纵观电影史，超级英雄都是白人男性。不过，在《神奇女侠》和《黑豹》大获成功后，一切都在改变——快速改变。
“真的吗？现在竟然有一个新的蜘蛛侠，还是黑人和西班牙人混血的同性恋？”2011年，得知漫威打算添加一个新的白人蜘蛛侠——迈尔斯·莫拉莱斯后，保守派主持人格伦·贝克有如此疑问。虽然事实证明莫拉莱斯不是同性恋，但此举仍被某些评论家视为作秀或对政治正确的迎合。贝克将其归因于奥巴马一家，不过这个观点倒不算太离谱。漫威漫画总编辑阿克塞尔·阿隆索表示，新的蜘蛛侠角色“在背景和经历上”代表了“21世纪的多元性”，“多民族混血的美国总统”也是其中的一个代表。不过，在谈到这个新角色时，贝克通过引用米歇尔·奥巴马在演讲中提到的“美国人必须改变传统”，暗示打破美国白人男性超级英雄传统将会毁灭其重要根基。
这便能解释，为何我们需要等待7年，需要再看两部白人男性蜘蛛侠电影，才能等到好莱坞将莫拉莱斯搬上大银幕。不过，好在他最终还是通过《蜘蛛侠：平行宇宙》与世人见面，而且大部分人都对此感到高兴。《蜘蛛侠：平行宇宙》明显不是你熟悉的那种“标配”超级英雄电影，而是一部独特又充满生气的动画片——一部分由电脑动画做成，一部分是手绘动画，比真人电影更接近漫画艺术的范畴，简直是为鲜活年轻的蜘蛛英雄量身定做。莫拉莱斯不是初代蜘蛛侠彼得·帕克那样的书呆子，他生活在布鲁克林，街头生活很有一套，父亲是美国黑人警官，母亲是波多黎各籍护士。他喜欢在地铁上喷绘涂鸦，在街头贴炸弹贴纸，耳机里听的都是嘻哈和R&B。
电影里仍有帕克的身影，但他已经变成一个大腹便便的中年懒汉。莫拉莱斯在另一个宇宙融入蜘蛛侠群体中，里面有两个女性蜘蛛侠（一位金发白人，一位华裔美国人）。还有一只会说话的猪，这无疑是包容性的最佳体现。“这个版本的蜘蛛侠正代表了2018年的美国或世界，”电影的联合导演鲍勃·佩尔西凯蒂说道，“多元性无处不在，而美国多元性就始于纽约。”他说得没错。数据显示，如果今天有个布鲁克林人被一只放射性蜘蛛咬了一口，他是白人男性的几率只有20%。
在超级英雄电影行业的两件“大事”发生后，《蜘蛛侠：平行宇宙》还能进一步证明这种电影模式到底发生了多少改变。第一件是2017年《神奇女侠》的上映。它的成功不仅证明女性主导的超级英雄电影的商业可行性，还让人们看到观众对此类电影有旺盛需求：它创下去年美国电影票房的最高纪录。第二件是今年大获全胜的《黑豹》，它在超级英雄的肤色上也做了同样的文章。现在，多元性不是“赔钱货”，而是“摇钱树”，因此我们未来能看到更多这样的电影。其实，超级英雄电影排期已经像是多元性主题的竞赛了。
最近，《蜘蛛侠：平行宇宙》遭遇更为强劲的《海王》。这部由漫威劲敌——DC最新出品的电影，并非以往常见的商业片。在已有76年历史的漫画中，海王的母亲来自海洋之城亚特兰蒂斯，他的外形酷似金发、浅肤色的北欧人。但是，电影中饰演海王的杰森·莫玛在美国长大，拥有夏威夷、欧洲和印第安血统，肤色深，头发长，全身纹满了不羁的纹身。这样看来，莫玛版的海王倒是更像太平洋岛上的冲浪高手。“还有棕色皮肤的超级英雄，太酷了。”莫玛在2015年说。
毫无疑问，漫威一直对DC《神奇女侠》的成功耿耿于怀，所以在2018年3月也开始筹备第一部女主电影。在《复仇者联盟：无限战争》结尾透露了惊奇队长在漫威宇宙中的关键作用，惊奇队长将由Brie Larson饰演。2019年，我们还能看到由Sophie Turner and Jennifer Lawrence主演的X战警衍生片《Dark Phoenix》。
……剩下的不想翻了，看英文吧。
And poor old Scarlett Johansson, who has soldiered away as Marvel’s Smurfette for almost a decade, will finally get her solo Black Widow movie.
