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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.พ. 2024
- From Miles Morales, to Huey Freeman, to Frozone, and beyond there are plenty of great black characters in media. However, the existence of good characters does not mean that they are any less of an exception to the rule. Media is getting better at portraying black people, but there simply is no limit to how well something can be written or how many shows can come out in the future. In other words, there is always room for progress, and doing better than we did before.
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I get a kick out of everyone in the comments listing off the black characters without lightning powers. There is no reward for you to list them off, but that hasn't stopped many of you from doing it anyways, and that gives me a giggle every now and then.
If you want a SUPER challenge, then do not list off these common characters I've seen everyone default to:
- Falcon
- Jon Stewart (Green Lantern)
- Cyborg
- Black Panther
- Luke Cage
- Darwin
Good luck and god speed!
The Prowler
As black I had to try. This is mine. Vixen, John Stewart green lantern, Mr fantastic, Blade, Cloak, Spawn, Spike, Anasi from static shock, Aqua Lad young justice, and iron heart. This was a lot then it needed to be lol
Damn didn't see green lantern lol
Can you name 5 black superheroes with lightning powers without defaulting to and variations of:
-Black Lightning
-Storm
- Miles Morales
- Static Shock
Good luck, fr.
@@allengrayheart
Lightning(DC)
Black Vulcan
Electro(From Andrew Garfield Spiderman)
Volt
Wally West (CW) Yes, they have lightning powers change my mind.
Why is she fighting crime while pregnant anyway? That just seems incredibly irresponsible and dangerous to the new baby.
It's the same thing with Peter too, like why not just hand over Mayday to MJ or at the very least one of the Peter Parker's. I'm sure they'd be more than willing to for the meantime.
And unrealistic TBH. Also they took inspiration from the comics
@@sizweshongwe7312the difference is he was there to chill and wasn’t expecting trouble at all
@@sizweshongwe7312Peter outright calls himself a terrible mentor and parent(albeit in a jovial manner). It's not really suppose to be taken seriously. And given what they were talking about soon after, Mayday was needed to ease the tension before igniting it again for their 3rd act of the film.
They are spidermen , they do this dumb shi all the time I swear
Picolo hiding in the back of the tumbnail.
Makes No sense
@@laisphinto6372Most people see him as black (if he was a human)
Where knuckles he actually one of us
@@moosesues8887 Facts.
@@laisphinto6372he claimed him
The problem isn't the fact that every black superhero has electric powers but all the famous do
There are only 5 that I can name (that exists) but EVERY superhero has lightning powers. Black lightning (& his youngest daughter), Static, Myles Morales, Storm and that's it.
Why does it matter how many other heros have laser eyes or can fly? Like i don't understand @@WASYSHOOTS
I dunno@@taejoonpark9613
@@WASYSHOOTSLightning Lad and Lightning Lass too from the Legion of superheroes. The Raikage from Naruto. Yoruichi in Bleach uses electricity. Laura from Street Fighter is Afro-Brazilian with electric powers. Thunder from the Fable series. Coldcast from Superman vs The Elite was a villain. The Doctor from Dead By Daylight is black and uses electric attacks to induce a shock therapy type of madness.
That's just from my memory, there's a lot more I've probably missed.
Nah cause mf forget vixen exist or cyborg
Black Characters without electric superpowers:
Mirage
Bishop
Darwin
Misty Night
Luke Cage
Wise
Icon
Prodigy
Rocket
Spawn
The Prowler (Hobie Brown)
B;ack Panther
Falcon
Spike
Mr. Terrific
Monica Rambeu
Black Manta
BatWing
Deathlok
Bronze Tiger
Azrael (second one)
The Tatooed Man
Green Lantern (John Stewart)
Vixen
Anansi
Holocaust
I'm black by the way.
yeah, frankly i believe if it was pictures of black panther, cyborg, steel, and mr terrific next to each other with the text "why do black superheros always have super tech" everyone would have believed that was the go to power (instead of black lightning, storm, static, & miles which is probably how it got started). honestly, superstrength (plus possibly flying), some type of energy power, or just having high tech are literally the go to ability for almost every hero ever (if you go through the list of all heros 9 out of 10 they have some form of that) so obviously there will be repetition
Aku Aku,Uka Uka and Crunch Bandicoot you forgot them
Shaft black dynamite afro samurai captain falcon Luke cage and the guy from fire force lightning powers aren't annoying lowkey I like them with it
@@keeferkifflom360wut?
If anything they're Aboriginal not Black.
But how many of them are well-known? And some of those you mentioned aren't super-powered. They are just heroes.
It's just comes down to a lack of visibility for many black heroes, super or not.
It is the level of effort for me. Race swaps usually tell me a writer has no interest in actually taking the effort to write a character of that race, only doing so to get brownie points with that community. It feels demeaning. Either they aren't willing to hear out the experiences of someone of a different race to see how their skin colour has affected their life or think they are so different just because of their race that they cannot be written by them which is kinda dehumanizing.
Yeah that's a good point, but sometimes the writers are not always in full control of what they are allowed to write about. Sometimes marketing and other interests get in the way, and that's the only loophole a writer can use.
@@ScritRighter I never thought of it like that.
@@ScritRighterok makes since still think it's really dumb tho
I somewhat disagree mostly because of Nick Fury and High Evolutionary. Both characters were white in the source materials but, cast black actors because best embody the characters.
@@cryo9017 I agree. Race swapping is dumb, but I don't care too much overall. Sometimes it can define a character (like Nick Fury) and other times it's kinda just awkward. Overall, I feel it's a net neutral on the quality of a character's writing.
Race-swapping is just a sign of creative bankruptcy, although this may not even be the writer's fault as much as people may want it to be.
Executives, in general, despises allowing fresh new IPs and want to just milk the same giant IP cow with slightly different flavors until it's completely dead.
From a business point of view, it makes sense. Why would you waste time on something new when you could just rebrand and appeal to something that already has a built in audience?
Unfortunately, looking at things from a business point of view is what is ruining art. With every live-action remake (regardless of race-swapping) a bit of my soul dies.
The explanation for a lot of the race swaps and character replacement is actually just Corporate Greed.
The original creators had solid contracts with their IPs and are entitled to compensation in royalties.
Newer writers aren't. So they put them to make new characters which they'll barely see any residuals from.
@@Shockguey Didn't the OG creator of superman get so screwed that he got virtually nothing from his character, then died in poverty while preventably blind?
@@anubis7457 Yes. It's the companies skirting on their responsibilities which is why there's several ongoing lawsuits right now.
Steve Ditko's estate won their lawsuit last year against Disney and immediately after Insomniac announced they'd give Peter a less significant role in Spider-Man 3.
The box office for the next Spiderverse and Holland Spider-Man will determine how much of a prospect it will be to fully replace him.
the excessive executive control behind creation of fictional stories of mass media are very concerning, specially this creative bankruptcy
@@Shockgueythat’s wild
I need to see black people fighting dragons and goblins
You can in Baldur’s Gate 3 😊
@@Quantum_Bluntznot only does he fight dragons but he fights demons and cultists and probably more depending on where you take him
Read Brother Voodoo comics during the New Avengers run
@JoysPerspectiveThis is true. There was a huge cultural shift around maybe 2016-2017 when a lot of media and entertainment started representing more than before, or as the hard right call it “woke”. Now that it’s been well into a decade, the term just doesn’t hold any value anymore. It’s not a valid criticism, because these so called “woke” projects vary in quality, some are genuinely good but get shut down by these old ass woke haters. This unfortunately prevents the actually good shit from even getting proper promotion.
@JoysPerspective tbh, anything is considered woke now
As a black writer I write good characters regardless of color. I don’t get hang up on representation or stereotypical b.s. black, white, yellow, red, brown I write all of them as human beings.
Same here, I'm an aspiring character and i create characters regardless of stereotype and colour, I just wanna make really captivating characters
Though I like adding culture in a respectable manner
Dang I said character, writer i mean
@@kingkizitokai1705 the best stories come from great characters. People remember good characters. They who love great characters don’t care about color or race. They just want stories they can connect with and read over and over
@@kingkizitokai1705 yes I have to add culture too. It makes the character feel more human. I just don’t make the character all 100% about their culture because no one lives like that every hour of the day. It gets tiring and boring.
It be pretty cool if they wrote black people as people and not as charictures of black people
eehh I partially disagree with race swap, not to say its woke but it does feel very cheap on some cases. When an iconic character that we have known to be a certain way for decades like Ariel or Snow white suddenly changes to a completely different race it does feel like a weird way to add inclusion and gather easy attention through controversy.
Even if it doesnt matter to the overall story, characters like Ariel have a strong visual identity and simply changing their races for the sake of having a black person as a main character isnt going to change that. Ariel will still be known as the redhead disney princess, its been decades like this. The same way you cant make L (death note) black.
However its kinda of a complex debate because there are other cases where race swapping works when a white character is just a blank slate, generic design (Nick fury, Amber from invincible)
But even then, it still feels like they are robbing black people of having their own character when they just raceswap popular white characters skins for the sake of it.
I think what makes most black characters like Miles morales, static shock, Cyborg (teen titans) stand out is that they are their own character with their own personality, arcs and flaws instead of being the same previous white character but with a new skin to please a certain audience and check a box.
