Vice: Superman Shouldn’t Be White - "Because it never completely made sense to begin with."

[Jewelsmakerguy]

I always thought Superman was Kryptonian.

 

[RockVolnutt]

Isn’t Superman’s whole origin story an allegory for Moses? Because the creators were two Jewish men?


Also:

Making Superman black fucks with his entire backstory. Being a black person, a black fucking farmer in “bleedin’ Kansas” like a race swapped Pa Kent would be brings with it a whole METRIC TON of historical baggage with it.

Are these people taking that into consideration or are we just going to give Superman a spray on tan and some “shit” to gripe about?

They aren't the first or the last to make this suggestion. Usually it comes with ideas like "and Lex Luthor should be a skinhead" which reduces an ideological conflict to a more mundane one. The idea screams "creatively bankrupt" and shows the person suggesting it doesn't get the source material. "People don't like me because I'm black" is groundbreaking social commentary apparently.

It's a loaded question when people ask "Is being (race) really essential to the character?". Probably not but next thing you know, you're getting a Batman origin where the Waynes were victims of racial violence for being rich black people and any depictions not following suit are problematic for not following this now "essential" part of the mythos that "speaks to the racial inequality of today".

 

[XVIIAbyss]

why cant he be Mexican then?

 

[UnKillFill]

Just gonna leave this here...

 

[Glad I couldn't help]

Good lord, that was poorly writen article. I think some of my brain cells died reading that article. Thanks Vice.

I don't think there is a problem with an one-off with a Black (or Brown!) Superman, like how they had a one-off where Superman landed in Soviet Ukraine. It could be interesting, in the right hands.

Unfortunately, what the writer wants to do this the name of Social Justice, which is stupid because (a) making Superman black will do absolutely nothing to fix any of the real problems Blacks face, and (b) having ethnic quotas is the arts (even commercial, lowbrow art like comics) will lead to worse art.

 

[KillThemCrackasBabies]

Why is it always blacks? Do these people have a fetish, or something?

They were Kangz

 

[That Chris Guy]

"It never made sense to begin with."

It never made sense to make a Troy TV series that cast both Achilles and Zeus as black, yet we were told to suck it up and accept it anyway.

I would impart the same advice to this author.

 

[Dropped Burner]

I don't think there is a problem with an one-off with a Black (or Brown!) Superman, like how they had a one-off where Superman landed in Soviet Ukraine. It could be interesting, in the right hands.

Superman: Red Son was pretty thunkful.
"Why don't you put the whole world in a bottle?" I mean, fuck.

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

Isn’t Superman’s whole origin story an allegory for Moses? Because the creators were two Jewish men?


Also:

Making Superman black fucks with his entire backstory. Being a black person, a black fucking farmer in “bleedin’ Kansas” like a race swapped Pa Kent would be brings with it a whole METRIC TON of historical baggage with it.

Are these people taking that into consideration or are we just going to give Superman a spray on tan and some woke “shit” to gripe about?

I remember discussing the trend of blackwashing superheroes with my brother. He said if they had made Captain America a black guy in the MCU, then his first movie would've just become a courtroom drama after the scene where he chases after the Hydra agent because 1940s New York cops would've just assumed the sprinting black man was up to no good.

 

[ZehnBoat]

why cant he be Mexican then?

he can leap over walls in a single bound

 

[RumblyTumbly]

Or fuck it. Why have white superheroes at all? Change 'em all to POC yesterday and the world would be a much better place for the children!

FOR GOD'S SAKE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!

 

[Adolf Von Merkel]

I was about to say "Morrison's Action Comic put a Black superman in one issue and nu-Earth 2 superman was black" and then I remember that woke didn't read DC capeshit until 2016.

 

[A Useless Fish]

Let's ask a random black what he thinks. With the power of his melanine, surely he will convince us why Superman should - must be black!

Traitor! Scum! Coon!

Let's hang this nigger from a tree, to defeat white supremacy!!!

 

[Bussy Catalog]

In fact, Michael B. Jordan, whose name was rumored to be on Warner Bros. list for the next Superman, indicated he would not want to play Clark Kent Superman. Instead, he would rather play the Earth-23 version of Superman, Calvin Ellis.

“I would be Calvin Ellis. There’s another version of Superman from Earth-23. I’m a comic book guy…There’s another version of Superman in another dimension that is black already in the comic books that exist. I think the comic book purists can accept that more than Clark Kent from Kansas. That’s a different thing.”

Score one for Mr. Jordan. It's so rare to see a mainstream celebrity have an an informed, level-headed take on an issue like this.

 

[Sinner's Sandwich]

Vice: "No one should be white"

 

[madethistocomment]

Score one for Mr. Jordan. It's so rare to see a mainstream celebrity have an an informed, level-headed take on an issue like this.

From everything that I've seen of Michael, he seems to have his head on straight and just seems to be a regular comics/anime geek that made it big. I hope Hollywood doesn't turn on him for that.

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

I still think the saddest part of Star Wars getting throttled back us we won't get the proposed Michael B Jordan Boba Fett movie.

 

[frozenrunner]

Imagine how fast a black Man of Steel could run from his responsibilities.

 

[Tragi-Chan]

Superman’s origin story was a slow evolution. At first he was just an advanced human. Then he was Kryptonian, but raised in an orphanage. Then the Kents appeared in later stories. The idea that Siegel and Shuster always planned Superman as an immigrant is a modern invention. In reality, this nebbish who was secretly a godlike being who doled out justice and got the girl was just an outlet for their fantasies.

I don’t think a modern Clarke Kent being black is a totally stupid idea, insofar as I don’t see why he shouldn’t be (unlike old money Bruce Wayne). But there’s no way he’s more legitimate than white Clarke.

 

[Matthew216]

These guys just keep taking. We already made diversity echo fighters out of the majority of the Marvel cast, what else do you want? Marvel's been suffering for a while because of this, do you want DC to join them?

I'm pretty sure DC WAS doing that for awhile. I recall a panel I once saw, with Wonder Woman and Batman fighting back to back, and she uses the word "Man-splaining." The thing is, I also heard that DC realized this was bad, and not only stopped, but issued an public apology to it's fans.

EDIT: Also, I believe the Justice League encountered an extremely diverse version of themselves during an alternate universe romp, Superman WAS black there, green arrow was an American Indian, Batman was the only white guy there.