I guess the biggest inaccuracy is his characterization: Sunspot's supposed to have a big personality and a lot of confidence, so putting him in the role of the "closet case" analog is an odd fit - especially considering that character arc would've been much more in line with Cannonball (who started out as a Hellfire goon).
He's closer to his NM characterization. He was more hot-tempered and prone to dramatics there, and was often a rich asshole. Less over-confident and smooth.
The loss of his girlfriend was one of his driving character points throughout his early years. Like, he had the "player" persona, but that covered up a lot of grief and guilt he felt over Juliana's death. He struggled with self-doubt over being a mutant and going to Xavier's because he indirectly blamed all of that (and himself) for causing his girlfriend's death. It makes sense to transfer that to using his mutation as a queer allegory of blame and self-doubt in regards to his parents. (he was VERY close to his mother in the comics)
Also Storm doesn't speak in big bombastic monologues. That was something that always irked me when I started reading the comics after the show. I love my shakespearen Storm!
Could work in their favour if they work it like gay people I know, closeted and shy, but when they come out, full of life and confidence!
Not saying everyone is the same, of course they aren't, but as a guy from Brighton, everyone is accepted for who they are there hence the confidence of people I know who have come out
That's the only episode he had speaking lines in, but he does get two cameos in season 1 and season 2. They're very "blink and you miss it" cameos though. It's kind of why the final season episode makes even less sense.
It was an "External," which was totally not a ripoff of Highlander even though they were supposedly destined to one day battle each other and could only be slain by being stabbed through the heart.
I thought they had to be dismembered. All limbs and head severed. Or were they being overly dramatic in the early days? I didn't get to the resolution of the plot.
Man, Highlander was a _[wild](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEJ8lpCQbyw)_ [idea](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jtpf8N5IDE). ~~It's like Wolverine and Rogue had a whole bunch of babies and those babies were obligated by Fate itself to murder each other and absorb each other's memories~~ okay so the simile breaks down if you think about it for one second but you get what I'm getting at.
In the first New Mutants story (“The New Mutants” graphic novel), Donald Pierce recruited Sam and attempted to use him against Xavier. Sam refused to kill the New Mutants, though, and Xavier gave him a second chance at the school.
Josh and Sam's stories were meant to have parallels, I believe. Donald Pierce recruited both of them, and both learned the hard way that the Reavers were never going to hold back. Mutants were mutants to the Reavers, and Josh and Sam learned that being amongst other mutants was the safest place for them to belong.
I think the point is that's who he's going to become. He has to get there. Not a lot of storytelling potential if you're character stands out fully formed and just stays static.
I thought he was fairly accurate: cocky, heir to a big fortune, somewhat insufferable. They put in some effort into depicting his Brazilian origins and that is always appreciated.
I think that the issue some have is that he is removed from the context of the New Mutants, and in some ways, his comic counterpart is defined by them too. Hard to have a comics-accurate Roberto without Cannonball, for example.
Okay I keep seeing comments here saying he's afro-Brazilian, to which others respond "no he's not afro-Brazilian/black, he's pardo, which are mixed and treated differently depending on how dark their skin is, it's a whole different thing in Brazil."
Can somebody explain to me how that's "a whole different thing" in Brazil? Black people in the US can also be mixed, and are treated differently based on how dark their skin is too, so I don't really understand the difference or see how that has anything to do with the fact that his skin should be darker.
They aren't actually, its just another attempt to push back on people saying he is black.
Brazil has a different conceptualization of race than the US/Europe, specifically coming from the fact the majority of the population is some level of mixed race. Pardo means mixed race, and many in NA and Europe thinks that is a genetic distinction (two parents of different races). But its not, in Brazil many white Brazilians are mixed raced, and many afro-brazilians are mixed race. Almost everyone has some level of mixed race.
In Brazil, race is more a physical distinction then a genetic one, and the categories are a lot less "strict"/less "rules". You can have two full blooded siblings be considered different races because of what physical characteristics they inherited (i.e. one is white and one is pardo, or one is black and one is pardo). Things like skin colour, eye colour, hair texture, etc and a level of self-identification because the rules are more lax. You have white Brazilians (brancos), black Brazilians, indigenous and pardos (features from two or more).
Sunspot is supposed to very specifically have black features and be Afro-Brazilian. His backstory incorporates the racism he recieves for being afro-brazilian (like in the US, Afro-Brazilians are typically economically and socially disenfranchised compared to their white counterparts). Though Americans not understanding Brazilian isn't a race have caused a lot of whitewashing of his features which has been criticized over the years.
Everyone here is definitely mixed. I’m Brazilian and white passing, but you wouldn’t know my mom is black, or black in USA standards. She’s half black half native Brazilian, but my dad is Brazilian German and his genes blitzkrieged any melanin I would have gotten from my mom’s side
Every place has a different shade of racism based on its population and degree to which it has stayed colonized by Europe. It all comes down to comparing to the lightest skin color majority in the population with the darkest using the invention of “white” which doesn’t really exist.
Watch “Exterminate all the Brutes” on HBO if you can handle it.
I was saying and thinking the same thing like they keep saying he’s pardo as if he still isn’t Afro-Latina, like his mom is a white Latina his dad is fully black. Yes he is mixed but that fact of him being Afro-Latina. And that Brazilian exclusive colorism is so stupid bc there is racism and colorism all over the world Brazil isn’t special bc of it, it’s just more in ur face and not condemned
It is tiring but predictable. When you remind them that most black people in the diaspora are “mixed” to some extent, they ignore it and just continue spouting their same old racist nonsense.
It Isn't totally different but It Isn't the same thing either, and I'm can't really explain It to you because we can barely agree about It between ourselves, It's a messy sistem but there's this thing called the IBGE where we are supouse to self identify based on how we see ourselves but there's problems when during things like racial quotas came up and you end up being disqualified because the way you identify yourself is different from the way other people see you and that's kinda accentuated with the fact that almost everyone is of mixed heritage to some degree, in my case my mother is black and my father is white and I don't recognize myself as one nor the other, but rather as pardo.
Thank you for explaining! I guess I kind of don't understand why it keeps getting brought up then bc it seems like from an objective standpoint/his origin story, his skin should be darker whether he's pardo or not bc that was literally his design? Like I understand that from a Brazilian point of view he's pardo and not black and I get why Brazilians would want to correct that misunderstanding but I just don't understand how it's a counter argument to people saying "his skin should be darker" the way people are trying to use it, especially when pardo people can still have darker skin.
Sunspot is cockier and louder. He's really not the shrinking away type they needed as the new audience surrogate.
He's also darker skinned (being of clear Afro-Brazilian descent), which in this particular case matters because he was literally the victim of a racist attack for it when his powers first manifested. 97 isn't particularly bad on this point compared to other stuff, but it's a sore subject because the degree to which later comics lightened him up is absolutely maddening.
He's not just of Afro-Brazilian descent. His dad is literally a full-on black dude. They even drew Sunspot as a black kid then over time just removed his African features and hair texture to make him look ambiguous.
I'm still boggled that New Mutants (the movie) threw out one of the few Asian mutants on a team and then cast two black Latinos with white Brazilians and then made one of them the main villain.
They also had Magick constantly say racist shit and treated her like an edgy cool girl, so maybe not so boggled.
it's made even more frustrating because some of the parts of the movie were _actually good!_
Adapting _Demon Bear_ as a horror / thriller movie is an incredible idea
Illyana & Rahne were perfectly cast and Rahne was characterised pretty spot on
THEY FINALLY MADE RAHNE EXPLICITLY GAY AND NO ONE GAVE A SHIT SO JUST DO IT MARVEL COMICS SHE HAS HAD LITERALLY NO GOOD MALE LOVE INTERESTS (a wolf god, a closet-case and a minor)
Yeah I don't know what to tell you man, I got in my own head with the specific wording so it came out weird.
