By Jamil Weeks

Superhero films are meant to be fun. A release from the stress of normal everyday living. However, with comic books and the films they inspired becoming a staple in American society, the fandom has evolved into a toxic culture. The type of culture where the fans love the characters and lore so much that they have communicated threats to Hollywood executives and filmmakers over elements of these films they did not like. One of the most controversial aspects of comic book films today is the idea of race-swapping or gender-swapping characters. Production film companies, like Marvel Studios, have made it known that they are trying to show more diversity in casting. So instead of mostly white casts, they want to have films with casts that have different racial make-up than predominantly all white male casts. This is partially a response to a growing call for diversity in Hollywood, alongside the grassroots online woke movement that has seen an explosion in popularity in the mid to late 2010s to the present. With a more diverse casting model, certain characters that have typically been depicted in comic books and films as white males are now being cast by black actors or female actors. As you can imagine with today’s virulent comic book culture, these sort of character changes did not go over amongst the hardcore comic book base. Any time there is a mere suggestion of race-swapping or gender-swapping a comic book character, well-known or not, and nerd culture explodes into a symphony of hateful rhetoric as if the skies are falling around them. Whenever I come across such a vitriolic reaction online, I question why grown men and women care so much about the race or gender of a character that is not real.

Race swapping characters is not a new phenomenon in Hollywood. For decades, white actors have portrayed characters from different racial backgrounds, rather those characters were Asian, black, Latino, or Native American. In fact, this happened so frequently in Hollywood they called the term “whitewashing”. White actors literally were put on “blackface” or “yellowface” to depict non-white characters. In some cases, the characters these white actors were allowed to portray were real historical non-white characters. For a long time, this sort of practice was considered acceptable by mainstream audiences. There were anti-whitewashing campaigns that were created to combat these sorts of Hollywood casting practices, but there was never an anti-woke-like general reaction from the public as seen with the recent wave of diversity casting Hollywood has experienced in the past decade. So why such a different reaction? Why would people not be equally upset with white actors portraying real life historical figures as they are with non-white actors portraying fictional comic book characters that were traditionally white. Based on the differences in the reactions, one could conclude that the comic book world is only interested in seeing predominantly white male casts in these comic book films. However, that would be too narrow of an opinion.

Playing the devil’s advocate, many of these comic book fans are traditionalists who want to see these comic book characters and stories brought to the big screen without major changes to the source material. To want these films to closely resemble their comic book origins as much as possible is completely understandable. I also get that in some cases the altering of the race or the gender of a specific comic book character would significantly change the essence of that character. So, I get why people would be upset with making a major change to a beloved comic book character. I know this because I grew up on comic books. As a child, I had a comic book collection of DC and Marvel comics. I also grew up on comic book TV shows and movies (live action and animated) and video games that were inspired from the comic books. I still enjoy comic book movies and TV shows as an adult. I am essentially a comic book nerd. However, I am also a fan of great storytelling and acting. I am a fan of cinema first. For many years, Hollywood struggled with making quality superhero films. These films were treated as a cheap cash grab by film studios and were typically made by individuals who were either not familiar with the source material or did not understand the source material well enough to translate those stories to live action films. There were visionary filmmakers that changed the landscape of Hollywood by showing how you can treat the source material with care and make tons of money at the same time. The 21st century has been a gift for comic book aficionados who have been spoiled with great comic book films such as Spider-Man 2, The Dark Knight, Logan, and Avengers Infinity War. Some of the greatest comic book films have made significant changes from the comic books to properly adapt the stories for film treatment.

I want the characters to be portrayed by the best possible actors available. Recently it was suggested for Denzel Washington and Giancarlo Esposito to play Magneto and Professor X in the MCU version of the X-Men. There were rumblings of Michael B. Jordan playing Superman in a JJ Abrams film. LaKeith Stanfield expressed he wanted to play the Joker. The reaction to these suggestions were exactly how you would imagine based on today’s climate. Are we not to believe that these actors are great enough to do these characters justice on the big screen? I do not subscribe to the theory that great comic book casting has to be comic book accurate. I desire to watch a good film with an engaging story and the best actors to bring the story to life. Actor Jeffery Wright gave one of the most sobering and greatest portrayals of the traditionally white character, Commissioner Gordon, in 2021’s The Batman film. Samuel L. Jackson has become a staple in MCU films as Nick Fury, who also was a white character in the comics. Arguably one of the hottest actors in Hollywood today, Zendaya, became one of the most lovable characters in the latest Spider-Man films. The list goes on, but the point is that changing the race of these characters did not take away anything from the stories of the films these characters appeared in. One of the biggest counterarguments is what if you took a character, like Black Panther, who is black in the comic books and race swap that character with a white actor. My response would be that with clever writing, you could pull this off. Why? Well, it is because these characters are not real people. There have been stories in comic books where there have been animal variants of comic book characters. Thus, raising your blood pressure over a racial or gender change of these fictional characters comes across as foolish and shortsighted.

The wave of anti-wokeness that has enveloped the nation this decade is a troubling sign of deeper issues. Not saying the everyone who is a traditionalist when it comes to comic book films are racist or sexist because they are against race or gender swapping characters. However, I am willing to bet that much of the criticism is rooted in racism and sexism. Especially when you read the comments by some of these anonymous individuals online. The question people must ask themselves is would they sacrifice having the best actor portray a comic book character for comic book accuracy? The argument reminds me of the actor Demetrius Shipp, Jr. portraying 2pac in the All Eyez On Me biopic. While he looked exactly like 2pac, he failed to capture the essence of who 2pac was, which affected the overall quality of the movie. Growing up on comic books myself, I can certainly respect the opinions of those who want the films to be as faithful to the source material as possible. However, in my opinion there is no need to be so unsettled by these sorts of changes to these characters, especially before you have a chance to see the acting performance of the actors. The implications point to problems deeply rooted in our society. Why do people have a problem with diversity? Last time I checked most roles in these comic book films were still being given to white actors, which makes the backlash against the casting of anyone other than a white male for these sort of fantasy roles even more puzzling. At the end of the day this is supposed to be entertainment. Even though race swapping is nothing new in movies, it seems as if the only time people take issue with this practice is when the actor is not white. To comic book nerds reading this, it is going to be okay. Go outside, catch a breath of fresh air, and relax. Demographics are changing. Women are becoming one of the fastest grown demographics amongst comic book readers. There are stories for everyone, no matter the background, that people can enjoy.