The Mary Sue: Like any true antagonist, Marvel has been busy giving us fan theory-fueled nightmares while simultaneously infiltrating every waking second of our lives. Now that Avengers 4 reshoots are well underway and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) spent a suspiciously short amount of time on set, you’d think that we’d be busy preemptively mourning our favorite heroes, but our attention has been momentarily deviated by the upcoming Disney streaming service. Thanks, Marvel, for consuming our lives and wallets.
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Over the last couple of years people have finally become much more aware that whitewashing is a major issue in film and TV, and yet we still see instances of it like this crop up all the time. I have only seen a handful of Marvel movies, but I still found it very interesting to read about how character’s entire ethnic backgrounds changed from the comics. Representation of the Romani people in the media seems to be always be negative, or quite frankly non-existent. The part of the article that stood out to me the most was the following section: “Since Hydra is basically synonymous with Nazis in the MCU and the comics, having two Roma characters join the organization, when Romani people were victims of the Holocaust, is disrespectful“. I’m sure that this was definitely not Marvel’s intention when changing these character’s backstories but this is not a good picture from them to create. I am curious to see if Marvel will acknowledge this, or at least ensure that it doesn’t happen again as the MCU continues to get more all encompassing with every new movie that comes out.
This has definitely always been a problem and unfortunate regardless of the few small strides that have been made with features like the black panther, and the surge of people of color in main roles, there still has not been much of an effort to make a real change here. This problem while systematic seems to be something that the marvel cinematic universe keeps attempting to just slap a band-aid on instead of actually helping change. I personally don’t really know the backstories and origins of many comics, but I have a sister who lives for this and who is constantly telling me how disappointed she has been in the creation of characters who are in origin people of color and aren’t in the movies. I really hope that as we continue to call these organizations on their problematic approach that they will take a long hard look at the way in which they approach telling these stories.
The disregard of history and oppression from Marvel saddens me. As calls for representation in film rise, and activism becoming more mainstream and transparent, one would expect big companies to try and follow their consumers. Unfortunately, we have been proven time and again they do not care. It is careless and disrespectful for Marvel to disregard the historic oppression of the Roma people. A quote from the article that struck me was, “Watching two Roma characters decide to undergo Nazi experiments, when Romani people were imprisoned, murdered, and deported during the Porajmos in Europe, distances Romani from the same genocide that affected millions of Jewish people.” And it is true. Marvel furthers the erase of Roma history, whether it be intentional or not, through their questionable plot and casting choices. How can POC and other marginalized groups send their message to big film and media companies that they matter, and representation matters?
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