And unless that rock that you're living under is itself ALSO living under a rock you know that the new Ultimate Spider-man is half black. Marvel "spoiled" this in Tuesdays edition of USA Today.
Wednesday, being new comic book day, Ultimate Fallout #4 was released poly-bagged - as if to keep the secret a real secret.
Marvel obviously leaked the new character's race a day early to create buzz and get non-comic book collectors into stores to buy the issue, in hopes that they'll swap it over onto ebay and make $4,000 dollars on it (which they won't, but Marvel will get a ton more $3.99 than they usually would have gotten). Much like the above blogger states they did with Obama appearing on the cover of Amazing Spider-man.
The recent Thor movie saw a Norse god portrayed by an African-American actor. The upcoming Superman movie has Laurence Fishburne, an African American, cast as Perry White a character that has existed for over 60 years as a Caucasian. The Thor one I found most distasteful. Directory Kenneth Branaugh knew exactly what he was doing...I mean the guy made a complete, word for word production of Hamlet. He knows what source material is. And he knows what straying from it means.
Marvel is obviously using race to generate manufactured controversies and get people talking.
But what's the true controversy? Marvel' tokenism of using African-Americans in movies and comics? Or Marvel using African-Americans to sell comics?
Ask one side and they'll tell you how little representation African-Americans and non-Whites have in comics. Do some research and you'll find the Marvel universe rich in diverse cultures. Three of Marvel's hottest titles have a black man as the leader (Thunderbolts, Avengers & New Avengers). Nevermind all the other races that can be found in many of the other titles: Asians in Academy, Hispanics in Daredevil, Indians in Amazing Spider-man and Native Americans in Secret Avengers, Ghost Rider and DC's Jonah Hex.
But a specific demographic would like you to think that isn't true when someone objects to the new Spider-man, the Thor movie...or Perry White. They've gotta be more open and tolerant than the next guy. The scariest thing in the world to most white boys is to be called a racist.
So, again, what's the real controversy?
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