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Should Aquaman be Polynesian?
- Thread starter Frog-fu
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What are your thoughts on 90s Superboy and Guy Gardner Warrior?
DC has such a hardon when it come to re-inventing Guy.
Got to rep my girl Turbo, unlike Bronsonlee I care about all asian superheroes.
You could say that about a lot of their properties.
IdreamofHIME
Member
Dont care about his race, but wish they'd chosen a better actor. He was great in GOT because he has little dialogue and it was all based on his physical presence. When he did a similar role with Conan, but injected talking into the formula the whole thing imploded. He's awful and wooden and will be out of his depth [
] when he has to test his acting chops against someone like Affleck.
] when he has to test his acting chops against someone like Affleck.Guy is a particularly egregious case.
I am not sure if there is another character who has been churned quite as often as he has. And in such a short period of time.
I kinda hope they keep the current male-version a Red Lantern, but as I type this, I realize that this is either not the case or will not be the case very soon.
Lmfao he has on both rings right now
What are your thoughts on 90s Superboy and Guy Gardner Warrior?
I have a deep honest love for 90's Superboy and I hate what they did to him in the 00's and New52. Guy Gardner is man with brain damage and a cool girlfriend.
Other than the Hawks, I can't think of another case as bad. Seriouslly the Hawks are never going to happen, they had their time.
What they did to superboy is criminal. I see your pun there.
BronsonLee
Member
Yo hold on bruh
Your fancy comic panels won't save you from my devastating Sarcasm Haymaker
We gots tha panels bra. Their pretty easy to get lol
What you know about Striker Z?
Kills me everytime, design the look first and we will do the character bit later
Poodlestrike
Banned
What are your thoughts on 90s Superboy and Guy Gardner Warrior?
Guy has always been a great character in search of a role. He's not a particularly great fit for the Green Lanterns, Warrior was just 90s as fuck, and his tenure as a Red was pretty unremarkable.
Personally, I feel like if they ever get around to fully retooling the Corps, making them a little more space cop and a little less cosmic cape, he'd fit in better.
I like Guy when he was the old retired cop that had ran a bar.
They need to stop start every story arc with teh GC by killing a bunch of them, makes them seem worthless.
Kyle shouldn't have brought them back.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Worf syndrome, breh. Whole organization of JL tier power guys but mostly faceless? Doomed.
Better than the Nova corp.
Speaking of changes just for the fuck.
Remember when they made The Question into a Street Shaman that sat around getting high while superman watched?
Messofanego
Banned
Oh please, leave out the concern for minorities.
Every time there's a race change thing with comics, people have to bring up this "they should have just made an original thing" argument. It's so precious and possessive. We wouldn't be discussing this if there was an original Polynesian superhero. It's a dismissive hypothetical. That rarely gets any traction because the audience wants familiar. Familiar sells. It's rare that we got something as good as a muslim Ms Marvel work critically and commercially. Why we give a shit about some character changing race or culture but not give a shit when a character is a horse or a frog? It's comic books, nothing should be set in stone. Why do so many comic book nerds of such an imaginative medium need to be conservative when the creators like Stan Lee are not?
But when some character is white or whitewashed, no one gives a shit about why they are like that. Why are Superman and Kryptonians white? Why are Wonder Woman and Amazonians white? Because that's the status quo and must not be questioned. Tradition or something.
tempest is god tier at being fucked over. hes the male donna troy
TheSecondSpitter
Member
It probably didn't cross your mind because Atlantis is the Atlantic Ocean and the Polynesian islands are in the South Pacific. Really, you are forgiven!
Stiflers Mom
Banned
I never understood the internet hate for Aquaman..
Loved reading comics about him as a kid.
Loved reading comics about him as a kid.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Not really sure how it's a great fit for the culture and legends. Could you elaborate? I'm not being coy or anything I'm just wondering if there's something to this I'm missing. I just came back from a cruise that went from Hawaii through French Polynesia, Fiji and New Caledonia, and I didn't see much that seemed like the DC Atlantis, and it definitely didn't resemble the Atlantis of Plato's writings, which was itself a Mediterranean maritime power contemporaneous to Ancient Athens and Third Intermediate Period Egypt. In the DC Mythos it's located in the North Atlantic Ocean (as in many other pop culture depictions). If I was going to haphazardly tack on a civilization to model them after, I would probably argue the best fit would be the Phoenician people, or maybe even the ancient Greeks themselves (since you know, it's a Greek myth / allegory), both maritime powers in the region. But Plato likely never meant it to be anything other than an allegory for use in his discussions on ideal governments anyway.
