Topic: Marvel Musings. Now with Spidey Spoilers.

[Sat1]

I watched End Game again the other day, first time in a while, and have to say its gone down the rankings in my list of top 10 MCU films...….a few things wrankle

1) Red Witch fighting Thanos close up - she has him on toast at arms length
2) The girl power scene just seems so forced in and tacked on
3) still not happy about the time travel angle and Ant Man being the one to have an itch to scratch about it.
4) The time it takes for all the heroes to reappear for the big battle......surely Thanos wouldn't wait for them to set up to start the battle  (I like some realism in my ridiculous fantasy films)

Saying that was good to see Howard the duck turn up.

from an initial 8/10, its down to 6.5/10 for me.  isn't aging as well as some of the others, Inifity War still gives me chills when Thor appears with his Axe, I don't get that from Endgame.

Enjoyed the movie but Tony found the solution to time travel too quick. Maybe Ant Man should of appeared after 2 yrs or so and then it takes Tony and the team a further couple of yrs to finally develop.

I also wanted to see Thor come out of his depression, and bring everyone back. The Thor of infinity war could of easily done what Captain Marvel did to Thanos's ship.

Would like to see a movie of Captain America returning the stones, be interested to see him return the soul stone and the aether

[Something Worse]

Marvel is considering using people of color as Magneto and Charles Xavier in the re-relaunched X Men.

On the one hand the Holocaust is such a big part of Magneto's story that it seems wild to cut it out. On the other, that forces them to use 80 year olds as Magneto or leave them out of the MCU. If the two were based on Malcolm X and Dr King originally, it's easy to find more recent parallels to make that work in the present.

[Brian Blessed]

Stark got updated from Vietnam to The war in Iraq. Updating Magneto to fairly recent atrocities in America or Africa seems reasonable.

[Schmidt]

Stark got updated from Vietnam to The war in Iraq. Updating Magneto to fairly recent atrocities in America or Africa seems reasonable.

Yeah makes sense, the obvious answer would be a black American who has suffered discrimination and is disillusioned with the world but they covered that already with Killmonger.

[Cpt_Reina]

Yeah makes sense, the obvious answer would be a black American who has suffered discrimination and is disillusioned with the world but they covered that already with Killmonger.

Someone further radicalised by Killmonger and his message ties it together.

[Schmidt]

Someone further radicalised by Killmonger and his message ties it together.

True. My assumption was he'd be older than Killmonger and not likely to follow in someone else's footsteps, but the idea of finishing something someone else couldn't does sound like a fit. It'll be interesting to see how they plan to bring everything together, though it seems like it's a ways out.

[wampa1]

Yeah but at least that was in the TV shows, and they almost never cross over (Phil Coulson being the exception)

And Jarvis (the human, not the AI/android).

[Sheer Magnetism]

I don't understand why they bother. If they can't recreate a character faithfully why not just create new characters? Doing it this way pisses off a lot of fans, and no one they're doing it 'for' cares because they're so transparently lazy and inauthentic versions of characters that have already been established.

Seriously, just make up new characters. Would more than 1% of the audience have known the difference if someone like Killmonger or The Collector had been made up for the movies? How many of the audience had heard of Captain Marvel or the Guardians of the Galaxy before the films?

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

I don't understand why they bother. If they can't recreate a character faithfully why not just create new characters? Doing it this way pisses off a lot of fans, and no one they're doing it 'for' cares because they're so transparently lazy and inauthentic versions of characters that have already been established.

Seriously, just make up new characters. Would more than 1% of the audience have known the difference if someone like Killmonger or The Collector had been made up for the movies? How many of the audience had heard of Captain Marvel or the Guardians of the Galaxy before the films?

They've got loads of different versions of the characters in the comics already, so really can't see why people can't handle the films having people with different skin or hair colours to the 'classic/White' versions. Why make up characters when there's too many to fit into the universe already?

[wampa1]

I don't understand why they bother. If they can't recreate a character faithfully why not just create new characters? Doing it this way pisses off a lot of fans, and no one they're doing it 'for' cares because they're so transparently lazy and inauthentic versions of characters that have already been established.

Seriously, just make up new characters. Would more than 1% of the audience have known the difference if someone like Killmonger or The Collector had been made up for the movies? How many of the audience had heard of Captain Marvel or the Guardians of the Galaxy before the films?

