How come Batman can't be black?

[Mic-Nificent]

I don't care what they say. When I was growing up he looked black to me and all my friends. You have to admit that at first glance he does look black. Like I said earlier, I was never a comic book nerd. My only knowledge of the DC universe came from the cartoons. So to me Lex was always black and so was Green Lantern. Which is why I could never understand the Ryan Reynolds movie or whenever they cast Lex as white in movies.

Then don't try and argue that the character IS black on the show. Say you've always seen him as black on the show or some shyt.

The funny thing about this shyt is that black characters actually DO appear throughout the DC Animated Universe and they look NOTHING like Harvey Dent and Lex Luthor. Even the light skinned black folks on those shows are darker than them.

And for the record John Stewart wasn't the first Green Lantern in those shows, it was Kyle Rayner. There's an episode of Superman The Animated series that shows his origin, plus Kyle shows up later in JLU.

 

[Mic-Nificent]

Batman doesn't need to be black, we just need more black superheroes.

He doesn't NEED to be black, but he doesn't NEED to be any specific race. Batman as a character would work as ANY race. Same goes for Tony Stark.

I do think Superman would be harder to pull off as someone of another race though.

 

[GreatestLaker]

I don't care what they say. When I was growing up he looked black to me and all my friends. You have to admit that at first glance he does look black. Like I said earlier, I was never a comic book nerd. My only knowledge of the DC universe came from the cartoons. So to me Lex was always black and so was Green Lantern. Which is why I could never understand the Ryan Reynolds movie or whenever they cast Lex as white in movies.

There are thousands of Green Lanterns in the DC universe. Hal Jordan is white and John Stewart is black.

Hal is the better Lantern and he is more popular. That's why they chose him to be the star of the film.

you said the animated series was not based on Batman 89 then you say the VISUAL STYLE and TONE were influenced by the film
which was one is it nikka

harvey dent and Lux Luthor are the only characters in the series with lips that are African

it don't matter who did the VO's its a cartoon

Simba was voiced by a white person and Mustafa was voiced by James Earl Jones
and their suppose to father and son

Keith David did the VO in Gargoyles and Goliath is suppose to be from scottland
shyt don't matter

You people really are pathetic. You are really going to disagree with the people that created the fukking show? Lex Luther was created as A WHITE CHARACTER. I don't care what he looks like to you. He isn't black, because you think that's what he is. The creators didn't create him as a black character. Therefor he is not black.

 

[stepbackj34spud]

Maybe cause you a cac from Boston?

Try a black from Brooklyn.

 

[eMDee92i]

Y'all dudes talking about Luthor and Harvey Dent were Black on the cartoons y'all were projecting like a mothafukka that's all. Never once thought that and I had never read the comics.

If anything Luthor looked like some type of Mediterranean dude.

Matter fact Superman was pretty much the same skin tone

 

[NZA]

in general i would agree with the OP, but when something is iconic, i dont think you should mess with it.

 

[Mic-Nificent]

Hal is the better Lantern and he is more popular. That's why they chose him to be the star of the film.

At the time the Green Lantern movie was in development (and probably even now) John Stewart was by far the most popular Green Lantern. That characters stint on Justice League/JLU made him THE Green Lantern in the eyes of a lot of people. I remember when the Green Lantern movie was announced that even a lot of white folks were saying "Why'd they turn Green Lantern White " because many of them didn't even know who Hal Jordan was.

They chose him to star in the Green Lantern movie because their movie was loosely based on Geoff Johns' work on the comic and Geoff Johns was a major creative consultant. Plus Geoff Johns have proven himself to have a certain level of dislike for the John Stewart character. (for that matter DC comics in general seems to dislike the character).

 

[Mic-Nificent]

in general i would agree with the OP, but when something is iconic, i dont think you should mess with it.

But they've already messed with it.

Like I said earlier NONE of these characters are exactly like they were when they debuted. They all go through many changes over the years. They've already messed with Batman countless times.

 

[NZA]

But they've already messed with it.

