A reader defends those critical of casting an African-American actor as a “white” superhero:
While there are no doubt some genuine racists incensed by this just because Fox has cast a black man as Johnny Storm, I suspect most of the pushback really comes down to two closely related phenomena in comics fandom. First – and this you see in pretty much all fandoms – is a major concern with things staying the way they were. Fans get attached to things and worry that minor changes are going to mean more drastic changes in the future. I would compare this, for instance, for the concern raised last year about whether the next Doctor would be black or a woman. It wasn’t so much that people were opposed to a black Doctor or woman Doctor, as that they (especially original series fans) feared that it was a sign that too much had changed since “the good old days.”
Second, comic fans have adopted something of a “once bitten, twice shy” approach to most adaptations.
With one notable exception, the movie studios tend to treat comics adaptations as mindless franchises, good only for making money off of young men and teenage boys who don’t really know any better. Even series that start out strong have quickly devolved into self-parody and incoherent silliness. While the poster boy of this trend is probably the ’90s Batman franchise (especially the execrable Batman and Robin), Fox – the studio that currently owns the rights to the Fantastic Four – has gotten a huge amount of flack from fans for its treatment of the X-Men (the third X-Men film, Last Stand, is loathed by X-Men fans, and the less said about X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the better) and for its atrocious adaptation of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And that’s leaving aside the fact that Fox’s earlier Fantastic Four films were completely underwhelming.
When you combine these two factors – conservatism of fandom and distrust of adaptations – it’s easy to see why comic fans are suspicious over what they see as significant changes to the characters they love. It’s telling that so much of the criticism has focused on the Johnny Storm/Sue Storm Richardson relationship. It isn’t that fans don’t understand that interracial adoption is a thing; it’s that they are seriously worried (and, honestly, have every reason to worry) that the film’s producers simply don’t care that the two are siblings, and are going to write the relationship out of the film. Or, worse, that an idiot writer will just look at the last names and think Sue and husband Reed Richards are siblings.
Other reader responses seem to bear that analysis out:
My problem isn’t with a black actor playing Johnny Storm. My problem is with Johnny Storm having a full-blooded sister who is white, which stretches credulity even for a made-up comic book world.
Another:
I wouldn’t want a white actor playing Luke Cage, just like I think George Clooney would be ill-suited to play Martin Luther King, Jr.
Another reader directs us to an essay by Hashim R. Hathaway, who identifies himself as a man of color as well as a fanboy. He writes:
Here’s why I can’t get behind Jordan as Johnny Storm: it’s not enough. In fact, it’s so “not enough” because what some, like Louis [Falcetti], would argue as a positive step only serves to highlight just how far away we are. Kate Mara was cast as Sue Storm. Are they stepbrother and sister? Are they adopted siblings? Does it matter? In one way, it shouldn’t matter at all, but in another way, the fact that it even has to be explained shows how diversity can be forced, because suddenly we have a token black guy on a team of white superheroes. … Johnny Storm being black means there’s some hitherto-unnecessary explaining to do in various other parts of the story.
The reader adds:
Hathaway basically argues for more black characters being brought to the screen, rather than changing the race of existing characters then calling it a win for diversity. Thankfully, we will be seeing The Falcon in the new Captain America movie, and Luke Cage will be getting a Netflix series soon. As a whole, Marvel has a great record on diversity, recently introducing a team of superheroes in Young Avengers who are almost all queer (but you don’t find that out until the final issue). We just need to see some of that diversity make its way to the silver screen.
The Dish 