Why make up new characters when they can use existing ones which represents the character they're introducing? Half the Guardians of the Galaxy are nothing like the comics. Would you have preferred they never used Star Lord, Drax etc and instead made a film called Protectors of the Star System with all new characters?

[Sheer Magnetism]

They've got loads of different versions of the characters in the comics already, so really can't see why people can't handle the films having people with different skin or hair colours to the 'classic/White' versions. Why make up characters when there's too many to fit into the universe already?

Because it's insulting. Those characters already exist and they're more than just a name and a costume - they have an entire decades-long history. Sure there are different versions of heroes, but not the characters - the black Green Lantern is John Stewart, they didn't just black up Hal Jordan. Rhodey was Iron Man for a bit but he wasn't Tony Stark.

If you're going to do old characters, have them look and act like the ones in the source material, choose existing non-white characters to focus on, or come up with fresh, original characters. Xavier was gone for ages in the comic books, hell most of the X-Men separated off for years and it didn't matter. They just had Storm lead the team for a bit. It really shouldn't be that hard, Hollywood just makes it look hard.

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

Also, how dare they even think of making characters that were originally (allegedly) based on Malcolm X and MLK, POC? It's outrageous

[wampa1]

Yeah, they should just make new characters. Can't wait for Marvel's new film Z-Men with Magnetron as the villain squaring off against Doctor Z's team of mutates.

[Sheer Magnetism]

Yeah, they should just make new characters. Can't wait for Marvel's new film Z-Men with Magnetron as the villain squaring off against Doctor Z's team of mutates.

I love how, in your mind, these are the only two possibilities available: either discarding everything and starting again or blacking up incredibly famous existing characters. There are literally no other options.

[Schmidt]

Their reason for changing Magneto is pretty legitimate, and there's a lot more to the character than just the colour of his skin.

[wampa1]

blacking up

Good grief.

[Cpt_Reina]

I don't understand why they bother. If they can't recreate a character faithfully why not just create new characters? Doing it this way pisses off a lot of fans, and no one they're doing it 'for' cares because they're so transparently lazy and inauthentic versions of characters that have already been established.

Seriously, just make up new characters. Would more than 1% of the audience have known the difference if someone like Killmonger or The Collector had been made up for the movies? How many of the audience had heard of Captain Marvel or the Guardians of the Galaxy before the films?

The people who get pissed off at the unfaithful recreation of the characters probably amounts to little more than 1% of the audience of these movies, why pander to them?

[Sheer Magnetism]

The people who get pissed off at the unfaithful recreation of the characters probably amounts to little more than 1% of the audience of these movies, why pander to them?

What is changing the enthnicity of a decades-old character if not pandering? When you include the original movies and the cartoons it's probably a majority of the audience, but since you bring it up: if you believe representation of original characters is important to less than 1% of the audience, then why is it important to bring those characters in in the first place?

This is actually one of the things that annoyed me about the new Spider-Man films. I don't care what colour skin his friends have, but why change their entire personality and status instead of just introducing new supporting characters? Why make Aunt May middle aged? It's just all so depressingly lazy. I'm not going to pretend I care enough to start a Twitter campaign about it, but is it really wrong to expect faithful representation of a famous character and their story beyond just seeing it as marketable IP?

[Cpt_Reina]

What is changing the enthnicity of a decades-old character if not pandering? When you include the original movies and the cartoons it's probably a majority of the audience, but since you bring it up: if you believe representation of original characters is important to less than 1% of the audience, then why is it important to bring those characters in in the first place?

This is actually one of the things that annoyed me about the new Spider-Man films. I don't care what colour skin his friends have, but why change their entire personality and status instead of just introducing new supporting characters? Why make Aunt May middle aged? It's just all so depressingly lazy. I'm not going to pretend I care enough to start a Twitter campaign about it, but is it really wrong to expect faithful representation of a famous character and their story beyond just seeing it as marketable IP?

Its the opposite of lazy.

Lazy would be remaking the same movie and with the same characters over and over again.

They're breathing new life in to them, and it actually happens in the comics too like...alot.

[Sheer Magnetism]

Its the opposite of lazy.

Lazy would be remaking the same movie and with the same characters over and over again.

They're breathing new life in to them, and it actually happens in the comics too like...alot.

