Oh Brudder, Where Art Thou?
Via Snell and Kevin Church and Benjamin Birdie: Okay, lemme set this up. The most recent issue of Brian Michael Bendis’ “New Avengers” comic reveals that Dr. Strange is no longer the Sorcerer Supreme — he’s been delving too much into black magic, and he’s fallen from his mystical perch. As the Avengers, Strange, and a bunch of supervillains try to track down Strange’s magical accoutrements, including the Eye of Agamotto, we discover that the new Sorcerer Supreme is very likely going to be Jericho Drum, a.k.a. Brother Voodoo.
Very cool, sez I — nice to see a little shakeup on the mystical front, and Brother Voodoo has been a fairly cool character who has mostly been neglected since he was created in the ’70s.
Brother Voodoo’s debut as the Sorcerer Supreme looks like this:
Oh, wow.
The guy was educated in the U.S., and spent quite a few years stateside working as a psychiatrist, fer gosh sakes. He’s been running around the superhero community for who knows how long. He’s the brand-spankin’-new Sorcerer Freakin’ Supreme, and Bendis sticks him with insulting and possibly racist pidgin dialogue.
Coming up next month in Marvel’s numerous Bendis-written comics, Cecilia Reyes will show up wearing a sombrero and taking a siesta under a cactus, Hulkling will develop a lisp, and Amadeus Cho will get coke-bottle glasses and gigantic buck teeth. Why Bendis has been doing such a good job with Luke Cage, I dunno, but maybe he’s gonna start back up with the “Sweet Christmas” stuff again…
Come on, Marvel, enroll Bendis in a sensitivity class before it’s too late…
swampy Said,
June 7, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
to me, he is (brother Voodoo) talking the way he normally talks in the New Orleans swamps(yay)–where I believe the character is from. therefore , BV is staying in character and he may not end up as the permanent SS anyways. Just because one gets the eye of agamotto, doesn’t mean you speak more clearly. that’s just me, though
swampy Said,
June 7, 2009 @ 10:01 pm
he may have been speaking more clearly prior to this, so maybe getting back to the swamps, has made him revert to his old way of speaking. Just saying
Scott Slemmons Said,
June 7, 2009 @ 10:14 pm
Perhaps, but it’s not as if Bendis has Wolverine, a Canadian, poppin’ off “ehh”s and “aboot”s. He doesn’t phonetically write out dialogue in Brooklynese for characters from NYC.
There’s a place for writing out dialect — but Bendis has been a writer for Marvel for long enough to know that you better be very careful once you start shoehorning dialect into minority characters’ mouths, or you may run afoul of hurtful stereotypes.
Brian Disco Snell Said,
June 7, 2009 @ 11:09 pm
Actually, Brother Voodoo is an educated Haitian, so you’d expect French if he were “reverting,” not a Miss Cleo ersatz Jamaican accent.
And Bendis doesn’t have the Black Widow talking about “nuclear wessels,” either. Or Daken speaking with a Japanese “accent.” Or Ares Greek, or Thor Norse, or…
Of Course, BV could just be a Skrull…
Tommy Young Said,
June 10, 2009 @ 10:42 am
Voodoo is a hatian, so is going to ahve some kind of accent. I think you are making too much ofthis .
Gambit’s writers use a dialect when he speaks, do they not. Would it not be similar to what Brother VooDOO would sound like.
And If you are going to scream about the racissm involved, what’s up with the name BROTHER Voodoo. Yeah, I know the story, but you can’t tell me the fact the character is black doesn’t have some sort of bearing on the fact he was named as such. So either complain about that and have Gmabit and Night Crawler speak perfect English or drop it.
VoodooBen Said,
June 16, 2009 @ 1:21 am
I think what this guy says sums up my opinion pretty nicely.
It’s a couple of posts down, but its worth a read.