Darius Purnell
Staff Writer
In the past few years many characters in entertainment that been around for years have experienced major changes in who they are, whether it has to do with race, gender, or some other aspect of their identity.
Many cases, these changes add a special new spin to the stories we know or add new situations we would never think of.
In 2014 a female Thor appeared in volume 4 book #1 of Ultimate Comics Thor. The comic sold great with critics giving it an 8.0 out of 10.
In 2011 the well known hero Spider man, had a brand new twist. The original Spider man, Peter Parker dies and the new Ultimate Comics Spider man begins with a young mixed African American and hispanic teenager named Miles Morales. The comic series was marked #1 of the 200’s debuts on Marvel’s website.They quote: “Smart but still clearly learning, scared but full of courage, wanting to be the ideal son, but driven to keep secret, Miles instantly connected with the audience.” The first book broke digital records in the first week of release.
Disney is famous for taking known Grimm Fairy Tales and turning them into animated children/family comedies. In 2009, Disney did something different from their usual set up. They took the story the Princess and The Frog and made the Disney Princess African American. Disney is not known for being diverse and that small change made the story much more interesting. There was a chance that because of this new change, they would not receive as much excitement for the movie as they thought it would, but instead it was a big hit. The Princess and The Frog was marked the highest-grossing start to date for an animated movie in December. The film fell just under its budget of $105 million by making $104,400,899 in the US and Canada alone and an additional $165 million overseas for a total of nearly $267 million. Overall the movie made a success at the box office. How would the movie had done if the main character was caucasian? We will never know, but we do know the change was a good turn.
Also in the recent events we have been given stories with complete role changes and have strong female leads.
Scandal is a show starring a woman named Olivia Pope and she solves scandals for a living for politicians. While dealing with personal troubles and situation of the US government, including an affair with the president. Besides the personal issues, the show involving solving political scandals the show would not be as good if Olivia was a male. Fans call her a feminist icon and such a great character for african american woman. Also the show gives talent and gives them a way to shine.
All these new aspects to entertainment changes it for the better. Though, there are cases where the changes had little to no effect at all; one recent example is the the recent version of the movie Annie. After 9 other adaptations, people now have lost their connection to the little orphan. The recent 2014 adaptation has scored no more than 30% by major critics. It may had nothing to do with the specific change of ethnicity but just change in all repeated is never good for movies or shows.
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