Captain America and Whiteness: The Dilemma of the Superhero

Captain America. Superman. Batman. The Green Lantern. Wolverine. Spider-Man. The Punisher. The Flash. Daredevil. Iron Man. Thor. All heroes. All white. The most beloved characters from the pages of comics are all united in their whiteness. Captain America and Whiteness is the sequel to Hollywood in Blackface, a book that argued the quintessential white action star is being completely erased from cinema and replaced with Black Fictional Images (BFI). The dilemma is that Hollywood has come to rely on the highly marketable and lucrative - established - superheroes in a bid to remain profitable. It is superhero movies that give white actors the opportunity to star where they once again save the world. It is these movies that deny Will Smith the opportunity to monopolize that role. In an age when "treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity", superhero movies and comics provide a window into a world where the concept of "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" isn't an outdated mode of thinking. With the recent decision by Marvel to kill-off the white Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the "Ultimate" comics, and replace him with a half-Black/half-Hispanic Spider-Man, "Captain America and Whiteness" is more timely than ever.