They aren't breathing new life into them though, are they? They're cannibalising an existing IP. And putting aside the catastrophic state of the 2019 comic book industry, name three characters - not hero title or possessor of powers - characters who've had their race changed in comics in the last five years. It actually almost never happens - I'd be surprised if you could name one.

[wampa1]

You're embarrassing yourself now. The comics are [for the most part] continuous tales but when starting anew they have not been afraid to shake things up. Films, TV shows etc are [for the most part] starting from scratch and are free to establish whatever status quo they chose. Again, would you have preferred a new version of Drax over the film version or does change only matter when it's skin colour? In which case, I bet you were livid when David Tennant wasn't purple in Jessica Jones.

[Something Worse]

They aren't breathing new life into them though, are they? They're cannibalising an existing IP. And putting aside the catastrophic state of the 2019 comic book industry, name three characters - not hero title or possessor of powers - characters who've had their race changed in comics in the last five years. It actually almost never happens - I'd be surprised if you could name one.

You can do it in the comics because they exist in their own timezone and usually whatever happened in the past happened whenever it needed to. With that said Marvel are getting it (again) online because they replaced Vietnam with a fictional version that seems...a little insensitive at best.

Honestly man think it through - Magneto is a product of the Holocaust, the Holocaust happened 70+ years ago. You can't just leave the X Men in the 90s forever. And if you're going to do "someone traumatised by their treatment at the hands of the people in power" it's more than likely going to be a black person in the US post-WWII. Like I said I was irritated at first but it makes a ton of sense.

[Cpt_Reina]

They aren't breathing new life into them though, are they? They're cannibalising an existing IP. And putting aside the catastrophic state of the 2019 comic book industry, name three characters - not hero title or possessor of powers - characters who've had their race changed in comics in the last five years. It actually almost never happens - I'd be surprised if you could name one.

So you're ok with the comics fucking around with the heroes themselves but not the ancillary players, thats too far?

Captain Marvel can be black, Thor can be a woman, Iron Man a black teenage girl, god knows how many versions of the hulk exist but don't you dare shave a few years off Aunt May.

You must be furious about j jonah jameson having his infowars esq youtube show in Far From Home rather than being at the Bugle.

Its really not that deep mate.

[Machae]

I watched End Game again the other day, first time in a while, and have to say its gone down the rankings in my list of top 10 MCU films...….a few things wrankle

1) Red Witch fighting Thanos close up - she has him on toast at arms length
2) The girl power scene just seems so forced in and tacked on
3) still not happy about the time travel angle and Ant Man being the one to have an itch to scratch about it.
4) The time it takes for all the heroes to reappear for the big battle......surely Thanos wouldn't wait for them to set up to start the battle  (I like some realism in my ridiculous fantasy films)

Saying that was good to see Howard the duck turn up.

from an initial 8/10, its down to 6.5/10 for me.  isn't aging as well as some of the others, Inifity War still gives me chills when Thor appears with his Axe, I don't get that from Endgame.

I just hate how they really messed up Hulk and Thors arc. Don't get me started on Odin

[El Lobo]

[Sheer Magnetism]

So you're ok with the comics fucking around with the heroes themselves but not the ancillary players, thats too far?

Captain Marvel can be black, Thor can be a woman, Iron Man a black teenage girl, god knows how many versions of the hulk exist but don't you dare shave a few years off Aunt May.

You must be furious about j jonah jameson having his infowars esq youtube show in Far From Home rather than being at the Bugle.

Its really not that deep mate.

You're talking about different people taking on powers and uniforms, not people which - as I've said already multiple times - is completely different to changing the race of a person (also, Ironheart is not Iron Man - they're completely different characters). JJJ's character is that he's a sensationalist journalist, Aunt May's defining characteristic is that she's frail and so Peter feels responsible for her, which is why one of those examples works and the other doesn't, though I'd argue having Peter not working for Jameson makes the latter's character essentially irrelevant.

Honestly man think it through - Magneto is a product of the Holocaust, the Holocaust happened 70+ years ago. You can't just leave the X Men in the 90s forever. And if you're going to do "someone traumatised by their treatment at the hands of the people in power" it's more than likely going to be a black person in the US post-WWII. Like I said I was irritated at first but it makes a ton of sense.

Magneto isn't American, he's an immigrant whose name is Eisenhardt. I mean, if you think it's impossible for Jews to be victimised in this day and age (or, as a side point, that the greatest oppression in the world post-WW2 has been suffered by black Americans) I'm not sure what to tell you.

