Flame Off! Why it's not "creative" to switch superheroes.

Credit to the next 'Human Torch', Michael B. Jordan for his articulate and sensible letter published in Entertainment Weekly. Jordan faced up to the inevitable Twitter storm (pun intended) by comic book nerds like myself who, being the nostalgic and stubborn bunch we are, were always going to cause upset when Josh Trank choose to change a blond-haired, blue-eyed character into an African-American. That's not because of - as some sites so lazily and cheaply called it - "racism" , but simply because we don't like established characters to change. After all, with great power comes great responsibility.

Jordan acknowledged this when he took a light-heated pop at himself for breaking the show-business rule: "Never check the internet after you've been cast as a superhero" before continuing to debate the issue.

http://www.ew.com

 "Some people may look at my casting as political correctness or an attempt to meet a racial quota, or as part of the year of “Black Film.” Or they could look at it as a creative choice by the director, Josh Trank, who is in an interracial relationship himself—a reflection of what a modern family looks like today." 

It's a refreshingly humble and sensible response to what is - in the grand scheme of world issues - hardly a point worth getting too upset over. But Jordan is still wrong.

How much inspiration and modernity is there in simply swapping the race of an established character? Is there a great deal of thought or visionary-genius in saying: "Hey, there's more African-American people these days, let's change this character to a black person!" ? If that's creativity, I'd say creativity has become greatly devalued. The fact is, the real reason Trank and his ilk are desperate to have us believe that 'old is new' is down to the total lack of multi-racial superheroes and villains in the comic world. In an attempt to find a racially-mixed crime-fighter that my son or daughter could relate to, I had to consult Wikipedia and scroll a list of minor, unknown Marvel and DC entities that scarcely figured in any story arc during my son's lifetime. The only exception being the new Spiderman (Miles Morales) who bears a remarkable similarity to Barack Obama.

Here's my best attempt at ingenuity: instead of taking the cheap (in the decision-making sense) choice of swapping the ethnicity of comic book characters, how about inventing exciting, compelling and original new heroes? Wouldn't it be enough to make you shout  "Cowabunga!" to see a new, complex female heroine of any ethnicity burst on to the scene with a new look and new attitude? Or do we just go ahead and change Thor's robes to a dress? How about developing Silk into more than just a hotter version of Spiderwoman instead of trying to get the middle-aged guys living in mom's basement and the "Every body's ready" poster mob excited over Catwoman kissing another feline?

In fairness, both Marvel and DC have tried but the characters have flunked or are yet to become hits, mainly because they are so clearly crafted to fit an agenda of sexuality or some other demographic. Rather than being superheroes who happen to be LGBT, religiously or ethnically diverse, they are superheroes because of it.

In time these new characters will truly arrive and establish their legacy, but it won't happen easily and it won't make quick money. That's why Josh Trank didn't make a creatively-empowered choice at all. He took a very easy choice to try and make the next Fantastic Four film appear superficially different to the previous run, in the same way the most recent reboot of Spiderman films featured tedious repetitive clips of iphones and internet use.

Michael B. Jordan may well make an excellent Human Torch and I'm looking forward to seeing him in the role, but let's not have either side fooled into believing this is either a politically-correct, racial choice or a moment of progressive vision from Josh Trank. In reality, this is the simplest and easiest way to keep money rolling into the film industry that has long since realised that comic book films make quick money. They are the law.