The Minority Report! Diversity In The MU.

[JaggedFel]

That is really not all that surprising. But that hardly matters she is not white. I mean we have seen that happen before look at Hunger Games, Rue clearly described as black and yet some fans go into total racist outrage mode when she is played by a black actor.

[aja_christopher]

Those x-women you mentioned do fall into that troupe especially Armor and let's not act like most fans don't just see Yukiko as a lesbian fetish object

Korra's fanbase or some of them want to view her as someone who simply just has a tan from being in the sun too long, I linked the blog that talks about it earlier

How do Mariko, Armor, Karma, etc, fall into the brightly colored/purple streak hair trope?

So far as Korra goes, there are always going to be some fans out there who just don't get it.

[Holt]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=57012

RODERIQUE CAST AS "THE FLASH'S" JASON RUSCH

KSiteTV reports that "Supernatural" and "Godzilla" alum Luc Roderique has been cast as Jason Rusch in "The Flash." The character is set to appear in the series' tenth episode and is described as "a graduate stedent at Hudson University, he was part of Martin Stein's research team on the F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. project."

In addition to a guest-starring role in a "Supernatural" episode and a small role in "Godzilla," the half-Trinidadian, half-German actor is set to appear in another comics-based CW show: the "iZombie" pilot.

In the comics, Jason Rusch took on the mantle of Firestorm following Ronnie Raymond's death during the course of "Identity Crisis." In the New 52 launch series "The Fury of Firestorm," Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond merge to become Firestorm and played a big role in the launch of the "New 52: Futures End" weekly series.

Jason Rusch's addition to "The Flash" is understandable given the other Firestorm characters that are already slated to appear on the freshman CW series. Robbie Amell has already appeared as Ronnie Raymond, Victor Garber is set to appear as Professor Martin Stein and Danielle Panabaker's Caitlin Snow is the civilian alias of Killer Frost in the comic books, a villainous identity long connected to Firestorm. The ties to Firestorm's mythology certainly fuel speculation that a "Firestorm" television series could be the next logical extension of the CW's "Arrow"-verse.

[ExcelsiorPrime]

"Carol Danvers is finally getting the action figure she deserves"

"Carol makes her début in the Avengers Series Wave 1 of the Legends Infinite toys early next year, alongside Thor, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Machine Man and Sentry - with each figure coming with a piece of Allfather Odin to construct if you get all of them. But let's be real, although they're all lovely figures, everyone's really here for Carol. Although these are all comic-book-specific toys, presumably Hasbro will put this wave out before or around the release of Age of Ultron to capitalise on all that Avengers goodness going around.

Think about it though, in a few more years time, you'll (hopefully) have a movie Captain Marvel to put next to this one on your shelf. Awesome! Check out package shots of the rest of the wave over at Marvel Toy News, then twiddle your thumbs until early next year while you wait for these beauties to arrive. Why does it take things so long to come out!?"


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http://toybox.io9.com/carol-danvers-...1/+charliejane

[aja_christopher]

"Disney Animation's Big Hero 6: Far More Than Meets the Eye..."

"The original characters aren't different from each other like this," whispered my 13-year-old daughter about 15 minutes into the film. I'll admit that I'm a bit green when it comes to the Marvel Comics book genre, and the only thing that I knew about Big Hero 6 prior to taking my kids to see it was that the lead character was biracial, and that Baymax the inflatable robot had a Marshmallow-meets-Michelin-Tire-Man look about him....

This is the first time (another origin of sorts) that Disney Animation has presented a "biracial" central character within any of its feature length animated films. While to some this shouldn't seem like a big deal at all, to others - like my daughter, it is - because the power of film is that it represents a generation. If done well, a film will not only captivate audiences but it will effectively represent those audiences, providing them with an opportunity to see a bit of themselves up on the big screen too.

The progressive portrait of a racially blended family like the one making center-stage in Big Hero 6 didn't happen overnight. Prior to just 14 years ago (and also the same age of young Hiro) biracial and multiracial individuals were not allowed to assert their blended "two or more" racially ethnic backgrounds on the U.S. Census. Although multiracial people have been around for generations, our population was forced to "check only one box" and deny one racial group over the other.

