Marvel Fans Only Care About Continuity For The Worst Reasons
Look under any social media post about Marvel’s recent decision to introduce a female Silver Surfer into the MCU, and you will see a lot of angry comments. Many of the Marvel fans who aren’t happy with the idea of a girl Surfer know they can’t get away with saying that female superheroes are inherently inferior to their male counterparts, so they instead try to make their gripe about comic book accuracy.
A closer look, however, reveals that most of these “fans” only get upset when Disney changes the comics to include more female and minority characters.
Marvel Cinematic Universe Accuracy
The truth is the MCU has never adhered to the Marvel comic book universe—not the main one, at least.
Starting with Iron Man (2008), the MCU switched out the white, brunette Nick Fury that Marvel fans had known and loved for almost 50 years for a bald, African American Nick Fury from the Ultimate Universe, which was created just seven years prior. Curiously, this egregious affront to canon was met with crickets.
Other Marvel Changes
Why? Because they were replacing him with another dude. And while yes, the new Nick Fury was black, he was also Samuel L. Jackson, one of the few actors of color even bigots can’t help but love.
Iron Man also made Pepper Pots Tony Stark’s love interest despite the fact that she’s Happy Hogan’s wife in the comics.
Again, Marvel fans didn’t seem to mind very much, just like fans didn’t seem to care that the MCU made Scott Lang—the second Ant-Man their primary Ant-Man despite the fact that Hank Pym had been the name everyone associated with the character since the ’60s.
Silver Surfer A Woman
But make the Silver Surfer a woman, and suddenly, it’s all about how sacred the comics are. Norrin Radd fans from across the internet suddenly came out of the woodwork to protest the new casting on behalf of their chrome king. Yeah, Norrin Radd that household name right up there with Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, and Clark Kent.
Not Like The Comics?
Marvel fans pulled the “not like the comics” card when Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall in Thor. They did it again when Tessa Thompson was cast as Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok. How could these fictional gods be black when they’re supposed to resemble the Norse people who worship them?
The fans weren’t being racist, you see. They were just bringing up very logical, very scientific arguments.
Only Selective Outrage
Where was that outrage when the MCU strayed from comic lore by making Tony Stark Ultron’s creator instead of Hank Pym?
What about when Disney made The Red Guardian Black Widow’s adopted dad instead of her husband? That’s quite a weird change from the comics, and yet Marvel Fans were silent when it happened.
Oh, but that’s right, all of the angry posts about inaccuracies in Black Widow were focused on Taskmaster being changed to a girl. The genderswap of a character who is masked 90% of the time is clearly more egregious than making someone’s former lover their dad.
Just Get Over It
Look, it’s fine to be a pedantic comic nerd, but when you start calling it the “M-She-U” and complaining about diversity in movies before you even see them, well, maybe your problem isn’t with Marvel being unfaithful to the source material.
Maybe you just don’t like certain people getting movie roles that used to just go to one specific type of person. Otherwise, you would have flipped out over Thanos killing half the universe for “balance” and not to impress a sexy skeleton lady.
