Finally, the Multiverse is Less White

Welp. The movies and tv shows have officially begun to catch up with the comics in terms of absolute ridiculousness. The barriers of space and time have been rendered inconsequential and the multiverse is starting to take center stage. Decisions made in a split-second splinter into infinite possibilities, versions, and combinations of characters that can sometimes be inspiring, creepy, or mind boggling. Most of the time, like in Marvel’s anthology series, What If…?, the result is pretty much always nerd service of the highest order. It almost gets a little meta because current iterations of some characters and stories we see being touted as movie universe canon spawn from years of comic interdimensional madness. So, maybe now, the multiverse won’t be so darned white. One popular tradition in Hollywood is the idea that a story with white leads can whitewash a usually diverse place with their very presence. For example, anyone who ever watched Friends probably can’t remember seeing more than two Black people in their iteration of New York….bonus points for a speaking role, daily double for a line that actually incurred a laugh track. Friends NY didn’t even have any good stereotypes of color. Even in the most gentrified parts of the Big Apple, surely Joey Tribbiani would have run into a dude trying to sell him a mixtape. All that time spent commuting and we never heard a dance troupe yell “SHOWTIME” on the train? Now, take that lack of representation and multiply it times an e…