The current run of big screen adaptations of comic book characters can be traced directly back to Richard Donner’s 1978 film Superman. Since then, we’ve had five more Superman movies, seven Batman movies, a Green Lantern movie, four Spider-Man movies, two Fantastic Four movies, five X-Men movies, three Iron Man movies, a Thor movie, a Captain America movie, and a movie with Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America. This week, Thor: The Dark World, the sequel to 2011’s Thor, hits theaters, and next summer we’re getting X-Men Days of Future Past, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
What do all of these movies have in common, besides being big budget superhero movies? The titular characters are all white men. In the case of Superman, Thor, and Captain America, they’re the whitest and manliest of white men. Continue reading
