Comicscape - September 17, 2003

Nick Fury, Black Or White - Your Responses

By Tony Whitt     September 17, 2003

OPINION

Amazing, the amount of responses that including a single controversial quote in a column can garner! I got a record amount of letters responding to last week's column about the ULTIMATES's Nick Fury, an African-American character. The responses were varied and, on the whole, positive - except when you mentioned that controversial quote, that is. Because there was so much feedback this time around (and because I'm stumped for a new topic this week), I'd like to highlight some of those responses this time around before putting this topic to bed.

While a few readers wrote in to ask why I had included such a controversial statement as the one made by Joseph Mudd last week in the first place (I especially want to thank Stephen Ott for his thoughtful e-mails on that question), some readers wrote in to respond to Mudd's comments directly. One of those readers is Allen Herring - I include his comments here because he states it better than I ever could: "It is a shame that you, Mr. Mudd, only wish to relate to the heroes of comicdom when it is so clearly evident from your ignorant statements that you are more closely related to the villains. I found it fascinating...that you live under the general assumption that heroes are only white, or should only be white. I think Hitler thought the same thing, but I digress...I have not read Nick Fury [before, but] I'm not suddenly going to start liking him simply because his shade of skin matches my own; nor should you give up on a character you liked simply because his skin color changed...The thing about comic heroes is that they don't have these racist beliefs that you may have. All of these heroes fight side by side and stand up for the same values and beliefs. They fight hatred and injustice and smash stereotypes. They fight human and alien equally. They love human and alien equally. They demand respect whether they are black, white, blue, green, alien, equally... It is the villains that believe one race, or one species, is responsible for all the problems in their world. It is the villains that blame others for their ignorance. It is the villains who generalize an entire people....[But] it doesn't appear that you have learned anything from...[your] white Heroes. You are relating to the skin color, but not the integrity, not the character, not the values that make them heroes. You are relating to the shallowest aspect of these heroes, their skin color. You should care about the villains, Mr. Mudd, for when you look in the mirror it is surely a villain that is looking right back at you." All I can say is...whew. Stephen's wasn't the only response in this vein, of course - readers such as Sean Hawk, Evan Hawkins, Patrick Redding, Jason Alvarez, D. Strong, and others wrote in with statements which ranged from "I'm amazed that such attitudes still exist" to "Is he f**king kidding?!"

Many were amazed that the issue of race should be a factor in comics at all, least of all in the case of Fury. Among these readers were Tim Ellis, Clifton M. Pegee, Eric J. Carter, Chris Currie, Cameron Cooke, and Jonathan White. Most echoed the thoughts of Ralph Cahill, who begins his letter with a sigh and writes, "Well, isn't this just typical? What I find annoying is that race still matters in anything. However, it seems to be incontrovertible that race will keep being an issue for a very long time because we can't seem to get over it. We can't seem to stop giving it meaning. For the love of God, we are all human. That's all that needs to matter...The fact is, the change is simply cosmetic and anyone that thinks any different needs to start understanding that race and its importance in society is something we artificially inserted into the structure of our society and is something that we need to start the long process of purging now... When I read the response from the person that went on and on about how a black hero isn't believeable because modern black culture is all about crime and drugs and abusing women, I was shocked. The fact that most violent crime is from the African American community, while a sadly true statement, is full of the uneducated bias that I'd expect of a man with this person's obviously limited world view. The reason that modern black culture espouses these things is primarily because they are the products of a lower income which, due to the slow process of recovery from the prejudices that rocked our country well into the '60s and which, judging from this person's response, still live today, are still a sad part of African American culture as well. Another fact is that African Americans are generally situated in the lowest income brackets on average and it is due to this fact that a higher percentage of crime is centered around the black community, not because they are some kind of degenerate group of individuals. As time goes on and they slowly rise up to meet the average white person in terms of earning potential and wealth, you will find that the percentage of crime centered around the African American community will drop. This will take a long time even though open racism and prejudice are, in a general sense, gone. The underlying effects of it will linger for many years and will be kept on life support by people like this gentleman who are unable to let their own prejudice go. Black heroes are believeable. They are real. There are black police officers, black fire fighters and black military men that put their lives on the line every day that I am proud to serve with."

