Render the perfect in imperfection.

Jul. 27, 2012 at 9:02am with 572 notes

Reblogged from gailsimone

Bane

theharlequinrose:

coelasquid:

gailsimone:

Subtext?

Oh………MAYBE.

No matter how much I may-or-may-not end up enjoying the new Batman when I finally get to see it, I’m still still right pissed that they cast lilly-white-as-the-driven-snow-Britlander Tom Hardy for Bane.

As a Latino myself, I’ll say this, there are lilly-white-as-the-driven-snow Latinos. I’m dark as my native islander genes are strong, but my grandfather was whiter than most white people and had bright blue eyes. The same goes for my maternal great grandfather.

Don’t forget that Latino’s have strong Spaniard roots due to them having trouble keeping it in their pants.

And while yes, they could and should have cast somebody of Latin descent, rather than a Brit (not like people haven’t done this before, such as casting a Jewish man to play the Spaniard in a Princess bride or all the Brits they cast to play Romans when they could just as easily cast Italian and Greek actors), complaining about the casting based only on skin color is rather ignorant on Latin culture.

Absolutely.

When Hardy was first cast as Bane, it seemed like a million people asked my opinion on it, and I was then, as I am now, of two minds.

First, I had seen him in BRANSON, and there was no question that he had the acting and physical chops to play Bane like few other actors could. I knew he would do a tremendous, committed, intelligent performance, one that I would love to see.

But at the same time, Bane’s heritage, and the fact that he is Latino, feel immensely important to his myth. I think, whether it was intentional or not, he was created to contrast Batman, and having a Latino man who raised himself from literally NOTHING made a fascinating contrast to the white billionaire heir of ultimate privilege, Bruce Wayne. I think there’s a powerful real-world allegory there.

And I love it, I love writing Bane as someone who is not ABOUT privilege at all, whose struggle is in some ways MORE difficult and even heroic, over Bruce’s. It added a really interesting note to the vintage, as it were.

So I would have preferred a Latin actor, as good as I think Hardy was.

And just as you say, when I posted that originally, quite a few people correctly reminded me that there are white Latinos all throughout Central and South America, and at least from the people who pointed that out, they seemed fine with Hardy as Bane.

But even with a white Latino in the role, I miss the background detail that his comic book origin added, and the Venom, which is very important symbolically. I miss the CULTURAL implications of Batman’s most dangerous for being Latino, a genius, a tactician, a thinker, a strategist, who can also, by the way, pick you up and crack your spine for you.

There was something very powerful in that contrast that I was sorry to see go.This page is an example of how it played out in the actual Secret Six comic, almost subversively. And we also see Bane’s protective-of-women streak that comes out at the oddest times. Great character, and I love that he wasn’t portrayed with that kind of unwelcome exoticism. He simply is Bane.

Of Batman’s villains, Bane is the one who is just one step away from being heroic, and that makes me love him to ridiculous levels.