What Do You Mean He's Black?

I noticed in the credits for the upcoming Iron Man Movie that the role of Nick Fury will be played by Samuel L. Jackson. Well old school comic fans like myself remember that Colonel Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a white man. He was a white man when he was Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes too. But in the Ultimate Avengers series he is an African American. And this has cause some issues with comic purists. They don't seem to feel it is right to reimagine Nick Fury as an African American. But who to blame? It would be wrong to blame Hollywood because this movie is following a growing trend in the comics industry to PC-ize old minor and supporting heroes. Heroes who were once white males are being replaced by African Americans, Asians and Hispanics. Some are being replaced by women.

I am not quite sure if I approve of this trend. But I haven't followed comics for over a decade. The comic companies claim to be reaching out to minorities. But minorities are not a big part of the comic reading demographic. I suppose that supports the comic companies actions if you believe the lack of minority readership is due to to a lack of minority heroes. But if Bruce Wayne suddenly died and a Hispanic teen stepped in and took up the mantle of Batman, would more Hispanics read it? But that will never happen. They will never change the major players, Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Wonder Woman. So is changing just the minor characters sending the wrong message?

Actually Samuel L. as Fury isn't so bad in my book. The Ulltimate Avengers has had a Black Nick Fury for five or so years now. A neat piece of trivia mentioned on the IMDb site:

In an issue of the Marvel comic Ultimates (the Ultimate version of the Avengers, of which Iron Man is a member) the eponymous superheroes discuss who could play them in a possible movie, and Nick Fury (who is African-American in the Ultimate reality and artistically based on Sam Jackson, bearing a striking resemblance throughout the entirety of the series) says the only actor who could portray him is Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson plays Fury in this film

Still you could always go back and have David Hasselhoff reprise his role as Nick Fury: Agent of Shield (1998)(TV)

That'll teach ya.