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Originally Posted by leebase
BUT - how is this different than changing the color or gender of Super Heroes? Captain Marvel anyone? Or how about re appropriating the Iron Fist with an Asian actor (as some clamored for)?
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The superhero stories are a different kettle of fish because both DC and Marvel run multiverses and DC in particular has a 60+ year tradition of Legacy heroes for everybody this side of the Trinity. Multiple Flashes, Green Lanterns, Wildcats, Doctor Fate, Doctor Midnight, Spectre, etc, etc. And they recently canonized all the different versions of their live action shows as existing in different simultaneous Universes, including the movie versions, during the adaptation of 1985's CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. They even had three different Supermen, portrayed by the original actors, in the same episode. Three flashes, too. There's been talk of Michael B. Jordan playing one of tbe parallel universe Superman version. Hopefully the good one, ValZod, son of General Zod and not the one from a universe where everyone was racebent, both whites and blacks.
(They've done worse, believe me. Some are amusing, others... best forgotten, those.)
Over at Marvel, they've had at least versions of Captain America, over 4 versions of Iron Man, even multiple Iron Fists. And they have dozens of SpiderMan versions.
Captain Marvel has had 6 versions of both sexes at Timely/Mavel dating to the 60's. (Plus another dreadful one that was neither the original nor the squatters.)
Most were mediocre, which particularly hurts because they (legally) appropriated the Marvel name from the one true Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, and his twin the ever delightful Mary Marvel, forcing their names to be switched to SHAZAM!.(Long sordid story with no clean hands.) (And yes, the exclamation mark is part of the name, which is an acronym.)
As for the current version of Captain Meh, she came by the name reasonably honestly in the comics, after 40-some years as a female spinoff under the Ms. Marvel name. After repeated failures to develop a marketable character to fit the trademark, Marvel finally tried renaming her to squat on the trademark in the comics.
Adaptations can be afforded some leeway in switching from serialized comics to TV or movies and often tbe change works. Not always, though. (Race bending Jimmy Olsen in tbe Supergirl tv show was hard to excuse when everything else about tbe character in tbe show matched two preexisting comics character. More so when they wrote him off the show last year.)
Just today the Harley Quinn/Birds of Prey movie dropped with new versions of the cast characters. Classic Birds of Prey is Huntress/Black Canary/and Barbara Gordon (either as Batgirl or the much better Oracle version). This version didn't have access to Gordon because there's a BATGIRL movie in development, so tbey substituted another
The biggest change were making the Canary actually black, not just a blonde in black leather. The actress in question did great work, though. So did the Actress playing Huntress. A BIRDS OF PREY sequel minus Harley Quinn wil find an expectant audience. (The movie is pretty good. Not WW great but much better than Captain Meh.)
Character variants in comics are more of a tradition than a new development.