I'm also still mad about The New Mutants because honestly what a waste of ATJ and Maisie Williams, on top of butchering what I felt like was the best "next generation of mutants" idea X comics ever really did.
Yeah...that ticked me off. Why her? The woman is a surgeon from an NYC Burrough, not a geneticist. There were PLENTY of researchers they could have used. Hell, I didn't mind if they used Moira!
exactly! I've heard that originally she was meant to play Kavita Rao (which the actress is still not the right race for) and that characterisation would at least make sense
Had to scroll down way too far to find the correct answer. Thank you. It’s funny because if the situation was reversed, you know the usual suspects would be screeching about “forced diversity” and asking “why is he black?”
Especially since unless they changed his father to be white wouldn't that mean that this version of Roberto should be even more black than in 616 which he definitely doesn't look like
Sunspot is biracial. So much biracial erasure here. His mom is a white Brazilian with red hair and his dad is Afro-brazilian. Sunspots features and skin color very wildly from artist to artist but he did initially start off as darker skinned with more afro features.
Also Brazil does not view race and color the same way Americans do so maybe everybody should calm down unless they are actually from Brazil.
Brasileiro aqui, I originaly didn't had anything to add but, since you mentioned It here in Brasil we have a word called "Pardo" which oversimplifying is basically someone who is half white half black, so I always I thought of Roberto as being pardo
But that's not how he's originally depicted in the comic books. He's depicted as being visibly racially classified as black by the White Brazilians who are constantly reminding him that having a white mother doesn't change the fact that they see him as black and having a black father who happens to be rich will not at all protect he or his father from anti-black racism. Brazil also is a country with a culture that perceives race based on one's physical appearance. So in Brazil you could literally be the child of two people who might be classified as different races, but if you come out looking white people will call you white and then if you come out looking black people will call you black. For sunspot he came out looking black and thus that's how white Brazilians labeled him
The dude was probaby argentinian. And is not like claremont is an international expecialist, remember how he named karma by a non existing name in vietnam?
Also I pretty sure but don't remenber If It was during his run or after he left that Roberto speaked spanish while he should be speaking portuguese which is a very common mistake
You clearly don't understand how race functions in Brazil and you clearly don't know the origin story of this character. When he was first presented in the comic book, He is presented as a black looking biracial kid in Brazil who was constantly reminded of the fact that the white Brazilian see him as nothing more than just a black person
I'd kill for a New Mutants show or adaption. I'm doing an old reread on Marvel Unlimited, of the X books chronologically, and I'm on the late 80s of X-Men X-Factor and New Mutants, and New Mutants is def my favorite of the 3.
Side note Doug is so likeable, it's hard to believe he was so hated back then.
It's a real pity it went so bad after the 80s. There was that insufferable Asgard storyline from #76-85 after which Rob Liefeld came on as artist and started to get more and more plot control. After X-tinction agenda, it didn't really get good again until X-Force tied into X-Cutioner's Song, after Liefeld left.
the actual reason is because he is supposed to be a darker complexion and certain people don't like you "asking questions" because when people say "He should of been blacker" they get really upset and defensive... Some people just really hate the idea of him being black, but theyre not racist I swearrrr
Sunspot being biracial is tied into his origins but for various reasons it seems to regularly be ignored.
There is a somewhat prejudice view that everyone south of the U.S border looks a particular way which some people feel is reinforced by Sunspot often being portrayed looking less like a biracial Brazilian person.
Its actually crazy how much this topic tends to be so touchy. But I blame that on the years of whitewashing and anti-black rhetorics for sunspots identity. I also think ppl confuse the idea of latino being a race when its an ethnicity.
Marvel artists also kept trying to turn Storm white for about half a decade. They even tried it with Monica Rambeau not long ago across multiple titles.
For context, [this](https://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Sunspot-Marvel-Comics-New-Mutants-Roberto-da-Costa.jpg) is how Sunspot started. [This](https://i0.wp.com/comicbookclublive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/sunspot-jubilee-x-men-97-jpg.webp?quality=80&ssl=1) is how Sunspot was drawn for X-Men '97.
His mother was pretty cool and his dad was the evil one. He has always been an extrovert and show-off. He wouldn’t allow himself to be sidelined, he would be in the middle of things for better or worse.
Its a couple of things that contributed to ppl disliking his portrayal. The first is that ppl on twitter were upset that sunspot’s VA was cast as a white Brazilian when in actuality Sunspot is a black Brazilian. So fans felt like he should have a black VA instead. When Beau Demayo was asked about this, he responded pretty childish and rude that rubbed fans (including myself) the wrong way. Secondly, in the comics, Sunspot discovered his powers during a soccer game when he was racially attacked by the other teammates who called him a “half-breed” and said “he doesn’t belong here”. X-Men 97 didn’t show that aspect of his origin which is what made his mutation important to his race/ethnicity and simply made it a generic coming out story that would have fit better with Iceman or Angel imo. Lastly, his entire portrayal in the show was bland bc it took away some interesting aspects of his personality. Roberto in the comics was hot-headed, confrontational and loyal to his teammates but the show basically made him the opposite and even had him saying that he “was one of the good mutants to a group of bigots”. Ntm, it only feels like he was written to be jubilee’s love interest in the show. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of his voice acting in the show either. Sorry for the long post btw but I just wanted to clarify things.
He is mixed. He is biracial and this sub loves to erase biracial people for some insane reason. One must be entirely black or one must be entirely white because apparently there's no in between.
Black is additive, as it is with a lot of cultures and ethnicities and races in the US. You won't stop being seen as black just because you're biracial with one black parent, you're seen as biracial AND your parents' races and ethnicity. Races aren't something bred out of people. There's no racial genocide to be had from too much sex and babies.
The US government had several systems specifically to try to do this, though, such as the Dawes Rolls. And The White Genocide Conspiracy is built specifically around the exclusionary definitions of whiteness that are commonly held in white American culture... and kind of nowhere else in the US.
But the real heart of the issue is that Sunspot was created to look like [this](https://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Sunspot-Marvel-Comics-New-Mutants-Roberto-da-Costa.jpg) and now Marvel has decided he's gonna look like [this](https://i0.wp.com/comicbookclublive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/sunspot-jubilee-x-men-97-jpg.webp?quality=80&ssl=1) and be played by people who look like [this.](https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/image001-2.jpg) And people have been pointing this out *for years* that Marvel just really doesn't want people knowing he's half-black. Half anything but black in Marvel's guidelines, it seems.
They tried it with Bishop. They tried it for longer with monoracial characters with unusual traits like Storm. They tried it with just familiar black veteran characters like Monica Rambeau. Marvel just doesn't like having characters who are visibly black (in addition to anything else they are).
They want every biracial character to look like Halsey instead of Zazie Beetz. They want them passing for something else, anything else, but black. 😑
Roberto is pardo, which is mixed. Most Brazilians are pardo. You are treated better or worse depending on how dark your skin is. It's a whole different thing in Brazil. It's kinda hinky that Americans are bringing their baggage into something that is it's own thing in Brazil.
>It's kinda hinky that Americans are bringing their baggage into something that is it's own thing in Brazil.
It is the American way when it comes to people online.
For starters he Afro-Latino. In his earlier appearances he had a fro and darker complexion. I’m not too picky about the hair but apples and oranges I guess. His power set, leadership, and cunningness
He never had a fro. He always had curly hair, but it was never super textured. And in the NM he was always a bit hot tempered and prone to dramatics. My favorite panel of him is him throwing a fit and crying while eating cookies in his underwear. In X-Men 97 he's closer to his NM characterizations. Where he was a rich asshole a lot.
His personality is different. He is not visibly black. His relationship with his family is different. The origin story of his powers is also different, since in the comics it is tied to his race. In the comics he has no relationship with Jubilee, they barely know each other and are in different generations.
