Chromatic Comics
by Sigrid
A meme went around LiveJournal recently, one that is deserving of wider attention. It started out as “Chromatic Marvel,” but in the nature of these things, it expanded and grew.
Some of you might not be familiar with LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, and the way things spread in those corners of the internet. It’s like Mafia Wars on Facebook, only spreading ideas and conversations and debates instead of a game app. In this case, bloggers re-cast first the Marvel Universe, and then other fictional universes, using only people of color.
I’ll let the results speak for themselves. (Note: Many of these journals will have a warning for adult content. None of these posts have specifically adult content, unless guys in swimsuits posing as Namor count.)
Handyhunter’s Chromatic Marvel.
Michelle Rodriguez as Elektra
Bossymarmalade’s Chromatic Marvel.
Vanessa Williams as Emma Frost
Vertigo’s Lucifer, re-cast by Nextian.
Grace Park as Mazikeen
And, Second Batgirl’s Chromatic X-Men.
Moving out of comics:
Rosario Dawson as Faith
And, spreading and changing as these things do, Trascendenza re-imagined Star Trek with an all-female, all people of color cast, as well as select DC Comics characters.
Wanda Sykes as McCoy
So, just to review, a handful of geeks with access to IMDb have come up with non-white casts for at least three different Marvel Universe movie franchises, plus some DC, Buffy, and Star Trek. The next time someone says that people of color aren’t cast in geek franchises because there aren’t enough qualified actors for the roles, feel free to link them to any of these.
ETA: Since posting, we’ve been alerted to two more Chromatic Castings.
Katarin has a DCU re-casting, here.
And Poisonivory has another DCU re-cast, here.
Email: sigrid @ fantasticfangirls.org
Twitter: sigridellis
I do love this meme, and all the creativity and passion that went into it. It may be utopian to think so, but I really hope this’ll change some minds.
@Jennifer I first saw these and immediately started hearing and seeing my favorite scenes from comics with these actors in various combinations. It makes you think, it does.
There’s one of The West Wing now too!
(I suppose in some ways this is going about the casting process backwards, like casting the actor first then writing the story around him or her – because being a POC would (should) change the story a little – but at this point, I’ll take what I can get. It’s not like comics canon can’t have a little inconsistency in it, especially between different ‘verses.)
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