The Four Color Media Monitor

Level has a history article about Black characters seen in past comics, and how they evolved, which unfortunately lack certain objectivity in its approach. Specifically, how it references the PC changes like race-swapping made in the past decade or so:

After Timely Comics came Atlas Comics in the 1950s, Atlas gave us the African tribal-chief “Waku, Prince of the Bantu,” one of four stories in each volume of Jungle Tales (Sept. 1954 — Sept. 1955). Marvel’s first Black supporting character was Gabe Jones in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos №1.

That was when Nick Fury was white (he still had an eye patch). Though he had his moments, Gabe was far less a stereotype than Whitewash Jones. In time, Gabe appeared on-screen in Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011. He was a graduate of Howard University and spoke fluent German, which allowed him to decipher instructions on Nazi tanks. He was still a mere private despite his college degree.

[...] There are many characters I missed. Lothar was among the first Black characters to appear in the Mandrake the Magician comic strip. The Falcon first appeared in Captain America in 1969 and substituted for the real Cap several times. To the chagrin of many, Sam Wilson has picked up the shield of Captain America, and a Black man will star as Captain America in Captain America: Brave New World, which is due out in February 2025. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has given the world a Black Heimdall and several other Black Asgardians. Both Sue and Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four have been portrayed by Black actors (Jessica Alba and Michael B. Jordan).

Sounds like somebody doesn't have much love for Steve Rogers, and accepted Sam taking up the shield unquestioned, even if it all came at Steve's expense, which it tragically did. If it's really such a big deal Sam become Cap - this despite how Steve, unlike Sam, didn't have built-in flying equipment - so be it, but why must Steve's background be de facto retconned so that he's more of a Nazi than a USA patriot? And why must Sam be exploited as a supporter for illegal immigration in stories so noticeably forced? And is turning Nick Fury, Sue and Johnny Storm, and Heimdall into black men and women really that big a deal? Point: in the comics, and even the movies of recent, this kind of stuff has not been merit-based in terms of story writing, which lacks discussion in the essay. And the writer keeps up his contrived charade with the following, which becomes quite telling what's wrong at the end:

By now, we’re used to seeing Black heroes, villains, and even bystanders in comics and films, but remember, this wasn’t always the case. I still remember when New York was all-white, as were Paradise Island, Gotham City, and Metropolis. Introducing Black characters has not come without resistance, especially when a previously white character like Sgt. Fury or Sue Storm turned Black.

Despite the reluctance of some fanboys, comic books and films based on comics have become more representative of America and the world, which has to be a good thing. They are less stereotypical and often unique, like Mr. Glass in the Unbreakable film trilogy, which is not based on comics but offers a thorough deconstruction.

I don’t read comics anymore, though I’m a buff of the films derived from them. I appreciate seeing characters that look like me, though they may have an extra ability or two.

Wow. He's no longer even a comics reader, and apparently only cares about the movies. And while it's okay to appreciate having characters around that look like you, it's not only to belittle the white characters and replace them almost wholesale to get to that point. That black Firestorm introduced even before DC's Identity Crisis took a horrific toll on morale never got anywhere back in the day, and has largely vanished since. One can only wonder if the writer believes the character, whose name was Jason Rusch, should be brought back without any consideration for the dignity of Ronnie Raymond as a character. I'd also point out that if Unbreakable was really so bent on deconstruction, isn't that dismaying?

It's also monumentally offensive how the writer says fanboys are "reluctant" when years before, they welcomed Black Panther, Robbie Robertson, Misty Knight, Black Lightning, Storm, Vixen and Luke Cage with open arms and no opposition. Why, they were even fine with introducing Monica Rambeau as a successor to Mar-Vell of the Kree, taking up the Capt. Marvel codename in 1982, all because Marvel wanted to retain use of the name, even if it kept DC from using it again for Billy Batson, whom they'd acquired along with a few other Fawcett characters in the Bronze Age. Despite what's claimed, "representation" remains superficial at worst, and most of the black characters introduced as part of DC/Marvel's woke directions don't seem to come from backgrounds like Cameroon heritage, or even the Central African Republic. What's the use of this futile charade where we're lectured that fanboys supposedly don't want POC characters, when past introductions that were far more plausible and organic prove otherwise? We accepted when Stan Lee did it, for example, because he'd written his creations organically back in the day. We don't accept these new characters replacing white ones in the classic costumes because they, by contrast, don't stand on their own, and besides, it's all just caring about said costume, not the characters wearing them, who end up serving as political mouthpieces for the modern writer's repellent leftist politics.

All this, of course, is precisely why Marvel/DC products are collapsing today, and have long become irrelevant in an age where contrived writing takes the place of plausible writing. Regrettably, these would-be commentators won't understand any of that.

Labels: Black Panther, dc comics, marvel comics, msm propaganda, Nick Fury, politics