Imagine now in 2014, making a child choose one parent over the other when enrolling into school, along with any other form used for the purposes of public record keeping. These "boxes" are then used to appropriate funding for educational resources and health initiatives targeting the support and development for this same child. Blended children and families remained on the outskirts of the dialogue on multiculturalism altogether until several years ago. We were often "seen" but not heard from or talked about because our very presence tested the boundaries of what "race" really meant and why it was such a defining characteristic in the first place.

Films like Big Hero 6 offer an opportunity for all children and families to identify with each another, and also learn about their cultural differences. For adults, the film allows us to see just how far we've progressed in the technological advancements of animation, while also providing an occasion to engage in ongoing dialogue with our children and families about the evolving world we live in.

The universal depth of the film is both rich on the surface and at its core. Younger and older generations alike will identify with 'Big Hero 6' for a variety of reasons well beyond the face of a distinctly intercultural superhero team (both on screen and behind the scenes). It's what my high school film teacher Mr. Hosney would call a 700-layer-cake experience, that with each new viewing of the film, another layer of insight - whether cultural, generational, or emotional -- is uncovered.

Since seeing the film, my daughter (also an aspiring animation artist herself), hasn't left her sketchpad alone, using it to recreate scenes from the film as she listens to songs from the 'Big Hero 6' soundtrack on her iPhone.

As a parent these are golden moments. When a film has the power to do what Big Hero 6 can do on so many levels - it shouldn't only be watched, it should be celebrated."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kimber...usaolp00000592

[Orb]

The first book I ever pitched — I was a skate punk in the 80s — I had an idea to take a really ridiculous character Rocket Racer and infuse him with the lead singer of Bad Brains and turn him into this incredibly cool, skate punk who was like the Silver Surfer riding up building and all these things. That was the first book I tried to get in at Marvel.



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http://www.vox.com/2014/11/10/718520...erica-remender[/QUOTE]

I really think this sounds like a great idea for a series

[aja_christopher]

"Chadwick Boseman Talks Marvel's 'Black Panther' Role"

"The actor shared his excitement about taking on the role of Black Panther with ET's Brooke Anderson at the 6th Annual Governors Awards.

"The character is one that people have wanted to see for a long time," said Boseman. "I'm beyond excited. I just feel like a kid in a candy store."

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced Boseman as the newest member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as part of its Phase Three slate of films. He's set to appear in five films total, starting with Captain America: Civil War in May 2016, and his own standalone film, Black Panther, out November 2017.

The 37-year-old actor has gained some momentum with his career in recent years, notably with his starring roles as Jackie Robinson in 42, and James Brown in Get On Up.

Are you excited for Chadwick as Black Panther? Check out this video to hear what he had to say about his new role – and how he deals with his haters!"

https://tv.yahoo.com/news/chadwick-b...211000815.html

[aja_christopher]

"Marvel's 'Black Panther' Isn't Just Another Black Superhero"

Last month Marvel Studios announced the roster for some upcoming features. In addition to Ant-Man and a female-led Captain Marvel film, Marvel's Kevin Feige confirmed that on November 3, 2017, the studio planned to release one of its longest-rumored projects: The Black Panther.

We in the nerdier parts of the Internet promptly lost our minds...

It'd be easy to chalk up Marvel nerds' excitement about the movie to the fact that the Black Panther, as his name suggests, is black. That's only part of it, though. In fact the Black Panther is the latest in a long line of black superheroes Marvel has brought to the big screen.

Wesley Snipes portrayed Blade in 1998 and later in the film's two sequels. Halle Berry has reprised her role as Storm in every X-Men film since 2000. Depending on which of the Iron Man films you're watching, either Terrence Howard or Don Cheadle is moonlighting as War Machine. Most recently, Anthony Mackie played sidekick to Captain America as the Falcon.

The thing that makes the Black Panther exciting isn't really his race, it's where he's from – the great nation of Wakanda...

