Are Asians not allowed in Superhero Movies?

[Umbran]

Actors should be judged not by the colour of their skin, but by the acting of their characters. Denzel Washington getting more work is good, Chris Tucker on the other hand...

Most actors have their places where they are awesome. I used to have exactly zero use for Will Ferrell. Then, he did his role in "The Producers", and I understood when his personal style was useful - rarely, but there are moments.

 

[Alzrius]

Ruby amused me, but Snails? Snails was just a manifestation of the fact that the producers of that movie couldn't afford Chris Tucker, and hired Marlon Wayans to do the character in his best Chris Tucker impression...which wasn't all that good.

All true, but the character had some measure of value as a character. To quote one of my favorite reviews of that awful movie:

[...]Snails did his job, played his alignment, and sacrificed himself so the twerpy lead beau could escape. It takes a good player to take his beating like a man, even though the guy who killed him was a bald, blue lipstick-wearing ponce. He tried, and that scores points with me. BIG TIME boos to the "hero" who ran off to let his buddy get slaughtered.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

So, if I might ask - what's your opinion of the Miles Morales Spider Man?

Not high.

I get it. I really do. Re-skinning characters lets you tell stories from alternative viewpoints with minimal risk. Hispanics get a marquee character, Marvel doesn't have to do as much to launch the character brand. Launching new characters- especially potentially major ones- are a costly investment. Win-win.

But it tosses decades of character development.

Yes- characters get retconned all the time. I stopped counting Superman incarnations at 6. But at his core, but for things like "Red Son" and the like, he's always been the same character, just with differing levels of power.

Changing Superman to a black guy would be a bigger change- see Icon.

And, in my mind at least, it's lazy. Good as he might be, Morales is a hand-me-down hero.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

All true, but the character had some measure of value as a character. To quote one of my favorite reviews of that awful movie:

That's not value as a character, that's value as a speed bump.

 

[Umbran]

I get it. I really do. Re-skinning characters lets you tell stories from alternative viewpoints with minimal risk.

In this case, he even comes from an entire alternate line of alternative viewpoints - the Ultimate line was like a whole bunch of "What if... the people in the Marvel Universe were more realistic?"

But it tosses decades of character development.

Well, not in this case. Peter Parker is sticking around. They're having multiple Spider Men, and a couple Spider Women as well....

This is the part I don't like - we are in for some serious Spider-fatigue.

And, in my mind at least, it's lazy. Good as he might be, Morales is a hand-me-down hero.

That sounds fair.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I see. The Morales character (as I recall) originally popped up after Parker died, but they retconned that.

As for the Spider-bandwagon...they clearly learned nothing from their own "X-plosion", as well as DC's Shazam family and all the Kryptonians who kept popping up on Earth.

(Dovetailing with the Evil Superman thread, isn't it a good thing that the Kandorians never decided to make Earth their home?)

 

[billd91]

If one is actively seeking reasons to be offended, reasons *will* be found.

No kidding. Even with movies that aren't whitewashed like Memoirs of a Geisha, there will be complaints for casting the wrong Asians.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well...there ARE more of them in the world. Bigger casting pool!

A Filipino buddy of mine and I were discussing a prospective movie script that was very Asian-centric, and rattled off our wish list of actors we thought would be perfect for most of the major roles. Then he got a funny look in his eye...and I knew INSTANTLY what he was thinking.

"We didn't cast ANYBODY in a role matching their actual ethnicity, did we?" I asked.

"Nope!"

Then the laughing of asses off commenced.

 

[Ryujin]

In this case, he even comes from an entire alternate line of alternative viewpoints - the Ultimate line was like a whole bunch of "What if... the people in the Marvel Universe were more realistic?"

And therein lies the humour. Marvel characters always tended to be "more realistic" than DC characters, because they actually had real life problems. That's not to say that they were in any fundamental way realistic, but their day-to-day lives were far from uncomplicated.

 

[Umbran]

I see. The Morales character (as I recall) originally popped up after Parker died, but they retconned that.

No. In the Ultimates universe, Parker died, and Morales picked up the mantle.

However, in the new Secret Wars, they are doing a multiverse mashup, and some things from various universes will now persist together in the main continuity - Morales is getting pulled into the mainstream Parker continuity (Earth-616, for those who care about such things). They aren't killing off E-616 Parker - he's being used to tell different Spider Man stories.

As for the Spider-bandwagon...they clearly learned nothing from their own "X-plosion"

Yeah. I know Spidey is their overall most popular character, but... well, I hope the variations are around only so long as they tell some interesting stories, and then fade. Maybe leave us Parker to be mature Spider Man, and Morales to be teen Spider Man, and leave it at that.