DC, meanwhile, has a Wonder Woman sequel in the works, plus Cyborg, its African American superhero, and the cumbersomely titled Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). The latter is an all-female superhero team-up, including non-white characters played by Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Rosie Perez. Well done, DC – but here comes Marvel announcing plans for its own all-female spin-off to Into the Spider-Verse. The studio is also working on Black Panther 2. And just this week, Marvel revealed plans for the first standalone Asian-led superhero movie, centred on its martial arts master Shang-Chi.
Every week, it seems, one or other of the comic-book empires announces a new, diversity-championing project: Asian-American director Chloé Zhao has been hired to direct Marvel’s next generation of superheroes, the Eternals; Ava DuVernay is on board to do likewise for DC’s New Gods. Meanwhile, Marvel’s original old, white guys – Iron Man, Thor and Captain America – are preparing for retirement, and DC’s Batman and Superman movies seem to be on the back burner.
The benefits of having a culturally inclusive pantheon of superheroes barely need pointing out, but perhaps Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige put it best. “Black Panther’s not real, but he represents real hopes, and real dreams, and real representation,” he said. “A lot of people said: ‘Wait a minute, this is a hero that looks like me.’ And the importance of that really can’t be understated.”
But let’s not forget that the movie business is a business. Marvel had already made 17 movies in the past decade with white, male leads before Black Panther, honouring a Hollywood tradition that extends back to Christopher Reeve’s Superman in 1978. “As much as it would be lovely to think that both companies are really committed to diversity, if Marvel had lost money on Black Panther, we would not be seeing a Shang-Chi movie,” says Graeme McMillan, who writes on the superhero genre for the Hollywood Reporter. “If DC’s Wonder Woman had tanked, we probably would not be seeing Captain Marvel. The fact that they are successful is what means we are seeing more of this.”
It hasn’t always gone smoothly: Marvel tied itself in knots with Doctor Strange, where Tilda Swinton was cast to portray the Ancient One, a mentor character written in the comics as an Asian man. Marvel cast Swinton to avoid the stereotype of the “wise old Asian”, it argued. In doing so, it brought accusations of “whitewashing” – depriving an actor of colour of an opportunity by replacing their character with a white one. Similar problems arose with its TV superhero Iron Fist – a white American who was better at kung-fu than the Asians.
But as well as changing the culture, these movies are materially changing an industry whose white male dominance is even more pronounced off the screen than on it. It is hardly a coincidence that Black Panther was directed by a black person (Ryan Coogler) and Wonder Woman by a woman (Patty Jenkins). Studios are aware that their commitments to diversity will ring false unless they are matched by equivalent personnel changes. Captain Marvel is co-written and directed by husband-and-wife team Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, the latter of whom becomes the first female director of a Marvel movie. DC’s Birds of Prey is to be directed by Chinese-American Cathy Yan; its writer is Anglo-Taiwanese Christina Hodson. After that, Hodson’s next job is writing DC/Warners’ proposed Batgirl movie. Warners originally hired Joss Whedon – director of the first two Avengers movies and all-round pop-culture supremo – to write Batgirl, but he departed the project this February confessing: “It took me months to realise I really didn’t have a story.” Maybe his being a 50-year-old man had something to do with that.
Don’t expect this new, inclusive superhero universe to unfold without a hitch, though. For one thing, there is always the possibility that so many new films will lead to superhero fatigue. There is also the fact that other well-established, fan-friendly franchises, such as Star Wars and Doctor Who, have attracted ugly criticism for incorporating female or minority characters or “politically correct” stories. The comics world is no different. Following in the footsteps of Miles Morales, Marvel and DC have diversified their comic book lines, introducing female successors to Iron Man and Thor, a black Captain America, a gay Green Lantern and a female Muslim superhero (Ms Marvel).
A backlash has emerged, including a “comicsgate” movement that has protested against “leftwing dominance” and “oppressive social justice warrior harassment”. Some, including Marvel’s own executives, have even blamed falling comic book sales on too much diversity. This theory is incorrect – two of the biggest-selling titles last year were Black Panther and Ms Marvel – but it does suggest a conflict between diehard, conservative-minded fans and general movie audiences. If so, it is this latter contingent, who are global and diverse themselves, that now control the fate of superhero movies. And they will only grow more vocal the more they see themselves represented on screen. Whoever wins the diversity arms race, the culture war has already been won.
翻译：文夕
来源：卫报
原文地址：https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/dec/07/move-over-peter-parker-the-new-spider-man-ushers-in-a-bold-superhero-era
