What's Race Got To Do With It? Will Smith as Fractured Superhero

Many of our most beloved superheroes face not only super villains but also super existential crises. Who am I? Where did I come from? What is my Purpose? Obligated to keep their “true” identities hidden, they are forced to self-regulate their images both publicly and privately until inevitably someone unearths their secret life. This is the general plight for our comic book-turned-film protagonists.

Except for people like Hancock. Hancock (Will Smith) is in many ways the superhero for our jaded postmodern era. He does not prescribe to the same formulaic narrative of the likes of larger than life DC do-gooders Batman or Superman. Nor does he exactly fit in with Marvel misfits Spiderman, Iron Man, or The Hulk. Hancock plays by his own rules (that of drunken asshole in need of anger management classes) and feigns nonchalance at his less than stellar representation in the public eye for screwing Los Angeles up on a daily basis with his unchecked superpowers.

Enter public relations executive Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), an idealistic publicist (oxymoron you say???) who believes in saving the world and Hancock’s bruised image. I won’t pour over the details of the B-movie because what I really want to discuss is the construction of our beloved Will Smith as a superhero himself of extraordinary capabilities.

Thomas C. Holt in The Problem of Race in the 21^st Century writes of Michael Jordan and his ability to transcend race in the global marketplace. The uber-successful marketing campaign “I Wanna Be Like Mike” becomes a consumptive exercise for the public to forget difference. What does it mean to be “like Mike?” While it may certainly connote his excellent sportsmanship and talent, it most certainly doesn’t refer to his racial identity. His race is effectively erased from his image only to be marked when the dominant society brands him as an exemplary figure of the potentiality of African-Americans. It is my assertion that Will Smith is indicative of this “Michael Jordan Effect” for the millennium.

Hancock is yet another one of many roles in which Smith’s racial identity does not play a factor in the filmic text. Hancock is simply just a guy and his blackness is never accented-- except for comic moments such as the superhero flying to a freeway to straighten up some clearly marked Latino criminals as Ludacris’ “Move Bitch” plays as soundtrack to the scene. Furthermore, Smith has a track record for roles that involve romantic relationships with non-black women—whether it be Eva Mendes in Hitch or Charlize Theron in Hancock. When he is linked with African-American females on screen, it is usually because in the film he is marked as black.[1] No other black actor has really pulled off this feat simply because no other black actor can play a universal race card like Smith can. Audiences are drawn to him simply because he is Will Smith.

This is an interesting observation if only because the story of Smith’s production and consumption as a black star bizarrely follows his role in the emotional profile of Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness. In playing Gardner as a character, Smith reflexively relives his own transcendence of race...from Fresh Prince to Hollywood's 4th of July release Golden Boy...to obtain the American Dream. How patriotic!

Now finally back to Hancock. Is he a black superhero? Survey says no. If Hancock was actually coded as black then the film would have a lot of explaining to do. It would become not just your unique superhero text but rather a commentary on urban waste, homelessness and poverty in the black community, and yes…the maladaptiveness of interracial relationships. While you can still read these ideas on the film, Hancock makes sure it does not highlight them with Will Smith as star. Therefore the film is as much about Hancock’s image as it is about Will Smith’s fractured relationship with racial identity in his career.

Whew.

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[1] His relationship with Vivica A. Fox in Independence Day is duly noted as an aberration in this formula.