Wednesday, July 20, 2016

A Few Thoughts on Diversity in the MCU: Movies Edition


At times, I think the Marvel Cinematic Universe can feel a bit deceptive in terms of diversity.  Although each of its solo franchises to date resolves around a straight white male – Hollywood’s favorite toys – and women and people of color have had a limited presence, the women and PoC the films do include feature quite a few winners.  Because these supporting characters are so engaging, however, they can distract from the homogeny at the center of the films.  (Note:  I’ve already talked about the whole Doctor Strange thing, so I won’t go over it again here.)



Make no mistake – by and large, I love the Marvel women.  Natasha is my jam, I can’t wait for Hope to get her Wasp on, I heart Wanda Maximoff, and Peggy is responsible for half of my love for the first Captain America movie.  These women are all interesting, amazing, flawed, and kick serious butt.  Characters like Pepper and Jane, who fall more firmly into “love interest” territory and don’t take as much part in the action, are still relatively nuanced and get to be more than just damsels.  PoC are thinner on the ground; Rhodey, Fury and Sam are the most prominent, with bonus Heimdall (although, thanks to Civil War, we now have the awesome T’Challa – is it 2018 yet?), and while Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, and Zoe Saldana are all core members of Guardians of the Galaxy, their characters aren’t PoC, since they’re all playing aliens.  Still, sticking with those first four, Rhodey is fun, Fury is great, Sam is cool, and Heimdall is awesome.  It’s also worth noting that Fury and Heimdall are instances of racebent characters who were originally white in the comics, which is cool.  Samuel L. Jackson is so Fury that some of the comics have co-opted his MCU appearance.  (Side note:  other than Zoe Saldana, who, again, is playing an alien, the MCU has yet to feature any major female characters of color.)



Some of these characters – Natasha, Wanda, Rhodey, Sam, T’Challa, and soon-to-be Hope – are recognized superheroes, though it’s mostly through technology and/or general badassery (Wanda’s the only one on the list with confirmed powers.)  Rhodey was introduced in Marvel’s first outing, Iron Man, although he didn’t debut as War Machine until Iron Man 2, which also introduced Natasha.  So, both of these characters have been around for much of the franchise’s tenure, and others have joined as part of a gradual fanning-out of Marvel’s diverse presence.



However, while I enjoy these character, Marvel has yet to put out a film starring a woman or PoC, a movie specifically about them with their name in the title.  Yes, the Phase Three lineup includes both – Black Panther will be the first starring a hero of color, and Ant-Man and the Wasp, with co-leads Scott and Hope, will sneak in before Captain Marvel becomes the first fully starring a female hero – but it will have been a long time coming.  Black Panther and Ant-Man and the Wasp are due for 2018, a full 10 years after the start of the MCU, with Captain Marvel following a year later.  Not to mention, both Black Panther and Captain Marvel have had their release dates pushed back to make room for the Spider-Man reboot and Ant-Man and the Wasp (to be fair, so has Thor:  Ragnarok, but that’ll be his third movie.)  Now, Tom Holland in Civil War has sold me on another new Spider-Man, but I was hyped for Black Panther even before I found out Ryan Coogler was directing it, I got my first taste of T’Challa in action, and they threw Lupita Nyong’o and Michael B. Jordan at us.  I need that movie.  And we still don’t have confirmation on who’s playing Captain Marvel!  Come on, guys – you can do better than that.


Which, interestingly, leads me to Marvel’s TV properties.  Check in next Wednesday for that.

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