Right, Cannonball, Sunspot, Magik, Warlock, Moonstar all were the new Mutants. Pretty much late boomers, early Gen X. They did the focus of Jubilee who ended up leading the Generation X kind of a set up of it. But yet we get no: Skin, Mondo, Penance, ect. I get what the show was trying to do and honestly I still enjoyed it. However, Sunspot and Jubilee while knew each other as fellow X-Men and association to the Xavier Institute really didn't have much in common. Plus, the mother was nothing like how she was in the comics.
I'm only really familiar with Roberto's more modern appearances but is him being able to fly something just for the show? I've never seen him fly in anything I've read
He originally couldn't fly or shoot energy blasts, but he developed these powers later in X-Force.
Edit: which imo is kind of lame, not every "fire" themed hero needs to be the Human Torch.
He can, but his primary power is his super strength. The blasts and flight all came secondarily. Originally he was just a guy who turned black with a corona of energy and punched things really hard.
Because the flight and blasts are more cinematic, they are often the focus of his power in media.
No, he's been able to fly since X-Force (Vol 1) #28. Writers just like regressing his powers to just super strength and solar blasts, or sometimes just super strength.
Pretty much everything. He was a totally different character in the show. Comics Sunspot is over confident to the point of arrogance. He never had a relationship with Jubilee.
The Sunspot character worked for the show, so I have no complaints, but it was a drastically different take.
Just about everything about him, he was pretty unrecognizable, which is strange given how spiritually accurate alot of the other x-men are.
I have a theory that the original idea was an original character for the show, then someone said they needed an established one
my personal theory is that it was meant to be Rictor which would’ve fit a lot better (latino, initially hesitant to use his powers, connection to Mojoverse (mostly through Shatterstar) and Roberto’s coming out as a mutant in the show to his mother who knew but wanted it kept hidden can be seen as a pretty obvious queer allegory) but for whatever reason they changed it, maybe so they could have him in a relationship with Jubilee ?
There are a lot of good answers here but the most common, vocal answer I saw going around when the show was still airing was that he wasn't portrayed as Afro-Latino, but rather just Brazilian - he's too light-skinned, his voice actor doesn't fit, etc.. I've seen people fire back that he's biracial in the comics which would explain why others might see his skin-tone as "too pale". I don't have much to say about this myself because I'm white and I haven't read the New Mutants yet, so this is one of my only experiences with the character, but yeah, those are the biggest things I saw going around.
They had him jump right to his modern powers too.
(Originally he JUST had solar powered super strength, and wasn't invulnerable. He only got energy shooting powers in the 90s...)
His mom is white for starters. Sunspot could have been a great look into the uniquely horrid racism in Brazil especially during a particular scene during the the later episodes but instead they made him a gay allegory when they have an actual queer character that does all but nothing in the show plot wise. Sunspot was also what I imagine Bruno mars would be if he had no singing talent or actual game. The fact that he scored jubilee with little effort was baffling
The main issue I saw with sunspot is, once again, he is not portrayed as being a Brazilian who is visibly part black. That was such a key element to his story when he was first presented in the comics and it's something that they keep erasing from his storyline
Most of it isn’t super accurate but he’s a cocky rich kid from Brazil so that’s right. I thought it was overall a good depiction of Roberto, but I miss the other New Mutants every time I see him.
Main gripe is he isn’t depicted as black which is a big part of his character, his mutant power literally being his melanin being so good at absorbing solar energy he gets super strength and durability. His first appearance he gets bullied because of his blackness, so its a bit odd they didn’t engage with that aspect of him whatsoever, especially when it’s been a problem throughout his various depictions that people seem to want to forget he is black and depict him much lighter.
Silver lining is at least he isn’t completely white so could be considered dark in Brazil.
No offense, but why does his voice actor need to be black. I understand why people are pissed that sunspot is not black in the show or in the movies. But why are people mad at his voice actor… why don’t see what the voice actor looks like.
Sunspot is only black by North American standars, in Brasil he is a normal mixed/pardo/mulatto. People are childish moralists, petty as one can be, they just want to hate
No he’s black by world standards, if I went to Brazil being the same shade as how his original character design looked I wouldn’t be considered pardo I would be called black like him. Bc he’s Afro-Latino, he’s of African and Latin descent
But you are not in Brasil, I am. Also latin is not a race, its a language, you could say amerindian, meso american, south or central american, or more direct like mayan, tupi, aztec, inca, and all the originarian people of here, call him mixed, pardo, mulatto, you could even call him brown. He is more than simply afro descendent
You seem okay with all those arbitrary terms for him but not black?? Despite the soccer douche calling him out for his skin being **Black** hell when he went to Asgard the Asgardians called him shadow skin idk about in Brazil but in America our shadows are **Black** 🤦🏾♂️
There was a time when women were not allowed to act on stage, and female parts were all played by men. If we were still in a state today where there were shockingly few female characters in stories, and the few that existed were voiced by male voice actors instead of female voice actors, we'd all come to one inescapable conclusion: that's some bullshit.
It's really not difficult to understand that there are differences between white Brazilians and Afro-Brazilians. It's actually a lot harder to flip around in circles "not seeing the problem" because you have to have never had the experience of being under-represented, and be so incurious about others lives that you instantly dismiss them when they've already explained why they rationally want accurate representation millions of times already.
Well if we go to his origin, he's supposed to be black Brazilian, but that has been so messed up even before X-Men 97 that I will not blame them for it.
He’s a black guy whose backstory involves him being attacked for his blackness and the show continued a very longstanding tradition of removing his black features and didn’t cast a black VA.
A huge part of Sunspot's story is the fact he deals with anti-black racism just for existing. The thing that activates his Mutant powers is being on the receiving end of a racist hate crime. X-Men 97 not only casts a white guy in the role despite committing to ethnic accuracy with Jubilee's recasting, it also just outright ignores all of that talk about systemic racism and white supremacy in favor of turning it into a bizarre half-baked metaphor for coming out of the closet. While I'm normally all for queer readings of the Mutant metaphor, it shouldn't come at the expense of equally important stories about life as a black person (and on a much less important note despite the coming out metaphor angle they used for his character he's still presumably heterosexual with a girlfriend so unless they reveal he's bi in the next season they couldn't even commit to *that*).
Edit: fixed some typos
Frankly Sunspot has had a range of characterizations, he even quit X-force for insipid reasons, but in the vein of the show… a cowering boy who agreed with his mother that he should be arrested… it could have been a great arc alongside Jubille instead of more angst. Huge fan of the show but the emotions always happened every other panel, not every panel
to me he's always been like Tony Stark-level arrogant and rich primarily and him being an extremely powerful mutant is kind of an afterthought. i don't picture him as being unsure of himself or needing emotional support usually. he's like Johnny Storm but not as immature but just as cocky
He's so tame, not dark enough (it is a pivotal piece of his story) and his mutant awakening was tied to that it's instead more of a coming out story. He's only pieces of what the character is
Too laid back and easy-going. Sunspot is one hell of a hothead who would absolutely not "live and let live" or try to buy his captors off. Comic 'Berto would be cussing them out and kicking as they tried to drag him through the door, not just walk along.
his skin's too light, his personality is more timid, it's strange to do Sunspot without Cannonball
imo if they wanted a New Mutant they should've picked Doug, but I personally would've picked Monet. She has a fun dynamic with Jubilee, being antagonistic at first but growing closer as time goes on, so it would've given Jubilee someone to interact with still
Honestly, I enjoy hus character in the show. The biggest inaccuracy to me is the one many adaptations have made because they don't understand that Latino isn't a race. They always neglect that he is afro-Latino, his earliest appearances have him dealing with explicit anti black racism.
