Is Marvel's new ethnic Spider-Man a cop-out?

I think it's writers trying to do something different. Expand their horizons a little. Ultimates may not be the mainline Marvel universe but it's seen by many as a more creative, upscale, and mature reinterpretation. If I were a comic book character I'd be more concerned by how I was portrayed in Ultimates than the generic Marvel universe.

Oh, and for the record, Ultimates Fury was based on Jackson before Jackson was ever cast for any potential movie. The character himself is asked at one point in Ultimate Avengers who'd play him in a movie. Yup. Sam L. Jackson of course.

Me? I like the concept. But I grew up with the old WWII vet, cigar chompin', 40's era slang slinging white guy Fury. I read the psychedelic Agent of Shield comics before I knew what psychedelics were. I thrilled to the Howlin' Commandos. So I'm gonna be biased a little.

I don't think it's a cop out. Brian Bendis can do basically whatever he wants in Ult. Spider-Man, considering he's written it for like a decade and it was one of the big successes that helped revitalize Marvel, and still one of the most successful Ultimate comics. But he can't change who the 'main' Spider-Man is. Comic character identities are more resilient than Wolverine. They made Bucky into Captain America, and it was like, what, two years until they changed it back? Same with Dick Grayson as Batman. And the unfortunate recent spate of DC killing off or replacing minority heroes so they can bring back their 60s-era white predecessors. They're not going to go messing around with the well-known secret identity of their multi-million dollar brands.

So it's not really a cop out, he's doing what he can where he can. And like the article says, look at Nick Fury. He was modeled off a black actor as well, but the change was only in the Ultimate universe. But with the movies, the Sam Jackson Fury is probably recognized by more people than the white one at this point.

Oh, and as a Jewish dude with two adopted black daughters, it just feels like Bendis isn't doing this as some calculated marketing/crowd pleasing BS. And comic authors seem to catch a lot of flack every time they bring in a nonwhite successor character.

"Ultimate" Nick Fury was introduced in 2001, years before the Iron Man movie came out. And come on! S.H.I.E.L.D! Not S.H.E.I.L.D! It wouldn't make much of an acronym if it was misspelled, would it?

I'm sorry, if Salon feels compelled to create a controversy that isn't, it would be great if enough research was done to suggest that, say, the writer had taken the time to at least visit Wikipedia to confirm details before posting.

The Influence of Ethnicity

I recently read an article that talks about the power of ethnicity. What many people don’t realize is just how much of a strong influence that ethnic groups have had across all aspects of our culture. For example, rock music started with the black culture and wasn’t popularized by whites until Elvis Presley came along. While there are not many successful, Caucasian hip-hop artists, the genre is still voraciously followed by white consumers. Usually, a company works with an agency to develop advertising aimed at the general market, then turns to boutique multicultural agencies to create versions tailored to blacks, Hispanics, or Asians. McDonald’s still creates ads specially tailored to minority groups, as it has for over 30 years, but minorities exert an increasingly influential role in its mainstream advertising as well. The company thinks they provide early exposure to new trends. This takes a minority group and puts general market advertising dollars into it. The concept is that by taking larger marketing dollars and putting them into a minority group, the majority will also sit up and take notice. It also reflects the shift in demographics in the United States. According to the Census Bureau, whites will become the minority by the middle of this century. For example, in California and Texas, two of the largest states in the Union, Caucasians are considered the “majority minority,” meaning “white non-Hispanics make up less than 50 percent of the population.” As we head in that direction, larger corporations are looking to more evenly spread out their marketing dollars across all ethnic groups. And apparently it’s paying off. For McDonald’s, this different approach to marketing has seen sales rise 1.5 percent in the U.S. With that in mind, McDonald’s is working on making even more changes, including menu changes that reflect the preferences of minorities. According to the article, fruit options used in McDonald's smoothies, for instance, reflect taste preferences in minority communities. And when the company started heavily advertising coffee drinks last year, the ads emphasized the indulgent aspects of sweeter drinks like mochas, a message that resonated with blacks. This last paragraph from the article is a good reflection of what’s to come: In fact, many of McDonald's ads now feature only African Americans.

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