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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
There was Sitwell before him but he's dead now. And he turned out to be HYDRA, but "evil Hispanic secret agent" isn't really an existing stereotype unlike "Hispanic criminal".
(Speaking as a Hispanic myself.)
I don't know how much to credit the actor versus the script, but Luis (and really the whole "gang") could so easily have been an Ethnic Scrappy that I'm amazed he ended up as such a great character.
Apparently he based Luis on a friend of his.
My own reaction was very "left brain / right brain". Left Brain thought: "Hmm, let us assess this Luis and his socioracial depiction..." Right Brain was like: "Oh my gosh it's Chris from work. When did he get into movies??"
I thing at least part of how Luis and the other two guys weren't as bad as they could've been (well, outside of Peña writing his own lines) is that, despite being thieves, they're still (mostly) good people. Hell, one of my favorite scenes in the film is Luis asking Scott "are we the good guys now?" and saving the guard he knocked out before the building was destroyed.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
*4: That's probably why he works. Luis is definitely a character who could've easily been offensive, but in being built up from the ground by the person who portrayed him Pena could ensure he came off exactly right.
If someone else had written him and had Pena conform to it, it might very well have tipped over that line.
I like how most things in his life were established as bad, and yet he still saw the positive side of things. He's compassionate and curious. A feel good character though it's pretty nesscery for a film relying on its heartwarming tropes more than cynical ones. Also I felt this lifestyle was dramatized on screen in a way no director has to do for Darcy. Being a down on his luck but upbeat Mexican seemed more important to his personhood than being a silly friend of a famous scientist. He's up there with Falcon. Too bad both are secondary. Chances for meaty roles would be slim, which is why Black Panther is important
edited 19th Apr '16 3:36:14 PM by FictionWriterKing
Oh Jesus, this is why I'd rather they just racelift some superheroes.
There's near to no Hispanic super heroes that could carry their own series. If I had to wait for a Hispanic super hero that's Hispanic in the comics, I wouldn't live to see it.
And I'll have to wait for at least a decade for Miles Morales to even come into play.
edited 19th Apr '16 4:17:25 PM by MadSkillz
I had a (joking) suggestion that Luis becomes the Taskmaster, due to a combination of his being an autodiact and Nick Spencer's Scott Lang considering Taskmaster his arch enemy- and so it would play into the MCU tradition of "best friend turned enemy".
Edit- Thanks for posting that interview. That's great that Luis is based on a real person.
edited 19th Apr '16 4:39:36 PM by Hodor2
Pretty much, yeah.
Although (and not seeing Luis in this context), there's this really nice chilling note in how after it being presented humorously that Scott is the Unknown Rival, the Nothing Personal thing by Taskmaster takes a dark turn when he reveals that he's been distracting Scott so his employer can kill his daughter- and Taskmaster feels kind of bad because she seemed nice.

People also aren't going to care if they're given no reason to be invested in the first place. There is a middle ground between "All the information" and "No information whatsoever." At this juncture, DareDevil Season 2 is asking the audience to be scared of The Hand because the show is telling you to, no other reason.
What is the Black Sky? Doesn't matter, just be scared of it.
What does The Hand want? Doesn't matter, just be scared of them.
People will be impressed by The Hand when the show actually gives us a reason to be, instead of just telling us that they're vaguely ominous dudes with vaguely ominous plans in an ominously vague way. Instead, what we have is an army of ninjas who are constantly defeated in hand-to-hand and effortlessly slaughtered by guns and...well, I'm neither impressed nor intimidated by Cannon Fodder no matter how many times I have to watch them get the shit kicked out of them by 1-3 people.
edited 19th Apr '16 2:04:38 PM by TobiasDrake
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