Sean Gerber and Paul Hermann return to discuss the latest Marvel News. Zendaya’s role in Spider-Man: Homecoming has reportedly been revealed while Marvel Television is partnering with Hulu on a series for The Runaways. Those topics, your questions, and more are addressed on this episode!
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The one regard where I think ethnicity swapping can be problematic is if you have any intention of building a bridge between the movies/television shows and the comics. If what you want is a circumstance in which people see live action interpretations then hopefully gravitate to the source material, you don’t want people who have latched onto a character to feel cheated once they pick up a comic book. For better or worse, identity politics matter to people. I still have friends who are mad that Catwoman is always portrayed as a white woman in movies even though “the original Catwoman was black.” When I ask what they mean by that, they point to Eartha Kitt from the 60’s show. Then I explain that even though that’s one of the earliest Catwomen in live action, there were still two other actresses who were white on that same show, and the character in the comics is white. This never seems to appease them and the topic still crops up once in a while.
The point is once people have decided that a character represents their community, you can’t go back on it without causing some kind of tension, and it makes any fidelity to the source material in future content almost suspect. While I don’t follow the Flash monthly comic right now, I’ve already seen some people online complain that they are “white washing” Wally West by bringing a white version into the continuity, even though for decades Wally West was a white guy. Specifically to Mary Jane, what happens when the PS4 exclusive Spider-Man game (that I can’t wait for!) comes out and Mary Jane is a white redhead with green or blue eyes instead of black or bi-racial? Are people going to accuse Insomniac Games of not getting with the times? For not accepting change? Are they going to be viewed as perhaps covertly, unknowingly racist for sticking to an “out of date” version of the character?
An obvious fact here should be restated, which is that OF COURSE Zendaya can be MJ and someone’s race or ethnicity should NOT be any character’s defining trait. You and James Gunn are spot on about that. But personally, I think this identity politicking is more trouble than its worth, as is the need for race-swapping when there are already PLENTY of new Marvel characters of non-White backgrounds (Riri Williams, the new Moon-Girl, Amadaous Cho Hulk, Patriot, Kamala Khan, Echo/Ronin, White Tiger, etc…) that have yet to be adapted to screen. As someone who loves superheroes and has NEVER, EVER had a live action superhero from the same ethnic community as me, I can honestly say that I’ve never once had a problem loving the genre or relating to its characters.
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