The Four Color Media Monitor

It's not even new, yet the AP Wire's gone out of their way to give Marvel's most pretentious staffers the fawning coverage they haven't earned over "diverse" steps made:

For decades, comic books have been in color, but now they are more and more reflecting the true hues of American society.

The new Captain America is black. A Superman who is suspiciously similar to President Barack Obama recently headlined a comic book. Thor is a woman, Spider-Man is part-Puerto Rican and Ms. Marvel is Muslim.

Ridiculous, because there were plenty of minority groups members in past mainstream stories. The real difference they don't make fully clear is that now, several superhero roles are being filled either by characters of different skin color, or a "religion of peace" that they fail to make clear isn't the same as race. What, don't Robbie Robertson and Glory Grant, two notable staffers at the Daily Bugle, count? Doesn't Linda Park count? How about Lucius Fox? Why do only people in superhero costumes count?

Mainstream comic book superheroes — America's modern mythology and the wellspring behind several recent Hollywood blockbusters — have been redrawn from the stereotypical brown-haired, blue-eyed white male into a world of multicolored, multireligious and multigendered crusaders to reflect a greater diversity in their audience.

Oh, that's funny. What about Superman? He may have blue eyes, but his hair is dark, and so is Batman's, and 2-3 of the characters who donned the Robin costume. On the other, it's often seemed to me like there's too few girls in comics with brown hair. How come they don't make this an opinion piece instead, and note what I've sensed is lacking?

Society has changed, so superheroes — at heart a reflection of life in the United States — have to as well, said Axel Alonso, editor in chief at Marvel Comics, who in November debuted Captain America No. 1 with Samuel Wilson, the first African American superhero taking over Captain America's red, white and blue uniform and shield.

But they did change, certainly in the mid to late 60s, when Black Panther debuted, a few years before Falcon's debut (and they actually note this further down in the article), so I don't see what's so new here. And if he's long been a superhero, why does Sam have to take another guy's role instead of being his own creation?

"Roles in society aren't what they used to be. There's far more diversity," said Alonso, who has also shepherded a gay wedding in the X-Men, a gender change from male to female in Thor and the first mainstream female Muslim hero in Ms. Marvel.

No, there isn't. If costumed heroes are so important, how come we haven't seen Armenian and Danish ones entering mainstream? As for the gay wedding involving Northstar, that sold very flat in sales, no different from most other mediocre receipts in modern times.

The publicity stunt with Sam Wilson's already been exploited for political purposes:

The change to a black Captain America is already having an impact outside of comics.

Even before the publication of the first issue, unauthorized images of the black Captain America were shown at a town hall meeting in St. Louis following the funeral of Michael Brown, who was 18 and unarmed when he was killed by a white police officer. This Captain America had his hands up saying "Don't Shoot," a slogan protesters have used to highlight the number of African Americans killed by police.

The AP Wire has effectively shoved their distortions straight into the topic. It makes no difference what the facts were nor the jury's verdict, they intend to keep up the lies till the bitter end.

Alonso said Marvel editors knew when they depowered Steve Rogers and replaced him with Wilson that they would be treading on sensitive territory. "When you take an African-American man and dress him in the red white and blue of the flag, of the United States flag, ... there's symbolism in that, that is more potent and more thought-provoking, evocative" than other kinds of changes, Alonso said.

"But we're not here to editorialize. We're here to tell a story," he added. "This is the world you live in, it's changing and our characters are reconciling with that change."

He can keep insisting, but it's long been proven they're only interested in moneymaking, not serious entertainment via talented writing. Besides, they forced a sickening "ending" to Steve Rogers' story before moving on to Sam, so how can anybody with rationale appreciate the mantle pass? And, is Alonso suggesting something's wrong with dressing Sam in Old Glory colors? There's nothing wrong with that at all, but then, why can't Sam wear the flag as part of his Falcon costume? Yes, why not give that a try? It's a pretty creative suggestion.

Marvel isn't the only company looking at diversity. An alternative black Superman, one who is president of the United States, is part of a team in DC Comics' "The Multiversity." DC also brags of having more comic books featuring female leads than any other company, including Batgirl, Catwoman, Batwoman, Harley Quinn, the Joker's paramour and Wonder Woman, the longest-running comic book with a female hero.

"Our goal is to tell the best stories while making sure our characters are relatable and reflect DC Comics' diverse readership and fanbase," DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson said.

And just how big is that fanbase? I'm not sure all of the women they've cited still have titles now, and if they do, they're selling very low, another point that doesn't factor into this article. Nor has DC been printing good storytelling for a long time, thanks to their editorial mandates.

Earlier changes — a half-Puerto Rican, half black Spider-Man in their Ultimate imprint, the 16-year-old daughter of Pakistani immigrants living in Jersey City named Kamala Khan becoming Ms. Marvel — may have smoothed the way for the Captain America switch, Alonso said. But not everyone is happy with the changes: A contingent of vocal Internet fans are currently protesting a change coming up in a reboot of Marvel's Fantastic Four property in the movies, turning one of the quartet — Johnny Storm — from blond and blue-eyed to black.