Depictions of Wakanda have varied over the years, but the country is consistently described as a technological mecca built on a foundation of magic and metal. Disease and poverty are eclipsed by scientific innovation and economic prosperity. Put simply, Wakanda is the perfect example of Afrofuturistic science fiction.

In his 1994 essay "Black To The Future," Mark Dery first coined the term "Afrofuturism." As a style, the term refers to art that explores the experiences of black people through science fiction. Dery describes it as a way of remixing reality. An Afrofuturist reading of the transatlantic slave trade becomes an epic tragedy about alien abductees. Truth: Red, White, and Black reimagines the Tuskegee Experiments as tests for the same supersoldier serum that created Captain America.

Artists like Octavia Butler, Sun-Ra, and George Clinton all incorporated Afrofuturist themes into their writing and music. Their stories of alien peoples and interstellar travel paved the way for contemporary artists like Outkast and Janelle Monae. Almost every one of Monae's songs tells the story of Cindi Mayweather, a time-traveling android on a mission to liberate her people. The cyborgs in her music videos not only have black faces, but also a recognizably black relationship to a society that views them as soulless automatons..."


black to the future.jpg

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/...lack-superhero

[aja_christopher]

"Big Hero 6 's Big Oscar Chances"

"Sometime last Sunday, the big movie story of the weekend changed from everything Interstellar (its science, its running time, the quality of its sound mix) to the fact that Christopher Nolan’s conversation-hogging blockbuster was trumped at the box-office by a puffy white balloon robot. Disney and Marvel’s Big Hero 6 took the top spot, leading to a bevy of “how did this happen?” articles.

Regardless of how it happened, now that it has, the future for the animated superhero tale is promising—so much so that it could end up with an Oscar. Right now, the Best Animated Feature category looks to be a fascinating, tough contest between Big Hero 6 and the surprise hit of the first half of the year, The Lego Movie.

To understand why it’s essentially a two-movie race, look at the field more broadly. According to movie awards sites The Film Experience and In Contention, the major contenders, in alphabetical order are..."


great expectations.jpg

http://news.yahoo.com/em-big-hero-6-...192049122.html

[aja_christopher]

"Keeping score in the DC vs. Marvel diversity arms race"

"The rivalry between DC and Marvel has a long and storied history, and is at least partly manufactured in order to sell more comics and movie tickets. Still, there are definitely some reasonable explanations for the divide.

To go by stereotypes, DC is seen to cater to the cliche of the straight, white, male fanboy, whereas Marvel is more successful in attracting new or nontraditional audiences. This year one of Marvel’s most successful new releases was a comic about a Pakistani-American Muslim teen girl who writes Wolverine fanfic. It also recently announced high-profile relaunches for Thor as a woman and Captain America as a black man.

These contrasting images have transferred over to DC and Marvel’s movie adaptations, although it’s debatable how accurate the comparisons actually are. Man of Steel, Gotham, and The Dark Knight trilogy are all male-focused “dark and gritty” reimaginings of DC comics, and Marvel Studios movies tend to be more lighthearted with fleshed-out female characters. However, DC and Marvel adaptations are virtually indistinguishable in terms of casting, with every one of their movies focusing on a straight, white, male hero.

The thing that really got the conversation going was DC’s lineup of new Justice League movies, which included Wonder Woman and an Aquaman adaptation that swapped its blond title character for Hawaiian actor Jason Momoa. Marvel Studios then announced Captain Marvel and Black Panther, but fans were already wondering: Was this just Hollywood catching up with an increasingly diverse audience demographic, or was it evidence of a shift in the editorial direction at DC?

Even in the context of comics, the DC/Marvel divide is nowhere near as simple as it sounds. Neither publisher has an impressive track-record with hiring female creative teams, and Marvel recently pissed off a ton of feminist comics fans thanks to a weirdly sexualized variant cover for Spider-Woman No. 1. They’ve actually made many of the same P.R. mistakes as DC, including selling sexist T-shirts to kids. A more accurate read of the situation is that DC screws up a lot, whereas Marvel only screws up sometimes. Plus, people in the industry can’t really be split into teams. Writers, artists and fans regularly overlap between the two publishers, rather than buying into the idea that DC or Marvel represents a particular type of audience. There’s probably a lot more crossover between Captain Marvel and Batwoman than there is between Captain Marvel and Daredevil, for example.