Race swapping IS woke. Companies do this to avoid making original stories because they don't want to take risks so they take well-known characters and race swap them to attract people and say 'we're inclusive'.
I feel like a whole essay could be written on the visual identities of characters.
my take is some characters NEED to be their race/ethnicity bc its intrinsic to their character and their experiences. I also believe there's plenty that can be swapped to any gender or race with little to no change to their personality/experience. I also think we need to consider our role as a society to have more diversity when thinking not to swap a characters appearances. I want people to think why so many characters are white or redheads in the first place. It all connects and learning really helps. Bigots dont like learning or changing tho.
@@Antwannnn One example is Superman.
His whole deal is the subversion of the Ubermensch trope that was present in the early 20th century sci-fi. Where he directly challenges the ideations of characters born from Friedrich Nietsches philosophies.
He is that exact alien super race concept except adopted by traditional Anglo Americans in the heartland who go by Kent (itself being a name tied all the way back to the Protestants of England).
Making Clark any other ethnicity than White is a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of the character.
There's traces of the Ubermensch trope in Invincible (The Viltrumites) except it's more accepting of Nietsche. This is also why his nemesis is Lex Luthor. A business tycoon that abhors the concept of a godlike figure.
@@Shockguey honestly I have no clue what you just said but I believe you lol I also think Batman has to be white bc he's supposed to represent the upper echelon of class. One of if not THE richest man in the world. I think they handled that dynamic in 'The Batman' very well. Catwoman makes a brief comment on it but it puts Batman's position in a new perspective. That's why him going after a Jason Todd in the sequel due to his guilt or whatever could be cool to see. And if Jason ends up black then I see no problem with that. I mean people were already theorizing that the kid in the beginning could be Jason. And ironically enough he already played a Robin (Tim Drake) on 'Titans'.
There are several problems with changing the race of characters in historical movies.
1. For lesser known cultures/histories like African, Native American and (to a lesser extent) Egyptian, these movies, paints how society views these cultures. That's half the reason why a lot of Native Americans hate Pocahontas, since it portrays her relationship with her real life abuser as romantic. Woman King is another great example of this, since Most Americans don't know anything about what happened in Africa during the slave trade besides the fact that slaves were captured. Therefor, a movie claiming to be based on real events that twist the facts and glorifies the actual slavers while villainizing the people who stopped them is extremely damaging (an opinion shared by many Africans).
2. These films flaunt constantly that the events in the film happened in some way. Queen Cleopatra uses testimonies from several questionable people in the series to justify Cleopatra being black, as well as the series being tagged as a documentary. When people see these things, it misleads people into thinking that it's a fact when it's not.
3. It just doesn't make sense. The race of the population has just as much importance to the setting as the architecture or clothing. When you add Black or Asian people to a Native American tribe like it's no big deal, you're implying that not only is there no racial conflicts, but also that there was enough migration of Black and Asian people to North America that it's seen as commonplace. If you make a story about modern China, you wouldn't have it be as racially diverse as LA. Even in fantasy settings, it's important. If you make a story in your classic Tolkien like setting, and you add humans to an elvish kingdom like it's normal, it would be contradictory to elves prideful and racist culture. Heck, even things like black elves raises a few questions since we know from history that you don't really stop at just every other race being inferior, but also traits in your own race being considered inferior. This is also one of the reasons why Gods of Egypt is poorly written, since it's weird for an Egyptian people to have white gods even though it's a fantastical setting.
Well no one really disagrees with keeping historical figures the same. Because they're actually real. Queen Cleopatra is a fluke series
Can't believe you have to defend historical accuracy, in a fuckin historical movie.
me when historically accurate Pocahontas
But those people didn't end slavery, they joined and even hired the locals.
It is historically inaccurate to glorify Dahomey slavers but it isn't historically inaccurate to show white people engaging in the slave trade.
Just say you want your people to be glorified at the expense of others and stop with this elaborate explanation and disingenuous ask for historical accuracy.
The Woman King example is weak since the movie did not glorify the Africans. It's made clear in the first 30 minutes that the Africans are partaking in the trade and make lots of money from it.
As a theatre major, I find it interesting when people turn race swapping into a controversy. In the world of theatre, we do not see race or gender when it comes to most characters, which is why you can find an all-black cast act out a Shakespeare play. The only time we put a focus on race or gender is when it is crucial to the story, for example, A Raisin in the Sun and Fences are both plays that depict black American experiences so the characters must be played by black actors. Then when it comes to plays that are not race based, black actors have always fought so hard to get these roles. Those culture war fearmongers are trying to start a controversy with the Wicked Movie casting a black woman as the lead, despite the movie being based off the theatre musical, and the fact that talented black actresses have begged to be casted in the Boardway performances, because the roles in Wicked are viewed with high status similar to Hamilton. The main protagonist is literally green, so the role can be played by any race. The story is also an allegory for race discrimination so a black actress might do a better job at portraying the character because she will most likely relate with the character's struggles.
This was a well thought out video, I'm going to check out the "Why you can't write female characters next." :)
That's an interesting perspective, and it makes a ton of sense. Glad to see you enjoyed as well!
nah race swapping is always a lazy thing cause the point is obvious to agenda - to change something to be more "inclusive" is a social engineering tactic to make you think the previous wasn't "inclusive" which is just racism touting it self as moral
Absolute facts. When I went to see Frozen the musical, young Elsa was black and adult Elsa was East Asian. Young Anna was East Asian and adult Anna was white. Every single one of them did an amazing job, those little girls playing young Anna and Elsa especially, they had really impressive voices for their ages. Neither character's race is integral to the story. People need to grow tf up, talented performers are talented performers.
Live action and movies has a bit more pageantry I’ve noticed, as a stage actor I’ve noticed this too. My Scrooge and Marley were both women and one was black but I never questioned it. I feel the reason is that it’s intentional in film while in theatre it’s merit based
But if "A Raisin in the Sun depicts black American experiences so the characters must be played by black actors" then what's preventing someone from saying something like "Hamilton depicts white American experiences so the characters must be played by white actors." What exactly is the difference? Would it be ok for a Kenyan man who doesn't know anything about American history to play a black American in A Raisin in the Sun?
The only reason why as a black man that I hate seeing characters being changed white to black is because we already have a lot of good black characters also don't force other people to draw something they don't want to that's just messed up also spawn
Ogun Montgomery from fire Force
This guy gets it
I think race swapping in live action is ok (as long as the race dosent matter for the story) cause we just want them to find the best actor/actress for the role...........now in animation i feel like race swapping has no point? Like it changes nothing and unless u have a reason for doing so, ur probaly just doing it for brownie points and showing "oh see were progressive"..........(aka Disney with everything they do, they specifically point it out and use it as marketing)
@@treasure9342also my adventures with Superman lol
No one is forcing anybody to do anything! You’re exactly the person he mentioned in the video. You see making a character black as some the creator giving into some political agenda when that just isn’t the case. No one cares if you’re black, your views are still trash.
@@treasure9342yeah I agree here
I am from Brazil a country with a lot of racial diversity and i never I thought writing a character with a different skin color was such a broad subject, i always just saw that as "just make a good characther in general no matter the skin collor"
Sim mano
O Brasil tem um contexto geopolítico e social diferente dos Estados Unidos, onde esse "confronto político sobre raça" é mais focado, acho que é por isso que a gente (sou br também) fica meio confuso com o modo que isso é discutido na mídia norte-americana.
"Negro", "branco","asiático" e outros rótulos desse tipo têm um significado diferente lá. Basta ver que eles têm a categoria de "latino", sendo que isso não faz sentido no Brasil
So what about Copacabana or Ipanema being majority White Brazilians?? There is segregation, it just isn’t called racism but it does seem to exist to some extent despite the country being widely diverse.
I have a few disagreements that are pretty minor and inconsequential, but overall this is a surprisingly good video. You aired out a lot of the points I have floating in my mind that I can’t put into words.
One thing I do want to bring up though is how insane it is to me that the dread comb-over is everywhere when there are SO many things that black people can do with their hair. Like as an artist I can’t stress enough how fun depicting black hair can be because you can realistically make so many shapes out of it. Black man with a pretty simple Afro here, do you not realize how cool it is that you can draw a character with hair that’s a just an honest to god circle???
Hey, you're gonna hate me for this: But there isn't "no reason" tropes like lightning powers or dread combovers exist. It's because internally, black culture stresses so much conformity, often forced.
I say this because I grew up around other black people who bullied me for "acting white" or "talking white" when I was just being myself. And white people seemed to treat me nicer than any of them did. I never understood what praising a dysfunctional culture or ebonics had to do with my skin color, neither what rock music or skateboarding had to do with it either. I was just being me. And I GUARANTEE you, someone will see this comment and accuse me of being a white dude.
What's bothered me my entire life is something I see reflected in these character tropes: black people create a series of characteristics and notions that they prescribe themselves to. And anyone who strays outside that predefined, limited box of what "blackness" is considered to be, is promptly ostracized. Growing up, I wanted to be white because there were no limitations on what other people wanted to be or enjoy. Look at eminem, he's white and does "black" things. You got to dress how you want, define your own image. But being black made me feel like everyone around me was telling me I HAD to cut my hair 1 of 2 ways, or HAD to like rap, or HAD to speak a certain way. Black culture is collectivist, it doesn't really praise individuality or uniqueness, it praises how "black" a figure is. Instead of being me, I was given a series of instructions of what other people wanted me to conform to, implicit suggestions on how I HAVE to express myself. Exemplifing the typical role given to you is then rewarded by other black people.
