An Analysis Of Minority Representation In Marvel Cinema Every year Marvel Studios releases at least two films and every year we pack into theaters and get our biannual dose of photogenic people doing battle with the forces of evil. And then we might go home and watch a few episodes of Daredevil on Netflix. These movies and television shows have become so engrained in our culture that it’s strange to think of someone not having seen The Avengers. But when a line of films has such a widespread viewership, covering many different minorities, why do its characters remain so homogenous? Marvel media faces a growing problem where the majority of their characters represent only the social majority. And when minorities are represented, the quality…show more content… Avengers I featured only one person of color -- Director Fury, who was portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson. And while Marvel is gradually expanding their diversity with characters such as Falcon, Black Panther, and Helen Cho, the company is facing a difficult choice: should they diversify or cater to white fans who are afraid of “losing their representation?” This problem was exemplified when it was announced that Michael B. Jordan would be playing the Human Torch in the 2015 remake of The Fantastic Four. The Twitter backlash was almost instantaneous. Some tried to mellow their bigotry with the insistence that it simply wasn’t the right time for a black Human Torch. Others made no effort to disguise the fact that they could not stand the thought of an African American man playing a…show more content… In the original 1960s Thor comics, Jane Foster is a nurse torn between her love for Doctor Donald Blake and the superhero Thor, only to discover that they are the same person. In an effort to update her role to make it more acceptable to modern audiences, Jane is an astrophysicist in the films. While showing a woman with a PH.D in science is phenomenal, the screenwriters fail to maximize her potential and make her character contribute. In the first film, she is simply along for the ride. In the second film, she is relegated to the role of the damsel in distress. When Thor gives up his claim to the throne at the end of the film in favor of being with Jane, the audience has to wonder why. Jane Foster is barely a character -- she is a plot device. The final problem of representation in Marvel is perhaps the most controversial: these films have a severe deficit in definitively queer characters. If any of the films reference LGBTQ material, it’s a punchline. Granted, Agent Carter did feature the first same-sex kiss with the title character in a Marvel production but this was done as a combat maneuver (one party was wearing lipstick that acted as a sedative) and not out of real emotion. Once again, homosexual content is treated as titillating but, ultimately, as something without true
