The Daily Planet - Superman News and Speculation Thread (🚨TAG SPOILERS🚨)

[writer0327]

I am someone who doesn’t mind race or gender swapping the majority of characters, but Superman shouldn’t be one of them, just IMO.

Superman is baseball and apple pie. He's the icon of icons. There's some things that are just like that.

 

[Stringer]

Yup. The article specifically mentions Kal-El. It does look like we're getting black Clark Kent..

I can hear the bars now in the eventual hip hop songs that come from this.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Superman is baseball and apple pie. He's the icon of icons. There's some things that are just like that.

Telling on yourself if you don't think a black person can be an American icon.

 

[Frodo]

Whether its a Black actor, Latino actor , or Asian actor, Superman was eventually going to be cast as Non White. I always saw it as inevitable as much as there were fans who didn't want it to happen.

The character has been done backwards and forwards for 70 years on film and tv, so It was only a matter of time before Superman would be played by a non white actor.

There would never be a "right time" for everyone to all be on the same page and accept it, so I think WB has just decided to pull the trigger knowing that whenever they did it, they weren't going to satisfy everyone.

 

[writer0327]

Telling on yourself if you don't think a black person can be an American icon.

Jackie Robinson and Satchmo Armstrong are huge American icons.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Aren't your arguing that Superman shouldn't be played by a black actor?

 

[writer0327]

Aren't your arguing that Superman shouldn't be played by a black actor?

Yes, that is correct. I'm against the tokenization of classic characters. I want these companies to make the effort to promote and invest in original black characters and not piggyback off of existing IPs.

 

[DrexlLookinAss]

I wonder what flickchick thinks of all this

 

[Boy Scout]

Superman is baseball and apple pie. He's the icon of icons. There's some things that are just like that.

Wow. This is some ole bull**** right here.

Just so you know...black people play baseball, eat apple pie, and are American.

 

[writer0327]

Wow. This is some ole bull**** right here.

Just so you know...black people play baseball, eat apple pie, and are American.

What is that have to do with what I said?

 

[Boy Scout]

What is that have to do with what I said?

Everything, because your implication is that a non-white Superman is inherently less American, or representative of America, than a white one. And that is - again - some ole bull****.

 

[writer0327]

Everything, because your implication is that a non-white Superman is inherently less American, or representative of America, than a white one. And that is - again - some ole bull****.

No, not less American, just lazily tokenized.

 

[Astro13Zombie]

Superman is baseball and apple pie. He's the icon of icons. There's some things that are just like that.

What does this even mean

 

[flickchick85]

I wonder what flickchick thinks of all this

 

[dhandler01]

Yes, that is correct. I'm against the tokenization of classic characters. I want these companies to make the effort to promote and invest in original black characters and not piggyback off of existing IPs.

What makes you think it is tokenization? That is such a friggin cop out. So if a great Black Actor grew up loving Superman and wanted to play him they shouldn't because in the 1930s characters had to be White?

Superman is my favorite character in any medium, of any type, ever. I love every version of it. I see no reason that he can't be or shouldn't a minority. I definitely dont think there is any validity to the idea that he can't be just cause he never was before. Perry White was never Black before but Laurence Fishbourne played him. Jim Gordan was never Black before...lots of characters change over time and Superman can too and it will lose nothing of the iconic nature and in reality it fits way more than more people are willing to admit. Superman is an immigrant, it makes sense he wouldn't look like just your average boy in Kansas.

 

[dhandler01]

No, not less American, just lazily tokenized.

Quick question...is Miles Morales tokenized?

 

[SiegePerilous]

A black actor as Clark Kent could be interesting. My chief concern is I want this to be about Clark Kent/Kal-El. As long as the characterization is good, the screen play and directing are good and the actor embodies the character well, open casting should be considered. It's not visually what we are used to, but as long as it's Clark, I can roll with it and give it a chance. It may turn out great.

If it's a character other than Clark, I'd be way less enthused.

Also the creative team behind is giving me bad vibes. Even if it was partially out of his hands, Abrams' last film was a disaster. I'm not familiar with Coates writing, but what I hear of his Black Panther run doesn't fill me with confidence. I hope he doesn't have Superman ignoring rape camps like he had T'Challa do.

 

[writer0327]

What does this even mean

It was a response to the guy who said he doesn't think Superman should be reskinned. Certain things have a historical, emblematic nature to them, to the point where even a person who wouldn't have a problem with, lets say, race and gender swapping in any other regards, might say that certain characters are off limits.

 

[writer0327]

Quick question...is Miles Morales tokenized?

Yes.

 

[Calvin Ellis]

It's funny I was just about to retire from the Hype for the second time and then this news comes a long. The first time I was going to retire The New 52 came along and put a stop to that. Now this news. I've been here since the Hype started so even though I'm interested in this news I'm still going to be hanging up my cape soon.

 

[dhandler01]

And those people would be wrong writer0327. Many of those people probably see no issue with a total race swapped (i.e. White European) Jesus. There is no reality where anyone of that time period was a White Hippie looking dude with an 8 pack in Judea.

Superman's race doesn't matter...Superman isn't even from Earth. (or you know...real) Why would everyone on Krypton be White other than it had to be that way back in the day? Would anyone have an issue if Action Comics #1 came out this year and the main character of Clark/Kal was Black? Of course not.

Things change...even iconic stuff changes over time. Just because something was a tradition doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't adapt just because it will make a few people uncomfortable. That isn't tokenization that is just the way things evolve.

 

[dhandler01]

Yes.

Then you have no clue what that word means imho sorry.

 

[Zarex]

I am someone who doesn’t mind race or gender swapping the majority of characters, but Superman shouldn’t be one of them, just IMO.

Though the Kryptonian Kal-El has traditionally been portrayed by Caucasians, this wouldn't really qualify as a race swap.

 

[Prison Mike]

If this movie is about Calvin Ellis, then I’m all in. That would be very interesting and something new. But if they’re going with the traditional Clark Kent and making him black then I’ll be pretty disappointed. There are a lot of original black characters that are constantly being passed up for the same white characters. Changing the race of a character is not moving forward IMO. It seems inauthentic to me, like you’re only doing it to please some people and get them off your back. I’m not white, I’m Indian. It would mean the world to me to see an original Indian superhero in a big Hollywood movie. I don’t want to see a brown Barry Allen...I want to see an original character that looks like me and can stand on his/her own.

 

[Eddie Dean]

An original character would never gain the same amount of traction as an established character. Making Superman a different race is a statement.