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[QUOTE=JudicatorPrime;5582198]I just hope that they are either working with members of the Filipino community -- [B]or better still, have someone from the community on the creative team[/B]. And I pray Marvel doesn't reduce the character to pro forma references to Manila or lumpia, followed by 9,000 panels of bland, generic character content that could have just as easily been used for any character, irrespective of ethnicity or background.[/QUOTE]
The creator of Ari Agbayani, Alyssa Wong, is Filipino-American, with Chinese and Spanish ancestry as well. Aside from Ari, she co-wrote along with Greg Pak, Filipino superhero Wave's story in the backup to the Aero series. Sidebar: what I like about Wave is that Pak based her not from Manila, but Cebu City from the the Visayas in the middle of the Philippines (and who speaks the Cebuano or Bisayan language, a dialect of which my late paternal grandfather spoke). So she's from another part of my country (fortunately I haven't seen much of the counter "Manila imperialism" reaction to her) and is trilingual: English, Tagalog (Filipino), and Cebuano (Bisayan).
[URL="https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/writer-alyssa-wong-on-welcoming-aero-and-wave-to-the-marvel-universe"]Writer Alyssa Wong on Welcoming Aero and Wave to the Marvel Universe[/URL]
On her Twitter account she [URL="https://twitter.com/crashwong/status/1401223051925069825"]recounted[/URL] the reaction to news of Ari Agbayani.
"Good morning! I woke up to a big response to our new Fil Am hero, and I'd like to thank you for sharing your voices with us.
I'd also like to clarify something about her full name, which is Arielle Agbayani. She's named after a few Fil Am friends, with help from my Fil Am fam."
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I'm glad that Marvel brought in queer creators and creators of color to help make these new characters and that they might get more work at Marvel as a result. I'm glad that they are adding more diverse characters. I am not a fan of characters whose identities have made them the victims of the systemic bigotry of the US government taking inspiration from and borrowing the name of Captain America and dressing themselves in nationalistic garb.
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Seems like the usual normie fans who'll never touch or dare try a modern comic book in their life complaining about things they don't understand. Often with prejudice and anger for no real reason.
And then on the other hand you have people who just seem to hate America forgetting the nuance of Captain America and don't seem to have any hope for the future of the nation.
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[QUOTE=Dante Milton;5582333]I'm glad that Marvel brought in queer creators and creators of color to help make these new characters and that they might get more work at Marvel as a result. I'm glad that they are adding more diverse characters. [B]I am not a fan of characters whose identities have made them the victims of the systemic bigotry of the US government taking inspiration from and borrowing the name of Captain America and dressing themselves in nationalistic garb.[/B][/QUOTE]
I understand..
But as my grandmother used to say, just because sometimes demons show up when you pray for angels, don't let those buggers define your faith. With respect to Captain America, I think it's a matter of passing along the ideal that America represents, not its history or even its present day mores. I'm not a big fan of mantle-jacking, but not to feature POCs as Captain America presents a much bigger issue in my mind.
If anyone anywhere can be Captain Universe, then why not Captain America? If it was up to me, I'd probably merge the two concepts: A crisis occurs, help is needed urgently and in a flash of light someone unexpectedly becomes some version of a superpowered Captain America. And since there can be multiple Captain Universes at one time -- life and death threats are a universal phenomenon, after all -- so, too, could there be multiple Captain Americas. We keep Steve around, but we also give writers a chance to show what the American ideal represents through the prism of minorities and marginalized peoples, all of whom are no less proud to be an American.
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[QUOTE=The Negative Zone;5582342]And then on the other hand you have people who just seem to hate America forgetting the nuance of Captain America and don't seem to have any hope for the future of the nation.[/QUOTE]
It can feel hollow since no one else seems to believe in the future either. It's more important that everyone [I]else[/I] has hope. Makes their lives easier.
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The majority of "outrage" about this stuff isn't from anyone reading the books, it's from people watching Gator idiots whine about it on Youtube and Twitter.
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[QUOTE=The Negative Zone;5582342]Seems like the usual normie fans who'll never touch or dare try a modern comic book in their life complaining about things they don't understand. Often with prejudice and anger for no real reason.
And then on the other hand you have people who just seem to hate America forgetting the nuance of Captain America and don't seem to have any hope for the future of the nation.[/QUOTE]
This is usually the case with these things, they'll whine about not getting original characters but are never around when we do get them. If they spent even half that energy supporting characters like Wave then we'd get somewhere.
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And why does it even matter to these people whether the new heroes are "original" or not
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[QUOTE=Mik;5584934]And why does it even matter to these people whether the new heroes are "original" or not[/QUOTE]
Unoriginal characters are less likely to show up in adaptations and are fairly easy to shelve when you still have the original.
It's like how [B]The Spectacular Spider-Man[/B] didn't last long enough to introduce the Hobgoblin despite plans for it.
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[QUOTE=PCN24454;5584948]Unoriginal characters are less likely to show up in adaptations and are fairly easy to shelve when you still have the original.
It's like how [B]The Spectacular Spider-Man[/B] didn't last long enough to introduce the Hobgoblin despite plans for it.[/QUOTE]
But haven't a lot of them had more success than newer ones not based on older ones?
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[QUOTE=PCN24454;5584948]Unoriginal characters are less likely to show up in adaptations and are fairly easy to shelve when you still have the original.
It's like how [B]The Spectacular Spider-Man[/B] didn't last long enough to introduce the Hobgoblin despite plans for it.[/QUOTE]
[img]https://i.imgflip.com/5dbgyx.jpg[/img]
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[QUOTE=Mik;5584954]But haven't a lot of them had more success than newer ones not based on older ones?[/QUOTE]
That's not saying much.
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[QUOTE=PCN24454;5585423]That's not saying much.[/QUOTE]
Maybe not, but I can't recall many 'original' ones gaining nearly as much popularity as 'unoriginal' ones like Miles or Kamala
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I don't like "derivative heroes". For me, it cheapens the original product. I come from a time when, if you're inpired by another person, you create an identity that pays homage to this person, you don't try to become that person (that sounds really creepy to me). Sort of like Jeff Mace became the Patriot because he was inspired by Captain America. Even then, I prefer heroes who do their own thing. War Machine, U.S. Agent, Thunderstrike, etc... All of them, I prefered when they tried to distance themselves from the "inspiration" (Rhodey with the Waer Wear - even though it was a terrible design, I liked the idea, Walker during his Force Works phase, and Masterson's Thunderstrike was already pretty defferent from Thor, IMHO). I also don't like the dozens of GL of Earth. Pick one. However, I'm okay with replacements, when well done (a change of gender or etinicity does not, IMHO, by itself, mean anything intresting).
Also, I believe heroes are special people, and am completely unmoved by the everybody/anybody can be a hero trend.
So, as the general premiss of the series doesn't do much for me, and the designs I'vbe seen have been really piss poor, this is an easy pass for me.
Peace
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I've never understood the problem with those kinds of characters. So what if they have similar designs and abilities? I like seeing different interpretations of the same template.
I don't know what you mean by "anybody can be a hero".