fireinthedust
Explorer
Does no one remember "Black Punisher"? Frank Castle gets injured, so a plastic surgeon fixes his face... and adds a touch of color! Yep, melanin is increased, and for some reason his hair goes nappy.
Racial changes to established heroes are about as awful as gender swapping (the only successful example of that being Loki in Thor's reboot, but that was in the body of Sif; and frankly was good until it got switched back... actually, amending this: Batgirl/woman is pretty sweet, as is Supergirl, but I think these are on a very different level of cool).
Thor girl? Spider girl?
I also agree, the recent Black Panther was great. I was thinking of subscribing but then I found out they'd gotten another Black Panther... a female version!
Basically, I think it's bizarre watching heroes I know are men suddenly with boobs. As an artist I'm painfully aware of how often I'm basically drawing nude men in comics; but the alternative, drawing them *as* women adds to this... a level of creepy.
I think the issue is not that white males pick up on the black/ethnic heroes. It's that black fans do, with some carry over to white fans. Do comics provide an escape for the ethnic groups being represented? Well, maybe. But deeper than this, we must ask if they themselves are producing comics. There's a lot of Japanese work out there, and it's different from American work. There's French comics out there, and they're sooooooo different from Superhero comics. If you want black people to read comics, get them to write comics or draw them.
The answer isn't just slapping some brown on Superman's face. The answer is giving voice to the people and discovering what *they* want to read. For all I know, black people could just really love sports comics, or love stories, or comedy (like news strips). Or historical works.
Heck, they could love Luke Cage (who is pretty cool), or Ultimate Fury. They might not care for spandex, though, so why bother having them in the Avengers.
Same thing for Hispanics, Indians, Natives (was Thunderbird offensive? I don't know. Did any natives read those comics? I don't know that either), Asians, whoever. The creators likely have a good idea of what they want to say or read in their *own* comics. I'd ask them what they want to read.
Does that make sense?
(also: Indian Spiderman is ridiculous)
Racial changes to established heroes are about as awful as gender swapping (the only successful example of that being Loki in Thor's reboot, but that was in the body of Sif; and frankly was good until it got switched back... actually, amending this: Batgirl/woman is pretty sweet, as is Supergirl, but I think these are on a very different level of cool).
Thor girl? Spider girl?
I also agree, the recent Black Panther was great. I was thinking of subscribing but then I found out they'd gotten another Black Panther... a female version!
Basically, I think it's bizarre watching heroes I know are men suddenly with boobs. As an artist I'm painfully aware of how often I'm basically drawing nude men in comics; but the alternative, drawing them *as* women adds to this... a level of creepy.
I think the issue is not that white males pick up on the black/ethnic heroes. It's that black fans do, with some carry over to white fans. Do comics provide an escape for the ethnic groups being represented? Well, maybe. But deeper than this, we must ask if they themselves are producing comics. There's a lot of Japanese work out there, and it's different from American work. There's French comics out there, and they're sooooooo different from Superhero comics. If you want black people to read comics, get them to write comics or draw them.
The answer isn't just slapping some brown on Superman's face. The answer is giving voice to the people and discovering what *they* want to read. For all I know, black people could just really love sports comics, or love stories, or comedy (like news strips). Or historical works.
Heck, they could love Luke Cage (who is pretty cool), or Ultimate Fury. They might not care for spandex, though, so why bother having them in the Avengers.
Same thing for Hispanics, Indians, Natives (was Thunderbird offensive? I don't know. Did any natives read those comics? I don't know that either), Asians, whoever. The creators likely have a good idea of what they want to say or read in their *own* comics. I'd ask them what they want to read.
Does that make sense?
(also: Indian Spiderman is ridiculous)
