Race obviously matters, as long as it's used to carve us up socially and economically, as long as it carries with it stereotypes, race will matter.
The reason it matters so much in fiction is because race is used as a shortcut to create identification with the desired consumer: young white males. Visual stories that use other race/gender combos have additional storytelling challenges. As a consequence, people who are used to visually self-identifying with a hero, really won't enjoy them when they can no longer identify with him visually as they used to. That's why you can change Nick Fury, who doesn't have a lot of fans who identify with him, with little outcry and overall success. But you can't do that with Superman.
And another part of it is that a lot of these long standing characters have become mythic to the point that their entire visual tells a story. To change one of those visuals changes the story. When Superman's costume goes black, it can't just be 'because it's Tuesday.' When Superman is blonde, it can't just be an artist's interpretation, it's gotta be an alternate universe!
Likewise, Batman's visuals all tell a story. Nick Fury's visuals don't tell a story. Flash's visuals don't either, but he falls under the visual identification thing. There's nothing wrong with having a Black Barry Allen, just like there's nothing wrong with him changing his hair color or blending attributes with Wally West in various adaptations, but Flash fans would collectively have kittens if he were anything other than a white male, because of the loss of visual self-identification.
I like what Silvermoth said, about different interpretations. I don't think we'll see that for a long time though, because these characters are primarily known for who they are and what they *can* do, rather than what they've done, like Romeo and Juliet are. So there is not alternate take on the characters that is not an alternate take on the story.
Right. So if you're opposed to changing the look of a character, which is a defining characteristic of a character in a visual medium like comics, then you're a racist. Oh please. I also recall people on this board complaining about Keanu being cast as John Constantine due to the fact that he's neither blonde nor British. So is that indicative of a deep-seated racism on the part of this board against dark-haired white American men?
So yeah, iconic characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman should be cast to look like the characters we've known for decades. Not just because their appearance is a defining characteristic of those characters, but because for the most part it's required for their character. Sure, Superman's an alien, but he also grew up as the quintessential Kansas farmboy. He's someone who fit right in, and to fit right in you have to look like the majority there. And 87.4% of the people in Kansas are white, and we're talking overall. One can only imagine how much that percentage shoots up when you get to the more rural areas of Kansas, which Smallville is based off of. The same holds true for Wonder Woman. She's an Amazon, and the Amazons are Greek women. So Wonder Woman has to look like a Greek woman.
Changing the race of iconic characters for the sake of political correctness is bad enough, but doing so even when it goes against the logic of the characters own background is just downright ridiculous.
I think what he's referring to is the vitriolic hyperbolic reactions that we hear in response to race changes. For instance: you have no reason to say that these changes are made for political correctness, but you seem relatively sure that this is why race changes happen. Why is that? Is that logic, or is that something else? That's a light example, where those who oppose take on fallacious ad hominem attacks rather than addressing the issues. For many posters who are against race changes, they don't even start with credible points on the character in question as you did (and outside of Supe/Bat/WW, few characters have such reasons), instead they just go straight for judgment calls on the motivations of those involved, this is also illogical and ridiculous.
And those are the nice ones. Most go into great detail about the reprehensible thought process of those who would dare paint white males as anything but and decry such changes (but not other more drastic changes) as a personal attack on their 30+ years of comic book reading. Then they go into how there is no more drastic change than changing race, "you might as well put Batman in a bright pink dress!" At that point, this person has basically told you they are racist, that black people are as foreign and inferior to white as batman in pink is to batman in black. It'd be different if they just illustrated their point with something merely different "It'd be like Batman in army camo" but they reveal their prejudice by invariably choosing something that is dramatically inferior in their analogies of changing white characters to black.
These are my observations of the fan community, you may have not seen such hatred, and see all disagreements as equal. Regardless, the poster you quoted doesn't state it that way as you seem to interpret. Even a simple reading of his post shows he's not talking about everyone who disagrees, but people whose "heads exploded." So I think is addressing racism and prejudice in the community - which must logically exist if non-whites are underrepresented and not inferior - is appropriate and well worded.
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You know what I'd love to see?
Changing someone's gender. Like "F it, let's make Barry Allen a chick." I would get a kick out of that.
