Editorial:
What if the Fantastic Four were black?
The casting of Michael B. Jordan as Human Torch in the Fantastic Four reboot ignited fan fury and praise for colorblind casting.
Let’s face it, we don’t love Johnny Storm because he’s white and blonde. We love him because he’s the hotheaded, egomaniac cool guy we all wish we could hang with because he gets the girls. Johnny is devoted to his sister and enjoys giving grief to Ben Grimm.
Jordan is a talented actor (Fruitvale Station) who can play the cockiness and coolness of Johnny as seen in Chronicle and That Awkward Moment.
Jordan’s casting is just one of many that flares up the internet and causes a conversation about race. After seeing the FF trailer and cancellation of the comic book I’ve been thinking about Marvel’s First Family: Should they split up and join different teams, should new heroes replace them as an all-new FF or maybe what if it all went back to the beginning…but with a very different twist.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four in 1961 and helped to usher in the new level of realism and “the world outside your window” into comics. But what if Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben were black? Would this scientific genius, golden girl and boy and football star turned pilot have even had the chance to get in that rocket, be exposed to cosmic rays and return as heroes?
I think back one of my all time favorite Star Trek Deep Space Nine episodes, Far Beyond the Stars. This was true metafiction in a fictional universe. Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks who also directed) begins to have visions of himself as Benny Russell, an African-American science fiction writer in New York City in 1950’s. As Russell faces discrimination on the streets and on the job, he begins to write a story of a “Negro” commander of a space station. Russell creates the story of Sisko and Deep Space Nine. The publisher scraps the entire magazine before allowing a story of a black hero written by a black man to be published.
Marvel explored race and history before in Truth: Red, White and Black. This limited series by Robert Morales and Kyle Baker revealed the story of Isiah Bradley, the “other” Captain America. Inspired by the Tuskegee Experiments, this revisited the Super Soldier Serum program in 1942. A group of African-American soldiers are recruited as test subjects to re-create the formula that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America. Bradley was the only man to survive. He served his country but only in secret – Bradley would never receive the glory Rogers did. Bradley’s grandson Eli became known as Patriot and co-founded the Young Avengers.
I’ve always yearned for a retro style series starring Marvel’s First Family set in the 60’s but what if we had a movie, book or show set in 1961 with these heroes but with one difference? The world outside a black family’s window in that year would be very different. There’s an opportunity to show where we’ve been, are and where we can go. One of the beautiful things about great sci-fi and fantasy storytelling is how it can make us reflect on reality while providing an escape from it.
Here’s hoping the new Fantastic Four soars to inspire acceptance now and inspire a new generation of writers, artists, editors and filmmakers to create greater diversity in comics and movies.
By Editor