A few readers wrote in to explain why they felt the change was a non-issue and why the character isn't changed at all. Noah Rollins, for instance, writes, "I could be wrong, but has [Nick's] being white ever factored into the 40 years of Nick Fury stories? The fact that Marvel could effortlessly switch Fury's race from Caucasian to African American only serves to underscore the notion more people should understand: we're not different simply because our skin color is. Consider the role of a running character in films. Unless race is a key element of that character, any actor should be able to play that person. See Billy Dee Williams' take on Harvey Dent, or Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin (lest we forget years ago Chris Rock was rumored to be in the running to play Jimmy Olsen in SUPERMAN REBORN.) The short of it is that Nick Fury's character has been defined by many factors over 40 years, not one of which was his race. We should be blind to his skin color, and look past to the core of the character."

Lawrence Chew also wrote in on this point, saying, "As far as turning a white hero black is concerned, I don't see a problem with it. If anything, I think it's an interesting choice because it takes a set of characteristics we've all come to expect and places [them] in a different context. It creates a different frame of reference for the character - how does his ethnicity affect his powerful role? What kind of history has this Nick Fury had to lead him to this place that is different from the regular one? Our perception of the character has changed and I think it's a good thing - it gives a writer a fresh start, in a way. You have the character, but you're free to re-invent his history, and the color of his skin affects that greatly. Two paths (Regular and Ultimate), one conclusion (Nick Fury). I think the idea is fascinating, especially from a writer's point of view. Which is why I think you disregard Mark Sehestedt's comments too quickly." Point taken, and luckily Mr. Sehestedt did write back in to add to those comments - sorry I don't have the space to post them, Mark, but thanks!

Also, my thanks to Abdul McKenzie for writing in to explain how this whole business got started in the first place: "It all started when Bill Jemas floated the idea to Brian Bendis and Mark Millar about Captain America being black in the Ultimate Universe, but both Millar and Bendis nixed the idea. [This notion would later be used in TRUTH, a good idea but poorly executed]. So instead of a black Cap, Millar went with the idea of a black Nick Fury as his way of 'ultimazing' Fury... Thus here we are with a black Nick Fury, which I personally think is a cool idea... As far as him acting too white, what does 'acting white' or 'acting black' really mean? When you make a statement like that, you should automatically consider yourself stereotyping a particular race. Is Nick Fury 'acting too white' because he shows good leadership skills, acts accordingly with the responsibility of leading the premiere espionage group in the world, and is tactful as opposed to [exhibiting such stereotypical traits as] having gold teeth, [wearing] a pair of Fubus, eating fried chicken and screaming 'Sweet Christmas'? I like Nick Fury because he doesn't [embody] the qualities of the average black character in comics, he doesn't represent the hood, he doesn't deal with 'black issues' like racism, and he doesn't hail from Africa. Nick Fury to me isn't a black character, nor should he be labeled as one - he is just a character." Good point!

And finally, amongst all the rest of his spot-on comments, Mark Wedmer asks the question that's been in the back of my head this whole time: "Why hasn't Sam Jackson sued Marvel over unauthorized use of his likeness in a monthly periodical?" Good question. Hell, maybe he likes the ULTIMATES Nick Fury, too...

Judging from the responses I also got from Michael Bowman, Brian Beatty, John Ingle, Nicholas Chevrier, Donald Lafond, Ben Ecker, "Vesp," Barry Comerford, Jared Nathanson, Corey Bond (thanks for the website addy, by the way!), and Re Ty, this is far from being a dead issue, so if you'd like to talk more about it, e-mail me at comicscape@cinescape.com. Next week, I'd like to address something that's come up time and again when I've brought up issues like this in the column, which is the ideas of those who insist that comics should be treated solely as escapist literature and that trying to examine political issues in a comic book context is inappropriate. It's an interesting viewpoint, but one which I intend to take completely apart. In the meantime, here's what you can expect at your local comic shops this week:

THIS WEEK

In reference

to the discussion above, here's an image that's likely to set the teeth rattling in a few people's heads: James H. Williams' cover to Marvel's series THE CREW #5, which ships this week. It does make me wonder, though: if we had never had the traditional Captain America costume, and a black man had been tapped to design it, what would that costume really look like?

It's another Bat-tastic week over at DC, as no less than six Bat-related titles hit the stands: BATGIRL #44; BATMAN ADVENTURES #6; BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS #45; BIRDS OF PREY #59; ROBIN #118; and the second issue of Jeph Loeb's excellent SUPERMAN/BATMAN series. And if all that wasn't enough, Volume 2 of BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE is out this week as well, collecting the first sixteen Batman backups from BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS plus 40 pages of new material in a $19.95 softcover. Whew. Weeks like this, I'm glad I'm more of a Superman fan...

