This is "Just a Reminder," when I look back at comic book history whenever I think there's something worthwhile to look back at on in connection with things going on today. This time around, we're looking at how the concept of "forced" diversity is absurd.

A common criticism that you'll see bandied about a bit, especially whenever a superhero film comes out that stars either a non-white lead...

or a female lead...

is that the people making the criticism have no problem with black leads or female leads, they just hate that the movie studios are "forcing" the release of these films. In other words, if not for the studios making a concerted effort to release a film starring a black person or a woman, these films would star white, male leads.

And there is some truth to that viewpoint, but not in the way that these folks believe it.

It is true that when Marvel Studios decided to release Captain Marvel as a film, the studio made a concerted effort to have the film star a woman. Same thing with Black Panther. The studio made a concerted effort to have the film star a black actor. However, the studio also made a concerted effort to release Iron Man, a film starring a white male lead...

All decisions when it comes to who stars in a movie are a concerted effort. All of it is technically "forced." This is because there is no default sex/ethnicity of the lead of a superhero film. These folks believe that white and male is just the default state and that anything that differs from that is a concerted effort. That is not the case. Choosing a white male lead is a choice in and of itself.

There is no such thing as a "default" superhero lead.

It is true that most famous superheroes over the years have been white guys. That is because the creators of those characters chose to make them white men. You could easily just say, "Well, that's what was selling at the time" and that's a fair thing to say, but it WAS a choice. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby didn't just say, "Okay, let's create the Fantastic Four. Oh, they're all white people. Well, what are we going to do? The choice has been made for us. We can't change what has already been established."

The same thing is true, but probably even more absurd when it comes to the membership of superhero teams. This is because the membership of superhero teams has always been ABSURDLY "forced," and yet people only seem to view it as such when said "forced" behavior leads to a diverse member joining the team.

For an example, let's look at the Avengers...

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Some forced stuff coming']

You don't get much more "forced" than the time that Stan Lee decided that the Avengers should only be starring characters who didn't have their own features. So Lee ordered Roy Thomas, who was writing the Avengers at the time, to get rid of Captain America.

They came up with an explanation, which was that Captain America decided to retire from crimefighting so that he can devote himself to a life with his girlfriend, Agent 13, so in Avengers #47 (by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and George Tuska), Cap has to also quit the Avengers...

But Cap was back in action as a hero by the end of Tales of Suspense #96 (when he announced his departure), but he was done as an Avenger for quite some time (until Thomas surreptitiously got Cap, Iron Man and Thor back on to the team, because he wanted them on the team despite Stan Lee's objection to their presence in the group).

In 1984, Roger Stern decided to have Hercules join the Avengers. In Avengers #249 (by Stern, Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott), Hercules sees some weird weather and just leaves to go join the Avengers...

And that's that. He's a member.

Three issues later, Black Knight just shows up out of nowhere in Avengers #252 (by Stern, Bob Hall and Sinnott) and HE is a member...

Stern just blatantly "forced" these two heroes on to the Avengers and guess what? No one cares! Because writers force characters on to teams all the time! It's a constant thing. Writers do it literally ALL THE TIME. Thus, when you only have a problem with it when a writer has a non white guy join the team, well, I think you might get that you're the problem there.

Complaining about "forced" diversity is simply foolish.

(There is no specific reason for the Jae Lee featured image except I wanted to show a "forced" Avengers lineup, which is to say, ANY Avengers lineup and I just really dug that cover)