Roberto da Costa explains why he is an American

[history79]

from CBR: http://www.cbr.com/exclusive-preview-u-s-avengers-1/

Comments

[gnarll]

What utter tripe. And to imagine, I used to like Ewing. Thats it, I've dropped his stuff.

Who is next, Captain Britain explaining why he always wanted to be an American? Sabra? T'Challa?

The fact that Ewing is trying to pull on the good days of the New Mutants for his jingo makes this so much worse.

And when you throw in the fact that Marvel has been whitewashing Roberto for years... now they are dropping the "Brazillian" aspect of the character

Jesus, didn't take long after the election.

[byc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guG9cVs3ms4

[icon_uk]

I still don't see Berto renouncing his Brazilian nationality, though it's nice to see him being drawn with what appears to be actually dark skin (even if only in flashback)

(Plus it might work a little better as a reason if it weren't for the fact that only two people in that room WERE American. Rahne's British and Xian is Vietnamese.)

[freezer]

I could buy this coming from Sam. Still be corny as hell, but so's Sam sometimes. From Roberto? It feels forced AF.

[laughing_tree]

now they are dropping the "Brazillian" aspect of the character

I still don't see Berto renouncing his Brazilian nationality

People realize that dual citizenship's a thing, right?

[thanekos]

Someone had died, he was coming to terms.. about the right mindset to be affected by " Did you see the sun rise this morning? "

[balbanes]

As a Latin-American myself, I clicked on the link and expected to be upset. But... I'm not. He didn't become American because America is the bestest nation in the history of blah blah blah-- the standard jingoistic crap. He became American because his nakama was American. Had the New Mutants been based out of France or Japan, he would have become a French or Japanese citizen.

That's not implicitly shitting on every other country-- including his motherland--the way I thought this post would go. It's just acknowledging the importance of family. I can respect that.

[leoboiko]

There's a lot of things we Brazilians envy the Americans for. "Diversity" isn't one of them (quick question: what's a typical Brazilian ethnic feature? answer: there's no such thing. If you want to see what a real melting pot looks like, just head down here!) For a Brazilian to be impressed by how many different people are there in the U.S. would be like being astonished at how beautiful your beaches are.

I don't think we buy into the whole jingoism, identifying-as-nation thing in the first place; never heard of anyone saying they'd "become Americans" with a citizenship. I might apply for Japanese citizenship in the future, but I'd never describe that as "becoming Japanese".

When I saw the title I legit thought he'd say "I've always been an American because I was born in America, which is the name of this big continent"—a cheeky piece of semantics often heard around here. Instead I watch him naïvely buying into the whole American Dream rhetorics. Roberto's developments continue to leave me with a bad aftertaste.

[gnarll]

Roberto da Costa is to the best of my knowledge, Marvels only Brazilian superhero.

He is not Marvels first Latino superhero, I think that would be White Tiger/Hector Ayala. But I believe Roberto has the longest-running career.

Nor is he Marvels first black superhero. But the list of black superheroes whos been active since the 80s is not a very long one.

Now, leaving out the issue of his evaporating blackness, as a latino Robertos story is different from what you normally see in the literature. Often latinos are portrayed as immigrants, illegal or not. Or second generation immigrants. People who emigrated from their home countries for economic opportunity, or to escape something.

Thats not Roberto. Roberto is the wealthiest, or one of the wealthiest men in Brazil. And his buying AIM kind of illustrated how much more that means now than it did in the 1980s. Roberto is educated enough to speak Latin as a 14 year old. Roberto shows pride in his country, and to an outsider he seems to represent Brazil really well.

To just have this sucked into the general narrative about Latin immigrants who wants American citizenship because America is the bees knees, bestest country on earth sort of thing really deep-sixes his entire concept.

At least to me. I always saw him, at least the adult da Costa, more as a Brazillian T'Challa. And it would seem equally unnatural to me to see T'challa seek American citizenship.

[every_spiegel]

I actually see his point (though I had to look hard). America's was the place he felt erm united! With his friends! And stuff! That doesn't mean he's not Brazilian anymore, that's like saying "I'm the citizen of Woodstock" after Woodstock.
I does sounds a bit cheesy and naive but I'm inclined to think it's deliberately naive - for listener's sake. And now as the seat is vacant Roberto is the new God of Lies, apparently.