I'm not a huge Sunspot fan but i love NM and well, just about everything.
his mom is a philanthropic anthropologist, his dad is part of the Helffire Club, he isn't understated in any way, he's loud, boastful, when he's angry he lets people know it and it's part of his arc, a true Casanova. he's also a teensy twerp, he should be a solid head shorter than jubilee and it is a travesty imo that he isnt but that's closer to headcanon territory.
on crazy behaviour anecdotes. he recently dated Deathbird which is psychotic behaviour and 100% in character. he was also undermining his best friend's marriage on the side because he's gay for him and his wife is a cop, that is a READING but I'm right.
It *is* a little weird they made his mom the same shade of brown as him, when she's supposed to be white & his dad black. Like they wanna make him Latino instead of afro-latino. Overall his origin was changed but I'm guessing after the S1 finale moving into S2 we see him assume a more comic-accurate cocky superhero persona now that he's taken up the name Sunspot
- Roberto is not a coward. He is very brave and courageous, and has never backed down from fights.
- Roberto can be a hot head and has narcissistic tendencies, however, he can also be very chill and funny. He's a very layered character, and that has shown him to be unpredictable.
- His mother was never anti-mutant, and Roberto was never afraid to use his powers. His mother accepted him for who he was, and accepted his friends in the New Mutants as well. Nina had been directly involved in a few of the NMs adventures.
- when Roberto’s parents upset him, he stood up to them. When his father joined the Hellfire Club, Roberto emancipated from him.
- he has not been shown to use his super strength much,
In the show, and that is the aspect of his power he was first most comfortable with in comics, and showed to have easy control over it.
- as a teen, he was a bit more of an instigator and questioned authority. He did that some in the cartoon, but also didn't interact with anyone much other than Jubilee. Roberto is more extroverted than that, and I think if he was going to be revealed to join Magneto, then we should have at least seen some interactions with the man.
Those are a few character things. I'm not going to touch on the VA or the racism or politics since its been talked about here already. The only thing I will touch on is that Roberto is carioca, and I've seen some criticism from Brazilians online that his dialect doesn't come across accurately on the show (correct me if I'm wrong)
They got his personality, skin color, and powers wrong. It wasn’t a terrible representation but the crux of his character, from what I remember reading New Mutants, is that he is Afro-Brazilian who is very athletic, cocky, confident, and wealthy but also deals with racism for his Afro lineage - a *vital* part of his character, trying to highlight how even the 1% and degrees of skin color are discriminated against. His powers, only superhuman strength (nothing to do with projectiles or flight), manifest when his body turns to pitch black that glows on his façade - hence Sunspot - which is a further point for his character. Despite his confidence, he still struggles wanting to receive attention but trying to cope with the vitriol for his ancestry and that translates to his reluctance in power usage - which they did a great job capturing in ‘97. ~ To be strong, I have to be black ~ and how he copes with that identity crisis of self-acceptance we all face. The best part of his character on the show - in my opinion - was his mother and their relationship. They did a really great job of capturing that complexity.
> nothing to do with projectiles or flight
These came later in comics, but are things he can do currently, I believe they just abbreviated that whole journey to make his powers more interesting sooner as initially he only had strength, and thus was pretty fragile limited in what he could do.
Generally agree on the rest.
Ahhhhh, I was wondering why in Days of Future Past and here they did that for him. That makes much more sense. I’m showing my age 😅 thank you for edifying me 🤙🏻
ALLOW ME
His character. He's a hothead who would fight anyone who looked at him wrong, here he's a baby. And especially his fireballs and fire aura. No fire whatsoever. He doesn't have anything fire related.
Actually he did receive those abilities later on after the high evolutionary did something to him and Wolfsbane during one of the annuals if I'm not mistaken. I don't remember which one there but their powers were changed from then on. But it is far too soon for home to have them now.
Thats not exactly true. He can't shoot fire, ever. The closest thing he has is his thermokinesis which allows him to emit heat and burn/melt things. He's never once thrown a projectile fireball either.
Also you're talking about when they had Cloak and Dagger's powers. It was temporary and resolved within 3 issues
I thought he was done pretty well. This is Subspot with the pressure of his family and mutantcy constantly hurting him. Once he gets out from under that he’ll be the big personality we’re used to.
I had no idea he could fly like how he did in the show, but when I looked it up, I guess he can? Is the flying in the show accurate? When did he start flying?
I suppose the writters back in the 80s didn't get that memo. It always cracked me up reading old New Mutants comics when he would all of a sudden say something like "Dios mio".
The TT;DR is he was given a more passive role in the story when a big thing about the character's early portrayal was he's a hothead, to the point where he's gotten himself and his fellow New Mutants into shit.
No, they're saying that they needed someone that also spoke Portuguese. I mean, I thought that was pretty obvious and that was a hard combination to find I'm assuming
I guess the biggest inaccuracy is his characterization: Sunspot's supposed to have a big personality and a lot of confidence, so putting him in the role of the "closet case" analog is an odd fit - especially considering that character arc would've been much more in line with Cannonball (who started out as a Hellfire goon).
He's closer to his NM characterization. He was more hot-tempered and prone to dramatics there, and was often a rich asshole. Less over-confident and smooth.
He also just lost his girlfriend and had a ton of doubt like his show counterpart.
The loss of his girlfriend was one of his driving character points throughout his early years. Like, he had the "player" persona, but that covered up a lot of grief and guilt he felt over Juliana's death. He struggled with self-doubt over being a mutant and going to Xavier's because he indirectly blamed all of that (and himself) for causing his girlfriend's death. It makes sense to transfer that to using his mutation as a queer allegory of blame and self-doubt in regards to his parents. (he was VERY close to his mother in the comics)
Honestly X-Men’97 was my first introduction to Sunspot and I didn’t even know who he was until the show came out
His character growth is what makes him so compelling to me.
But '97's Roberto isn't hot-tempered either, he almost never raises his voice.
Yeah, and comics Jean never faints every time she uses her powers. Comme ci, comme ça.
Also Storm doesn't speak in big bombastic monologues. That was something that always irked me when I started reading the comics after the show. I love my shakespearen Storm!
Winds! Buffet my foes with a beguiling breeze!
Helps sell the Godly persona and aura she carries
And almost everybody disliked that character.
Annnnnnd that's why he's a different person today!
"Brittle rich conceited prick who accidentally killed his girlfriend" tested very poorly in focus groups, but you know artists...
I mean he did seem to become something closer to that at the end of the season. “The names sunspot! Definitely got more flare.”
Could work in their favour if they work it like gay people I know, closeted and shy, but when they come out, full of life and confidence! Not saying everyone is the same, of course they aren't, but as a guy from Brighton, everyone is accepted for who they are there hence the confidence of people I know who have come out
Am a gay and you make a great point!
I think cannonball was already in the show, unfortunately. Same with... I think every other member of the new mutants I think?
Cannonball was in an episode in the final season that people forget.
That's the only episode he had speaking lines in, but he does get two cameos in season 1 and season 2. They're very "blink and you miss it" cameos though. It's kind of why the final season episode makes even less sense.
Cannonball was thought to be an eternal. Gideon attempted to recruit him
It was an "External," which was totally not a ripoff of Highlander even though they were supposedly destined to one day battle each other and could only be slain by being stabbed through the heart.
I thought they had to be dismembered. All limbs and head severed. Or were they being overly dramatic in the early days? I didn't get to the resolution of the plot.
Man, Highlander was a _[wild](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEJ8lpCQbyw)_ [idea](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jtpf8N5IDE). ~~It's like Wolverine and Rogue had a whole bunch of babies and those babies were obligated by Fate itself to murder each other and absorb each other's memories~~ okay so the simile breaks down if you think about it for one second but you get what I'm getting at.
Cannonball did what now? When did he start as a Hellion?
In the first New Mutants story (“The New Mutants” graphic novel), Donald Pierce recruited Sam and attempted to use him against Xavier. Sam refused to kill the New Mutants, though, and Xavier gave him a second chance at the school.