Plenty of comics fans will tell you that the DC/Marvel rivalry is either manufactured or overblown, and they might well be right. But that hasn’t stopped the concept bleeding into the fandom for superhero movies.

At the moment there are four major superhero franchises in rotation, and three of them are Marvel properties. However the Marvel/DC rivalry is mostly seen as restricted to Warner Bros.’ Justice League and Marvel Studios’ Avengers universe, as they are the ones directly linked with the publishers themselves. The other two are Spider-Man (Sony) and the X-Men (Fox). Sony’s main goal seems to be to milk every last dollar from the Spider-Man brand, while the X-Men franchise has been continuing the same story arc since 2000—long before the current DC or Marvel Studios franchises existed.

(It’s worth mentioning that Fox’s X-Men boasts the most diverse cast in the genre, but still managed to sideline all female and minority characters while focusing on Wolverine for six of its seven existing movies. This is proving increasingly unpopular with fans of the X-Men comics, who are used to characters like Storm having better roles.

Basically, Marvel movies are uniformly far more focused on white men than Marvel Comics’ current output, regardless of which studio is making them. The only solidly confirmed X-Men spinoff at the moment is Gambit, starring Channing Tatum.)

When Man of Steel came out in 2013 it got a tepid reception from critics, but its depiction of Lois Lane was just as feminist as Iron Man’s Pepper Potts or Thor’s Jane Foster. Still, the idea persisted that the MCU was the more woman-friendly option—and at least Marvel seemed to be edging towards more racial diversity in films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The truth is that while Marvel was being praised for passing the Bechdel Test and including characters like Nick Fury, the MCU only looked good by comparison. For a series of movies that take place in New York, Miami, New Mexico, and various alien planets, it was almost impressive how many white men were at the center of every MCU storyline.

Basically, Marvel had discovered a winning formula to keep everyone happy: Make sure that side-characters like Black Widow and Falcon are given decent roles instead of being offensive caricatures, and it will be a very long time before anyone notices you launched three entire franchises starring blond men named Chris.

This is why fans were sure Marvel would be making Black Widow and Falcon franchises while DC rebooted Batman for the fiftieth time. After all, Marvel’s announcement of two female-led TV shows was surely a good sign, as was Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which has an unusually diverse team of writers and directors behind it.

At the same time as Marvel started talking about Peggy Carter and Jessica Jones, DC greenlit three TV shows: Constantine (about a morally ambiguous white guy with a sad backstory), Flash (about an optimistic white guy with a sad backstory) and Gotham (about several white guys growling at each other, plus Jada Pinkett Smith and teen Catwoman). It looked like DC was still being governed by very conservative editorial decisions, which is why everyone was so surprised by DC/Warner Bros. new slate of Justice League movies...."


x-men.jpg

http://www.dailydot.com/geek/dc-vs-marvel-diversity/

[aja_christopher]

"Super Heroines In The City: Is Sony Planning A Spider-Women Team-Up Film?"

"We heard that Sony has plans for a female Spidey character to get her own movie, but what if the plans were for all the Spidey characters to come together in one movie? That’s the premise of the project they’re calling ‘Glass Ceiling’ (likely not the actual title) – a team-up movie that would bring the female Spidey characters together.”

Now of course, the speculation is which characters will be used. Or even how many of them. The most likely choice is Black Cat, Felicia Hardy a character that actually appeared in ‘AMS2′, played by Felicity Jones. In the comics, Black Cat is a thrill-seeker who turns to a life of crime for excitement, but she eventually turns over a new leaf and becomes a hero and for some time, Spider-Man’s girlfriend.

Another possibility is Silver Sable. Since the latest ‘Spider-Man’ films have touched on Peter Parker’s parents’ mysterious past as government agents, that could open the door for this international mercenary/secret agent to plausibly enter Spider-Man’s world.

