The United States of Captain America is the latest inclusion and diversity project from Marvel Comics intended to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Captain America with a brand-new limited series and a handful of forgettable derivatives of the character, some haven’t been too bad, but most have been kind of cringy and meh. From the homeless gay Captain America to their “FloJo” inspired social justice warrior, the results have been less than stellar. In the series by Christopher Cantwell and Dale Eaglesham, Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, and John Walker take part in a cross-country road trip in the pursuit of the stolen Captain America shield. Along the way, the crew of Caps meet a series of Cap knock-offs who are defending their respective communities. Each of these new characters was created by a different creative team.
In The United States of Captain America #4, we’ll meet Arielle “Ari” Agbayani, a new character created by Alyssa Wong and Jodi Nishijima. What makes the latest character noteworthy isn’t that the character is Filipino, which surprisingly wasn’t announced in May which is when Americans celebrated Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) Heritage Month . No, the most memorable part of this Captain America derivative is her potentially offensive, and definitely stereotypical name.
The response on social media was ruthless:
It’s so great to see that Marvel finally gave my people, the Filipinos, such ‘awesome’ representation with a character whose name translates to ‘ballsack’. Keep on trucking, Marvel pic.twitter.com/YqbWhgD1H1
— OZChris (@OZChris774) June 5, 2021
It doesn’t help that Ari has multiple translations: it can mean either ‘genital’ or ‘property/possession’. So it ain’t good regardless
— OZChris (@OZChris774) June 6, 2021
Filpinos do this as a joke. When an English speaker wants to learn a new Filipino word, we often give a pervy word to start out with, out of mischievousness. Marvel probably asked for a Fil Am name. And a Filipino joking gave a pervy name. Now that person is laughing out loud.
— 👹CANOCRON🔄Ced Nocon👹 (@CANOCRON) June 6, 2021
🤣 Yes it’s true. That’s the translation because the creators are absolute idiots who stereotyped the hell out of people.
— Lu (@moonsouL00) June 5, 2021
Yeah it’s kinda typical whitewashing, we don’t want to be seen as AMERICANS, we want to be FILIPINOs ok, and the FILIPINX, it’s cringy. It’s like saying I don’t want to be FILIPINO. So drop the Fil Am thing instead.
— parseltongue (@parseltongue30) June 5, 2021
“Ang liit ng ari mo, dre.” – I’m just demonstrating how it’s used in case you didn’t know.
Also, “may ari” means “owner”; but, “ari” alone is polite slang for “genitals”. It’s like saying “that pet in your pants”. I’m surprised you didn’t know that.
— The Red Pixel (@RoundUpBoom) June 6, 2021
It didn’t take long for some of my favorite Youtube commentators to weigh-in:
So what is the point of this character to exist? What/Who does this girl represents? Why would they even create a Fil Am character just to hide under an american costume? Are fil ams just say their filipino when it’s convenient to them????
— parseltongue (@parseltongue30) June 5, 2021
How much more stereotypical pandering are they going to do… poorly? Is this throwaway comic series suddenly becoming something I’m going to look forward to every month? Can Marvel embarrass themselves any more?
Don’t underestimate them.
This issue hits comic shops in September.