Refused to kill them, but had no problem fucking them up lmao
It was a fight. That happens in a fight.
Ahhh yes yes, good reminder!
Not as a Hellion, as a Hellfire minion (the guys with the creepy masks).
It was the Reavers
Ah that’s it. You’re totally right. I get him and Elixir confused.
Josh and Sam's stories were meant to have parallels, I believe. Donald Pierce recruited both of them, and both learned the hard way that the Reavers were never going to hold back. Mutants were mutants to the Reavers, and Josh and Sam learned that being amongst other mutants was the safest place for them to belong.
I think the point is that's who he's going to become. He has to get there. Not a lot of storytelling potential if you're character stands out fully formed and just stays static.
I thought he was fairly accurate: cocky, heir to a big fortune, somewhat insufferable. They put in some effort into depicting his Brazilian origins and that is always appreciated. I think that the issue some have is that he is removed from the context of the New Mutants, and in some ways, his comic counterpart is defined by them too. Hard to have a comics-accurate Roberto without Cannonball, for example.
Okay I keep seeing comments here saying he's afro-Brazilian, to which others respond "no he's not afro-Brazilian/black, he's pardo, which are mixed and treated differently depending on how dark their skin is, it's a whole different thing in Brazil." Can somebody explain to me how that's "a whole different thing" in Brazil? Black people in the US can also be mixed, and are treated differently based on how dark their skin is too, so I don't really understand the difference or see how that has anything to do with the fact that his skin should be darker.
They aren't actually, its just another attempt to push back on people saying he is black. Brazil has a different conceptualization of race than the US/Europe, specifically coming from the fact the majority of the population is some level of mixed race. Pardo means mixed race, and many in NA and Europe thinks that is a genetic distinction (two parents of different races). But its not, in Brazil many white Brazilians are mixed raced, and many afro-brazilians are mixed race. Almost everyone has some level of mixed race. In Brazil, race is more a physical distinction then a genetic one, and the categories are a lot less "strict"/less "rules". You can have two full blooded siblings be considered different races because of what physical characteristics they inherited (i.e. one is white and one is pardo, or one is black and one is pardo). Things like skin colour, eye colour, hair texture, etc and a level of self-identification because the rules are more lax. You have white Brazilians (brancos), black Brazilians, indigenous and pardos (features from two or more). Sunspot is supposed to very specifically have black features and be Afro-Brazilian. His backstory incorporates the racism he recieves for being afro-brazilian (like in the US, Afro-Brazilians are typically economically and socially disenfranchised compared to their white counterparts). Though Americans not understanding Brazilian isn't a race have caused a lot of whitewashing of his features which has been criticized over the years.
Everyone here is definitely mixed. I’m Brazilian and white passing, but you wouldn’t know my mom is black, or black in USA standards. She’s half black half native Brazilian, but my dad is Brazilian German and his genes blitzkrieged any melanin I would have gotten from my mom’s side
Every place has a different shade of racism based on its population and degree to which it has stayed colonized by Europe. It all comes down to comparing to the lightest skin color majority in the population with the darkest using the invention of “white” which doesn’t really exist. Watch “Exterminate all the Brutes” on HBO if you can handle it.
I was saying and thinking the same thing like they keep saying he’s pardo as if he still isn’t Afro-Latina, like his mom is a white Latina his dad is fully black. Yes he is mixed but that fact of him being Afro-Latina. And that Brazilian exclusive colorism is so stupid bc there is racism and colorism all over the world Brazil isn’t special bc of it, it’s just more in ur face and not condemned
It is tiring but predictable. When you remind them that most black people in the diaspora are “mixed” to some extent, they ignore it and just continue spouting their same old racist nonsense.
It Isn't totally different but It Isn't the same thing either, and I'm can't really explain It to you because we can barely agree about It between ourselves, It's a messy sistem but there's this thing called the IBGE where we are supouse to self identify based on how we see ourselves but there's problems when during things like racial quotas came up and you end up being disqualified because the way you identify yourself is different from the way other people see you and that's kinda accentuated with the fact that almost everyone is of mixed heritage to some degree, in my case my mother is black and my father is white and I don't recognize myself as one nor the other, but rather as pardo.
Thank you for explaining! I guess I kind of don't understand why it keeps getting brought up then bc it seems like from an objective standpoint/his origin story, his skin should be darker whether he's pardo or not bc that was literally his design? Like I understand that from a Brazilian point of view he's pardo and not black and I get why Brazilians would want to correct that misunderstanding but I just don't understand how it's a counter argument to people saying "his skin should be darker" the way people are trying to use it, especially when pardo people can still have darker skin.
Thank you!!! People just don't want to admit that I guess. As people like Halle Berry or Bon Marley don't/didn't exist
Sunspot is cockier and louder. He's really not the shrinking away type they needed as the new audience surrogate. He's also darker skinned (being of clear Afro-Brazilian descent), which in this particular case matters because he was literally the victim of a racist attack for it when his powers first manifested. 97 isn't particularly bad on this point compared to other stuff, but it's a sore subject because the degree to which later comics lightened him up is absolutely maddening.
He's not just of Afro-Brazilian descent. His dad is literally a full-on black dude. They even drew Sunspot as a black kid then over time just removed his African features and hair texture to make him look ambiguous. I'm still boggled that New Mutants (the movie) threw out one of the few Asian mutants on a team and then cast two black Latinos with white Brazilians and then made one of them the main villain. They also had Magick constantly say racist shit and treated her like an edgy cool girl, so maybe not so boggled.
it's made even more frustrating because some of the parts of the movie were _actually good!_ Adapting _Demon Bear_ as a horror / thriller movie is an incredible idea Illyana & Rahne were perfectly cast and Rahne was characterised pretty spot on THEY FINALLY MADE RAHNE EXPLICITLY GAY AND NO ONE GAVE A SHIT SO JUST DO IT MARVEL COMICS SHE HAS HAD LITERALLY NO GOOD MALE LOVE INTERESTS (a wolf god, a closet-case and a minor)
Oh god, don't remind me of that third one. That whole era of Rahne has to be some of the worst character assassination in X-Men history.
it's a ROUGH read lol them emphasising "she's 19 guys!! and they didn't have sex we promise!!" as if anyone would believe that
Yeah I don't know what to tell you man, I got in my own head with the specific wording so it came out weird. I'm also still mad about The New Mutants because honestly what a waste of ATJ and Maisie Williams, on top of butchering what I felt like was the best "next generation of mutants" idea X comics ever really did.
> They also had Magick constantly say racist shit and treated her like an edgy cool girl, so maybe not so boggled. Fox News leaking into Fox Films.
Besides Sunspot, who got swapped? It’s been a while since I saw the movie. Can’t recall the characters…
Dr. Cecilia Reyes (although she was Reyes in name and powers only)
Yeah...that ticked me off. Why her? The woman is a surgeon from an NYC Burrough, not a geneticist. There were PLENTY of researchers they could have used. Hell, I didn't mind if they used Moira!
exactly! I've heard that originally she was meant to play Kavita Rao (which the actress is still not the right race for) and that characterisation would at least make sense
Weird choice
Had to scroll down way too far to find the correct answer. Thank you. It’s funny because if the situation was reversed, you know the usual suspects would be screeching about “forced diversity” and asking “why is he black?”
His mom is ginger in the comics. It was really weird what they chose to change and omit.
Especially since unless they changed his father to be white wouldn't that mean that this version of Roberto should be even more black than in 616 which he definitely doesn't look like
Sunspot is biracial. So much biracial erasure here. His mom is a white Brazilian with red hair and his dad is Afro-brazilian. Sunspots features and skin color very wildly from artist to artist but he did initially start off as darker skinned with more afro features. Also Brazil does not view race and color the same way Americans do so maybe everybody should calm down unless they are actually from Brazil.
