Not All Human Torch Haters Are Racist: The Black Comic Nerd Perspective

 Guest Editorial by Tango Jordan

Actor Michael B. Jordan addressed some of the racist things said about his casting as the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four deboot (yeah, I'm going with that, it's a new word that works in this instance) about to be released by 20th Century Fox and offered some advice to the fans. It pretty much fell in line with the sentiments echoed by Adam Orth, former Microsoft employee who famously offered this advice about the criticism over XBox One always-on connectivity:

"Get Over It."

    Trust me, with everything that's going on in the world today, every time I open my Facebook page I'm very aware of the racist trolls out there and the things they will say. I recently posted about the reception of Obama to Twitter and I had trolls coming to my page to outline how Democrats have said "racist" things too, which is just the stupidest response of tit-for-tat you could imagine. With all that being said, though, I'm not letting Michael B. Jordan off the hook with that one: not everyone's objections are racist in nature, and as a Black Nerd, I think I have a responsibility to provide a counterpoint to this...

Ex-X-Man: Wolverine Joins The Bad Guys

LOGAN IS TURNING HEEL!

Marvel has announced that Paul Cornell and Ryan Stegman will relaunch Wolverine after the current arc, "Killable" wraps up and it seems Logan's just wants to take it easy and slow things down a bit... by joining a group of villains?

Cornell says:

• The first arc is called “Payback,” and that’s where we find him: working for a crime boss called The Offer, alongside a “family” of low-rent super villains. Following the end of “Killable,” he’s decided to simplify his life and drop his responsibilities.
• He's now carrying a pair of handguns, and fighting hand-to-hand in a different way. He will indeed be using the claws less frequently.
• The Offer is a minor super villain gang boss who has the power to make the best possible offer. It's not hypnotism; you're free to turn him down. But his offers tend to make people think twice. He's a caring, fatherly presence to his gang, but he's not really a good man.
• His gang includes Pinch, who Logan is in a relationship with, who can pull threads from any material; Fuel, who increases powers, and thus can make Logan move at high speed; and the Lost Boy, who can make anything ignite, and who has a complicated attitude towards what heroism and villainy might be. Logan worries about him.
• I don't think we should be afraid of liking The Offer, Pinch, Fuel, Marcy and the Lost Boy, Logan's teammates now that he's a minor-league super villain. This series is going to look into what it means to be a "villain" and how those guys think of themselves. Logan finds a real comradeship there, and a release—and a relationship.

He dodges the lingering question of Logan's mortality/healing factor, but all signs are pointing to that being out of play for a while.

This whole idea implies, of course, that Mr. Muttonchops will be out of The X-Teams and Avengers. (If he's still in those books, on those teams, I'm gonna start breaking things.)

So kids, what do you think of this WWE style, "Hero Turns Bad" idea?