Ethnicity Change for DC's Uncle Sam in New 52

[Coal Tiger]

No, I think changing everything in desperate attempt to catch Marvel is great, and it's worked so well for the last 25 years.

Oh, ok. You'd be mostly right.

[ticklefist]

Hahahahahaa the attempts to drum up interest through controversy don't get much more transparent than this. Some of you are too easily manipulated.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I tought DG as a romani a piss poor choice, but the Morrisonite zealots threatened to beat me with their stick of snotty elitism for being to stupid to understand, so i had to let go. To be honest, i've always considered that sort of retcon a admission of creative cowardness, but i'm weird that way.

''New characters?! Pffff! We can always refashion old ones!''

Really explain why Dick Grayson having an ethnic heritage is a bad idea...please do. It never changed the character at all. He was still Dick Grayson , a former Robin who became Nightwing.

Grayson's Romani heritage wasn't Morrison's idea.

I agree, retcons like that are an admission of creative cowardice, but the cowardice doesn't belong to those doing the retcons. It belongs to the original creators who couldn't see past their own demographic.

I never said that Morrison did it. But he did brought it back into the spotlight after a long hiatus. The responsibility should be shared by the original creators that couldn't have a wider view of the readership and those that reinforced those shortcomings.



They don't sell it the solo title logic. But most of these ''refashions'' are about characters starring in team titles. Promoting a new character in a solo or a team have very different odd's of sucess.
I don't ''hate'' change, but i dislike artificial change. If the company publishes a serialized series with a continuous storyline sequence, shouldn't all change come from within that continous storyline sequence?

Again please detail this "change" and how it affected Dick Grayson beyond adding an ethnic heritage to him . Because its one thing to proclaim some huge epic change to a character and its another to really not change much of the character at all. Beyond adding a touch to his background and giving an ethnic background.

That's harsh, when in many cases, the characters did not reflect the demographic of the original creators to begin with. The cowardice belongs to the audience, if anyone. Or, if to the creators, in correctly judging their audience's intolerance.

Exactly and we see this cowardice a lot from intolerant fans. I really wanna know what change Dick Grayson had by former writers Devin Grayson and Grant Morrison by using his ethnic background.

[Mr. Holmes]

And the mood now is to be disdainful of love for your country.

Because we now live in a world where it's transparent how our country is run by the biggest douches on the planet.

[stk]

Which is why the main JLA is the JL of no A.

The A was always a moronic byproduct of Cold War-era fearfulness. You think heroes like Superman and Green Lantern would serve the interests of the United States over the interests of the world at large? What a joke. It's right in GL's job description that he's not allowed to play favorites. And Superman, forget it. No way.

[Jabare]

Hahahahahaa the attempts to drum up interest through controversy don't get much more transparent than this. Some of you are too easily manipulated.

this shouldn't even be controversy. This shouldn't even be news.

I'm far from convinced these are suppose to be the same characters. Let alone that DC tends to really use the freedom fighters. I don't really see a place/big role for them in the current DC universe. Cartoons and non canon storries sure, but not in a canon mainstream comic

You see cheesy, I see classic. And of course it was imaginative: the creators looked at a then current promotional image familiar to millions and used it as the basis for a character who would be able to tap into the mood of the times-that's inspired!

yeah they just coped it from the 1917 uncle sam poster, not overly ingenious. The looks antiquated so the characters been retired. Outside of Morrison I don't think anyone in DC's current bullpen could really do him justice in a compelling narrative anyway.

It's really not like DC was using him, nor does there seem to be a need to bring him back. Doesn't mean he won't come back but I'd like for it to be contingent on a story not just have him to have him for outdated nostalgia

[Flash Gordon]

The A was always a moronic byproduct of Cold War-era fearfulness. You think heroes like Superman and Green Lantern would serve the interests of the United States over the interests of the world at large? What a joke. It's right in GL's job description that he's not allowed to play favorites. And Superman, forget it. No way.

This right here. My thoughts exactly.

[zinx]

Ooh DC,how have you become so low by ripping-off anything that worked at Marvel
first that Lil’ Gotham(blatant rip-off to Marvel Babies),then Captain K'rot(Rocket Raccoon),upcoming Trinity Wars(heroes vs heroes event)and then this
,and if their Justice League Movie really use Darkseid that just like icing the cake
now i know they have done like this before,but their attempts seem to increased lately

[strathaar]

The sake for changing a character to create diversity is simply being too lazy to create a new character. And it's an insult to diversity to say, well Blue Beetle is hispanic. Or Uncle Sam is black. Whatever.

[gwangung]

The sake for changing a character to create diversity is simply being too lazy to create a new character. And it's an insult to diversity to say, well Blue Beetle is hispanic. Or Uncle Sam is black. Whatever.

I think you're speaking only for yourself.

Particularly when the topic is Uncle Sam, who is supposed to be the reflection of the fighting spirit of this country.