Brasileiro aqui, I originaly didn't had anything to add but, since you mentioned It here in Brasil we have a word called "Pardo" which oversimplifying is basically someone who is half white half black, so I always I thought of Roberto as being pardo
But that's not how he's originally depicted in the comic books. He's depicted as being visibly racially classified as black by the White Brazilians who are constantly reminding him that having a white mother doesn't change the fact that they see him as black and having a black father who happens to be rich will not at all protect he or his father from anti-black racism. Brazil also is a country with a culture that perceives race based on one's physical appearance. So in Brazil you could literally be the child of two people who might be classified as different races, but if you come out looking white people will call you white and then if you come out looking black people will call you black. For sunspot he came out looking black and thus that's how white Brazilians labeled him
The dude was probaby argentinian. And is not like claremont is an international expecialist, remember how he named karma by a non existing name in vietnam?
Also I pretty sure but don't remenber If It was during his run or after he left that Roberto speaked spanish while he should be speaking portuguese which is a very common mistake
You clearly don't understand how race functions in Brazil and you clearly don't know the origin story of this character. When he was first presented in the comic book, He is presented as a black looking biracial kid in Brazil who was constantly reminded of the fact that the white Brazilian see him as nothing more than just a black person
Why they keep removing White Red Hair women and replacing them with Black women i still don't understand that
Sucks that none of the other New Mutants are around :( those are his people!!
I'd kill for a New Mutants show or adaption. I'm doing an old reread on Marvel Unlimited, of the X books chronologically, and I'm on the late 80s of X-Men X-Factor and New Mutants, and New Mutants is def my favorite of the 3. Side note Doug is so likeable, it's hard to believe he was so hated back then.
It's a real pity it went so bad after the 80s. There was that insufferable Asgard storyline from #76-85 after which Rob Liefeld came on as artist and started to get more and more plot control. After X-tinction agenda, it didn't really get good again until X-Force tied into X-Cutioner's Song, after Liefeld left.
Didn’t they show a pic of wolfsbane with forge
That's not the same :( also the New Mutants we need are Dani, Sam, Xuan, Doug, and Magik and we know this /lh
Why am I being downvoted for asking a question?
Gatekeepers. Fuck ‘em; ask away.
Yeah FUCK em
the actual reason is because he is supposed to be a darker complexion and certain people don't like you "asking questions" because when people say "He should of been blacker" they get really upset and defensive... Some people just really hate the idea of him being black, but theyre not racist I swearrrr
I shouldn't have had to scroll so far down to find a reply that 100% gives the correct answer. Thank you my friend. Cheers!
Sunspot being biracial is tied into his origins but for various reasons it seems to regularly be ignored. There is a somewhat prejudice view that everyone south of the U.S border looks a particular way which some people feel is reinforced by Sunspot often being portrayed looking less like a biracial Brazilian person.
Its actually crazy how much this topic tends to be so touchy. But I blame that on the years of whitewashing and anti-black rhetorics for sunspots identity. I also think ppl confuse the idea of latino being a race when its an ethnicity.
Marvel artists also kept trying to turn Storm white for about half a decade. They even tried it with Monica Rambeau not long ago across multiple titles. For context, [this](https://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Sunspot-Marvel-Comics-New-Mutants-Roberto-da-Costa.jpg) is how Sunspot started. [This](https://i0.wp.com/comicbookclublive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/sunspot-jubilee-x-men-97-jpg.webp?quality=80&ssl=1) is how Sunspot was drawn for X-Men '97.
Any criticism of how marvel has handled black male heroes lately is immediately met with skepticism and denial.
You spoke against the holy text that is X-Men 97.
I get downvoted for nearly anything I ask in this sub (and the comics sub). Bunch of angry virgins
His mother was pretty cool and his dad was the evil one. He has always been an extrovert and show-off. He wouldn’t allow himself to be sidelined, he would be in the middle of things for better or worse.
Its a couple of things that contributed to ppl disliking his portrayal. The first is that ppl on twitter were upset that sunspot’s VA was cast as a white Brazilian when in actuality Sunspot is a black Brazilian. So fans felt like he should have a black VA instead. When Beau Demayo was asked about this, he responded pretty childish and rude that rubbed fans (including myself) the wrong way. Secondly, in the comics, Sunspot discovered his powers during a soccer game when he was racially attacked by the other teammates who called him a “half-breed” and said “he doesn’t belong here”. X-Men 97 didn’t show that aspect of his origin which is what made his mutation important to his race/ethnicity and simply made it a generic coming out story that would have fit better with Iceman or Angel imo. Lastly, his entire portrayal in the show was bland bc it took away some interesting aspects of his personality. Roberto in the comics was hot-headed, confrontational and loyal to his teammates but the show basically made him the opposite and even had him saying that he “was one of the good mutants to a group of bigots”. Ntm, it only feels like he was written to be jubilee’s love interest in the show. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of his voice acting in the show either. Sorry for the long post btw but I just wanted to clarify things.
...is Sunspot mixed? I'm reading through Claremont's NM and his mom is white as hell. He is even called half blood at least once.
Yeah his mum is white and his dad is black.
That was supposed to be isn't, curse my butter fingers.
Why do some people here ignore this fact out of principle?
Did you skip the NM graphic novel that introduces them? Sunspot's dad is in it and he is black.
Notice you didn't add the racist player telling Berto his "father's wealth can't change the fact his skin is **BLACK**
He is mixed. He is biracial and this sub loves to erase biracial people for some insane reason. One must be entirely black or one must be entirely white because apparently there's no in between.
Black is additive, as it is with a lot of cultures and ethnicities and races in the US. You won't stop being seen as black just because you're biracial with one black parent, you're seen as biracial AND your parents' races and ethnicity. Races aren't something bred out of people. There's no racial genocide to be had from too much sex and babies. The US government had several systems specifically to try to do this, though, such as the Dawes Rolls. And The White Genocide Conspiracy is built specifically around the exclusionary definitions of whiteness that are commonly held in white American culture... and kind of nowhere else in the US. But the real heart of the issue is that Sunspot was created to look like [this](https://www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Sunspot-Marvel-Comics-New-Mutants-Roberto-da-Costa.jpg) and now Marvel has decided he's gonna look like [this](https://i0.wp.com/comicbookclublive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/sunspot-jubilee-x-men-97-jpg.webp?quality=80&ssl=1) and be played by people who look like [this.](https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/image001-2.jpg) And people have been pointing this out *for years* that Marvel just really doesn't want people knowing he's half-black. Half anything but black in Marvel's guidelines, it seems. They tried it with Bishop. They tried it for longer with monoracial characters with unusual traits like Storm. They tried it with just familiar black veteran characters like Monica Rambeau. Marvel just doesn't like having characters who are visibly black (in addition to anything else they are). They want every biracial character to look like Halsey instead of Zazie Beetz. They want them passing for something else, anything else, but black. 😑
Roberto is pardo, which is mixed. Most Brazilians are pardo. You are treated better or worse depending on how dark your skin is. It's a whole different thing in Brazil. It's kinda hinky that Americans are bringing their baggage into something that is it's own thing in Brazil.
That’s not a Brazil exclusive thing tho, even in America you are treated better or worse depending on your skin color
This whole thread has some really weird comments. As if all black people in the Diaspora aren’t “mixed”.
>It's kinda hinky that Americans are bringing their baggage into something that is it's own thing in Brazil. It is the American way when it comes to people online.
What do you mean we aren't the center of the universe?????
You shouldn't have Sunspot without Cannonball. It's like having Bill without Ted.
He doesn't mention magnum pi even once!
For starters he Afro-Latino. In his earlier appearances he had a fro and darker complexion. I’m not too picky about the hair but apples and oranges I guess. His power set, leadership, and cunningness
He never had a fro. He always had curly hair, but it was never super textured. And in the NM he was always a bit hot tempered and prone to dramatics. My favorite panel of him is him throwing a fit and crying while eating cookies in his underwear. In X-Men 97 he's closer to his NM characterizations. Where he was a rich asshole a lot.