Which reminds me: SUPERMAN: METROPOLIS is out this week, too. And some of you thought I hated the guy. Tsk.

If you missed the second issue of Image's adaptation of George R.R. Martin's THE HEDGE KNIGHT, you can grab it this week, this time with a cover by no less than Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell! Well worth your attention - and the internal art by Mike S. Miller is pretty damn good, too!

Vertigo's rolling

out the good stuff this week: not only do we get the thirteenth and final issue of Grant Morrison's fantastic series THE FILTH, we get LUCIFER #42, the second issue of Peter Milligan's phenomenal HUMAN TARGET series, and even a Neil Gaiman hardcover in the form of THE SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS! This last one retails for $24.95 and features the art of P. Craig Russell, Milo Manara, Bill Sienkiewicz, Miguelanxo Prado, Barron Storey, Glenn Fabry, Frank Quitely, and Dave McKean in seven stories about each of the Endless. A line-up like this could cause even the Bat-fans to take a vacation from Gotham for a week...

Isn't it a bit late to be doing a SHREK miniseries? How long ago did that movie come out, anyway? Actually, it's a brand-new Shrek story that Dark Horse will be publishing in the first issue in a four-part miniseries this week. Contrary to popular rumor, the donkey will not be drawn to resemble Eddie Murphy.

It's too

soon to tell whether our hero Nick Fury will show up for the festivities or not, but ULTIMATE SIX #1, written by Brian Michael Bendis, will arrive in your local store this week with or without him. (Has anyone else noticed how the Marvel website refuses to give people their full names? Last week they pruned Brian K. Vaughan back to "Brian Vaughan," and this week our dear BMB has been credited simply as "Brian Bendis." Honestly, Marvel, these guys have earned the right to tack an initial or a middle name onto their monnikers, haven't they?)

Another entry in the Ultimate universe this week is ULTIMATE DAREDEVIL AND ELEKTRA #1, which I could have sworn came out almost a year ago, didn't it? Good ol' regular DAREDEVIL #52 is out, as well. On a related note, how many of you little monkeys bought the DAREDEVIL DVD so that you really could "stare all you want"? Geez, no wonder Jennifer Garner and Scott Foley got a divorce - if an advertising campaign using my wife's image in that way came out (if I had a wife, that is), I'd be a little insecure, too. And speaking of eye candy...

Psych! iCANDY is

actually the title of a brand new ongoing series from DC written by those fine young gentlemen who bring us THE LEGION each month, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. If you can use this cover for self-loving material, then you have more serious problems than I thought...

For those preferring the CrossGen experience, there's good news this week: SCION #39, SOJOURN #27, and ROUTE 666 #15 will all be coming to a comics store near you. And if they're not, they should be, so get onto Diamond about it, already!

OK, so not only can you buy CAPTAIN MARVEL #14 this week, you can also pick the CAPTAIN MARVEL: COVEN trade paperback for $14.99, which collects the recent Coven storyline from that series - and I do mean recent. Lord. Are back issues really so hard to come by these days that a collected edition has to come out mere months after the original storyline has ended?

There's a pretty

huge amount of material out this time for X-Fans, too, including AGENT X #14, NEW X-MEN #147 (already? Damn, 146 was just out last week!), SPIDER-MAN AND WOLVERINE #4, UNCANNY X-MEN #431, and WOLVERINE #5. And while I don't know if the cover to NEW MUTANTS #5 qualifies as this week's Marvel Eye-Candy Cover O' The Week , I'm sure that the story inside it will be well worth reading.

It's good to be a Jhonen Vasquez fan, especially as Slave Labor Graphics is re-releasing JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC #s 4 and 5, as well as FILLER BUNNY (I FILL UP 15 PAGES) #1 this week. Now, if we could only get a Director's Cut of SQUEE...

Judd Winick's having a busy week this time as well, doing OUTSIDERS #4 for DC and EXILES #34 for Marvel. Hmm, Outsiders and Exiles...anyone else see a common theme in this man's work, by any chance?

For those

of you preferring more "insider" type superteam action, JLA/JSA: VIRTUE AND VICE, a $17.95 softcover edition of last year's David S. Goyer and Geoff Johns hardcover work, is also out this week.

And finally, for the French speaker in us all, Humanoids Publishing is releasing METAL HURLANT #8 this week, which includes info on a contest for the grand prize of over $100 worth of Humanoids graphic albums! Ooh là là!

Á bientôt, mes amis!

Comicscape is our weekly Comics column.

Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think at Comicscape@cinescape.com.