Not once since “Iron Man” was released in 2008, has anyone asked Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans or any of the other countless white men who star in the franchise if multiple stories about white male heroes is necessary.
Yet, this has been a question — and criticism — leveled at “What If..?” star Devery Jacobs and “Echo’s” Alaqua Cox. They both play powerful Indigenous heroes in new Marvel projects, which has led trolls to question if both characters need to exist at the same time.
First of all, this is some truly spectacular white privilege nonsense. When “Guardians of the Galaxy” premiered, Chris Pratt didn’t have to justify Star-Lord’s existence, even though there were already several white male heroes. Also, Jacobs’ Kahhori and Cox’s Maya Lopez are two completely different characters with different lives and experiences.
On Monday, while on the red carpet at “Echo’s” premiere, Jacobs, who also appears in the “Hawkeye” spinoff, addressed the criticism, noting how “egregious” it is.
“Would somebody go up to a white guy and say, ‘This is the one perspective for a white story that is out there’? Would somebody go and say that?” Jacobs told The Hollywood Reporter. “That’s egregious, that’s insane that anybody would say that.”
In case you haven’t seen “Echo” or the spectacular “What If...Kahhori Reshaped the World?” episode, the first difference you may notice is that one is animated and the other is live action. Plus, their stories take place in two separate universes and time periods. And, again, they’re two different people!
“I think that the story of Kahhori in ‘What If …?’ is astronomically different from that of Maya Lopez in ‘Echo,’” she said. “I think one is talking about colonization and history and features Mohawk cultures and communities—the community that I come from—and the other is about an antihero, kind of a villain, who is coming back to her Choctaw Nation and to her family, and it’s really a dark crime noir family drama. And so, they’re both individual stories that absolutely deserve to be told.”
This issue is one Black fans must deal with all the time, because in a universe with Black Panther and Wakanda, people believe no other Black characters need to appear outside of those confines. I know these so-called “fans” want all their favorite franchises to just focus on white men, but that’s not how the world works anymore. Real fans who understand how important inclusivity and representation are have every right to see heroes who look like them.
It seems crazy that we have to keep telling trolls this, but you do not own the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or “Star Wars,” or academia, or all the other areas where you think we don’t belong.
Spoiler alert: Kahhori’s episode ends with her bringing peace to her people, so maybe you guys need to just chill out and enjoy the world peace.
“What If...?” is available to stream on Disney+, while “Echo” is available on Disney+ and Hulu.