More of a stretch would be one of the Spider-Women, the most famous of which are Jessica Drew and Julia Carpenter. The only issue is that neither has a direct connection to Peter Parker. The first Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, was created hastily in order for Marvel to secure the rights to the name, after they got wind that animation company Filmation was planning to create a Saturday morning cartoon of the same name. Drew also has one of the most convoluted back histories in all of comics. Julia Carpenter has a much lower profile and can create psychic energy webs, but her black uniform did inspire Spider-Man’s Venom suit. But since neither character has a real tie to Spider-Man, it’s not clear whether or not Sony even has the rights to them.

Another character whose rights are unclear is Firestar. The mutant character, Angelica Jones, can manipulate heat and fire and was created for the Saturday morning TV series ‘Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.’ The problem with her is that since she was created for the out-of-continuity cartoon, she didn’t actually exist in the comics for years and when she was introduced, it was in connection to the X-Men, not Spider-Man. Writers have attempted to connect her to Spidey, as well as Ice Man, the third part of the “Spider-Friends,” but she largely isn’t considered a real Spider-Man supporting character, AND being a mutant, her rights may actually be held by Fox who have the rights to the X-Men and related characters. (Then again, she could fall into the gray area that allows both Fox and Marvel to use Quicksilver.)

And once again, along those lines, the most recent ‘Spider-Man’ cartoon featured White Tiger as a supporting character. But in the comics, the character, Ava Ayala, isn’t really connected to Spider-Man specifically, plus the rights to the other supporting cast members from the show, Nova, Luke Cage and Iron Fist are held by Marvel. The Nova Corps appeared in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ and Cage and Iron Fist have their own shows coming from Netflix.

A possible team member that some are throwing out is a new character named Silk, who was apparently bitten by the same spider that gave Peter Parker his powers.

One final thought is Scream, essentially a female version of Venom. Since Sony is moving forward with a ‘Venom’ movie that will also involve another symbiote, Carnage, it’s plausible that they could introduce or at least allude to Scream with that same movie, setting her up for ‘Glass Ceiling’ or whatever it ends up being called.

Of course, take everything with a grain of salt. Sony seems to be in a bit of a state of disarray following ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2.’ This is just a rumor, but the idea of a female-driven ‘Spider-Man’ movie has popped up repeatedly, but things may depend on how well the movies already in the works actually perform..."


spider-man-female-heroes.jpg

http://sciencefiction.com/2014/10/31...en-team-movie/

[Spider-Chan]

"Super Heroines In The City: Is Sony Planning A Spider-Women Team-Up Film?"

And as always, absolutely no one mentions Anya Corazón :/

[7thangel]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...irColorInJapan

At the end of he day, the box office is going to decide regardless, so let's see how the Japanese themselves respond with their hard-earned yen before judging: ultimately if they don't have a problem with it then I'm not going to try to tell them to have a problem with it.

what does the response from the japanese market have to do with it?

[wyze2099]

[I][B]The thing that makes the Black Panther exciting isn't really his race, it's where he's from – the great nation of Wakanda...

Depictions of Wakanda have varied over the years, but the country is consistently described as a technological mecca built on a foundation of magic and metal. Disease and poverty are eclipsed by scientific innovation and economic prosperity. Put simply, Wakanda is the perfect example of Afrofuturistic science fiction.

I hadn't really thought about it this way before, but I think that's absolutely correct. Not only did Lee and Kirby create a black superhero, they even created a corner of the Marvel Universe around him. They did the same thing when creating Doctor Doom: they gave him the nation of Latveria. They didn't just make T'Challa a superhero, they made him a world leader. I find that fascinating.

Granted, I doubt they had such lofty goals in mind at the time, and I especially doubt either one of them had even seen Africa outside of pictures, but the long-term consequences of "let's make this guy an African king!" cannot be overstated.

[wyze2099]

Korra's fanbase or some of them want to view her as someone who simply just has a tan from being in the sun too long, I linked the blog that talks about it earlier

There are people in Korra's fanbase who think Korra is a white girl with a tan? I didn't realize that was a thing, but if that's true, that's messed up. She's not a tanned white girl.