with Smallville's Pete Ross was that Lionel Luthor came to town and bought up all the land for LutherCorp from Pete's family, and people like Pete. There were no black heroes on Smallville. Just victims and villains. Diversity was seemingly bungled from the very beginning. "Color-blind casting" was wasted. Kristen Kreuk was cast as Lana, yet her parents were Caucasian, and it was never hinted that she was adopted. There was a storyline that she had a living birth father, but he turned out to be white, too.

This is what concerns me about the new Jimmy Olsen. I still want him to represent and stand for something. Let him still do all the wacky things he was able to do in the comics. Rather than making the casting arbitrary, give this new Jimmy Olsen some roots, no pun intended. Give him some background.

I hope this new Jimmy Olsen can stand next to Jack Larsen, Marc McClure, Aaron Ashmore and the other actors that have played the character. I hope he's an interesting one.