The changes in a new FF movie are an interesting case of irony: Marvel's cancelled the FF in comics proper, most likely as - but not limited to - a move designated to protest the new movie. It could have something to do with the changes to Human Torch, but also with the possibility the film's screenplay is terrible, which would be ironic given how bad and knee-jerk the writers for the comics have become, ditto the editors.

Noah Berlasky, author of the upcoming "Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948," said portions of the largely white, male comic book audience don't want favored characters to change.

"Changing people's race or changing people's gender can feel more threatening or a bigger deal than changing Thor into a frog," said Berlasky, referencing a popular storyline in which the Norse god transforms into an amphibian. "Characters are always changing, but there are cultural lenses which make it seem like a bigger deal if Johnny Storm is black."

"Favored"? Is that supposed to imply 3rd tier heroes are fair game no matter how offensive a send off for the white heroes becomes, as seen in Identity Crisis with the Silver Age Atom (and his ex-wife) and Firestorm, and in Countdown with Blue Beetle? Because "favored" could easily allude to the major heroes, and certainly isn't clear here. At DC, what's frustrating about their weak changes is how adamant they are to go along with them - as seen at the time Kyle Rayner became Green Lantern for a decade - no matter how poor the storytelling was before and after the change, and this problem has persisted with various other characters.

Movies based on superheroes, like Marvel's The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and DC's Man of Steel and upcoming Superman vs. Batman: Dawn of Justice, which will feature DC's trinity: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, are driving a new audience to comic books. That surge has comic book companies are looking to have characters that those fans can relate to, said Cheryl Lynn Eaton, head of the Ormes Society, which promotes black female comic creators and the inclusion of black women in the comics industry.

Now it becomes pure comedy gold, because sales figures - not evident here - don't reflect that. And Marvel's become such a closed room, very few women save for selective choices are bound to get in. As I've said before, if a black scriptwriter came along these past several years and wanted to restore the Spider-marriage along with coherency to the MCU, he/she would find their work flatly rejected.

"We are dealing with basically the modern myths, with stories that are going to be told for decades, and they shape the way we view ... our world in a way," Eaton said. "The stories of Superman, the story of Batman, we're going likely to be telling them 40 years from now, and we've already been telling them for decades. ... They are telling us sort of how to live life and how we relate in this world, so I think it's important for everyone, for people of different backgrounds, to have a say."

Of course, but the problem is, they're not getting that say in mainstream, which has become increasingly insular and unwelcome. In fact, Dwayne McDuffie was fired from JLA by Dan DiDio several years ago over a thoughtcrime.

There've been black comic book characters for decades, but rarely have they been upfront in flagship titles. The first black character to headline his own comic book was Dell Comics' Western hero and gunfighter Lobo in 1965, whose series sold poorly and was canceled after two issues.

Do they mean flagship superhero titles? For heaven's sake, this only obscures the importance of touting books based on the merits of scriptwriting.

Marvel introduced the world to Samuel Wilson as the Falcon, the comic's first African-American superhero, in 1969 as a sidekick to Captain America. The Black Panther, who had been introduced as a supporting character in Fantastic Four in 1966, was actually an African king, not an American. The self-titled comic book "Luke Cage, Hero for Hire" debuted in 1972, featuring a "Blaxploitation" character with an exaggerated Afro, a catchphrase "Sweet Christmas!" and super strength as the result of a prison experiment. In 1977, DC Comics introduced Black Lightning, a schoolteacher who gains electrical powers and becomes a superhero.

In 1993, Milestone Media became the first major comic book imprint to feature almost all non-white lead characters. The eponymous Hardware and Static were black. "Xombi" was Korean American. Heroes of every race, creed, color and sexual orientation populated the "Blood Syndicate," "Heroes" and the "Shadow Cabinet," who have been absorbed into the DC pantheon.

Comic books companies need to recognize the impact these characters have before they change them back to their default identities, Eaton said.

If they wanted to, they could recognize them long before shoehorning them into the roles of established heroes.

"That having Sam Wilson become Captain America and having a woman become Thor, you're stating that everyone is equal and that race, gender shouldn't not limit you, and that you're just as good as the heroes we've had. But if you pull these symbols away from them after a short period of time, you're kind of going back on what you're saying," she said.

No, they're stating that the costume is more important than the character wearing it. Otherwise, they'd emphasize Sif as her own agency, and not go to all that trouble putting a woman into the role of a man bearing a masculine name.

Alonso said they haven't written an end to Wilson's time as Captain America.

"We have not discussed at this point the end of Sam's journey," he said. "That's not been the topic of discussion yet, so we don't' have a clean and easy way out. We've just got a great landscape ahead of us to tell great stories."

What if anyone reading decides they're not telling great stories but rather, biding for time in their quest to see what sticks to the wall? In the end, that's bound to be the case, but they won't admit it.

Labels: bad editors, Captain America, dc comics, Fantastic Four, islam and jihad, marvel comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, Superman