People have always been hypocrites. Even the best among us have our moments. With the invention of the internet and the mental diarrhea that has come with it, however, you would think not a whole lot could shock me anymore. Oh, that it was true. The more people blog, tweet and update their statuses (statusies? statusi?), the more stupidity and hypocrisy I become aware of and, recently, both have reached ridiculous new lows.
As a fan of movies, I tend to read my fair share of fan sites, perusing rumors about upcoming films. When the film, “The Last Airbender,” was announced a while back, under the direction of the great M. Night Shyamalan no less, fans of the cartoon upon which it is based had reactions ranging from excitement to dread. I was aware of the cartoon and its reputation for being a quality production with first-rate storytelling, but I had never, and still have not, ever watched an episode.
Once the film was cast, however, talk turned mostly negative. The main character of the cartoon is boy of Asian descent, but the powers that be in Hollywood cast a Caucasian to fill the role. I didn’t care, really. Not then. I wasn’t invested in the characters and assumed, right or wrong, that Shyamalan and his casting director were more concerned with acting ability than ethnicity. Seemed reasonable to me.
Then, more furor broke out over Jake Gyllenhaal being cast as “The Prince of Persia.” Both movies were drawing cries of racism. Why cast a white man as a Persian? Why cast a white boy as an Asian? In no time at all, there were blogs, critics and even political cartoons calling for boycotts. Spend your money elsewhere, they say. Show them you won’t stand for this.
Again, I was not invested in the characters at all so, while I understood what folks were getting at, neither were films I planned to see.
Did I mention that I’m also a comic book fan? Well, I am. Over the last couple of years, I’ve watched DC Comics kill off several classic characters with the express purpose of turning their costumes and titles over to more ethnic replacements. Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, was replaced my Jamie Reyes, a younger Latino hero. The Question (a Caucasian male, Vic Sage) died and was replaced by a Latino lesbian (double points!), and Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond) was replaced by Jason Rusch, an African American who received Ronnie’s powers and hero identity. Ray Palmer, the Atom, didn’t die, but he did pass on his superhero identity to Ryan Choi, an Asian character who quickly found a great deal of acceptance among fans of The Atom. Now, no one likes it when their heroes die, but sometimes titles need a shake-up. The status quo needs a jolt once in a while. That’s what good stories are made of. Besides, in comics, no one ever stays dead. We’ll no doubt see Ted Kord and Vic Sage alive again. Heck, Ronnie Raymond is already back from the grave!
The only thing that bothered me about all that is that it seemed cheap, as if DC Comics was saying, “Hey, minorities! Come look what we did for you! We shoehorned some of YOUR people into the legacies of some of our C-list heroes!” Aside from being an obvious ploy to reach a new demographic, it offended me on another level. Why do African-American kids have to settle for a black version of an iconically white hero? When I was a kid, I liked to pretend I was on of those costumed heroes. Why should a little Asian boy or girl have to imagine being the “replacement Atom?”
There are, of course, exceptions to that sort of nonsense. John Stewart, a Green Lantern, was not a replacement for a white character, but a companion who was a hero in his own right. Even as a white man, I’ve often felt that John Stewart is a better character than Hal Jordan, the “iconic” Green Lantern. Stewart is not a solid, interesting “black” character, but a solid, interesting character, period. I think Ryan Choi was headed in that direction, as well, before he was unceremoniously killed in a recent comic. Likewise, Cassandra Cain as Batgirl carved out her own place in the Batman family of characters, helped no doubt by the amount of time comics had gone without a Batgirl. Like John Stewart and Ryan Choi, Cassandra was a good character who wasn’t just a ploy to sell a Batman comic to a certain demographic.
Now, let’s hop back to movies. Recently, there has been a push via Twitter to get Donny Glover, a talented comedic actor, who just so happens to be African-American, cast as Peter Parker in the upcoming Spider-man reboot. Everyone from celebrities to comic book writers and artists jumped on the bandwagon, chiming in how great they thought it would be to see a black Peter Parker on the big screen. I, however, wholeheartedly disagree, and I will tell you why.
Peter Parker is an icon. He’s a nerdy white kid from Queens, just like Bruce Wayne is a Caucasian sociopath from Gotham. In spite of this, people all over the internet are spouting off about how the character is just a kid from Queens… he doesn’t have to be white. I would agree with you that Spider-man does not have to white, nor does Spider-man have to be Peter Parker. But the character of Peter Parker is a white kid who lives with his shriveled aunt and can’t seem to catch a break. He’s an icon. You want a black Spider-man, I say go for it. It’s a reboot anyway. Set the story a few years in the future and show Pete and MJ settling down. Peter wants to retire, so he picks the best person to take over as Spidey and, using his scientific whatchamacallit, finds a way to give his powers to Donny Glover’s new character. Problem solved.
This whole thing has changed my opinion about “The Last Airbender,” too. That character is every bit as iconic to his fans, as Spidey is to me. The character is Asian. Get an Asian to play him. Can’t find a Persian actor to play the lead in “Prince of Persia?” Don’t make the movie. And, by the way, I wasn’t that upset about Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury since the Ultimate version was based on him anyway, but… I’ve changed my mine on that, too. Marvel fans want 616 continuity not crappy Ultimate universe retreads that have only been around a handful of years. Nick Fury is a white guy. Old. With a patch and a cigar.
What blows my mind is that some of the same people who flipped their wigs about a white kid being cast as the lead in the Airbender flick are all for Donny Glover playing Peter Parker. Um, hello? Wake up and smell the hypocrisy. Either we want the best actor for the job, or we want the iconic version of the character. Now, if they wanted to use John Stewart as the Green Lantern for the upcoming movie, and someone cast him as a white guy, all hell would break loose. If, instead of Wesley Snipes, we had Zac Efron as Blade? Riots! Heidi Klum as Storm in the X-men franchise? Protests galore. So why is it a terrible thing to make an iconically black character white, but okay to make an iconically white hero black?
It isn’t. So let’s put a sock in the hypocrisy. If you want a black Spider-man there are ways to go about it. Make him someone other than Peter Parker. You can be true to the character and still have a killer franchise that will change the face (no pun intended) of the Spidey franchise. Are their exceptions? Sure. You want to do a Batgirl movie? You can go with Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain or Stephanie Brown, but if you go with Cassandra, she better be played by an Asian actress. Cassandra is an icon. Her character is Asian. You want Green Lantern? Go with Hal, John, Guy, Kyle or any of the multitudes of aliens who wear the ring. But if you go with John Stewart, you need an African-American actor. It’s who the character is. Atom? Ray Palmer or Ryan Choi? If you use Ryan, don’t forget that he’s Asian.
And Peter Parker is white.
If casting a white actor to play an Asian or Persian character is racist, then so is casting an African-American as Peter Parker. If it’s all about the costume and powers, and nothing else matters, you can’t complain if they cast against type.
So which will it be? I know where I stand. As a fan, I want to see the iconic versions of the characters I love coming to life on the big screen. I don’t want a French Thor, a white Luke Cage, a male Wonder Woman, or a purple Superman. I don’t want a homeless Batman, a straight Northstar or a Green Arrow that votes Republican. I want the real deal, the classic versions of the icons I’ve spent most of my life reading about.