And so, those people rise to prominence and their characteristics are parroted by the media they inspire. Certain characteristics become "black" things and thats extremely frustrating. And it cycles back to me, being afraid to be labeled off of skin but not mind.
That's why I really appreciate the outspokenness of Idris Elba or Terry Crews, who seek to establish themselves as themselves and not what's approved by the black community, at times at their own cost. Terry Crews disagreed with the BLM riots. Idris questions why he's seen as a "black actor" as opposed to an actor. I am a PERSON before I am a person who just HAPPENS to be black. My skin has nothing to do with my internal schematic, mind, tastes or personality. I'm just me. The ME who got bullied for being too nerdy, had to cope with humor and escaped into the sciences. Those personality traits and experiences are the reason PETER PARKER is my hero, because despite being different races, we share those.
And it's eyerollingly obnoxious, when I have to watch Miles be a vague undefined amalgamation of traits and brands associated with what is pre-approved for black people to like, under the pretense he's "my spiderman." And being put aside to get a boring history lesson on black music in a game where Peter is fighting for his life. I mean, swinging around in basketball sneakers is about as obnoxious and condescending to me as it would be to you If Peter fought crime dressed as Colonel sanders
You summed up my primary school experience pretty nicely. People like you and I are pariahs. You are absolutely right, black culture is extremely collectivist. So long as you are part of the black community you don't have many options to choose from in how you present yourself if you wish to be accepted. Personally, I listened to all of them tell me how non black I was and decided to keep being myself anyway. I don't identify with black culture or have a deep attachment to it. So long as I'm surrounded by people who like me for who I am, I'm content not being accepted by the black community.
If I can understand, I am from South America and although I have not lived in the USA, according to what my friends on the internet told me and what I see, the issue of race is so ingrained that even though years have passed since the time of segregation, they continue to do so. . Also, I never understood those insults of “Act like a black person or stop acting like a white person” when what does it mean to act like a black person? Oh, are we going to polarize that being ambitious is being a white person? Is the calculating thing or being a yellow person?
This comment isn't getting anywhere near as much traction as it should. If I had to guess it's because alot of people now adays have really short attention spans and refuse to read anything more than a few sentences in the comments but I appreciate reading something like this because I went through the same shit growing up around other black people expecting me to confrom instead of just being myself. Thankfully I found other friends black and otherwise that were way more open minded and shared similar interests as me but I really feel for the people that didn't. That isolation well fuck a person up in the worst of ways especially if they already have it rough at home.
Hey y'all, black dude here. You could probably say I align a little more with "black culture" based upon seeing me and some of my interests and how I speak. However I've never understood the "acting white" thing whenever there's a black person who isn't what people typically view a "black person" as. That black person who "acts white" is still black to me. I don't believe black people should be narrowed down to who we can be and what we're interested in, how we dress, how we talk, etc.
What I will say is that you've also gotta have an understanding of why there's black people with this mindset. We've had a lot of culture and individuality stripped away from us so it's important to a lot of black folks that we hold on tight to the culture that we do still have and have created out of our unfavorable circumstances. On top of the fact that we've been told so much what we can and can't be by the people who oppress us. So there's alot of black people trapped in a certain way of thinking and they don't even realize it. You've just gotta understand that for the black people who think this way, it really isn't as personal as I'm sure it feels. They're just operating in a certain way of thinking they've be conditioned into that they have to be liberated from.
P.S. Spider-Man/Peter Parker is my favorite superhero lol so I understand him being your hero all too well.
@@majestymxnt7384 Long Post incoming, read if you dare.
I'm really glad you said this ngl, I am a black person, specifically a queer trans man(trust me it's relevant) and I sure as hell didn't grow up with people thinking I was normal, especially when I moved to the hood- but even before moving there I was told I acted white by my older family members for liking anime, or Sonic, Radiohead or The offspring or peers at school who thought I didn't act "hood" like them. I got a different flavor of this cause for the first half of my childhood I wasn't trans and I'd aligned with being a girl, so I got shit like, "Why are you so quiet?" Or, "Oh you're so nice", it was somehow always a surprise to people that I wasn't like other black kids, even when I lived in suburbia.
I wanted so badly to just be *me* without any labels, especially from my family members saying I "act white" because I didn't talk like them or wanted to be like them when they grew up in the hood for the majority of their own lives. It's like they didn't see me as anything but black and I wanted to rip myself away from anything that was culturally identified as black for so long. After a while, I started to understand why exactly being "black" is and was so important for so many, and how devastating and necessary for black folks in order to compensate for lack of ownership our autonomy, we've had to make our own.
I don't like obsessing over race too much, especially when I cannot relate to most black people's experiences, including my parents like people outwardly being racist to me. But to say the issue are within those who care so much about their blackness when over the generations we've been made to feel ashamed of our own traits even till today I don't think that's entirely fair. SO I do agree that this really does chalk down to circumstances, and I try to personally not to take it too much to heart, though the frustration is also fair. Nobody should be shaming anybody for something they can't change, I can't change the fact that I like things that are "white". I feel this especially when it comes to being lgbt+ too since it's always about some shit about how the white people are just want extra privileges' and our existence is ignored, or if we're not being ignored we're suddenly being led astray by them and or it's suddenly a bad look to be whatever the hell you are.
Though I feel like this is mostly an older generation thing, because I never had this issue with my older cousins that would watch anime with me when we were younger. In short, I feel like this conversation needs understanding on both sides. In a nutshell being black is difficult in this context because of this, because not only are you fighting assumptions about how you should be acting from people who aren't even black because of certain things in the media, so are you fighting them from the inside. Being black is important to some and to others it's not as much, and that's perfectly fine just like any other race- or even identity. I think acknowledging both is the best approach to this conflict since you can bridge this understanding so you're not boxing either side into one generalization.
I wanted to give my own experience on this as well since I sympathize with op a ton, but to mostly emphasize that this varies to person to person.
Need to throw my hat into the ring lastly:
I've idly followed Spider-Man over the years but Spider-man has always appealed to me the most in superhero genres outside of maybe Teen Titans. So originally I used to find Miles nothing of a character before Spiderverse since I was exposed to him from the Ultimate cartoon (I know) and nothing in comparison to Peter because of Spectacular. Spiderverse immediately challenged that though, and honestly he has to have my favorite costume between the two. Dunno much about the games but he's really grown into his own character in Spiderverse and I appreciate that immensely because I've found his journey endearing of not feeling like he fits in because of all of the dozens of Spider people he has to consistently compare himself to. That and his identity is still apart of him, I don't care what op thinks I think the Jordans on Miles is fun characterization if you ignore the blatant advertisement.
YO WAS THIS VIDEO REALLY 42 MINUTES LONG! I was so invested in the premiere that I didn't even notice!
Thanks for showing up!
@@ScritRighter A stereotype that I don't like is when black parents are authoritarian and physically and emotionally abusive assholes towards their children.
5 Black Characters with powers that arent lightning:
1. Ussop, King of Sniper Island.
2. Barret, FF7 l, Has a gatling gun for an arm.
3. Burton Guster, Psych. Power: The Sniffer
4. Prototype 2 guy whos name I forget but his power was tentacles or something. You told me not to google...
5. Current Green Lantern whos name I do not know
What!? You must have Ussop confused with Sogeking. Which I do understand since they both have long noses. It's a shame that they never got to see each other in enies lobby.
When I see a black character in a show at times: Oh look I like this black character not many of them in the show and this one seems well written and I can relate to a little bit.
When I see a black character in a show at times....and they marketed all over the place saying that they are in the show and look how diverse our cast are: This character seems out of place doesnt really seem to fit in with the setting...actually allot of the cast are TOO diverse with its setting. Why did they place emphasis on this character in marketing if they aren't even part of the main plot.
I am Hispanic and I agree with the making of new characters. This why miles is loved because they didn’t bucket tool Peter. It feels like sloppy seconds when they race swap characters. It’s annoying cause I know my culture can be seen in a cool way while having a well written character. My personal favorite character is gambit because he clearly shows he’s cajun in his mannerism but he’s awesome character.
While I feel “make original characters” statement is getting old but it’s true and super hero comics are suffering a lot from regurgitation of old ideas. I think that’s why I gravitate to other media from Japan, china, and India. Because they are creating new ideas with their own style influenced by their culture. For example gun fu was inspired by Chinese opera. Gun fu and wuxia films later on inspired the matrix in its gun fight.
