Many also feel that the reason that you have to make Sam Wilson Captain America or Jane Foster Thor is that no one will care about an original non-white male character. I like how Bill Foster eventually became Goliath, he was a character who gained a superhero identity that wasn't being used at the time. He was used sparingly over the years but had potential to build on and what does Marvel do with him? Makes him cannon fodder so that Mark Millar can advance his Civil War plot. 

*Power Man and Iron Fist is a good example of how different Marvel is nowadays. The most well known stories of that book were written by a woman and an African American male. Nowadays, Marvel would be falling all over themselves announcing such news to the public. Those press announcements make the efforts seem less sincere to me.

I wrote a lot, unintentionally. I didn't realize how important this was to me till I finished.  Thank you for reading...

I had a similar conversation with a black friend years ago because I thought very much the same way. So let me try to share a bit of that conversation. Imagine if there was so little of your own culture available that you could relate to. For instance, imagine if nearly every channel on TV were BET and there was really only one channel where you could find characters similar to yourself. This was part of a conversation I had with someone I worked with years ago. We traveled the country and whenever we went to dinner, he had to sit with his back away from the door. This was the beginning of the conversation as I finally asked. We talked about how I have had someone walk into a bar and mess with me just because the person was drunk. It has happened and it was an awful experience. I don't think anyone would disagree. He asked me to think about that happening multiple times, over and over. At what point would you ask yourself why it was happening so often to you? And how many times would it have to happen before you would have to sit facing the door every time you went someplace too? 

It is very easy for me to think and feel that the rest of the world should just "get it". I like something because of the adventure and fun, you're right, and that should be universal. I can relate to adventure and fun for any race of character, because I have no reason not to. But I am safer in my racial majority standing. My friends have described their experience as looking through a window. They can see something is adventuresome and fun. They can enjoy it. But they could enjoy it even more if there were more opportunities on their side of that glass.

I am a 42 year old, white, married, bisexual male.  I can announce that here because I am safe behind a computer screen. In my life, I drop the "bi" part, because it is safer to do so. The impact would extend not just to me, and my professional life, but the judgments would impact my wife and my children.  So, I do like seeing more LGBT characters. Would I like to see more LGBT characters created from scratch...yes.  But I also completely understand how that won't happen anytime soon. Not enough of the majority readership will care to support such a character. That is why I feel it is completely okay to retcon  the history of a Bobby Drake. He is fictional.  And should one real teenager picking up All-New X-Men discover that he likes this gay Bobby Drake, and that Iceman isn't just enjoyable in spite of being gay, nor that he is enjoyable and he is gay, but that he is enjoyable because he is gay, and that somebody else in his school is LGBT and that makes them who they are and that is important, then that one single perception change of a real person is far more important than a historical change of a fictional one. 

I get that there is a white, male teen who is bummed because the history of a favorite white, male character has been changed. I don't really care.  Because white, male characters are a dime a dozen and he will find another a lot faster than someone needing a gay role model.

And wow, I'm very sorry that turned into a big rant. I'm not trying to suggest the kid, or anyone who is bummed about the change in a loved character, is racist, homophobic, or anything else. I promise I am not trying to tell anyone they are wrong. I don't tend to reveal that much about myself.  I guess I had a need for someone to "hear". So thank you for letting me. I can't tell you how I appreciate that. 

I get that there is a white, male teen who is bummed because the history of a favorite white, male character has been changed. I don't really care.  Because white, male characters are a dime a dozen and he will find another a lot faster than someone needing a gay role model.

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I don't think this is what's behind people's disagreement with this Iceman retcon.  Even beyond just changing something fundamental to the character, the author of his first solo series has said that said series is going to focus on his sexuality, in that, as the author says, this change doesn't just make Bobby gay, it means that he's been lying to everyone including himself about his sexuality since 1963.  And they plan to make that a plot point.  The writer talked about how much they relish having his old love interests come back and confront him about having been 'his beard'.  Some of us are upset that 1) such a massive retcon has happened to stories we've been reading for 50 years and 2) that the fundamental nature of the stories the character will appear in has now changed.  On the latter point, if they were changing Bobby from a happy-go-lucky, unlucky at love straight character to a happy-go-lucky, unlucky at love gay character, I'd find it far more palatable going forward.  But they're not, they're changing a happy-go-lucky, unlucky at love character into a deeply troubled, deeply closeted gay man and focusing their storytelling on those dynamics.  Its the change that's the problem, not the particular nature of the change.  If they had retconned him into a right-wing Republican, or an evangelical Christian, and changed continuity that way, and chose to focus his stories going forward on those particular elements, I would be equally opposed to it.

And I disagree that new LGBT characters can't find an audience. I've enjoyed the current Batwoman's series, and feel she's a popular character who has been embraced by readers.  I'm reading Midnighter and Apollo right now and enjoying it, and I think that mini-series gives a good example of writing LGBT characters the right way.  Its a superhero story about two superheroes who are in love.  You could tell a very similar story with Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, or Mister Miracle and Big Barda, or other characters.  They're telling a good story about two characters, and not resorting to the tokenism that people in this thread have been opposed to.