[stk]

yeah they just coped it from the 1917 uncle sam poster, not overly ingenious. The looks antiquated so the characters been retired. Outside of Morrison I don't think anyone in DC's current bullpen could really do him justice in a compelling narrative anyway.

Palmiotti and Gray used him to great effect in two minis a few years ago. Way to pay attention.

[babybro]

"Grrhghh" indeed.

I'm very much in favor of more diversity in comic book heroes, but I'm not a fan of taking existing characters and ret-conning their race or gender. And when you have a hero that is based on a famous and iconic figure like Uncle Sam, it completely misses the point to change their appearance radically. Might as well have an african Santa Claus and an asian Jesus and a white John Henry.

This is Uncle Sam, and everybody knows it:



Instead of jacking around with famous iconic images, how about comic book creators put more effort into creating new characters? Then we could get both diversity and creativity, and young fans could have more relevant heroes than white guys who have been around for 50+ years.

Dude, really? you already know the answer as to why the "creating new characters" ordeal doesn't fly, that "excuse" is nothing more than "create new minority characters that I don't read about, but leave the characters I like alone." If readers gave new characters a chance, we most likely wouldn't be having this problem. But it's obviously not the case. See literally every single minority book on DC side except for batwing being cancelled, and who knows how much longer even that is going to last.

[_Pandora_]

I thought DC might be doing these Freedom Fighters solo mini series comics so they could lead up to a monthly ongoing comic. The appearance of Uncle Sam, and him putting together a team convinces me this is what is happening here. I like this alot, because I've wanted DC to reboot a team book of something different from its inception. And also new 52 it with better costumes and what not. This here is exactly what I wanted. I also thought the Freedom Fighters would be a good option for this, so I'm glad DC did this with them. I'm also very happy with the new Uncle Sam. I thought the original Uncle Sam was corny and I didn't like him. I wouldn't follow a Freedom Fighters book with the original Uncle Sam in it. So I am very happy with the new Uncle Sam. I like him. I also like the new look for Phantom Lady. She is cool, and probably my favorite character amongst them so far. Doll Man looks cool, and he's a good character too. Human Bomb seems rather cool too. His new look makes him look awsome. The Ray looks cool. With his powers and all, he looks like he'll be a cool character too.

So I'll be waiting for that new 52 Freedom Fighters ongoing book. It should be pretty cool.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

Dude, really? you already know the answer as to why the "creating new characters" ordeal doesn't fly, that "excuse" is nothing more than "create new minority characters that I don't read about, but leave the characters I like alone." If readers gave new characters a chance, we most likely wouldn't be having this problem. But it's obviously not the case. See literally every single minority book on DC side except for batwing being cancelled, and who knows how much longer even that is going to last.

The only reason I'm not stunned about Batwing's continued publication is that there are books selling worse that DC refuses to pull the plug on since they've locked themselves into a Wave cycle and to a hard 52 number for ongoings.

[tony ingram]

We/SZ like d costumes....we'll b getting d buk/s.

Dude..u just went splat head 1st right in2 dat 1. LOL!

U do recall wat those "times" were like 4 non-whites, right?

You've really got to get that keyboard fixed. Though I think there were some actual words in these posts, so that's an improvement. No idea what you said, though.

Who cares about the color of a character's skin? It's a new continuity and crazier things have happened.

Yes. None of them very good.

A new character should have a new name.

And a new continuity is irrelevant with respect to this Uncle Sham, because Uncle Sam is a famous character that preceded DC comics by a long time. He has an iconic appearance, and if DC is going to ignore that and just use the name, I don't see why they couldn't take it a step farther and just create a brand new character with his own name.

Quoted for truth.

All that said, there was a neat-looking villain in the old Grimjack comic who looked like an interesting combination of Uncle Sam and Baron Samedi. But he called himself Mac Cabre:



Too bad most of you will never read Grimjack just because it was a comic book without superheroes.

I remember that. Great series.

Man. I really could care less what color the man is, but this looks like it's going to be PAINFULLY boring. What happened to the Eldritch Spirit Guardian of the USA? Now he's just some dick in a suit?

Posibly the writers now think a dick in a suit is now representative of the spirit of the USA. Still a crappy idea, though, I agree.

yeah they just coped it from the 1917 uncle sam poster, not overly ingenious. The looks antiquated so the characters been retired. Outside of Morrison I don't think anyone in DC's current bullpen could really do him justice in a compelling narrative anyway.

It's really not like DC was using him, nor does there seem to be a need to bring him back. Doesn't mean he won't come back but I'd like for it to be contingent on a story not just have him to have him for outdated nostalgia

Er, I hate to tell you this, but...

Palmiotti and Gray used him to great effect in two minis a few years ago. Way to pay attention.

Thank you. Saved me the trouble. Though there were actually three series; the last (ongoing) Freedom Fighters series only ended in July last year, and Uncle Sam was a major part of it.