Racist Comic Book Fans

While I enjoy talking shop with my fellow fanboys and fangirls, there are times that I truly hate the fan community of which I am a member. There are many comic book fans who I feel can not even be called fans with all the bitching and moaning they do about the titles they feel the need to shovel countless dollars out on. But why? I buy comics because I enjoy them. When I no longer enjoy a title, I no longer buy it. So when I hear these pathetic geeks whining about a title they buy every issue of I have to simply ridicule them.

The one issue I see that gets the fanboys truly incensed is the issue of race. There seems to be a huge contingent of the comic book community that feel that comic books are the domain of white heterosexual males only and any attempt at diversity or difference is an insult to the medium and by extension an insult to them as an audience. Now true, most of the original super heroes are white males. Comics debuted in the late 30s and early 40s (The Golden Age) and there were certain attitudes in that culture. Women and minorities were still trying to gain acceptance in society in general, so their lack of inclusion in pop culture is not a surprise. But we’ve come a long way since then and attitudes should change. Indeed attitudes have changed quite a bit.

The best example of racist attitudes by comic book fans is when comic book films are adapted to the big screen. When these comic book properties are announced there is always a deluge of rumors for who will be cast. And as soon as the rumor lands on an actor of color, the internet forums explode with the most horrific and cruel derogatory terms for whatever the race of the particular actor happens to be. Recently Fox announced they were casting for a reboot of The Fantastic Four (the previous two films having received critical and fanbased panning) and one of the names on the list was Michael B. Jordan from Fruitvale Station (a film I have not yet seen but which is receiving critical praise) in the role of Jonny Storm, the Human Torch. Now from what I have seen, Michael B. Jordan is an amazing actor. He certainly has the skills to embody a character like the Human Torch, who is a much beloved Marvel character. And as far as I can see the only problem people seem to have is that Michael B. Jordan is black and in the comics Jonny Storm is white. The same complaint has been levied at Donald Glover who was in the running for Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man (a role later given to Andrew Garfield) and to Idris Elba for playing Heimdall (the idea being that since the Norse gods originated in Aryan culture, therefore they must all be white) in Thor. All amazing actors who would I'm sure give excellent performances as any character.

In truth though, I’m sure the number of truly racist comic book fans is actually much lower than it appears. Many of the racists who are jumping on these issues are people who never actually were fans of comics to begin with; they are just looking for something they can rail against. Perfect examples are the many attacks I have seen levied against the character of The Black Panther. There were actually people who felt this character does not deserve such a place of respect in the Marvel Universe (both a member of The Illuminati and the Avengers, and considered one of the seven smartest people in the Marvel World) simply because he comes from an African Country. An African country with advanced technology that these racists commentators say couldn’t exist (ignoring the fact that the entire realm of comics is fictional and therefore NONE OF IT can exist).

My final example of comic book racism were the attacks against the character of Miles Morales. Miles Morales is a young black teen, which in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man ended up adopting the identity of Spider-Man after Peter Parker died in battle and young Miles developed similar powers. Popular (not with me) radio personality Glenn Beck, a man who claimed to be a huge Spider-Man fan (he actually used the tem “obsessed” when he saw the Broadway show Turn Off The Dark), claimed that Spider-man was “a stupid comic book” and made some allusion to having ruined the character forever. He was joined by many other conservative commentators in their derisive comments about the book. Not a single one of them pointed out though that this change only took place in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man and that Peter Parker was still Spider-Man in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man (and other titles). They simply jumped at an opportunity to make racist claims and hurl insults at the very concept of diversity.

There will always be racists. As long as humanity has any difference among its citizens there will be people who will hate those that are different from them. But while those racists attack comics, they don’t realize that the diversity that is being shown in comics is going to dwindle their numbers more and more. As most children are first exposed to reading through comics, they will be exposed to ideas of unity (in the Avengers), responsibility (in Spider-Man), and tolerance (in X-Men). As much as they invoke negative thoughts and feelings in them, they invoke positive hope and optimism in everyone who opposes the racists and bigots out there.