Should be, yes. Aquaman being white was always weird and just part of institutional history. 1940s was when it was 90% white in USA and before civil rights, so there was no fight for minority representation. Either way, pacific islanders make more sense for the character than this comic version who looks like a fucking joke.
yo aquaman is basically a retold king arthur myth, and king arthur totally had tea with octopi in Mort d'Arthur, learn u some history
I was originally going to respond to that comment you responded to as well, but now I don't have to, because you did a better job.
Well, Wonder Woman is Greek.
Kryptonians? There's a whole thing about Superman basically being a sort of Jewish messiah-figure, but honestly... as you said earlier, America was like 90% white at the time.
The problem with comic books--and comic book fans, really, is that they want things to stay the same. It's not about them not wanting a non-white Superman or Wonder Woman, it's about them wanting Superman to stay the same. It's why they LOVED Geoff Johns for getting rid of a bunch of Green Lantern stuff so they could get Hal back in the driver's seat. It wasn't about getting rid of the Latino Kyle Rayner (iirc?), it was just about returning stuff to the way it was. You can't have progress as long as you have fans.
TheSecondSpitter
Member
Probably because they were developed by white people, in white majority countries at a time when there wasn't diversity or tons of immigration or even civil/equal rights? I mean why would they make Superman in DC Comics not be white when he was created? The 'reaction' to change is when something established is changed because there is often decades of history. Sometimes it's a good change, but other times, it's like why? Will Batman ever be an Indian?
I mean people act like the content/art/culture of a place isn't reflective of the majority of the people there, or of the dominant global culture. How many Bollywood movies will feature Non-indians especially those set inside the country? I mean that's why today, more and more we actively seek out diversity, because countries like the US are becoming incredibly diverse. So we're going to see more Asian characters, more Hispanic and Indian characters in all content. Whether it's tokenized I mean, most comic writers are still predominantly white males. People tend to utilize what they know. You brought up Ms Marvel changing to a Muslim woman, well it happened because Sana Amanat a Muslim American woman wanted to utilize greater diversity.
It's natural to think of Peter Parker as a white male, because of his long history of being that. But Miles Morales as a Hispanic/Black male, is now the current Spider-Man, you would probably see less hesitancy for change if they used Miles as a new Spider-Man in the movies or comics going forward than if Peter Parker becomes a black or Hispanic guy etc.
I think as the world becomes more unipolar and globalized, we'll see a mesh of change, but we might also start to see to Indian and Chinese culture dominate European culture. Tales and fables and legends and comics and shows and whatnot be consumed and accessed by people around the globe. It's sort of happened with Japan, just look at anime. How much does any Japanese anime use nonwhite/non Japanese characters? Why not?
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
why do many people forget that aquaman is similarly strong and swift?
……forgetit
Member
This is a product of the hate of Aquaman and not the actual character, one that's in poor taste I'll also add.
Say what you want about him being dull, but comic Aquaman would have come out of the o ean and wrecked that dude.
TheSecondSpitter
Member
Wow, it's a parody. Relax.
That doesn't mean it's clever or funny tho. Can't always hide mediocrity behind parody.
But nothing really to write home about. People complained about Batman being the JLA, but he brings more to the party than Aquaman.
Ganzlinger
Member
He shouldn't be Polynesian since Atlantis is located in the North Altlantic Ocean. It would be nonsensical. Unless you are rebooting that universe.
That said, I like Momoa as Aquaman.
That said, I like Momoa as Aquaman.
Arrowgigantic
Member
Almost as nonsensical as a city that used to be above water but now it isn't and people still live there and their king can talk to fish.
established mythology vs "i want my favorite character to all of a sudden be X"
Ganzlinger
Member
I thought we all accepted that before entering this discussion.
If Atlantis was in the Pacific Ocean the Polynesian culture would make sense. However, I'm not saying they should be white because they are in the North Atlantic Ocean. DC could make them look like anything they want, even alien, since they live in an outlandish environment.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
And the Amazons are mostly white too because they're Hellenic.