I can find better rep in other countries compared to USA.
green lantern,vixen,cyborg, black panther, falcon, storm( her powers weather so it counts), blade, luke cage, invincible/bullet proof, aqua lad, and everyone's favorite darwin. black superheroes arent even mostly lightning based. static shock was just so good of a show the blindly accepted the narrative we only get electricity powers when in reality we mostly get...super strength...super durability, and super speed... on second thought lets keep the lighting powers
i think its partly the fact if you put black lightning, static shock, storm (technically shes weather but since lightnings the big flashy use i guess she counts) and miles next to each other, and since half of them are the most well known, it makes it look like the issue is much bigger. like instead, if you put cyborg, black panther, falcon, and Mr. terrific together with the text "why are all black superheroes super high tech heroes" they would have equally believed it.
frankly this may be more an issue in media/stories OUTSIDE comics that involve magic powers because in superhero comics there is a more even array of abilities and stuff like superstrength or anything with energy is just most prevalent because thats just the go to for any superhero character in general, regardless of race (if you put every superhero from marvel or dc in a line 9/10 they will either have some form super strength or some form of energy based power)
As a black man, I can't tell y'all how annoying it is to have black characters that pander to their audience "Oh yeah these colored folks have all these baby-mama dramas/have all these shootouts in the hood. Ain't that sad?" "It's so damn cool to be black". Like he said have your characters be characters first than just stereotypes. Surprisingly haven't talked about Boondocks but it's a good example. You have Huey, an atypical black kid and Riley who's as typical as they come. Neither are bad in the slightest and you learn to not go far too right or left with them. Even as a kid I got that much
As a black person yeah Ariel and Jim made me mad i mean it wasn't necessarily just because they were black but because it seemed like bs because during that time we saw the rise of black created media so it felt as if we were just being catered too
Oh yeah and that Velma show bs swapping almost the whole cast but Fred just to turn him from THE GOAT to a pathetic incel
You use terrible examples when those ACTORS got there roles because they were good at ACTING they do auditions believe it or not
@@THEMilesMorales You know there race has nothing to do with the story if you just said characteristics being demolished I would agree with you
@@thewanderingronin1924 I mean I wouldn't day the characters aren't deep but with the story adapted Jim really aint all that he was just an assistant and the only way they could character assassinate Ariel is if they make her smart acting brain dead ain't hard
@@thewanderingronin1924 and they did destroy the characters of the Mystery Inc. none of them acted as they really would barely besides shaggy and all he did was act like a nigga who was high so what
Hot take:
The “I don’t see race.” Mentality is just as discriminatory as conventional racism, causes more harm in the battle for racial justice than good and is an atrocious way to go about writing black characters in fiction, both historical figures and made-up characters.
I agree 100%. Ignoring race or the histories behind it is a way to brush things under the rug and avoid the work which still needs to be done.
But I also feel that fighting for social justice all the time can be exhausting, and sometimes we just wanna write cool characters in cool stories without having to delve into topics we may or may not be prepared to do proper justice.
@@ScritRighter I’ll admit wholeheartedly my comment was somewhat hyperbolic. I think the “I don’t see race” approach to writing black characters works well for franchises where the concept of Racism either doesn’t exist (Pokemon and Fire Emblem) or if it does exist, it’s not racism targeted at humans, but rather, vaguely humanoid-looking creatures/monsters (Final Fantasy, Xenoblade and Zelda). I think it fails though for story’s based on real-life historical black people (e.g. Yasuke, Malik Ambar, Kandake, Dihya, Thomas Alexandre Dumas, Bessie Coleman, Josephine Baker, Mansa Musa, Nzinga, Shaka Zulu, Abram Gannibal, Coretti arle-titz, Obama, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, Malcom X) who objectively DID suffer from racial discrimination so much that it partly defined their character and personality and made their achievements feel so much more rewarding as a result. Robbing them of that agency and that aspect of their lives in favour of a nebulous, fabricated struggle that never happened would be, in my opinion, a huge disservice to their legacies and accomplishments.
I always figured "I don't see color" was about you not making any decisions based on the race of someone else and it not being something you think twice about
Rather than ignoring the race they have and what they go through
@@audreyharris7643 That's what I thought it was too, until I grew older and met people who thought like that lol. I see color and race, but I don't treat people differently based off of that, it's just how my eyes work. A lot of people I've met that say that tend to be lying or trying to cover-up what they really think
@@Remember_the_Time understandable
One thing I don’t understand when people says “oh media is becoming to political now”. When media has always been politic in one way or another. Even when it’s not intentionally. From stories of thousands of years ago, to stories from ten years ago. They still have an message and political view in them.
Also there has been moment where poc have been making their own characters and yet they still get hate from it.
Anyway keep up the amazing work
While political messages have always been included in media to some degree, let's not pretend things haven't gone completely off the rails in recent years. It was not common place for politics to ruin the quality of the story and were more used to enhance said story. Back then it wasn't boarderline expected to be bombarded with political messages in just about every single thing you engaged with. A lot of things could be enjoyed as entertainment. I watched in real time as activists started getting more and more involved with media. The shift in the types of things produced from 2010 to 2020 is radically different. Media became less about entertainment for the most part and about pushing a message. The pandering is unapolegetically obvious to the point it's insulting. When companies care more about their investors that, for some reason, want this stuff present in their products or they pull funding it causes them to hamfist these things into stories just to meet a quota. Disney, netflix and others are speed running themselves into the earth's core because of it. Yes media has always had politics present but the frequency and careless way they are implemented today is why people make that complaint. It also doesn't help that the people responsible for this environment keep stirring the pot.
@@CanofArizona
That’s understandable. Since the writing quality have been questionable lately. Not saying there hasn’t been amazing tv shows and movie I haven’t been enjoying. But they keep on getting canceled for stupid reason. Still upset about the owl house till this day 😓.
It also doesn’t help that people media illiteracy is very low. So if a writers does do their political message in a smart, effective, yet very blunt way. You still have people that doesn’t understand it. Like My hero academia when it comes to their villains.
@@SammyRobinson62232 some people do seem to be understanding things a lot less, I wonder if it’s more of a general lack of attention opposed to media illiteracy
@@sabersin7694
Media is always political because it has a message or a political stance of something.
Media from a time period is kinda like a snap shot of the time period. Due to the behaviors and stories of that piece of media. You can see what is the political view during that time period
There is a major disconnect between a story presenting an idea in a very subtle manner and ham fisting an ideology into someone's face with no tact and all the subtly of a sledgehammer to the face.
Wasn't the race swapping controversy in invincible not the viltramites but the race swapping of amber from white to black and instead of writing her the same they rewrote her to be a special kind of insufferable with one scene over the secret identity argument ruining the character like the show race swapped other characters like rex and gender swapped shrinking ray but no buzz on them cuz there character wasn't changed
It was both, although I think people just disliked Amber as a character for how she treated Mark.
@@ScritRighter weird cuz I've never heard race swapping vitrimite issue mostly cuz characters like Lucien existed and in season 2 I heard complaints they made him fat. And on the mark amber part they did the character change and race swapping cuz whenever race swapping happens at least in the modern age they can't just keep the character the same but they seem to just need to make them act different so they can be both the same character and different at the same time and this is the case in a lot of stuff now a days which comes as a bit of a bad omen when the character is either an love interest or a plot important character
@@blankblank6214 Congratulations, you are a normal human being lmao.
@@ScritRighter The vultrumite thing is just the crazy ones making a fool of themselves and diluting the discourse.
Luke Cage, Falcon, Blade, Vixen and Blue Marvel, it's not a trope but a lot of the ones that get pushed tend to have it, I can name 5 more without looking it up like Oya, Debris, Darwin, Gentle, Bishop, Spawn, Cyborg, Black Panther. But I am black myself but like I said earlier they seem to be the ones with the bigger presence in media which may or may not be a coincidence.
I wouldn't include Miles Morales and Storm but the reason why they're so many black superheroes with lightning powers is because DC didn't want to pay the guy who made Black Lightning so they kept on making clones of the superhero.
I know it's going to be annoying to hear but that's why i don't like race swapping because Marvel and DC has these characters and half of them get expanded on besides the comics. Meanwhile they're left on the shelf to collect dust or reduced to background characters
Let's not forget rocket, Icon, john stewart
@@jawz9455 wait I thought that whole not paying the Black lightning creator was only really for the super friends show and nothing else, in DC comics the only other "clone" i could see is static shock but even then he wasnt DC he was originally apart of Milestone comics (a separate company made of black creators creating new black superheros that was later bought and added to DC) and the other two are thunder & lightning who are black lightnings kid so, obviously similar powers.
@@christopherauzenne5023 Check out DC animated shows, you'll see alot of black superheroes with lightning powers dawning Black Lightnings colours.
To be fair they have a point about Spider-woman. Why the fuck is she fighting crime with an unborn baby in her stomach. One punch and she is done for. Other than that I agree with most of your opinions.(I'm black and I think my opionion is valid in this).
Edit: There is a difference between doing office, retail, and other jobs pregnant and fighting crime which have bad guys hitting and puching a vunerable part of your stomach you need to protect.
yeah same opinion, and to anyone who says "well peter is basically doing the same thing with his baby and you don't think that's an issue", NO I do, that is also incredibly stupid as well. honestly this is the third time ive seen something from marvel having a pregnant superhero fighting and like you said a pregnant woman working vs one in active combat or soooo not the same thing.
(like at least the original comic pregnant spiderwoman this was based on, her first decision was to be as far away from fighting as possible and was only forced into fighting because she was trapped in a hostage situation)
The kid is gonna come out as an omelette if she keeps spinning around like that.
You do know that’s a super baby right?
@thewanderingronin1924 Cool fact, still an unborn baby.
@CyreseParrish Even more fun fact it's a radioactive unborn baby whose mom is Spider-Woman
1. Black panther
2. The Falcon
3. Killer Bee
4. Miriko (MHA)
5. Blackbeard (One Piece), he is comfirmed to be from Somalia if he lived in our world by Oda
yo killer be has lightning style tho....
