The most racist retcon in all of Marvel Comics history.

[Snoop Dogg]

Snap was a retcon, he was introduced as a social worker trying to help people by his creators and then retconned into an immoral, stereotypical gangster.

[Iron Maiden]

Two pages and no one addressed that Maria Stark (maiden name: Carbonell) wasn't even Latina.

Nice work.

You must have skipped over my post then.

[Iron Maiden]

It was revealed Tony was adopted in Kieron Gillen's run, not Bendis'.

But it was Bendis that wrote the back story wasn't it? I remember slogging through it in his Iron Man run.

[Frontier]

When was Tony ever not completely white?

Salvador Larroca?

[JudicatorPrime]

Clearly, you have never heard of Snap Wilson.

Yes, the Snap Wilson retcon was horrible. Period, point blank. But...

Devil's advocate: The retcon was concocted at a time when the glorification of pimps, gangsters, thugs and other social miscreants in predominantly minority communities was becoming vogue. Whether we're talking fictional characters like Superfly, or real life individuals like Iceberg Slim, Nicky Barnes and Bumpy Johnson, we can't deny their impact on both the community and pop culture. Hell, even Malcolm "Detroit Red" Little started off as a two-bit hustler and pimp before he found Allah and his divine calling as Malcolm X.

This trend would arc well into the modern era with the emergence of gangsters and drug dealers who later became well-known rappers, or strippers who pushed through the muck to become some of the biggest celebrities in the world. We have exalted them to these heights. You can't get too upset with Marvel writers for mistaking these characters as the type that most Americans, black and otherwise, see as paradigmatic. To this day there are people out there still basing their come-up off of questionable means that garner them "street cred." As perverse as it may be, through that transmogrification of values they achieve respect, love and acceptance within the community, but more importantly, outside of it.

It's possible that's all the Snap Wilson persona was intended to be: an attempt to make Sam complex and controversial, so as to appeal to readers during the height of the Blaxploitation era. They didn't want Sam to be perceived as a "cornball brother," so they gambled on making Sam less like "They Call Me Mr. Tibbs" and more like "Black Caesar" or "The Mack" ... and failed mightily in the attempt.

Yes, they were wrong for even trying. It's too bad Marvel didn't have someone like James Baldwin as a resource back then. I'm sure Mr. Baldwin would have set them straight and advised against it. Hell, any black man in a leadership position on their staff would have steered them clear of the Snap Wilson nonsense.

[JudicatorPrime]

Now that you mention it, I always envisioned Tony's family originating from Italy, Spain, or Corsica -- perhaps even further east to Greece. Never Germany, England, Scotland, or even Romania. I don't know why.

[Triniking1234]

But it was Bendis that wrote the back story wasn't it? I remember slogging through it in his Iron Man run.

Yeah. Gillen dipped after introducing Arno; Bendis introduced Amanda and Jude (a British SHIELD agent who was selling info to HYDRA) in International Iron Man.

I think I did miss that other comment in my haste.

[Maria Stark]

Two pages and no one addressed that Maria Stark (maiden name: Carbonell) wasn't even Latina.

Nice work.

She is Latina. Carbonell is a name of Spanish origin.

[Maria Stark]

I can't tell if this thread is serious or not

Yes it is. I didn't start this to waste my time, but to protest and find out if anyone else noticed it or may have some information about the reason for this retcon.

[Maria Stark]

The retcon suffers considerably because the story just isn't good.

Keep in mind that Bendis was leaving for DC roughly at about this time (I think he was briefly sick during this wasn't he?) and so he needs to wrap things up fast. Bendis needs to not only be invested in a project but he needs lead time because even he knows when there is a bad idea. He either didn't have enough time or in the process just had a case of the "**** its" and cranked stuff out until he was gone. Worth mentioning that Civil War 2 and International Iron man ran roughly at about the same time. So Bendis needs to get the adoption plot wrapped up, wants to push his pet character, get ready to go to DC, and somehow stick the landing (he didn't).

It's rushing through what should be longer and involved plots and a later writer doubling down on it.

Maybe, but Bendis' run started with this retcon and ran all the way til the end with it.
Bendis completely ignored what Gillen had established about the adoption, the flashbacks about it, on the two runs do not match at all. In fact, he only remembered that Arno ever existed, at the very end of his run. If he wanted to, he could have completely ignored it all.
I don't believe it was a last minute decision. It was absolutely intentional.

[MichaelC]

I wouldn't call it the "most racist". The Snap Wilson thing will forever have that title.

That said, I was dismayed when Stark was retconned into being not only pure white, but pure english stock. He has generally been drawn vaguely ethnic, and his mother was indeed a Carbonell. I was dismayed and surprised. When they announced that Stark would have new parents, I thought they might take this chance to make him even more clearly ethnic than he has been, maybe make him Jewish or partially Asian. Nope. They retconned him into being pure English. I wanted to puke.

[Alan2099]

I have never thought of Tony as looking vaguely ethnic.

If anything, I would have pegged his ancestry as being Italian.

[Agent Z]

What about Psylocke?

That wasn't a retcon but it was still racist.

[Tony Stark]

"Tony Stark isn't a Stark!"

God, what a dumb retcon...

Quoted for truth.

It does absolutely nothing for Iron Man as a character. Its just pointless.

Agree with both of you. It added nothing substantive to the character. They should have just left things they way they were. I think Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber and Don Heck knew what they were doing when they created Tony Stark/Iron Man. Once you start messing with a characters origin, it’s like messing with the foundation of a house.

[Drops Of Venus]

Being latin@ or of spanish descent doesn't automatically make someone non-white. There are plenty of white latin@/spanish people out there. I get if people don't like the retcon, but saying that it somehow whitewashed Tony seems like a reach to make the character be more diverse than he actually is. If Tony was supposed to be a POC latino, I'm sure that's something that would've come up by now, like it has for characters such as Miles Morales, America Chavez, Robbie Reyes, etc.