10 Ways To Fix The Biggest Superhero Movie Problems

7. Let The Comics Themselves Set The Racial Tone

I€™m not a violent man, but I would very much like to meet the guy who argued that Donald Glover should be Spider-Man and punch him in the face. Because he sparked a debate about race on grounds that completely miss the point and make all the arguments to follow useless. It addresses an issue at the wrong point in its development and therefore garners zero actual solvency. If the issue is that there isn€™t enough diversity in comic book movies then that speaks to a lack of diversity in the source material, if you don€™t address the source then the problem never gets addressed. For all the arguments that comic books are progressive in their storytelling, there is an extreme lack of racial representation and reasonable examples of gender equality. By the time the decision to make Johnny Storm black in the films is made it is too late, and the comic book companies are simply pandering in order to expand their movie going audience, if you read the comics then it sucks to be you. Marvel has had decades to create more minority characters and responsibly used female characters; instead we have stereotypical minorities and a collection of super sluts. The attempts to make a change along those lines have been few and far between and often times plain disgusting. The Truth and Blue Marvel books are the biggest offenders in terms of shining a light on African American characters, complete with at least an African American creator or two. However the results were deplorable, they turned the Super Soldier program into an allegory for one of the most heinous scientific efforts in American history (The Tuskegee Experiment), and decided that it would be cool that the most powerful hero of all time was Black, but a complete coward. Thanks but no thanks. The argument has been made that if you want more diverse comic book movies then they should make more diverse comics, that argument goes unanswered because it would take actual work. We live in a convenience heavy, quick fix society and this is what that attitude looks like. Idris Elba was cast as Hiemdall in Thor, and Marvel dared us to get upset. They were prepared to get on their high horse and disguise their efforts to get black people to care about the film by hiding behind being progressive. Here€™s the problem, there is a pantheon of black gods in Marvel Comics, their Egyptian of Course but the problem is (you guessed it) they are pretty much represented as villains. Yeah, all the polytheistic gods are represented in Marvel comics at one point or the other, but only the black ones are inherently evil. If Marvel wants to claim the moral high ground of racial progress, they might want to stop being racist first, it couldn€™t hurt.