I dunno, certain JLA members don't "bring more to the party" but are in it.
I dunno, certain JLA members don't "bring more to the party" but are in it.
Valkerionseven
Member
As badass as Aquaman has been in the last 3 or so years of comics now that they have stopped trying to make him "cool" and just letting him be him...
I gotta admit the only thing missing from the character the last while for me is his look. The generic white dude with blonde hair is really uninteresting despite how much I love his comic.
As long as they don't fuck with Black Manta's design, cheesy big ass helmet and all, I don't care about Arthur lol.
I gotta admit the only thing missing from the character the last while for me is his look. The generic white dude with blonde hair is really uninteresting despite how much I love his comic.
As long as they don't fuck with Black Manta's design, cheesy big ass helmet and all, I don't care about Arthur lol.
remember when Aquaman lead the JLA and based it in Detroit?
Eventually MM had to step and clean up this mess
Nah black manta so we can have this scene
Eventually MM had to step and clean up this mess
Nah black manta so we can have this scene
Arrowgigantic
Member
When Atlantis sank and all the people started to breathe water they also started to look Polynesian, ta-da.
SomedayTheFire
Member
Let's make them Icelandic, or Irish.
Logically if Atlantis was real (and really in the Atlantic ocean and not in the Mediterranean ), it would be off the coast of Africa, so they would be closer to Africans.
Shamrock7r
Member
I think the backlash mentioned in the OP is a little overblown. There was no real loud backlash against Star Wars. I do remember hearing rumblings about Rue a little bit, but again it was minor. We put too much stock in a vocal minority having a large speaking platform in terms of the internet.
That being said, I think a lot of fictional characters can be played by multiple races just fine. I would hope, however, that an actor or actress is chosen for merits other then "we need more diversity", as that is a little insulting.
There are certain characters that are fairly iconic in their look, which includes their race or complexion, that shouldn't be changed, imo, like Superman. but that's a case by case thing. The problem often with gender and race changes with comic book characters is that when the comic book companies do it, it never feels sincere. It always feels like a publicity stunt and you just know in the back of your head that everything will be reverted back soon enough.
I have always said that DC used to have the right idea with legacy characters taking up the mantle of the older heroes, and naturally changing the race or gender of the hero, but not the original character.
That being said, I think a lot of fictional characters can be played by multiple races just fine. I would hope, however, that an actor or actress is chosen for merits other then "we need more diversity", as that is a little insulting.
There are certain characters that are fairly iconic in their look, which includes their race or complexion, that shouldn't be changed, imo, like Superman. but that's a case by case thing. The problem often with gender and race changes with comic book characters is that when the comic book companies do it, it never feels sincere. It always feels like a publicity stunt and you just know in the back of your head that everything will be reverted back soon enough.
I have always said that DC used to have the right idea with legacy characters taking up the mantle of the older heroes, and naturally changing the race or gender of the hero, but not the original character.
SomedayTheFire
Member
You what? #BoycottStarWarsVII was trending worldwide on twitter for a while. There was most definitely a backlash.
Did they actually say that the character is Polynesian?
I mean, they could just make it so that Atlanteans or wherever he comes from have Polynesian skin color and features, but are not actually Polynesian.
Atlantis isn't real or THAT ingrained in our minds so they can just make that change...easily.
I mean, they could just make it so that Atlanteans or wherever he comes from have Polynesian skin color and features, but are not actually Polynesian.
Atlantis isn't real or THAT ingrained in our minds so they can just make that change...easily.
Ganzlinger
Member
But the trend was bigger because of the backlash against the racists iirc.
Shamrock7r
Member
Wasn't it trending because most people were responding negatively towards the idea behind it? There was even a discussion here about it, that the only thing most people were saying on FB and the like was how stupid the boycott was.
Ganzlinger
Member
I think they are doing that. Momoa is Polynesian but the character isn't. That's perfect for me.
I am against racebending characters because one there is usually a equalivant minority character with their own story they could use, and 2 it says "We can't make him straight up ethnic, we will just paint the white person so we can get the credit".
God willing Black Panther comes out and does gangbusters. So we can nix this none sense.
God willing Black Panther comes out and does gangbusters. So we can nix this none sense.
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