When I think abt miles morales I think of him as Latino bc I’m Latino and I desperately look for ppl like me I’m the media ig and I’m glad he isn’t js a stereotypical Latin lover or something
Honestly the "there's too many black superheroes with lightning powers" is kinda overblown theirs not that many if I remember correctly there's maybe 16 to 17 superheroes with lightning abilities including those with weather control abilities but theirs a lot I man a lot of other black superheroes with different powers it's just the lighting black superheroes are the most popular to the point were we see them every where
My theory about why black superheroes tend to end up with electric superpowers is due to colour contrast. I imagine the idea is if the hero is dark, the powers should be bright so they pop and look dynamic. So, what’s brighter than lightning? It’s got ‘light’ in the name! So, if multiple writers come to the same conclusion, then boom! You have an electric black superhero trope. Especially if others get inspired by said heroes.
They could make them fire users, for example like Mohammed Avdol from JoJo‘s Bizarre Adventure. Or give them straight up light beams
Possibly related note to representation of African culture, the upcoming major content update of Genshin Impact is a nation called Natlan. There is a common idea that this area will feature Afro-Latin-inspired concepts. The developers are from China, so they would very likely not have the same lens that we have in the west. I look forward to seeing a new perspective on these ideas.
Like how they made everyone from Sumeru white? Lol
I'm black and I don't approve of some of my favorite characters getting black washed. I'm one of the few OG Nick Fury fans and didn't need the talented Sam Jackson to be him. Johnny Storm became Michael B Jordan, and they made Wesker a black guy that awkwardly ended up looking like Temu Blade.
I like Black characters, but don't race swap everything for diversity points. If we are so creative we should have fresh innovative original Black characters instead of cheering when we get second hand heroes.
Tbh, i love miles, and it connects to me. However, cleveland doesn't. I
But the writing is pretty different
Bro, cleaveland was kind of lame…
@@Darth_Bateman Was? He still is even now.
@@yoder6162 OG Cleveland was kinda funny. The one before he left for the spinoff, Loretta being a bitch to him while he was completely dead inside was funny to me, at least.
one character I love is Lee Everett from The Walking Dead Telltale series. even though he's the playable character and we make the majority of the choices for him, there's still an underlying personality in Lee. he has great leadership skills, learns how to adapt in an unforgiving environment, and is a great father/mentor figure to Clementine. He's a great protagonist, and my second favorite TWD protagonist in the entire franchise, aside from Clementine, who is also a great character.
I love Lee and Clem so much
Thank you for shedding light on this, Growing up I had to constantly see black people act like thugs form the ghetto and it always got on my nerves, like were not all like that. It's so frustrating when these writers try to be "inclusive" but instead of doing there research they just resort to using stereotypes.
34:00 so my thoughts on this actually are "no. I liked this stop changing things, dont change their looks, dont change their personality, dont change their background or speech, and i will be opposed to it untill you prove that its more interesting or better done" see, Gwen Stacy and Nick Fury, those two actually became way more interesting and more defined in media. I like it. And if they made bad changed to either of these characters i would be very upset, nick fury isnt a white man anymore, Gwen's new haircut and face are so much more interesting than the old one, to revert it back or change her style again would upset me 100%
The trope of lightning powers comes from Black Lightning, a DC hero who was the very first black DC character to receive his own series. He was instrumental in proving black characters could be the title lead of a series and still sell decent numbers, and not only among black people, but among white people, too. A lot of indie comics made their own ripoffs or homages to him not out of disrespect, but because 1., it sold well and 2., his success led a lot of people to finally give black lead characters a chance in the medium. Later comics creators created characters with lightning powers who are black not because they wanted to make it a trope, but because they wanted to honor the importance of Black Lightning in comics history. The creator of Static (or Static Shock, as the cartoon was called) gave his lead lightning powers to reference Black Lighting because the two characters are both science nerds and superheroes, two roles that historically, black characters in comics didn't get to be. Miles Morales' lightning powers are a reference to Static's powers, as he is also a kid interested in science and the success of Static and Black Lightning at DC was something his creators used to help convince Marvel to publish Miles' series.
I don't think we as non-white people get to tell black creators not to write black characters with lightning powers when that's a reference to something historically significant in black representation in media. No one gives white people shit for writing characters with Superman's powerset. Why should black people be barred from a specific superpower simply because they're black?
Characters like Frozone who have no storyline, no interiority, no development and no focus put on them have non-electric powers. Power changes don't equal good writing. Writing a character who's a teacher, involved in his community, kind and thoughtful (Black Lightning), extroverted, nerdy, into science and funny (Static) or artistic, scientific, creative, self-confident and so heroic he stands up to the multiverse (Miles) who have a single trope you don't like doesn't make them bad. Writing is more important than anything else. If I give a character fire powers and his personality is gangsta stereotypes, I haven't really done anything to make good representation. I've just made a small change and patted myself on the back for it.
It’s ironic someone would get mad about a black background Vilturmite. I mean Debbie wasn’t Asian from what I remember in the comics or didn’t seem so
Wait, some people were mad about that??? there's gazillion black viltrumites in the book
I agree with most the video outside of the race swapping part and saying that people that dont like it are uncomfy with black people in media. I find that disingenuous. I hate race swaps in general because most times they are done for a bad reason and its a terrible excuse for diversity. The same with gender swaps now that i'm here. But im this way not just with white characters getting turned black but all characters. If the original vision of a character was black,white,asian,latino keep them that way. Make new characters instead of changing old ones , like you said in the video its really damn lazy in the first place. I dont want black characters changed white and white characters changed black especially since its almost like i said never done for a good reason.
In cases like actors i give a pass sometimes because the best person to play that character sometimes just happens to be of a different race. As black puerto rican i love characters like miles but because hes well written him being from my same country and my same race is just a plus as someone who writes myself quality should be put above everything else from my own standpoint. A good story will already just naturally be diverse only when it is forced and put above the quality is when i give it and disapproving side eye.
I agree
No definitely just don’t like black people love cause, where was this hate when people were white washing Amanda the adventurers a recent game . 😂you seem heated love take a bottle of water
Challenge accepted. 5 black heroes who dont use lighting powers.
Icon
Monica Rambo
Luke Cage
Brother Vodoo
Cyborg
Easy but i guess its not really fair sense im kinda a nerd. Also ill say this lighting powers can be used well but its always used for the same thing shooting down or out lighting.
When i think of lighting powers i think of Cole McGrath from infamous or electro from Marvel. Both of them use thier powers in similiar ways but its diffferent enough to make them stand out above the rest in my presonal opinion. For example electro can travel threw electronics and his body is made out of pure electricity so bullets go right threw them, Cole can access almost any source of information by hacking into the any thing that uses it.
“Politics doesn’t help with writing with writing a good character.” I agree with it. I also, feel like my generation has problems with political addiction.
Your right a bit with politics thing but some characters are inherently politics but not all still a good point man.
Everything has politics. This. "Urk my generation" thing is so corny
@@lordraiden7397 Okay then tell me what is political themes of It’s wonderful life?
@@lordraiden7397 I get the point your not fully right bro
@@IsabellaMathew HEY what a wonderful world 😊
I'm creating an indie series. One of the main 4 characters is a black woman. She's based off a irl astronaut whose the first black woman in space. I've been talking with a lot of black creators and friends of mine on how to avoid the common tropes and stereotypes to make a genuine good black character in my creation that people can love and look up too.
I see the way companies give sloppy seconds to people of color instead of creating original characters for them. It's sad and I'm a Latina-Irish woman.
I'm working on an indie project, all by myself and the main is a black woman who is Korean. I don't have any black friends at all and I don't have much guidance on making my character. Good on you that you have help and support!
You snuck in piccolo in the thumbnail
Thank god I was dragged out of focusing on this stuff. (pause) 24:43 Looking back on it, I only cringe now and ask "Why did I see this as a problem? This stupid to complain about in the first place, 'woke media is ruining cinema', oh god, give me a gun so I can shoot myself for saying that sentence."
But other than that, keep up the great video, my man.
John Stewart’s Green Lantern
Rocket
Icon
Black Panther
Blade (he’s an Anti Hero, so just in case we want to do another actual hero, Bishop)
Only reason i didn’t say Cyborg was cause he’s a robot so electricity is essential to him. Don’t wanna cheat.
EDIT: Luke cage and Falcon were right there and i forgot about em
Here's a list of 5 fictional black characters without lightning abilities
1 titan from invincible
2 vixen from DC comics
3 bronze tiger from DC comics
4 war machine from marvel comics
5 cyborg from DC comics
I could keep going if you want
Also for correction green lanterns are not legacy characters or slant characters because green lantern is a profession. think of them as galactic interpol. So anyone can be a green lantern regardless of their identity. Also, there is a difference between legacy characters and slant/derivative characters. Legacy characters are mostly mentee/aspirational characters that are inspired by the main established character to do good or continue the legacy of their mentor or inspired hero. While derivative characters are mostly a mirror version of the original they are sometimes presented as legacy characters that can have their own heroic journey but mostly tend not to have one or are highly dependent on the original character to feel significant.
