I've been reading a lot of discussion in the comics world about a casting rumor for Marvel Films' new Captain America film. Allegedly, they're considering Will Smith in the role.

The comic geeks have their manties in a bunch, but I'm interested to hear what the non-comic audience thinks about this.

Just for background on Captain America, Steve Rogers was a skinny runt of a boy who wanted to join the military in the late 1940s. He was rejected for active duty but chosen for a Super Soldier experiment, which transformed him into an amazing physical specimen. As Captain America, the US symbol to rally the troops and scare the Nazis in World War II, he was supposedly KIA while trying to disable a rocket that had launched from Nazi Germany. In reality, he was knocked unconscious in very cold waters, where he remained frozen, in a state of suspension, until he was thawed out in modern times. Now he remains a symbol of the US but is a man completely out of sync with time. He has a nemesis named the Red Skull who is a German white supremacist and considers Captain America to be a race traitor.

Obviously, there would be a few logistical issues with Steve Rogers being black. He was a symbol to the United States in the 1940s, and it would be strange for that to be a black man, given the timeframe. Additionally, he wouldn't exactly be a race traitor according to his nemesis. On the other hand, Joe Louis was considered to be a symbol of America, too, and there were many black soldiers who fought and were recognized in WWII.

I think Will Smith could be an interesting choice, if he was Ali and Six Degrees of Separation and Pursuit of Happyness Will Smith, not Bad Boys and Hancock and Men in Black Will Smith.

But what do you think? Would it increase your chances of watching a Captain America movie, decrease them, or not affect them in any way?