Philip Schweier on Biracial Ultimate Spider-Man and Black Perry White

Philip Schweier is a long-time writer for the Comic Book Bin, penning the column "Phil's Bubble" on a regular basis. Schweier also writes about comic book history and pop culture.  His latest installment of Phil's Bubble is "Losing the Race" in which he discusses changing the skin color of  comic book characters.  He writes:

In some instances, race is germaine to a character’s personality; Luke Cage, for instance. But for the most part, race, in a fictional context, should not be an issue. These are make-believe characters who do not exist in the real world.

Schweier uses the recent announcement that Laurence Fishburne will play Perry White in the Superman film franchise reboot, The Man of Steel (2013) and Marvel's new Black and Latino Spider-Man in the publisher's Ultimate Spider-Man comic book series.

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I've noticed that the change in a character's gender, ethnicity, or skin color is most controversial with comic book fans when the change is from White character to Black.  I think this has less to do with the conservatism of comic book fans, who are often notoriously against change, and more to do with the straight-up racism of some of them.

I think that is reflective of the industry in general.  DC Comics is relaunching and launching 52 different comic book titles from the end of August through September.  None of those series has an African-American writer, including the three series that will star Black characters.

Marvel is the same.  President Barack Obama has made several appearances in various Marvel comic books, but there are currently no African-American writers working on an ongoing series for Marvel.  Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King are often brought up when discussing the X-Men, yet in 50 years of publication, the African character, Storm, is the only regular character of color in the X-Men.  There have been a smattering of others here and there, but it's been pitiful.

Happy Loving Day

Loving Day is an unofficial holiday and annual celebration held on June 12, which is the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Loving vs. Virginia which struck down anti-miscegenation laws.  Anti-miscegenation laws criminalized interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of two different "races."

The plaintiffs in Loving vs. Virginia were a black woman, Mildred Delores Jeter Loving, and her husband, Richard Perry Loving, a white man.  The defendant was the state of Virginia because of its Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which criminalized marriages between white and non-white persons.  It's kind a funny to write about this considering that we have in Barack Obama, a "biracial" child of a white woman and a black (African) man.

So today, let's remember that love doesn't always care about quantities of melanin.

More DWI Hijinks

OK.  Abbeville, Louisiana - last weekend (around June 4th).  52-year-old Gregory Menard attempts to pass several vehicles in a curve "clearly marked as a no passing zone."  Menard's vehicle slammed head on into a car driven by 23-year-old Emily Landry of Lafayette.

Menard sustained moderate injuries in the crash, but a passenger in his vehicle, Gregory's brother, 55-year-old Kenneth Menard of Abbeville, was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle.  Kenneth was pronounced dead at the scene.

From The Advertiser:  Trooper Stephen Hammons, a public affairs officer for the Louisiana State Police, said in a news release Menard was suspected of being impaired and was placed under arrest for DWI 4th offense, passing in a no-passing zone, vehicular homicide and vehicular negligent injury.

4th offensive DWI.  Hmmm.  I wonder if Gregory Menard had to inform his neighbors of his presence in the neighborhood?

I Wishes You a Very Merry Christmas

This is I Reads You's second Christmas, and I am as thankful as ever for you, dear reader.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Take this Watchmen and Shove It

Wired.com's Underwire column offered a shocking tidbit last week.  Apparently, DC Comics offered to return the rights to Watchmen to Alan Moore, if Moore agreed to write some prequels and sequels to the landmark, legendary, acclaimed comic book miniseries turned graphic novel.  Moore rejected it:

“So I just told them that if they said that 10 years ago, when I asked them for that, then yeah it might have worked,” he said. “But these days I don’t want Watchmen back. Certainly, I don’t want it back under those kinds of terms.”

Speculation is that DC Comics' new regime is ready to move forward with new Watchmen projects.  As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to Watchmen, DC should just move on!

Green Lantern Movie Costume Controversy in a Box

For filming, Reynolds' actual costume that he wears on set is full of sensors, much like the suits that athletes wear when lending their on-field moves to video games. After the scenes are shot, the sensors allow for the costume to be added via post-production technology. The reveal of Reynolds' computer-created costume has garnered reactions that range from praise to saying the thing makes Reynolds look a little "silly."

Thus, begins the controversy over Ryan Reynold's Green Lantern costume for the much anticipated Summer 2011 superhero movie.  You can read the rest of the article at Yahoo.

Is this Firestorm pantaloons... firestorm all over again?

Comic book movies are not comic books.  Movies are a different medium from comic books, and the people involved in making movies have different ideas about the hows, whys, and whats of superheroes than comic book creators do.  Do I really have to say that?  All these comic book fan(atic)s need to get over themselves.  They don't call the shots in Hollywood; they barely do in the comic book industry.  Or is it that they just love to complain.

I Dream of Mark Millar - An I Reads You Juniors Special

Two nights ago, I had a strange dream, and Mark Millar was involved.

I dreamed that someone had built a small comic book store on a large tract of property belonging to one of my relatives.  One day, I stopped by the store and Mark Millar was there.  He was so cool, and he gave me lots of swag from the movie based on his comic book, Kick Ass, mostly posters.

Anyway, I came across this article from The Independent (UK) that offers some detail about Millar's youth and early comic book work.  Much of the article is about Millar's Hollywood experience.  I expected Millar's ego and self-regard, both of which are probably now self-aware, but in the article, he comes across as just a regular-guy-turned-writer.

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More Wis-dumb from Jo(k)e Quesada

I found the quote below at Comic Book Movie. It is a quote from Joe Quesada who says that the success of the films made from Marvel Comics' various franchises is that Marvel's comic book writers are involved:

"But the beauty of the Marvel films now, is that guys who work in comics are involved," said Joe Quesada. "That's more than we could have said ten years ago about comic book movies that were getting made."

"Matt Fraction is a perfect example," he continued. "He got to sit down with Jon Favreau and Kevin Feige and discuss the new Iron Man movie. Being the current 'Iron Man' writer, Matt could offer a unique perspective on the character. Bendis is involved in the Marvel Creative Committee, as am I. I'm sure, from time to time, we'll be bringing more creators in as projects call for them. More and more, the Marvel film world reaches out to the comics world, and now you're starting to see that other studios and comic companies are taking note and are looking to copy that formula in some way."

Matt Fraction - give me a fucking break! If Hollywood wants insights into Marvel Comics characters, they should be talking to writers like Stan Lee, Steve Ditko (who probably wouldn't speak to anyone), Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Frank Miller, Walt Simonson, Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Roger Stern, and a few others who actually created and/or defined the concepts and characters that are used in superhero film franchises like Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc.