Wait wait wait. They can make The Torch Black, but Doom and Black Widow are off limits? If they can make Sue's brother another race then they can damn sure change anything. There are no black people in Russia?
Several thousand invited students from Africa. Roughly 40,000 half-black descendents from previous students. But no indigenous blacks, and due to rampant, violent racism against black, very few live there permanently. In fact blacks are advised not to travel to Russia. Things are so bad for blacks there the government itself will not count them. They're considered sub-human by large swaths of the population.
So yeah - the idea that Black Widow could be black is patently ridiculous. That is unless you're ragingly ignorant.
Pretty sure there are Eastern European blacks as well.
Not gypsies there aren't.
Why can't Punisher just be Hispanic? Is being Italian essential to his character?
Have you actually
read the Punisher? It's all about him being Italian. Grew up in a poor, Italian neighborhood in NYC. Exposed to Mafia violence early. Now he hunts the Mafia.
That's the most ridiculous rebuttal I've ever heard. The fact is that they won't make Doom black because it would be considered racist, and they won't make a black hero like Panther or Luke Cage white because that would be racist. Making white guys black is no problem though for some reason.
That's not a "fact." That's your own assumption based on your apparently very white-centered perspective. I was pointing out that there are some characters whose ethnicity is critical, and others whose ethnicity is not. I'd say that's a tautology. Go ahead and prove me wrong.
Then I gave examples where certain characters, based on their back-stories, necessarily need to be certain races. You largely dismissed those out of ignorance.
I don't mind revisions to the classics, but count me among those bothered by the trend of changing races or sexes of well known characters. It reeks of publicity stunt, intended or not and it just isn't needed.
I'm not normally a fan of gender changes. Making Doom a woman would be stupid, IMO. Thankfully that rumor was shot down by Trank. But then I can only think of one off-hand: Jimmy Olsen becoming Jenny Olsen. Since she had all of two lines in that awful movie, that was pretty much a non-issue ultimately.
There were no white guys qualified to play the Torch? Come on.
"Qualified"? Are you effing serious? You're framing this as an Affirmative Action play?
Here's a clue for you: Nobody in Hollywood is ever cast because they're "qualified." There's tens of thousands of actors who could play any particular role. Actors are cast because they're famous, they're attractive, they give a good blow-job, they have connections, or they're great. Being "qualified" is never the reason somebody is chosen.