User blog comment:Blinkn/Correcting an Oversight/@comment-3317214-20120110145836

You're bringing up some very interesting points.

First of all, my introduction to the character of Nick Fury was in the "Wolverine and the X-Men" show, in which he is black. And his ultimate version has been used in every TV show since. "Iron Man: Armored Adventures", "Super Hero Squad Show", "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes", and I'm fairly sure it'll be the same for "Ultimate Spider-Man". And I think all of these versions of Nick Fury (including Samuel L Jackson's portrayal) have been better than any previous portrayals I've seen. By the way, Jackson was the inspiration for a black version of Nick Fury in the first place, right? But yeah, I feel that Fury's character has had a lot of extra depth in newer versions, but this is probably mostly due to the better scripts and storylines, rather than his skin colour... But his change of race does seem to have made his Bad-assery levels sky-rocket.

Idris Elba's portrayal of Heimdall does provide some multi-ethnic-ness to Thor. And again, I don't see the problem here. Traditionally, Heimdall isn't black. But burning people at stakes for believing them to be witches was also traditional. Anyway, it's a sign that we've come to a point in time where casting an actor from a different ethnic group to the character is not uncommon. And I don't think it should be a problem either. Certainly not in this case, where Heimdall is a Norse God. Emphasis on the "God" here. Heimdall himself is not Norse. He hails from Asgard, and why should all Asgardians look like Norse people, just because they were once worshipped by them? And if you still think it's ridiculous for white people to give birth to a black guy, compare that to Loki giving birth to a horse.

Yeah, Storm's been getting around a fair bit. But about 50 years of not really ageing much in comics would give you plenty of time to try other guys out... Same can be said for Wolverine and Tony, and many others...

I don't mind changes in minor details (such as race), or diversity when it comes to characters. But when it's just diversity for the sake of being extremely diverse, it's a little annoying sometimes. I think having a good mix of nationalities of characters (and alien races also (just thought I should mention that Prof X is fairly diverse, being romantically involved with Lilandra)) throws around the mix, which is great, but if the characters are shoving their nationalities in our faces all the time, it can be annoying.

Also, it's interesting to note: a quick google search tells me that in the US, roughly 80% of the population are White, so, not showing many black heroes is probably a valid reflection of reality. What's more absurd is the overrepresentation of Red-heads as prominent characters in comics!