What If Black Panther were actually white?

[lordultimus]

Comments

[starwolf_oakley]

This looks like a mix two things.

1. The Saturday Night Live intro with Charlize Theron and Tracy Morgan. Charlize says she is from South Africa and Tracy is glad a "sister" is hosting the show.

2. The revelation that Ultimate Black Panther was actually Captain America in disguise. There was also an actual mute Black Panther because comics.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

There was also an Avengers comic in the 70s where they were told that if they were going to continue working with SHIELD, they would have to comply with with federal regulations regarding diversity in hiring, so since Black Panther was unavailable, they were required to make the Falcon a member. (Yes, there are several things wrong with this.)

Hawkeye, who didn't make the cut, said "Why him and not me. That dude's only powers are flying and rapping with birds." I guess the thinking was, since he's already a Green Arrow knock-off, why not give him Oliver Queen's personality. No one actually mentioned that it was two more powers than he had, though.

[lordultimus]

If I recall correctly, that diversity reason for his hiring was the reason Falcon LEFT the Avengers, as he didn't want to be there solely as their token black guy.

[starwolf_oakley]

That happened once again in the late 1990s Busiek/Perez run.
Falcon said, "I didn't like being Earth's Mightiest Token the last time."

[starwolf_oakley]

Not to be contrary, but I thought Green Arrow got Hawkeye's personality. At least once "Hard Travelin' Heroes" started.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Could be. I just know that Oliver talked like that at least since the O'neil/Adams GL/GAs and I don't remember Clint ever talking like that in the sixties. Admittedly, I don't know enough about him to be sure and I can easily imagine Stan Lee writing dialogue like that.

[alschroeder3]

Green Arrow as originally conceived was a very staid, polite hero. Bruce Wayne without the brooding...rich, solved crimes, guardian to a ward who also solved crimes with him. Hawkeye was conceived as a knock-off of Green Arrow in method, but became an outlaw by mistake and later was misled by the (then) villainous Black Widow. When he joined the Avengers, he became the sarcastic one, the "Young Turk", the angry one, the one who constantly called Cap "Methuselah". When Neal Adams gave GA a new look in Brave and Bold's crossover with Batman, he was still the same in personality--in fact, much of the storyline was about how the two heroes were having similar crisises, even to consulting the same therapist! Then Denny O'Neil, when he introduced the new look Green Arrow in JLA, robbed Oliver of his fortune and he became a more liberal, eco-conscious defender of the "small guy"--and angrier and more sarcastic.

So...Green Arrow had the whole archer-with-trick-arrows schtick first, but Hawkeye was the "Mary Sunshine of the group" ,in Cap's sarcastic words, before GA became the outspoken loudmouth of the JLA. If there was no influence of Stan Lee's "Cap's kookie quartet" on O'Neil's porrayal of GA in JLA and GL/GA...no, I don't believe it. Neither does anyone else reading at that period.

[ebailey140]

Yep. Ollie was a standard Silver Age DC hero before then.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I want to see the story where the Avengers disband because they can't find someone suitable to fulfill the affirmative action quota (with the best candidates not wanting to be "Earth's Mightiest Token," per Falcon above), and the world... I dunno, gets blown up or something.

[bruinsfan]

I don't know, Mighty Avengers is the addition of Shaman or Talisman away from being a United Colors of Benetton ad, so I think the overarching organization can claim a fairly diverse membership.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Eh, I figured something like that would be a "What If?," so...

[cyberghostface]

Does this really need a trigger warning?

[lordultimus]

Eh, I wanted to play it safe. Took it off anyways.

[cyberghostface]

Sorry I just wasn't sure what the rules are here in regards to stuff like that.

[lordultimus]

It's cool I'm not sure either. That's why I had it up there at first. :P

[sagrada]

Aw, I was hoping this would be something about white characters tending to appropriate or lift stuff from other cultures for 'exotic' reasons rather than with any real interest in the historical/social/cultural context those things come from. Though the tokenism in major superhero lineups IS a pretty long-standing bother.

[aperturedreams]

Could you give an example?

[sagrada]

NO.
But sure, for instance, there's Danny Rand, who got Kung-Fu powers because he went to an Asian secret city. The context is fictitious, but it's just a way to give a white hero powers with an exotic, foreign flavor. If he got his Iron Fist because he touched a fiery meteorite laced with an alien metal that infused his skin, and got good at fighting because thanks to his wealthy life his father payed for the best of everything he wanted to do, that'd be very different than his going to train in K'un-Lun and killing a dragon with his bare hands.

[seisachtheia]

I thought he was orphaned in K'un-Lun as a young child? Not that would fix things, but it's a different flavor of iffy.

[sagrada]

Looking at the MARVEL fan-wiki, yeah, my mistake on that part. His father did live in K'un-Lun for part of his life. Though apparently he was also supposed to rule it. I remembered it similar to Dr. Strange's origin, where he went to a fabled place to gain insight and strength beyond what he could find in the Materialist West.

[skemono]

Still not as bad as the Black Bomber.