The Robins are good examples of legacy characters and as I stated before traditions within the medium have a specific character arc. The reason why we call Richard Grayson first Robin or Dick Grayson Robin and don't call Dick Grayson Knightwing is because the character has a sort of graduation arc where they move from point A of their life into point B. The student leaves their mentors and has their own heroic journeys. The same applies to the other robins. Miles doesn't have this aspect.
Just write original black characters the way you would write white characters just write them as people that’s all I keep saying when someone asks me this
I’ve never had the most diverse casts of characters, I am white and grew up in an area with very few minorities. As I got older, I made more minority characters but always felt ill equipped to write them well. My instincts told me to write them like I’d write any character, but I also knew that being black in America often comes with a culture and perspective I am very unfamiliar with. I always avoid research even though I know it would expand my understanding of my setting and characters, which is a shame because that lack of knowledge is what gives me pause in writing more diverse characters. For me there is more pressure to write black characters well and sometimes a feeling like I have no business writing from a black character’s perspective being a white person who’s had very few interactions with minorities.
Ultimately, though, I think it’s sort of like being an artist. You may not be the best artist, but if you never create anything, you’ll never get any better. So I guess the advice I need is to get over the fear that the world will end if I write a cliche or badly written black character. More so that a character can always be improved the more you learn. So I guess, don’t hinge your character’s value on whether they’re perfect but also be open to information and perspectives that can help you write them better? Idk, sounds like a start. Just trying to help myself out without delving into the whole political angle.
Two points Id like to say about this topic as black man. The main issues I've had from writers being unable to write black characters is that they don't do the bare minimum research to understand the black character they're writing about, or make it seem like black people are these otherworldly people that's impossible to relate to somehow; and I've seen it go both ways in terms of being legit racist or WAY to woke about it.
i grew up in early 2000's-today watching shows, cartoons, and some anime to an extent, with well versed, enjoyable and non-cringe black characters. Nowadays though it feels like people in the media space have either forgot about that, or they are wrapped up in some weird Ideology about blackness that they overcompensate and make the black character into a mary-sue or caricatures.
Another dynamic is the difference between hood blacks and normal black people. Most black people don't act like they're from the hood, but there is so much media about black people acting like hood blacks. So what I see is that a lot of people from other cultures see that and assume most black people act like hood blacks. In reality most black people are more like their African brothers and sisters than they would like to admit. It's so bad that a lot hispanic blacks down in south america outright deny their blackness just so they aren't lumped with the other blacks from the US. That's why I think Black Panther was such a global movement in the Afro-sphere of the world. It kinda showed that not only was being black cool, but it was profitable as well.
I think if more writers actually do the work to make their black characters, GOOD characters, instead of focusing on woke agenda; more people from other cultures will come around and understand the black people are just people too. So either just write them like normal characters, or if you are going to write from a more african lense then do the research so you know what you're talking about.
Blerd without Fear did a video on how it's not that a lot of black superheroes have lightning powers. It's that a lot of POPULAR black superheroes have them or are associated with them. I'd recommend checking out his vid - he did an excellent contrast to show it's a very small percentage and people's perspective on this phenomenon is kind of skewed.
On another note, making black superheroes have lightning powers is really...not something writers do just to copy. I'm surprised people don't talk about this but a lot of black people actually LIKE the dynamic. It has a lot to do with the 'Black Power' movement back in the 1960s and when you wield something as fundamentally dynamic as lightning you have 'Power.' This is why we have a character with the name 'Black Lightning'. In essence, it's an allegory for 'black power' and if you at a lot of the icongraphy of the character he's heavily embodied that to a non-subtle degree. Yes, it not something we need for every hero - I absolutely agree. I'm not saying that the trope needs to be done more and I don't want to see creative powers from black superheroes. But it's not out of 'nothing' and quite frankly while there are some black people who say they're sick of it; there's a lot of black people who eat that shit up and it's probably why the dynamic still runs strong after so many black characters have overused the theme.
Also I wanna say as a black person, I'm also not keen on seeing my race and culture being overly catered to via the savior complex. I say this because...I love the Spider-Verse movies and I take no issue with them. But then I look at something like Insomniac Spider-Man 2 and I honest to god cringe. Yeah, there are some racist people out here and some of them are the ones complaining about these things. But they really should not just be blanketed dismissed when there are valid gripes brought up. Insomniac making Miles the main Spider-Man after spending an entire game of shitting on Peter and making him apologize for things that were not his fault and acting as if he were lacking? Yeah no. It's _weird._ Like you said at the start of the video - we notice that shit. And this is a particularly complex case because you gotta remember black people are >people< too. And it's in style these days for people to lean into being a victim so that others can hand you things. Bottom line - I take issue with acting that everyone who has a problem with these sorts of things must be inherently racist and look inward at themselves. Because it feels like we're just encouraging another form of oppression.
You tripped over your point when you started trying to tackle the culture war part.
The video put a smile on my face.
Just because Spiderverse is a good movie, which I agree with, doesn't mean that gender and race swapping characters isn't lazy and uninspired. Having multiple green lanterns makes sense, it's a corp that was established very early. Having multiple Robins also makes since, still unoriginal which is why most people who are actually into the comics prefer Nightwing and Red Hood over Damien and Tim. They are all just Orphans that Bruce adopted. Having two characters with damn near the same powers while one has been established as one of the most popular comic book figures ever, and the other has lighting powers and Jordan 1s... Is lazy. Name 3 Miles Morales villains? The Prowler?! They recycle all of Peters villains as well. I just feel like writing off criticism of race swapping a character just because a movie was good as being uncomfortable with black people is disingenuous.
THIS
I mean to be fair Miles does have some villains like Frost Pharoh, Bumbler, and The Acsessor, but I see your point, he does need more of his own villains that are not Peter’s.
fair video with a lot of intersting points but I kinda have a problem with this part 29:29
first off you literally just showed an image were only one of the robins was robin and the rest have become a different/new hero so that kinda screws up your point, the green lanterns have changed from being a sole hero to more an intergalactic defense force a good point before introducing guy, john and etc. and flash ISN'T venom he is his own hero Agent venom and it's not just a slight name change, the two work completely different.
but regarding your point, I feel miles often gets the most of this is that a huge part of his story was the death of peter parker because that basically acts as his uncle ben moment but when stories try to have him and peter, with peter not dying he kinda feels directionless (like imagine batman but his parents aren't dead, kinda loses something doesnt it). Spiderverse made this work, even though technically they did kill miles' peter, by giving a mentor student relationship between pete and miles so they still have that passing the torch idea. but that only worked because they had an actual age gap, pete being mid 40s while miles being a preteen, when others try they have the two ruffly the same age or peter is still new at spiderman so the mentor element isnt there (no joke, there was a recent spiderman show and before the first season was over they made miles a spiderman/gwen spider-gwen)
35:16 By that logic, no one should bat an eye if Black Panther or The Major is turned white.
Just finished watching. This video is #requiredviewing in all schools around the world. Thank you for making this!
A 5 minute disclamer usually is not usually a good sign before discussing a topic. I got scared aha.
As a black man I hate raceswaps. It's just a cop-out for studios to not take the real risk of promoting a diverse character. Miles Morales used to sucks in the comics. Glad they fixed him in Spider-Verse.
Also:
Spike (X-men evolution)
Aqualad (young justice)
Mr Terrific (DCAU)
Green Lantern (DCAU)
Luke Cage (Netflix)
Blade (Wesley Snipe version)
I am working on a story and one of my main characters are black with lighting powers, but the lighting powers are based on music, and it is like gears from one piece. for example: his first form overdrive is activated by playing upbeat music, this form puts all of his energy into his legs witch higher his speed by 10x.
If he uses this form for too long, he would not be able to use another form for 10 minutes and this can break his legs, so he has to be smart when using this form.
would this pass for you, you can give me feedback if you can.
like this channel btw this was the first vid I watched, keep up the good work.
never knew it was a trope btw.
My biggest gripe rite now in modern writing for black people as a black man im so tired of the hole were oppressed and white man bad in almost all trust me we do care when they get the mythology wrong it shows the lak of care and resurch oing into it
That Green Lantern, Robin and Flash examples are perfect
Very much enjoyed this video. As a black person, I love seeing well written characters in general.
I recently saw Dune 2, cuz I was heavily excited for it after seeing the first one, and I absolutely LOVED it.
Hearing book readers also enjoy it and seeing the differences between the movies and the book was very interesting. One of the main changes was Chani and Kynes. Chani is described as a redhead and Kynes is described as a white man. In the movie, however, Chani has brown hair and Kynes is a black woman.
From the perspective you have of a minority of the "anti-woke" crowd, you'd expect us to be making video after video of these changes, but, once you look at the actual arguments being made, you see it's more nuanced. Nobody cared because the movie was great and the director cared more about Chani's character than just lazily swapping her race.
I dont think we should look at race/ gender swapping with indifference, but with nuance.
The reason the "anti-woke" crowd exists is in response Hollywood and big gaming studios pushing a narrative rather than telling a good story. This causes whatever people they try to "represent" to get a bad look and deepens some in their racist beliefs while putting in 0 effort themselves.
Miles Morales, for example, started off as the exact same character as Peter Parker with some added negative stereotypes with his uncle. Almost anytime you hear the creators talk about his story, its about inclusion, diversity and not much about his actual character.
