I just saw a Nathan Jones WWE interview that makes me wonder if McGuinness took the inspiration for that famous panel from this real life experience in jail that Nathan narrates. Warning, the interview's narration is pretty graphic.
The fight description starts at the 8:17 mark in the video. For some reason the forum is not taking the time command.
Last edited by Thor-El; 12-07-2019 at 07:34 AM.
So the latest rumor is that Steven Yeun, the pizza delivery boy turned hero from The Walking Dead is being cast as Namor.
https://fanfest.com/2019/12/06/marve...perhero-namor/
Why would Marvel want to cast an oriental actor as rumored in the first place when Namor's only oriental culture link is his eyes. Atlantis was never linked to the oriental culture, more to the Roman/Greek culture than anything else and I believe Everett was just mixing it up giving Namor slanted eyes but also red hair for a race you couldn't specifically pinpoint to anyone on the surface. Namor has also often been portrayed with blue eyes and big and tall so a white guy would be closer to that archetype than an oriental one. I don't mind Namor being cast as a mixed actor like The Rock or Jason Momoa but the physicality that the character requires doesn't matches most oriental actors, at least not anyone I've seen rumored.
Last edited by Thor-El; 12-07-2019 at 08:29 AM.
Everett's Namor is influenced by elves and sprites or even older illustrations of Loki in storybooks of the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was to give him a slightly strange, otherworldly, mythological look. His winged feet also add to this look, as many mythic heroes have winged shoes, most famously Perseus. Over the years people have taken Namor's look to being a sort of coded view or stand in of an asian character, particularly an asian person living and dealing with life in a western society. I don't agree with this view at all, but people see characters through their own lenses and that's fine with me. Sort of how the X-man can be a stand in for issues dealing with gay people or african americans, depending on the decade or story.
Namor is definitely a mixed race hero, and it's one of the things that make him interesting, but the races that are mixed and not asian races. I've seen people on twitter/tumblr be outraged at even the idea of Namor not being portrayed as an asian man, and huge arguments about race and white washing and all kinds of things. It's definitely a can of worms and can cause all kinds of toxic behaviour online.
It can come down to whether you believe Namor is or isn't technically a certain race in universe, or whether you view him as a stand in or "coded" as a certain race in storytelling.
Technically, in universe, his father was a white European, and his mother (and all Atlanteans) are descendants of ancient European, vaguely Mediterranean, or indo-European stock. Whichever they are, they are not east asian.
I have zero issue with Namor being played by and asian actor, but I have yet to see an example of an actor that fits Namor's look imo. Steven Yeun certainly doesn't.
Last edited by Doombot; 12-07-2019 at 03:41 PM.
I say Namor and Northstar are related due to temperament, head shape and pointed ears!
After reading some pages of Aero series, do you have some opinion about the fact they paint atlanteans as opresors that tried to exterminate all the other subacuatic species ?
What are the other species? I'm unfamiliar with Aero, so I'm not sure which species they are using or have introduced.
Atlanteans are human, so any natural human interaction between nation, tribes and ethnicities is going to rear it's head, especially war, as it does between Atlanteans, Lemurians and the Barbarian hordes.
Ah okay. I'm not sure what their part in the story is, but in my own headcanon I have Namor and Atlantis forever at odds with mermaids, merfolk, sirens etc as they are all bastard children of the god Triton and a true Siren (and/or multiple sirens). They are all beautiful but inherently vicious and predatory. In a story idea I had, Namor would hunt them, as he sees them as an ocean scourge. Now for what Marvel has officially done, I'm not sure, but I can see Atlanteans at the very least, not liking Sirenas/Merfolk.
Last edited by Doombot; 12-07-2019 at 05:53 PM.
I don't have any issue with it either. The MCU is set on an Earth different from that of Earth 616 first of all, so inevitably there will be differences. At the same time though, if someone were to ask me "Is Namor meant to be an Asian character?" I'm not sure how to respond to that. I mean, from what I recall, he wasn't born in or near Asia, and I don't think either of his parents could definitively identified as having an Asian background either. I know that a few people have said that his eyes and general expression "look Asian," but honestly, at least if you ask me, Namor is pretty too far removed from a "traditional" human background to be called any human label that applies to real life humans, being the Atlatean/human/mutant hybrid he is. I'm not saying he can't count as a human or person, though I guess I'm trying to say that, respectfully, his case is more... complex to just be simply labelled "Asian," if you know what I mean.
Last edited by Electricmastro; 12-07-2019 at 05:55 PM.
I agree with you. Namor and his lineage are complex, which is part of what makes him interesting.
Over the years, his eyes always come up as a reason he must be asian or of asian descent, which only betrays ignorance of the fact the character's design was meant to look more elvish than anything. If people choose to see Namor as an analogue for an asian man, or asian hero, that's their right and it's fine. But sometimes the argument gets nasty, which is just a byproduct of the online world.
Last edited by Doombot; 12-08-2019 at 12:52 AM.
I personally feel Namor is the first biracial superhero, and the Atlanteans are POC coded, more like Inuit or other Indigenous people who have a connection to the oceans like pacific islanders, etc. The influence of the Roman stuff definitely came from the the myth of Atlantis. However even in the early comics Namor speaks of returning to his tribe, the ice palace, all would be subtle references to the people who lived near the northern poles. It would not be too far to think that Everett came up with his own southern tribe of people. Also the references that they were making war on the "white people" not just surface men, were all there. Namor may be "white passing" because of his father but to say he is a white hero is once again ignoring the Atlanteans are their own people, yes they are blue but even when they are out of the ocean they are a mix of races. As for Namor being Asian, I feel that Daniel Henney would make a great Namor but that's just my fancast. Not to mention as recent as 2019 he was mistaken for being Asian because the American soldiers did not recognize him in Marvel Comics Presents #1. That being said, if I could have chosen Namor, Momoa was him, but it's too late because Aquaman did take alot from Namor, including changing their comic character to an actor who seriously if he was in Namor's outfit with pointed ears and wings, would have looked like Namor.
"No one should ever question where my allegiance lies." - Namor of Atlantis