Villano said:
They've also been decent about having actors of different ethnicities in guest roles as captains of other ships (ie, another starship captain who happens to be a black woman). The only complaint I've got about it is that if the captain happens to be a minority and human, they're not going to be evil. If it's an old white guy, he could well be behind all the bad stuff, but if that other starship captain is black, man, ain't no way he's evil. He could be on the wrong side of a conflict, but he'll have some "Oh, I can see his point of view" thing going on to make sure that he isn't evil.
I understand the desire not to perpetuate racist stereotypes, and I approve of it, but I also think that I'm ready for a good intelligent african-american villain -- not a misunderstood tragic hero or a violent thug. A good quality villain. Like Anthony Hopkins' role in "Silence of the Lambs" (purposely not mentioning the sequel).
That's a far-ranging side-note, though. Sorry if I derailed.
Hey, I'm possibly in the weird white-guy boat, but I was shocked to see J'onn shift into a white guy. Since he's being voiced by Carl Lumbly, I always assumed that J'onn would morph into a black guy instead. And I'd also considered him part of the ethnic diversity of the cast. Yeah, he looks different, he's a fantastic character (um, in my opinion, just 'cause I like him). I've always been impressed by his depth and how well he manages to portray a strongly principled outsider looking in at society -- a role that I thought Lumbly did extremely well.
But maybe this plays into the "Only allowed if they look different" rule. I think that role, played by someone drawn as a human black guy, would play into too many "Oh, they're trying to be socially conscious, groan" worries, but having him as an alien and voiced by an african-american man lets them work with it more.
Again, possibly just me.
Yep. The solution is to create an actual character instead of basing their character choices on focus group decisions. Create an actual character, and people might eventually say, "I didn't like him/her," because nobody is liked by everybody, but only a small minority are going to say "I thought this was racist," and these are the same people who are going to say that "Lion King" was racist because Mufasa dies and two of the hyenas are voiced by non-white people.
There was, but you had to be paying close attention. When GL joins up with the Dirty-Dozen-esque team of military guys, one of 'em says something like, "Where'd you learn to handle a gun like that," and GL says, "U.S. Marines". The guy snickers and says something like, "Yeah, right, pal," a veiled reference to the fact that in WW2, John would likely have not been let in.
That's about as far as they go with it -- but it is there if you're paying attention.
But it was a nice touch to have Dana Delany in this role.