You're embarrassing yourself now. The comics are [for the most part] continuous tales but when starting anew they have not been afraid to shake things up. Films, TV shows etc are [for the most part] starting from scratch and are free to establish whatever status quo they chose. Again, would you have preferred a new version of Drax over the film version or does change only matter when it's skin colour? In which case, I bet you were livid when David Tennant wasn't purple in Jessica Jones.

Completely ignoring what I asked but hey, keep punching that strawman.

Ultimately, I'd love there to be more female and POC characters involved onscreen. Give Luke Cage and Ms Marvel their own films - they're good characters! Have an X-Men lineup with Kitty Pryde, Bishop, Psylocke, Jubilee and/or Sunspot, and Storm as one of the leaders. People want to see different, and more diverse, heroes, which is a big reason why Black Panther and Captain Marvel did so well. But grafting a race change on to a long-standing character while ignoring existing minority characters because 'people wouldn't be interested in them' is insulting and cowardly. Expecially when you're happy to drag white characters like Starlord out of obscurity.

[Barefoot Doctor]

What is changing the enthnicity of a decades-old character if not pandering? When you include the original movies and the cartoons it's probably a majority of the audience, but since you bring it up: if you believe representation of original characters is important to less than 1% of the audience, then why is it important to bring those characters in in the first place?

This is actually one of the things that annoyed me about the new Spider-Man films. I don't care what colour skin his friends have, but why change their entire personality and status instead of just introducing new supporting characters? Why make Aunt May middle aged? It's just all so depressingly lazy. I'm not going to pretend I care enough to start a Twitter campaign about it, but is it really wrong to expect faithful representation of a famous character and their story beyond just seeing it as marketable IP?

They can't win though. If they came up with completely new names for all of Spider-Man's supporting characters, people would just ask why they're doing that when they could have used MJ, Flash, Ned, Betty etc. So they reinvent those existing characters instead and get accused of straying too far from the source material.

It also completely fails to recognise that one of the main reasons they changed things for this current Spider-Man series is because we've seen the traditional versions on screen - the first Tobey Maguire film is only 17 years old! Since 2002, we've had three films in that series plus another two starring Andrew Garfield. So understandably, they decided to change things with this series - knowing fine well that there'll be a new version in a few years which will have its own take on the source material.

I also just don't get the Aunt May complaints. I'm no expert on the comics, but I presume her defining character trait isn't being old with white hair. And Marisa Tomei would have been 50 when she made her Marvel debut, so let's not pretend it's crazy to think she might have a 15 year old nephew.

[Beav]

This crap has been going round and round for so long now. My view has generally been that unless a characters race is completely tied to their identity (Luke Cage, Kamala Khan), then it doesnt really matter if you change it.

With Magneto, that story has been covered over what, nine films now in recent memory? Is there any value in doing it again with the exact same beats? You could just not use him, sure, or you could take the interesting aspects of his character, oppression of a group of people, revenge, the questionable methods, the paranoia that it will happen again etc, and tell a new story with it in a more modern setting. I'd be fine with it, sounds interesting. You could make a new character with a new name, but isnt that kind of what you'd be doing anyway? All they would be borrowing is the mutant moniker Magneto, and the powers. Same as they do with MJ in the Spider-Man films, shes completely different to comic MJ in personality, looks, background, her initials are just "MJ". Also she rules, as does Marissa Tomei as Aunt May, so I'm completely on board for this kinda thing.

Having to do everything the same as the comic is boring, its OK to shake things up when a character and story was first conceived decades ago in a completely different cultural environment.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Because it's insulting.

I bet you take offense at every opportunity,no matter the subject. 


I had no idea that they were originally loosely based on Dr.King and Malcolm X. 

[WhereAngelsPlay]

This crap has been going round and round for so long now. My view has generally been that unless a characters race is completely tied to their identity (Luke Cage, Kamala Khan), then it doesnt really matter if you change it.

