Comic book geeks are in an uproar over the casting of African American actor Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch) in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. I didn't know comic book purists carried so much racial baggage. LOL.
Producers for the new movie announced the new cast recently, which also includes Miles Teller as Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Kate Mara as Sue Storm (The Invisible Girl) and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm (The Thing).
What has most of the geeks spun up is that in the comic book Sue and Johnny Storm are full biological siblings and they're both white and blonde. The geeks are in a tizzy over the "political correctness" of making Johnny black and can't wrap their minds around how a black guy and a white girl can be siblings. Guess they never heard of step-siblings or half-siblings.
Anyway, reading some of the comments made by comic book "purists" on a story running on Variety.Com (http://variety.com/...) made me alternately laugh, sigh and want to punch somebody. Many of these people really take these comic book stories seriously...way too seriously. But if you're a true comic book geek, I guess that what you do.
Here are a few of their comments (please note the times most of these folks posted their comments, apparently they were so mad they couldn't sleep):
Jim says:
February 20, 2014 at 5:01 am
I wish stan lee would stand up and say …what r u doing messing with the fabric of my characters???? These characters have been around since Kennedy was in office!!! Enough of this stupid Pc bullsh*t ….I cant stand another minute of it…omg I’m gonna go insane. The idiots casting the movie I guess don’t care that the storms are biological brother and sister?!!!!!!! Wont be watching this….the cast look like a bunch of creeps anyway…how can we take this stupid movie seriously…what a waste….how bout we make the 70s Dracula character “blacula” and call him whiteula…this is feces
Comic geek says:
February 20, 2014 at 4:36 am
WHAT the F**K??? Why do they keep casting black people in roles that were made and written in the comics as white people…..NOWHERE in Fantastic Fours history has any of them EVER been black, same thing goes with the casting of Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury in the Iron man series….NICK FURY was a white man……Marvel Studios need to get their shit straight…..the comic geekks like myself that know the true history of comic series’ are up in arms over the discrepancies in these movies…..I hate this sh*t, and will not be seeing this one either
mark says:
February 20, 2014 at 4:52 am
I agree! Hollywood get you heads out of your ass’s ! Why did we need a reboot anyways? To get a black guy into the franchise? Is he gay too? Because that is really really important now!
Ismael says:
February 20, 2014 at 3:06 am
wtf is this sh*t, i don’t care much for the Fantastic Four, but damn what a sh*tty cast. why is human torch black. it’s makes no sense with the original store line. new hollywood bullsh*t.
RelLotHgil says:
February 20, 2014 at 1:36 am
I don’t know who any of these people are, but think this casting is absolutely hilarious looking. None of them say ‘Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny’.
And I’ve heard black people complain about this fellow being put in like this.
Andy Hooper says:
February 19, 2014 at 10:25 pm
...not trying to sound racist here, but seriously, directors, Stop trying to change a superheroes race. I mean, you’ve been trying to make Spider-man black for many years now, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a half black, half Hawaiian, may be playing Luke Cage who is all black, and now you want Johnny Storm as a black guy when his sister is white. Even Kingpin was black, MCD was one of my favorite actors of all time and may he rest in peace, but that is one reason why Daredevil flopped, I’m sorry. What’s next, Black Panther played by a Korean guy, Storm of the X-men played by Sarah Silverman? Stick with the way they are in the comic books. Whatever happened to, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it”? Times like these make me wish I finished film school.
Victor Jarvis says:
February 19, 2014 at 10:04 pm
Did the Human Torch turn black after being burned by his own flames?
And I thought words like "Bam!," "Thok!,"Zaaap!" and "Wham!" were the most colorful words used in comic book geek lingo.
Bottom line: I can't wait for Fox News' Megyn Kelly to step in and settle this for once and for all. She's good at sorting through stuff like this.
