I won’t dispute that there are some genuinely awful people masquerading as media critics on YouTube nowadays (coughcoughcriticaldrinkercoughnerdrotic), or that there is a chunk of the population who simply tune into their ragebait in search of opinions to plug into their brains. Those “media critics” could be comic book fans. I wouldn’t know, I don’t watch their channels. But if that were the sole driving force, why wasn’t there a conservative outcry when Nick Fury, who was white in some comics and black in others, was portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in the MCU? I find it difficult to believe conservative talking heads would ever pass up an excuse to complain about something like that if there was any kernel of truth to it.

More importantly, why was there backlash against Ariel from people on the left who did not object to Miles Morales?