With Magneto, that story has been covered over what, nine films now in recent memory? Is there any value in doing it again with the exact same beats? You could just not use him, sure, or you could take the interesting aspects of his character, oppression of a group of people, revenge, the questionable methods, the paranoia that it will happen again etc, and tell a new story with it in a more modern setting. I'd be fine with it, sounds interesting. You could make a new character with a new name, but isnt that kind of what you'd be doing anyway? All they would be borrowing is the mutant moniker Magneto, and the powers. Same as they do with MJ in the Spider-Man films, shes completely different to comic MJ in personality, looks, background, her initials are just "MJ". Also she rules, as does Marissa Tomei as Aunt May, so I'm completely on board for this kinda thing.

Having to do everything the same as the comic is boring, its OK to shake things up when a character and story was first conceived decades ago in a completely different cultural environment.

The same people would be just as outraged and use the exact same arguments against it.

[Sheer Magnetism]

It also completely fails to recognise that one of the main reasons they changed things for this current Spider-Man series is because we've seen the traditional versions on screen - the first Tobey Maguire film is only 17 years old! Since 2002, we've had three films in that series plus another two starring Andrew Garfield. So understandably, they decided to change things with this series - knowing fine well that there'll be a new version in a few years which will have its own take on the source material.

I agree, it is stale. To be honest, I'd have been happier with Miles Morales as the MCU Spider-Man, considering the series is loosely based on the Ultimate Marvel universe anyway (Nick Fury obviously, and the cinema Thor is closer too). As long as it was an accuarate representation of the character.

I also just don't get the Aunt May complaints. I'm no expert on the comics, but I presume her defining character trait isn't being old with white hair. And Marisa Tomei would have been 50 when she made her Marvel debut, so let's not pretend it's crazy to think she might have a 15 year old nephew.

Her defining character traits are her kindness and vulnerability. Parker can't let her or the world find out his secret identity because he's terrified she'll disapprove of him and fall into serious ill health. Same with Jameson - he villainises Spider-Man but gave Peter his break as a photographer, so there's also that gratitude in the background. It's a three-dimensional relationship. I said it in a longer post a while back but it's that tension that makes the character is so rich, like the fact his jock peers think Peter's a pathetic nerd but Spider-Man is cool. It can still function as a generic superhero film without those elements, without May's frailty and vulnerability, but it feels flatter and more generic.

I bet you take offense at every opportunity,no matter the subject. 

[Nessy76]

Magneto isn't American, he's an immigrant whose name is Eisenhardt.

That's a retcon. His original name was Magnus. Then it was Lehnsherr when Chris Claremont decided to make him an Auschwitz survivor, almost twenty years after the character first appeared.

But that would make him a gypsy and Marvel preferred the idea he was Jewish, so they turned him Jewish. "Eisenhardt" has been his surname since, what, 2008? (Until they decide to change it again.)

So yeah, good example.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

 

Isn't the Charles we know dead ?

[Sheer Magnetism]

That's a retcon. His original name was Magnus. Then it was Lehnsherr when Chris Claremont decided to make him an Auschwitz survivor, almost twenty years after the character first appeared.

But that would make him a gypsy and Marvel preferred the idea he was Jewish, so they turned him Jewish. "Eisenhardt" has been his surname since, what, 2008? (Until they decide to change it again.)

So yeah, good example.

Magneto being a Holocaust survivor and Jewish immigrant is nearly 40 years old, ie. two-thirds of the character's existence. It's canon, so yeah it is a good example. Lehnsherr, Eisenhardt - he's still a Jewish, Eastern European immigrant, and that was something that was added rather than changed. The idea he was ever intended to be one of the Roma is simply false, it was actually something that Marvel dropped on the character without creator permission and relatively quickly went back on.

But my position, as it was from the first post, was that I'd rather see existing characters be promoted or new ones created than changing existing characters' ethnicity. That goes for Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One every bit as much as for an explicity non-Jewish Magneto. These characters have a 50-year long visual trail, if you genuinely want to shake things up then actually do it and go for something genuinely fresh rather than reusing the same characters ad nauseum.

[Brian Blessed]

Agreed. Magneto being about 95 when the X-Men show up in the MCU is far preferable to having the disgusting idea of changing his skin tone.

But if they must...2/3rds of his existence is canon, so if they do "black face" him around 2025, at least that will become canon in 70 years from now. Assuming these numbers hold.

Thank goodness the vast majority of famous comic book characters were created by white men in the early to mid 20th century. Otherwise we'd have to worry about diversity, and being in the 21st century, and learning from the past. Fuck that.