In comes ITSV, and not only is there unique animation, great story, and great music but made Miles unique but still relatable while still keeping the inclusive and diverse message by letting the movie speak for itself and not speaking for Miles.
For a long time, Marvel would hire people who knew nothing of their legacy characters or how comics work, to make new characters. First thing on their mind was "diversity and inclusion" instead of good writing and during that time, they replaced legacy characters and shit on them. But they also made themselves the new character and made the characters assholes. These characters can make a racist even more racist, a sexist, even more sexist because of how bad their characters are. Then their comics/ movies don't sell well and they blame it on the audience when they're the ones being sexist/racist in those comics/ movies because they're projecting it.
Lets look at the whole Sweet Baby Inc. fiasco going on right now. Even if you don't believe modern "wokeness" exists, its a HUGE problem that a consulting company that is supposed to be helpling with writing minorities and being against racism, sexism, etc. but the leader and SEVERAL employees are actively being racist and excluding people from getting a job. They are being hypocritical. Disney, EA, etc, do not care about us black people, they dont care about women, men, gay ppl, trans, etc. they say they do but then put 0 effort in those movies and games and still raise the price to even get a ticket.
Prime example, the new Little Mermaid movie. As a black person, this pissed me off the most. Not that they made a black Little Mermaid, but that they took Ariel, someone who's known to be white, changed it, and made it a bad Live Action. There's black mermaids in one of the animated movies made by the same company and instead of doing a unique story about them that could add more world building for the verse, they instead to do this. This is what's meant by "woke" when trying to present yourself as for progressiveness or to be helping a community but being so lazy or hypocritical that you're not willing to stop getting money from those that are racist/ sexist. Youve seen what Disney has done for China regarding us.
Sorry, for the long post, but sure there are "anti-woke" people that are racist, but most of us, 99.999999% of us, aren't that but are responding to the fake progressivism from these companies.
Look at how Miles was even created it was a virtue signal because Bendis has 2 adopted black daughters he claims he's "writing for them" Yet then he leaves the project for others to deal with and he moves on to something else. This have 2 more times with Riri Williams and Naomi... Naomi being the worse offender since DC completely removed her after a WILD push with her in the canon. After the cheaply made CW show flopped she was MIA from everything. Going back to Miles he was LAME for almost 10 years before ITSV that movie did what 10 years could not do. Then he STILL was lame and they made him even worse in the comics imo.
Yes, I would have loved and respected a Little Mermaid that was a spin off where you see what those black Mermen were doing. Ariel is OVER THERE yet here this story going on here that how they can keep and bank off legacy yet then have something new as well.
I've been anti since the first GG insulted my intellengence as a black male gamer. I was gaslit more by white people claiming my experience my feeling weren't valid because I didn't agree with theirs. I was often like "So I'm supposed to just be mean to you because your techincally the problem and you're ignoring what I'm saying" It cascading for 10+ years and here we are now where once again Black voices who are tired of corpo slop are ignored because these woke assholes don't think we would refuse them. They automatically think we're white or they just throw out a slur thinking it's sweet to do so. It's their actions for white more anti-black racism is popping up because they have black folk legit dancing to their tune and flipping the script calling anybody that notices the racism as racist...
How my black ass racist for pointing out these companies use racist stereotypes in there themes for black characters then use them as a shield when black people go "nah, this ain't it" Corpos only want our money they don't care.
28:51 Literally yes?? I feel like that wouldnt be too unreasonable.
Yeah. Was that question? Also why does he bring about the maternity leave?
>Be me
>black man
>be a writer
>likes lightning powers
>like the dreads (though prefer them going straight as opposed to a combover)
>shit
Bro is so respectful. Good job :)
This is the most Twitter video on TH-cam.
That's an extremely high compliment tbh.
This may be off topic but have you considered covering how video games have to blend story and gameplay? Still all your videos are really helpful, so keep up the good work.
How do you mean? Also, thank you!
@@ScritRighterI think they mean that video games should strive for a story that complements the mechanics of the game. I.E., if the story of a game and general actions of the characters involve a fantasy feel and killing monsters, then it would feel weird and off-place for the gameplay to be some match-three Candy Crush clone
Like ludonarrative harmony
26:42 I love this part because people just don't know. Peter is under so much stress all the time. He has 1 person he can trust an that person turned into a super villain once.
im glad you pointed out the 'black character with lighting powers' trope because now i notice it everywhere (even in my own works), surprising that i didnt notice sooner given i made an observation abt black ppl being stuck with yellow as their 'character colour', and theres something that can be said abt that too i suppose
I really liked this video calling attention to the obvious trend on "how to make a black person", but just to me personally, I'm not a fan of changing a character, at least a major one, rather its origin, race or background.
Video starts at 8:00
Your welcome
Being white and talking about how to write black people and being calm about it is a massive W❤
Heres my take and this may come across as ignorant but hear me out. Anytime i hear the word diversity or inclusive i just roll my eyes as if we never had diversity before, it also comes across as a badge of honor to people who say it. Growing up in the 2000's there were plenty of Diverse characters people loved and enjoy but pretend to have forgot about.
I watched 80's and 90's films and shows with Diverse characters written well and it didn't feel forced or pandering.
You can be diverse without telling me you're diverse. If i watch an interview and the first thing you tell me is how diverse or inclusive you are rather than the product i'm not gonna take you seriously.
I agree with the hairstyle I want to see more Hairstyles from Black characters, male characters to be exact.
There are tons of black characters in Marvel, DC and half of them get expanded on in animation or film. you'd need to read the comics or source materal to get a better understanding of those characters. Meanwhile other characters get shafted or left on the shelf to collect dust. It's one of the reasons why i heavily dislike race swapping because they're ignoring already existing characters they have yet to use. It also feels like to me that they can't create a character without piggyback on the existing characters.
Half of the black movies i watch is about slavery, racism, gang related or Tyler perry movies that i genuinely get annoyed and tired of.
Also the 5 black Icon, Spawn, rocket, Darwin (x-men), Luke cage, Vixen, John stewart, Blue marvel.
Show me the superhero that isn’t piggybacking off of Superman… oh wait, you can’t. This selective outrage is so lame
Also… you do not read comics. None of the black characters at marvel or DC have good comic runs. Not Black Panther, not Blade, not John Stewart, not Mr Terrific… not one.
@@kingjoeblack5 Ironic much Black Panther had an amazing comic run John Steward is deemed the better and most popular GL and currently Miles is having fantastic comic runs Blade became popular and revived Marvel just from one movie the others I agree on but put some respect on the ones you got wrong
@@thewanderingronin1924 no… the most recent Black panther run with the buffalo soldier was ass. They’ve changed John Stewart’s lantern core like 6 times in the past 3 years irrespective to how popular you think he is. And miles doesn’t have any great runs, they’ve only just started to take him seriously in the main marvel universe. You’d have to actually read comics to know any of this tho…
@@thewanderingronin1924 Also Blade doesn’t have any good stories. Not one. Wesley Snipes made Blade popular, the comics have basically nothing to do with it.
First off I'd like to say thank you for making this video (pretty brave on your part tbh).
Unfortunately I'm of a similar opinion to the bigots when it comes to simply race swapping a character, fortunately it is for a different reason. I would love to be indifferent but it just feels lazy and inconsiderate.
Sure complaining about a dark skinned humanoid fish is pretty weird but considering that the original film, the tv shows, the merchandise all portray Ariel as white I can't simply ignore why she's suddenly black.
I love good black characters and I believe that anyone of any race (yes, even my palm coloured cousins) can create them. I love characters like Blade, Luke Cage, Vixen, Storm and heck if you ask me about Green Lantern my first thought is John Stewart. All these characters were created by white people and they're great.
Just be sincere with your art and reasonable people won't attack you for making black characters
This video might've given me the courage to bring out one of my character ideas from the drafts, thanks!
But issue here is that I'm not a writer.. I'm an ARTIST so,
Time to fetch the references! Been gathering some, but the standard seems impossibly high with how much people criticize any sort of mistake, but I do want to at least TRY and I think I have the right push to do it now.
8:53 “Spit white boy”🗣️💯
For me race/gender swapping signifies we are spending too much money on this property to fail, but we also need to meet our forced diversity quotas. It's a shortcut and for people that love these characters it's just jarring. You are right when characters are race/gender swapped blindly they lose a piece of themselves for something else that we were not there for. I'm just tired of the endless remakes, retellings and sequels. Is creative writing really that dead. Off the top of my head I can't think of five super heroes with lightning powers or any power set. Except the Superman archetype.
Easiest way to find good writing is to avoid big companies trying to turn profit and look to indie projects and smaller scale productions. Diversity isn't bad, but when greedy companies use it as a carrot to dangle in front of audiences while not caring for the reason diversity is important, then the story suffers.
@@ScritRighter on point. Diversity is good when not forced because then we'll get media that understands why it's important other then Disney marking off checkboxes.
Imo, thet need to stop focusing on the race, and just write people.
Mace Windu. Not only a black superhero, but also very much did not have lightning powers.
He definitely lost to them though 💀
1. Spawn
2. Blade
3. Queen Bee
4. Vixen
5. Black Panther
6. Jon Stewart
7. Rock lock
8. Luke Cage
9. Cyborg
10. Superalloy darkshine.
11. Steel
I don’t understand the “black people can only have electrical powers” trope, but it’s because I do not see it.