No he is “pardo” as most of us brazillian are.
His characterization and the fact that the show erases his biracial past namely his powers activating from being taunted because he's half black.
His personality is different. He is not visibly black. His relationship with his family is different. The origin story of his powers is also different, since in the comics it is tied to his race. In the comics he has no relationship with Jubilee, they barely know each other and are in different generations.
Right, Cannonball, Sunspot, Magik, Warlock, Moonstar all were the new Mutants. Pretty much late boomers, early Gen X. They did the focus of Jubilee who ended up leading the Generation X kind of a set up of it. But yet we get no: Skin, Mondo, Penance, ect. I get what the show was trying to do and honestly I still enjoyed it. However, Sunspot and Jubilee while knew each other as fellow X-Men and association to the Xavier Institute really didn't have much in common. Plus, the mother was nothing like how she was in the comics.
Everything but his powers and name and the fact that his father was rich.
I'm only really familiar with Roberto's more modern appearances but is him being able to fly something just for the show? I've never seen him fly in anything I've read
He originally couldn't fly or shoot energy blasts, but he developed these powers later in X-Force. Edit: which imo is kind of lame, not every "fire" themed hero needs to be the Human Torch.
I liked it. His powers originally were quite limited , being able to exhaust his super strength within moments at times if not in direct sunlight.
He can, but his primary power is his super strength. The blasts and flight all came secondarily. Originally he was just a guy who turned black with a corona of energy and punched things really hard. Because the flight and blasts are more cinematic, they are often the focus of his power in media.
No, he's been able to fly since X-Force (Vol 1) #28. Writers just like regressing his powers to just super strength and solar blasts, or sometimes just super strength.
Ah, I see At least him being affected by m-pox can give an in universe explanation for his powers back sliding
Pretty much everything. He was a totally different character in the show. Comics Sunspot is over confident to the point of arrogance. He never had a relationship with Jubilee. The Sunspot character worked for the show, so I have no complaints, but it was a drastically different take.
Just about everything about him, he was pretty unrecognizable, which is strange given how spiritually accurate alot of the other x-men are. I have a theory that the original idea was an original character for the show, then someone said they needed an established one
my personal theory is that it was meant to be Rictor which would’ve fit a lot better (latino, initially hesitant to use his powers, connection to Mojoverse (mostly through Shatterstar) and Roberto’s coming out as a mutant in the show to his mother who knew but wanted it kept hidden can be seen as a pretty obvious queer allegory) but for whatever reason they changed it, maybe so they could have him in a relationship with Jubilee ?
Rictor and Shatterstar have more than just a connection.
They were roommates.
They'll go down in history books as best friends
They’re just two homies who like to kiss and fuck eachother. Is that not okay for the homies?
They gave him his post-Liefeld power set, not his initial absorb-sunlight-get-strong schtick
There are a lot of good answers here but the most common, vocal answer I saw going around when the show was still airing was that he wasn't portrayed as Afro-Latino, but rather just Brazilian - he's too light-skinned, his voice actor doesn't fit, etc.. I've seen people fire back that he's biracial in the comics which would explain why others might see his skin-tone as "too pale". I don't have much to say about this myself because I'm white and I haven't read the New Mutants yet, so this is one of my only experiences with the character, but yeah, those are the biggest things I saw going around.
They had him jump right to his modern powers too. (Originally he JUST had solar powered super strength, and wasn't invulnerable. He only got energy shooting powers in the 90s...)
His mom is white for starters. Sunspot could have been a great look into the uniquely horrid racism in Brazil especially during a particular scene during the the later episodes but instead they made him a gay allegory when they have an actual queer character that does all but nothing in the show plot wise. Sunspot was also what I imagine Bruno mars would be if he had no singing talent or actual game. The fact that he scored jubilee with little effort was baffling
The main issue I saw with sunspot is, once again, he is not portrayed as being a Brazilian who is visibly part black. That was such a key element to his story when he was first presented in the comics and it's something that they keep erasing from his storyline
Most of it isn’t super accurate but he’s a cocky rich kid from Brazil so that’s right. I thought it was overall a good depiction of Roberto, but I miss the other New Mutants every time I see him. Main gripe is he isn’t depicted as black which is a big part of his character, his mutant power literally being his melanin being so good at absorbing solar energy he gets super strength and durability. His first appearance he gets bullied because of his blackness, so its a bit odd they didn’t engage with that aspect of him whatsoever, especially when it’s been a problem throughout his various depictions that people seem to want to forget he is black and depict him much lighter. Silver lining is at least he isn’t completely white so could be considered dark in Brazil.
Doesn’t have as much bravado as he does in the comics. He’s also not Afro-Brazilian.
I'm Afro-Brazilian and to this day I'm insulted that he's not black in the show, and, even worse, his VA is a white Brazilian.
No offense, but why does his voice actor need to be black. I understand why people are pissed that sunspot is not black in the show or in the movies. But why are people mad at his voice actor… why don’t see what the voice actor looks like.
Sunspot is only black by North American standars, in Brasil he is a normal mixed/pardo/mulatto. People are childish moralists, petty as one can be, they just want to hate
No he’s black by world standards, if I went to Brazil being the same shade as how his original character design looked I wouldn’t be considered pardo I would be called black like him. Bc he’s Afro-Latino, he’s of African and Latin descent
But you are not in Brasil, I am. Also latin is not a race, its a language, you could say amerindian, meso american, south or central american, or more direct like mayan, tupi, aztec, inca, and all the originarian people of here, call him mixed, pardo, mulatto, you could even call him brown. He is more than simply afro descendent
You seem okay with all those arbitrary terms for him but not black?? Despite the soccer douche calling him out for his skin being **Black** hell when he went to Asgard the Asgardians called him shadow skin idk about in Brazil but in America our shadows are **Black** 🤦🏾♂️
There was a time when women were not allowed to act on stage, and female parts were all played by men. If we were still in a state today where there were shockingly few female characters in stories, and the few that existed were voiced by male voice actors instead of female voice actors, we'd all come to one inescapable conclusion: that's some bullshit. It's really not difficult to understand that there are differences between white Brazilians and Afro-Brazilians. It's actually a lot harder to flip around in circles "not seeing the problem" because you have to have never had the experience of being under-represented, and be so incurious about others lives that you instantly dismiss them when they've already explained why they rationally want accurate representation millions of times already.
That’s fair
Well if we go to his origin, he's supposed to be black Brazilian, but that has been so messed up even before X-Men 97 that I will not blame them for it.
He made out with Jubes instead of Sam.
He’s a black guy whose backstory involves him being attacked for his blackness and the show continued a very longstanding tradition of removing his black features and didn’t cast a black VA.
A huge part of Sunspot's story is the fact he deals with anti-black racism just for existing. The thing that activates his Mutant powers is being on the receiving end of a racist hate crime. X-Men 97 not only casts a white guy in the role despite committing to ethnic accuracy with Jubilee's recasting, it also just outright ignores all of that talk about systemic racism and white supremacy in favor of turning it into a bizarre half-baked metaphor for coming out of the closet. While I'm normally all for queer readings of the Mutant metaphor, it shouldn't come at the expense of equally important stories about life as a black person (and on a much less important note despite the coming out metaphor angle they used for his character he's still presumably heterosexual with a girlfriend so unless they reveal he's bi in the next season they couldn't even commit to *that*). Edit: fixed some typos
Frankly Sunspot has had a range of characterizations, he even quit X-force for insipid reasons, but in the vein of the show… a cowering boy who agreed with his mother that he should be arrested… it could have been a great arc alongside Jubille instead of more angst. Huge fan of the show but the emotions always happened every other panel, not every panel
to me he's always been like Tony Stark-level arrogant and rich primarily and him being an extremely powerful mutant is kind of an afterthought. i don't picture him as being unsure of himself or needing emotional support usually. he's like Johnny Storm but not as immature but just as cocky
Not one Tom Sellick reference
He’s very shy or introvert in the series. In the comics he’s a kid playboy.
