It urkes me to no end.
Whethere the character is 'new' or just all of a sudden changed skin color, it doesn't matter. It's a tactic in modern age comics that are there to appease the people who cannot accept a character for who they were.
But hey, I gave up on the industry when the publishing houses gave up on their artists.

Let them do whatever they can to rake in those dollars. Even if it is going against the core of a character.