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.
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