When did Heimdall get dark skin?

Question

Heimdall is the guardian of the Bifrost. In the movie Thor Heimdall is portrayed by Idris Elba, who happens to have dark skin. In the newer Thor series, Heimdall is drawn with black skin in the comics. But I know that originally he had pale skin, like Thor himself.

I want to know when this change happened and if there was an in-universe explanation.

I want to emphasize that I do not care about Marvel's motivation of the change and not necessarily if this is a simple retcon or not. I want to know when exactly it happened.

TheLethalCarrot · Accepted Answer

From looking around a bit the change in the comics appears to have first been shown in Loki Vol 2 Issue 4 which was released 16/03/2011 which is before Thor came out in 27/04/2011. Of course though the casting for Heimdall was already known by then. As such the change to dark skin was probably done because of the casting of Idris for Heimdall. An in universe reason doesn't seem to have been given.

In Issue 2 (top) we see him with light skin and in Issue 4 (bottom) we see him with dark skin.

_{Click image to enlarge.}

In Issue 2 (top) we see him with light skin and in Issue 4 (bottom) we see him with dark skin.

Click image to enlarge.

When did Heimdall get dark skin?

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