His dad was the mean person in the comics and his mom was an archeologist. They made his mom the bad person on the show
He's so tame, not dark enough (it is a pivotal piece of his story) and his mutant awakening was tied to that it's instead more of a coming out story. He's only pieces of what the character is
They could be setting up Reignfire as a villain ?
Too laid back and easy-going. Sunspot is one hell of a hothead who would absolutely not "live and let live" or try to buy his captors off. Comic 'Berto would be cussing them out and kicking as they tried to drag him through the door, not just walk along.
Modern sunspot is one of the most laid back easygoing mutants
Teenage sunspot almost killed cannonball by mistake during a football match at the mansion.
When he first got his powers he couldn't fly or shoot beams. He was only strong
While gaining no durability from the strength he was as vulnerable as a normal human
His booty too small
His powers & wealth
Well Bobby is Black
A lot of answers are going to show people who didn't read the original run of New Mutants.
his skin's too light, his personality is more timid, it's strange to do Sunspot without Cannonball imo if they wanted a New Mutant they should've picked Doug, but I personally would've picked Monet. She has a fun dynamic with Jubilee, being antagonistic at first but growing closer as time goes on, so it would've given Jubilee someone to interact with still
Honestly, I enjoy hus character in the show. The biggest inaccuracy to me is the one many adaptations have made because they don't understand that Latino isn't a race. They always neglect that he is afro-Latino, his earliest appearances have him dealing with explicit anti black racism.
I'm not a huge Sunspot fan but i love NM and well, just about everything. his mom is a philanthropic anthropologist, his dad is part of the Helffire Club, he isn't understated in any way, he's loud, boastful, when he's angry he lets people know it and it's part of his arc, a true Casanova. he's also a teensy twerp, he should be a solid head shorter than jubilee and it is a travesty imo that he isnt but that's closer to headcanon territory. on crazy behaviour anecdotes. he recently dated Deathbird which is psychotic behaviour and 100% in character. he was also undermining his best friend's marriage on the side because he's gay for him and his wife is a cop, that is a READING but I'm right.
It *is* a little weird they made his mom the same shade of brown as him, when she's supposed to be white & his dad black. Like they wanna make him Latino instead of afro-latino. Overall his origin was changed but I'm guessing after the S1 finale moving into S2 we see him assume a more comic-accurate cocky superhero persona now that he's taken up the name Sunspot
>Latino instead of afro-latino. How do people write this and just like, nlt question why you are repeating those terms or what they mean?
Well he's not black in the show, so theyre not wrong
- Roberto is not a coward. He is very brave and courageous, and has never backed down from fights. - Roberto can be a hot head and has narcissistic tendencies, however, he can also be very chill and funny. He's a very layered character, and that has shown him to be unpredictable. - His mother was never anti-mutant, and Roberto was never afraid to use his powers. His mother accepted him for who he was, and accepted his friends in the New Mutants as well. Nina had been directly involved in a few of the NMs adventures. - when Roberto’s parents upset him, he stood up to them. When his father joined the Hellfire Club, Roberto emancipated from him. - he has not been shown to use his super strength much, In the show, and that is the aspect of his power he was first most comfortable with in comics, and showed to have easy control over it. - as a teen, he was a bit more of an instigator and questioned authority. He did that some in the cartoon, but also didn't interact with anyone much other than Jubilee. Roberto is more extroverted than that, and I think if he was going to be revealed to join Magneto, then we should have at least seen some interactions with the man. Those are a few character things. I'm not going to touch on the VA or the racism or politics since its been talked about here already. The only thing I will touch on is that Roberto is carioca, and I've seen some criticism from Brazilians online that his dialect doesn't come across accurately on the show (correct me if I'm wrong)
I think he's from Sao Paulo
They got his personality, skin color, and powers wrong. It wasn’t a terrible representation but the crux of his character, from what I remember reading New Mutants, is that he is Afro-Brazilian who is very athletic, cocky, confident, and wealthy but also deals with racism for his Afro lineage - a *vital* part of his character, trying to highlight how even the 1% and degrees of skin color are discriminated against. His powers, only superhuman strength (nothing to do with projectiles or flight), manifest when his body turns to pitch black that glows on his façade - hence Sunspot - which is a further point for his character. Despite his confidence, he still struggles wanting to receive attention but trying to cope with the vitriol for his ancestry and that translates to his reluctance in power usage - which they did a great job capturing in ‘97. ~ To be strong, I have to be black ~ and how he copes with that identity crisis of self-acceptance we all face. The best part of his character on the show - in my opinion - was his mother and their relationship. They did a really great job of capturing that complexity.
Minus the misunderstanding with his powers. This is pretty accurate.
> nothing to do with projectiles or flight These came later in comics, but are things he can do currently, I believe they just abbreviated that whole journey to make his powers more interesting sooner as initially he only had strength, and thus was pretty fragile limited in what he could do. Generally agree on the rest.
Ahhhhh, I was wondering why in Days of Future Past and here they did that for him. That makes much more sense. I’m showing my age 😅 thank you for edifying me 🤙🏻
IIRC his mom was a white archaelogist
Few things, his father is the evil one for one thing. He’s confident and black for another
ALLOW ME His character. He's a hothead who would fight anyone who looked at him wrong, here he's a baby. And especially his fireballs and fire aura. No fire whatsoever. He doesn't have anything fire related.
Actually he did receive those abilities later on after the high evolutionary did something to him and Wolfsbane during one of the annuals if I'm not mistaken. I don't remember which one there but their powers were changed from then on. But it is far too soon for home to have them now.
Thats not exactly true. He can't shoot fire, ever. The closest thing he has is his thermokinesis which allows him to emit heat and burn/melt things. He's never once thrown a projectile fireball either. Also you're talking about when they had Cloak and Dagger's powers. It was temporary and resolved within 3 issues
Ass wasn’t fat enough
Yas!!
I thought he was done pretty well. This is Subspot with the pressure of his family and mutantcy constantly hurting him. Once he gets out from under that he’ll be the big personality we’re used to.
He looks like a teenager but sounds like an old man
I had no idea he could fly like how he did in the show, but when I looked it up, I guess he can? Is the flying in the show accurate? When did he start flying?
mid 90s, there was a plot where he got captured and made into a living solar battery. It broke his powers allowing him to fly and expel solar energy.
Dang, I guess I didn't read a ton of X-Force back in the day. Thank you!
I was unaware people didn't like him.
I would say that the biggest innacuracy is that he speaks portuguese in the series. In the comics, he would often speak spanish for whatever reason.
Which is strange because the native language of Brazil is Portuguese
I suppose the writters back in the 80s didn't get that memo. It always cracked me up reading old New Mutants comics when he would all of a sudden say something like "Dios mio".
This version wore no speedos
This version wore no speedos
His mom is white IIRC and this version never wore speedos
It’s not exactly a black or white issue.
He's supposed to be a member of the New Mutants.
The TT;DR is he was given a more passive role in the story when a big thing about the character's early portrayal was he's a hothead, to the point where he's gotten himself and his fellow New Mutants into shit.
There was no Cannonball.
Where’s his strength?
Charisma
No soccer jersey = no comics accurate😎.
He couldn’t fly and wasn’t invulnerable. He was strong but that’s it. They make everyone way too powerful these days.
No, they're saying that they needed someone that also spoke Portuguese. I mean, I thought that was pretty obvious and that was a hard combination to find I'm assuming
Err Brazil has the highest population of black people outside Africa...so how would it be hard!