Starting in November, it seems we’ll have a new Captain America to go along with the new Thor in Marvel’s comic book line-up. As announced on last night's episode of The Colbert Report, Sam Wilson—better known to many as the Falcon from this spring’s movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier—will be taking up the shield and replacing Steve Rogers in the current comic storyline.
The reveal of an African-American Captain America following on the heels of a female Thor is hardly a coincidence. Speaking to Time.com earlier this week, Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso said that the publisher “perceived there to be a real thirst for characters that reflect what we see in the mirror [and] our goal is to make our characters reflect the outside world.”
On the surface, this is good news. Marvel, like its chief competitor DC Entertainment, has an obvious diversity problem—one born of the comic book industry’s reluctance to enrage a conservative fanbase or disrupt its own nostalgia-based appeal. Any attempt at broadening its cast of characters is is a welcome one. Just three years ago, Marvel had no comics with female leads; as of October, it will have eight, including the new Thor series. (The All-New Captain America series will be one of seven Marvel books with a non-white lead; eight, if you count Rocket Raccoon.)
There’s only one problem: As genuine attempts to diversify the Marvel universe, both the Thor and Captain America announcements are significantly flawed, and are likely doomed to fail.
Let’s ignore the uncomfortable weirdness around an African-American Cap working for a white master (From Marvel’s press release about the new Cap, former Cap Steve Rogers will be “running Cap’s missions from his headquarters in Avengers Mansion” and will “also tutor Sam in how to throw the shield, a skill that’s deceptively difficult for the new Cap to master”); there’s also the fact that neither the new Thor nor the new Captain America actually get to establish their own identities in any real sense.
Not only are they, by definition, replacements—forced to live up to legacies established by white male characters both in the fictional worlds they inhabit and the minds of the fans reading the comics—but they both got the job because of the failings of their white predecessors rather than on their own merits. (Again, from the official press release about the new Captain America: “Steve’s spirit is as willing as ever, but his body is no longer up to the task of being Captain America.” From the press release about the new Thor: “No longer is the classic Thunder God able to hold the mighty hammer, Mjölnir, and a brand new female hero will emerge worthy of the name THOR."
But perhaps worst of all, both the new Thor and the new Captain America are practically guaranteed to be temporary changes. History and experience suggests as much: Sam Wilson is the seventh person to be Captain America, with the role always defaulting to Steve Rogers for some increasingly unlikely reason, and Thor’s past replacements have proven to be equally temporary. Even the creators of the stories have hinted as much: Jason Aaron, writer of the new Thor series has already spoken about his plan to give a different character Thor’s power “for a while” and implying that the original Thor will “return” at some point.
Those identities are likely to be taken away from them when Marvel requires the old status quo to reassert itself for the sake of a dramatic plot twist or movie tie-in. (Do you really believe the comics won’t bring back the old Thor or Cap to tie in to the next movies, if they hadn’t already done so?) And that undercuts the message of diversity and inclusion that Marvel is promoting with these announcements. While Marvel is paying lip service to the idea that women or African-Americans are the equal of its traditional white male leads, the publisher takes their agency away at almost every turn.
None of this means that the stories in question won’t be enjoyable, or that Marvel isn’t sincere in its desire to offer something more than just white guys saving the world. It does, however, point out that trying to do this kind of thing is more difficult than it looks, and needs a different approach from that suggested by these two recent announcements.
Thor and Captain America may get all the headlines—as Marvel engineered with the national-TV announcements—but living up to their promise of these announcements may require more meaningful measures.