PS: Not trying to be rude or anything. I just don’t see the problem and I need someone to show it to me
@Scritrigher As much as the video you have presented is well constructed and kudos to you (you have a new subscriber) There are some key issues that both isles of the political and cultural identities and spectrums that you present are correct, there are some key issues that you missed when it comes to the arguments that both sides represent especially on the right side, which missed a lot of nuanced especially when it's in conjunction with comic book fandoms and it's traditions.
Let's start with the first example into the spider-verse especially the topic of fatherhood in Peter B Parker and Motherhood in Spiderwoman Jessica Drew. You argued that a group (typically on the right) always has this insistent go-woke broke narrative and the insistence on ruining the film. Still, there are actually other criticisms at play that are always drowned by the noise of the people who spew the "woke agenda" rhetoric. The argument was not really that she was black and pregnant but was based on parental security, especially in the theme of Spiderman's thematic elements of responsibility. Why would a parent risk the life of their unborn child especially when their profession is very highly dangerous? And as much as you make the claim that since they're fictional characters it doesn't matter, then the argument of "great power great responsibility" which is a key in-universe moral core element of Spiderman's entire mythos doesn't matter as well.
A good example that showcased this was a show called FBI International where a pregnant agent decided to join her colleagues on a criminal bust even though the leader of the team insisted not to. The character was later short and I think her losing the child became the focal point of her character in a later episode. This kind of argument is always pushed aside or not listened to and therefore creates the narrative that the right (especially the anti-woke group) is always racist and uncomfortable with black characters.
The second point is on fatherhood and Peter B Parker and fatherhood. Again Peter being a dorky father wasn't really the issue (at least not the people on the right who don't adhere to the anti-woke rhetoric). The problem or argument present was still on the thematic elements of responsibility. A good example of how that showcased a similar character trope of a dorky dad showing off his kids to his colleagues was a show called Full Metal Alchemist, where there was a character with this dorky attitude who was always showing off his daughter to everyone. The character after his investigation of a conspiracy that stretched throughout the government was killed and if he was with his child the outcome would have been worse.
So the point really being put across is I think consideration of audience reception and how both parties have different sub-parties that have different viewpoints and I think exploring and presenting both parties with less artificial arguments and even if you're sticking with the ones that are of the vocal anti-woke camps and that you're making fun of them, please present the woke toxic camp as well and their takes on how they also lack understanding black characters, like "woke cosplayers" who don't actually get black characters and their stories.
Underrated video.
Great content brody
Give me a minute I’ve got 3 maybe 4 characters
Green lantern (John Stewart)
Black panther
The one chuck from across the spider verse that flirts with miles ( I think her name is like spider byte or something)
Maybe Falcon? Does he count?
Luke cage
Does war machine even count?
Cyborg makes five
Next time can you suggest a time to skip too? Took way too long to get to the point.
Right, that was a long ass disclaimer. Made sense for the topic of the vid but still...let's get to the meat and potatoes here
I agree with everything in this video except for Spiderwoman.
There's a VERY clear reason why people don't like the fact she's pregnant. Peter is at least PASSABLE since Mayday has spider powers but Spiderwoman is PREGNANT and is fighting in an incredibly acrobatic way AND is on a motorcycle.
There's a very high probability that baby would turn out still born because of all the shit she's doing in the VERY unlikely scenario it isnt just killed outright with a punch to the stomach.
Outside of that I agree with everything you said. Honestly love electric powered superheroes and I never really noticed until you said it just how many of them are black.
Hell they even raceswapped Electro in the Spiderman movies to be black. Could have picked anyone but they picked him. Though I feel that might just be more Electro has literally no personality so people wouldn't give a shit if you changed him lmao (which generally no one did😂)
13:00: Cyborg, John Stewart(Green Lantern), Jefferson Jackson from the Arrowverse, Ebon from that Static Shock cartoon, Ethan Bennett from The Batman(2004).
I've had my fair share of media.
13:16: Saying I know a lot about black people from watching cartoons and some TV shows is like saying I know a lot about Japanese people by watching anime, only not as reliable and anime is barely reliable.
I can only know a few stuff. Even meeting with a black guy or spending time with them wouldn't do anything. I can never know enough, really.
Also to all the people not liking that the Spiderwoman is pregnant and doing her job, this is still a fantasy setting, anything is possible in fiction. If you apply this in real life then yes, I would be shocked if a pregnant police office goes in a very dangerous mission instead of taking care of herself and her growing child inside of her but as I said there is a difference between fiction and real life.
Also about the 'race swapping' i'm peeved at people for disliking April in the Rise of Ninja Turtles solely because she's black, no one complained that she was originally an adult, then changed to a scientist and afterwards changed into a teen in different TV shows about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but her being black is now...bad? it's honestly stupid, who cares? it was already established early on in this show that there are multiverses aka giving the writers the ability to do whatever with the franchise. It would get bland at some point, if everything stays the same.
For writers. Especially white writers
Heavily recommend consulting a person of color when writing people of color. Alot of white writers can often get cultural stuff wrong if said writer has had little to no experience with interacting POC people. Even if you not making a story about racism you still need consulting if by chance you may enforce negative stereotypes. I'm Hispanic myself, Puerto Rican to be more specific and while I can write alot of my own experiences as a Puerto Rican man, There's many more types of Hispanic so if I wanted to write about someone of Colombian heritage I would need to have an Colombian consultant because the Hispanic experiences isn't just one singular thing. This is very important for white writers and storytellers.
That as well as listening and watching/ supporting People of color who talk about writing and do not speak over them when they confront you on any possible hidden racial bias, It's also cause creators of color don't get nearly as much attention as white/ white passing creators.
Making edits/ making curtain white characters into a person of color isn't a problem. Cause we don't have a lot of good representation in media in the first place, when you edit a character of color into a white person it is harmful and racist because your actively removing the little representation we have and often times white edits are made because alot of white people got mad that the character is dark and couldn't handle that. Please don't say we "should just make our own characters" cause we do, and are own shows you just don't want to look for those shows and characters.
Remeber the time Watch Dogs 2 had a black protagonist and unironically people went, “Actually San Francisco has more white people and Asians then black people so unrealistic.” As if it was impossible.
Then Marcus came out to be a huge Nerd and really well written dialogue.
There’s also the Miles Morales game, where while I love both versions of Miles from the game and the movie, I definitely feel like his love for music is an appeal than a character trait.
But uh…Uncle Aaron’s Beats are a crime against New York he has yet to face responsibility for.
Aku Aku,Uka Uka and Crunch Bandicoot are black characters who are so underrated.
Aku Aku is PlayStation’s first black father figure.
Tbh you can race swap characters but make it alternate or what if characters, Stan Lee made Bruce Wayne black but this was an entire new different take of Bruce Wayne but a different, he's name is Wayne Williams, His father was a cop who died on duty. The son gets framed and is imprisoned. He plots revenge against a gangster. In jail, he comes across a scientist called Frederick Grant who teaches him the skills that will come in use later. When Wayne gets out, he becomes a wrestler under the alias of Batman. He does not show his face, keeping his identity hidden. Shit like this I love alternate stories, but with. also to name 5 black heroes with no lightning powers.
Cyborg
Green Lantern
Black panther
Icon
Vixen
Honestly not my most favorite video. Too much of it is spent on ranting about people against race-swapping instead of... you know, Writing Black People. Either way, I appreciate your take.
21:58 is that persona music in the back or am I tweaking??
The problem is they try to focus on making them so black they forget to make them actual people first.
17:45 "Who the f cares if I pillage and mangle another culture for my own benefit." Yeah its really easy to say that when you're not part of said culture.
19:25 There is literally not a single mention in the odyssey of achilles and patroclus being lovers. Not one. Achilles literally quit the war because agamemnon took away his female concubine Breisis, and was married with a wife (Deidamia) and a son (Neoptolemus ) back in greece. Really great look when you talk about black people not being properly represented but have no problem spout whatever historical revisionisms you feel like about greeks.
goddamn
Did you use primary sources? Alot of history is filtered or sanitized for the times.
Achilles and Patroclus being interpreted to be lovers was a common idea by ancient Greco-Roman scholars of the time. It wasn't uncommon at the time for such a relationship to exist, and considering that Achilles and Patroclus's ashes were mixed and buried together, it implies a soulmate-level relationship.
Achilles having a wife, a concubine, and a male lover was pretty standard for a man of his position during this time period. Even if a man *was* gay, which I'm not saying Achilles is, as you seem to forget bisexuals exist, he would have a wife anyway because that's what is required socially.
When Patroclus died, Achilles refused to let his corpse be burned and kept it in his tent, crying and hugging it despite the horror of those around him.
So, while in the myth itself it is not explicit, many people *during the time period that it was set in* interpreted it as love between the two men, and Plato himself called it "self-evident" by the actions in the story.
If Patroclus was a woman, would you really think that Achilles's relationship *wasn't* romantic?
EDIT: Also, Homer is not a singular author, so the version that we have today is hardly the "original." It's simply the version that survived.
@@michaelnettles3059 I have litterally read the illiad in the original greek bro.
@@eyjay1508 Then how did you miss it?
Whenever they race swap, the gingers always suffer the consequences. And I'm a black man who loves red heads