For the past few weeks Marvel has been teasing fans by hinting at the identity of the new “Totally Awesome Hulk”. Fans have speculated it could be anyone from the now hammerless Thor to Iron Fist. Yet when the true identity was revealed the reaction was not so totally awesome. It was more like a collective sigh of annoyance. Because the new Hulk is… Amadeus Cho. Whilst some people have said that this is great because it means we now have a Korean-American Hulk, I personally disagree with this view. Not that equality is bad or anything but the “All-New Marvel” relaunch is starting to feel like “Gender-Bender Racelift Marvel”. We have: An African-American Captain America, A female Thor, A Korean-American Hulk and a female Wolverine. I read a lot of comics so I am not going all Fox News with this, but I feel like it is change for the sake of change. If you want more female characters? Introduce new and original female characters! You want more characters with varied racial backgrounds? Introduce more characters with varied racial characters! DC has the right idea, they introduce new characters and cut down on the less popular ones, not change some 50 years of history to make bloggers stop hating on them. Sorry but I don’t see any characters with disabilities over at Marvel.
Anyway here is our first look at our new Hulk.
I plan to write a full article on this topic as I had just planned for this to be a simple news post, then I got angry at it. So for my full rant remember to keep it G33k!
G33k P0p 
New characters don’t sell. Marvel introduces plenty of new characters, pretty routinely, and they almost never sell. Because the readers want the same shit they’ve been reading for 40 years already. They want the characters created in the ’60s and ’70s – characters who are predominantly straight white men.
But they do keep trying. They really do. They’re always introducing new characters. They’re always promoting existing diverse characters. They do the things that people say are the “right” ways to do diversity. And then they also do things like this, where characters are replaced.
But hey, here’s a question for you: If all these characters had been replaced by more straight white guys, would you be bothered? I’m betting not. I’m betting you wouldn’t even notice. Why is that? Why is it OK to replace characters with white guys, but as soon as the replacement is a woman or a person of colour, it’s an outrage?
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You make a good point. But I would be annoyed if any characters got replaced. If it was a straight white man or a person of colour. I think Steve Rodgers is Captain America and Bruce Banner is Hulk. What does annoy me is when Marvel had opportunities to include diversity they chose not to. Yet one example of Marvel completely failing diversity was (SPOILER ALERT) making Iceman gay in All-New X-Men. In my opinion right now DC just does diversity much better, and I have been a Marvel fan for most of my life. In the 60s Marvel was doing a great job at variety and diversity, but these days they seem stuck in the past.
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Steve Rogers is Captain America, except for when he’s not (he was replaced by John Walker in the ’80s, and Bucky just a few years ago). Odinson is Thor, except for when he’s not (he was replaced by Eric Masterson for a few years in the ’90s). Tony Stark is Iron Man, except for when he’s not (he was replaced by James Rhodes for a few years in the ’80s). These things happen pretty routinely.
The characters represent things. Which is why they get replaced: Writers want to explore those things from different points of view. Steve Rogers represents the American spirit, but what does the American spirit mean to a black person? What does being worthy mean to a woman? What does power mean to an Asian-American? Replacing the characters allows writers to tell stories that simply can’t be told with the originals. Sam Wilson is not Steve Rogers, he has his own worldview, his own beliefs and opinions, and that’s going to be reflected in how he goes about being Captain America.
And Sam Wilson as Captain America will sell better than Sam Wilson as Falcon could ever dream of. He’ll sell better than pretty much any black character Marvel has. Jane Foster as Thor sells better than any of their other female characters. (In fact, she’s selling better than Thor: God of Thunder did.) It’s basically the only way people are willing to buy titles with leads who aren’t white guys.
I’ll be honest, I think there’s a pretty strong undertone of racism and sexism among comic fans. Minority-led titles, at least for Marvel, just don’t do well. Mighty Avengers was a classic Avengers title with a bunch of fan-favourite characters mixed with some cool new faces. It had lousy sales for its entire run. I have no doubt Ultimates will have terrible sales, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if All-New All-Different Avengers ended up under-performing. So if replacing characters is what it takes to get some heroes who don’t look like me out there? I’m completely fine with that.
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Wow. I genuinely do not know what to say to that. You are totally correct. But DC does win when It comes to doing LGBTQ character the right way. Marvel will either not include them or make an unnecessary event out of having LGBTQ characters.
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DC is definitely kicking Marvel’s ass hard on LGBT content. Batwoman had a solo for years, and Midnighter has a solo. Both books actually addressed the sexuality of their characters. The only LGBT solo title to address its lead’s solo was Daken, and he was a sociopathic villain antagonist who fit the trope of depraved bisexual. Marvel will still have Angela, but it hasn’t actually been made clear on-panel that Angela and Sera are lovers, though Bennett’s confirmed it on Twitter. And at least they’ll have I think 6 team titles after Secret Wars with LGBT characters (New Avengers, Ultimates, Uncanny Inhumans, All-New X-Men, Extraordinary X-Men, Uncanny X-Men). Though two of those actually have the same character – Iceman in two of the X-Men titles.
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Yeah. Damn you know are knowledgeable…
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