Hasbro US Conference talks about a Cinematic Universe

[bowspearer]

I'm sorry but I cannot understand any argument that says changing the race of a character within a story fails to respect the core mythos (unless that character's race is a key part of the story and it's conflict - eg Luke Cage)

By that absurd argument, Luke Skywalker growing up on Tatooine had absolutely no impact on the core story of Original Trilogy of Star Wars. Even if we weren't talking about one of the two most core characters of the series, the fact is that a person is a product of several things - that includes their history and their heritage.

In this case that especially holds true.

Matt Trakker was a rich white guy in the same way that Tony Stark was a rich white guy. Both were insanely wealthy and insanely powerful, with high level government connections. In fact it was that wealth, the wide reach of the Trakker Foundation and it's connections with the PNA that not only gave M.A.S.K. the perfect cover it did, but allowed the Trakker Foundation itself to serve as a front for M.A.S.K. as a trans-national anti-terrorism task force: specifically concerned with eliminating V.E.N.O.M., which was an offshoot of M.A.S.K., after Miles Mayhem betrayed them.

I read nothing in the IDW MASK books that tried to turn Matt Trakker into a character that suddenly had to deal with issues of homelessness, gang violence, or historic subjugation because he was suddenly African-American.

Which only goes to show how tokenistic race-bending can be. It's a cheap gimmick without substance and everything you have just said here goes to show that.

As far as core concept -
The original Matt Trakker was a father and leader of a leader of road warriors who piloted transforming vehicles.

The IDW Matt Trakker is a son and leader of a leader of road warriors who piloted transforming vehicles.

That's as much an oversimplification as stating that Transformers is about a bunch of warring robots from another planet. It also tells me that you're not as familiar with the lore of the original series as you claim to be. In fact such an approach is so sparse, that it's like saying that Gobots and Transformers are one in the same because they're both stories about a bunch of warring robots from another planet.

The IDW Mask series dealt with the conflict between a global arms dealer/terrorist organisation (VENOM) and those who formed to stop it (MASK), who each pilot amazing vehicles that are capable of transforming for multi-terrain combat.

Right so it's so poorly rebooted that it had M.A.S.K. and V.E.N.O.M. be formed in the completely wrong order. Anyone who actually knows the original mythos knows that M.A.S.K. came first and that it was V.E.N.O.M. which was subsequently created from it when Miles Mayhem doublecrossed Matt Trakker, murdered Andy Trakker and stole half of the plans for the M.A.S.K. vehicles.

So what you're telling me here is that either the IDW writers had no idea what the original lore for M.A.S.K. was or couldn't care less about respecting it

It dealt with people ads leader happened to be African American.

A change which seems to have absolutely no justification to it

There is nothing in the core concept that is related to race and yet this gets targeted by people who want to trash a book because they lack the empathy to be able to identify with a character that no longer looks like them.

Or maybe it's because they respect the characters enough that they don't want them butchered for the sake of pandering - and yes, I would be just as annoyed if they'd made either Hondo MacLean, Nevada Rushmore, Julio Lopez, Bruce Sato, Ali Bombay, or anyone else I've missed, white.

Oh and given that John Henry and Cyborg happen to be two of may favourite DC characters, your argument might need more than a little bit of work here.

I don't remember seeing these issues raised with the Power Rangers reboot, when they changed the race of Trini, Zack, and Billy (but admittedly I don't really follow that fanbase anymore). So clearly race didn't factor into a story about 5 teenagers being provided mystical powers and piloting mechanical beasts against a space witch.

I wasn't talking about the reboot, I was talking about how as various teams have come along, they've been extremely diverse. Dino Charge was a great example of this.

So we're talking about a niche within a niche property. Of which the core concept is vehicles which transform into other vehicles.

Which justifies failing to properly respect the characters and the core mythos how exactly?

I doubt that race is factoring into poor reception any more than a lack of being able to target what MASK should stand for in a modern world, and therefore creating a touchstone for wide recognition beyond that niche market. Similar to how GI Joe ARAH struggles to define how characters largely characterised by old-school warfare are supposed to relate to a modern world.

I didn't say race; I said race-bending; big difference. And if it's had no effect on the book in terms of long time, more hardcore fans, then explain why Marvel's vice president of sales has come out and openly said that minority-bending characters has harmed their sales.

Are you telling me that if a publishing company as well entrenched as Marvel took a hit from minority-bending iconic characters, that IDW wouldn't with a title like M.A.S.K., whose core initial market was the nostalgia crowd?

I can't quite tell what you're trying to say here. On one hand you're condemning IDW for making nuanced changes to character's previously stated bios and backgrounds and then praise Marvel for marking nuanced changes to character's previously stated bios and backgrounds.

IDWs changes to Matt Trakker weren't nuanced - they were cheap and tawdry, and according to your own argument, they didn't even respect the origins of the original story.

Conversely, what Marvel did for Bludgeon expanded on the original tech spec without contradicting it. Likewise, there is nothing in Thunderwing's portrayal in the Matrix Quest in G1, which contradicts him being:

A two-faced, lying, cheating, back-stabbing scoundrel. The ultimate Decepticon villain.

This is especially true given that while the Decepticons thought they were destroying the Matrix, he was seeking to gain it for himself as the ultimate source of power and self-advancement.

In short, the argument you do have here, is incredibly weak.