It's also perfectly reasonable that Peter Parker has a 75 year old aunt. We'll square it aware as his grandad was one of those weird fuckers that had a daughter with a wife around his age, pissed off and then had another kid with a woman 30 years younger. And then the two half sisters became close. It happens.

OR. we can say the films are adaptions.

The best way to rally against these egregious changes is to vote with your wallet and your mouth.  Don't pay to see the films, don't talk about them.

[Nessy76]

Magneto being a Holocaust survivor and Jewish immigrant is nearly 40 years old, ie. two-thirds of the character's existence. It's canon, so yeah it is a good example. Lehnsherr, Eisenhardt - he's still a Jewish, Eastern European immigrant, and that was something that was added rather than changed. The idea he was ever intended to be one of the Roma is simply false, it was actually something that Marvel dropped on the character without creator permission and relatively quickly went back on.

But my position, as it was from the first post, was that I'd rather see existing characters be promoted or new ones created than changing existing characters' ethnicity. That goes for Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One every bit as much as for an explicity non-Jewish Magneto. These characters have a 50-year long visual trail, if you genuinely want to shake things up then actually do it and go for something genuinely fresh rather than reusing the same characters ad nauseum.

"Creator permission" is a tricky concept when you are talking about a character created as "work for hire" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who has always been 100% owned by Marvel, and who has been flipped around in various ways over the years. Kirby had no input into Claremont's run on the character, and I doubt Stan had much, either. I'm certain none of them were asked when Greg Pak came up with the Eisenhardt identity, either. Marvel own Magneto, and can do what they like with him. He was originally a sort of Hitler figure, so he's clearly come a long way.

And in the end, the only thing that matters at all is that they make films people will enjoy watching.

All of these characters have been reinvented, rebooted, relaunched and largely re-cast multiple times already. None of the three actors who have played Magneto on film are even Jewish.

As for creating new characters, that's a fair point, but Disney didn't pay four billion dollars for Marvel so they could make up new characters. That's the sandbox they have, and it's the one they are going to keep going back to. It's worked pretty well for them so far.

And the X-Men characters, Marvel have not had the chance to make any films of their own with those yet. Disney did not buy Fox just to get the X-Men back, but now they do have them back, they are obviously going to want to use them. That means a new Magneto, and he can't realistically be a Holocaust survivor any more. So he will need to be reinvented. They all will.

And given how dreadful Dark Phoenix was, that's probably no bad thing, is it?

[Something Worse]

I'll miss Fassbender as Magneto, even in his little run in Dark Phoenix he's comfortably the most watchable guy on screen.

People would lose their shit but imagine if they made him a Palestinian?

[Brian Blessed]

I'll miss Fassbender as Magneto, even in his little run in Dark Phoenix he's comfortably the most watchable guy on screen.

People would lose their shit but imagine if they made him a Palestinian?

Would they? The people who actually go and see these films worldwide. Not that I'm a fan of lumping "people" together.

[Macphisto80]

The people who get pissed off at the unfaithful recreation of the characters probably amounts to little more than 1% of the audience of these movies, why pander to them?

True, it's probably a very low percentage. However, if you've been keeping up with nerd culture via Youtube or whatnot, there are some very prominent channels and Youtubers pandering to politics and creating narratives according to their own politics that may, or in a lot of cases, may not exist. I've noticed this is becoming a rising trend too. Outrage of people being seemingly outraged by what they would call "outrage culture". The irony and hypocrisy of these people is astounding, and frankly fucking bores the bollocks out of me to listen to. It's gotten to the point now where if they even get a whiff that a woman is taking the leading role of something they are into (or not into) they vent their bile out into the comments sections of social media. It's a recent thing too, and I dare say that the likes of the orange-faced fuckwit across the Atlantic, and Brexit as had a major role in it. The sad thing is, it's grown men venting their political vitriol on comic book films and Star Wars of all things.

[Macphisto80]

These people:

I just think it would be a bold move to replace a Jewish survivor of the holocaust with a Palestinian victim of Israel's treatment of Palestine.

Yeah, it'd be bold, but a bit too transparent, and to be honest, I don't think something that's designed to be entertainment should be the place for something that is obviously making some kind of modern political statement. There's other forums for that. I know comics do have underlying political subtexts to them, but to change them willy-nilly like that is just pushing an agenda down people's eyes and ears to the point where it just belittles what they are pushing it for.