Like I said earlier NONE of these characters are exactly like they were when they debuted. They all go through many changes over the years. They've already messed with Batman countless times.

i cant think of the movies doing anything major to deviate from batman's identity before...

they all seemed to be some variation of a borderline insane and rich white man somewhere in the vicinity of middle age

 

[GreatestLaker]

At the time the Green Lantern movie was in development (and probably even now) John Stewart was by far the most popular Green Lantern. That characters stint on Justice League/JLU made him THE Green Lantern in the eyes of a lot of people. I remember when the Green Lantern movie was announced that even a lot of white folks were saying "Why'd they turn Green Lantern White " because many of them didn't even know who Hal Jordan was.

They chose him to star in the Green Lantern movie because their movie was loosely based on Geoff Johns' work on the comic and Geoff Johns was a major creative consultant. Plus Geoff Johns have proven himself to have a certain level of dislike for the John Stewart character. (for that matter DC comics in general seems to dislike the character).

From all the polls I remember seeing before the movie even came out Hal always won by a landslide.

But am I right about Hal being better?

 

[Jazzy B.]

I personally HATE when they cast traditionally white heroes as black because its just an affirmative action "we threw a bone to you ******s" type thing. They won't put the resources into developing an actual ORIGINAL black character with his/her own origins, history, and identity because that would take too much effort. Nah fukk that give me a Black Panther or Power Man movie over a fukking "Black" Johnny Storm or "black" Spider-Man


Their are just too many actual BLACK comic book heroes that could be developed for film or television to worry about recasting Cac characters as black. If you want a wise-cracking, teenaged hero who deals with the "great power, great responsibility" motive you've got Static Shock. You want a dark, sometimes brooding, no nonsense hero who comes from a tragic but wealthy background? Black Panther. The studios will simply NOT invest in heroes that in some way represent US in SPITE of the fact that Blade was the franchise that got Marvel to consider the validity of comic based movies....

It's blatant uninspired lazy ass pandering if you ask me, so Jazzy's suddenly supposed to feel better cus you've turned a white character black
GTFO and gimme nikkas like Static Shock(DC's equivalent to Spiderman) Luke Cage and his wing man Shang chi and my main nikka Bishop, even with da lesser characters like War Machine and Falcon, you tryin to tell Jazzy that you cant update, repackage, flesh them out and beef up their roles and importance, of course they can(nikkas made War Machine Iron Patriot in the films and he was core to the story in the second film) and that's what they should be doing instead cheap ass gimmicks like a "black" Spiderman or a "Black" Johnny Storm which is all they will be remembered for instead of their character, that's why Will Smith was NEVER going to take the roles of Superman and Captain America despite them being offered to him by studios. Either make a new black character and put him in with the more popular one's or update and redesign the one's that are already there.

 

[darealvelle]

this is the Lex Luthor I grew up on and he's most definitely black....black skin....bald head....only reason I rooted for him as a kid against Superman.....didn't wanna see that cac Alien get the better of a brotha

lol dont look black at all, besides the lips. Even the voice was performed by a white guy

 

[Data-Hawk]

Some things you have to leave alone. As said before ppl would be mad if superman had blond hair or was only 5'5 tall.

 

[jwinfield]

Alot of people (cacs included) actually want the John Stewart Green Lantern in the Justice League movie. As I've read he was QUITE popular in the cartoon (which was a classic) as was his relationship with Hawkgirl so it's not that he's "skipped" over its just that compared to Black Panther and Luke Cage (who were original characters who set the precedent for their OWN powers, villains, and story lines) he's already gotten a lot of shine.

When they were going to make the JL movie in 07, Arnie Hammer was supposed to be Batman and the rumor was Common was going to play GL.

 

[2 Up 2 Down]

No there really aren't "Plenty" of black comic book characters that can be used.

few comic book character period have stories that could carry one film let alone two or three. That list grows even shorter with black characters.

When it comes to the milestone characters they're often viewed as "Too Black" by executives. They even refused to make toys for the Static Shock cartoon (and that ultimately lead to the show ending due to lack of funding).

IMO, a character doesn't have to be well-known to public and/or popular amongst comic book fans. Grab a character and make a dope film like Blade. There may not be a shyt ton of black characters but the amount we have is enough to make a few films about. All it takes are the right people behind it to get it going. Blackjack (Arron Day) would translate to film, could start a franchise, and give shine to black creators