Comic Heroine Vixen Gets a White Wash

by Racialicious Special Correspondent Latoya Peterson

Browsing the Seeking Avalon blog, I notice that she’s provided yet another post on the racism (both subtle and overt) that plagues the comics industry.

This edition: The Visual Bait and Switch.

Willow wonders:

Who is that behind Wonder Woman?

Is that Vixen?

The yellow jumpsuit looks like it belongs to Vixen, if slightly the wrong colour. As do the bangles on the wrist and the belt on the waist.

But last I checked, Vixen was not a white woman.

*Rechecks*

Vixen, Vixen, Vixen, Vixen.

Nope, not a white woman.

And while she obviously uses relaxer on her hair, I’ve never heard of the chemicals automatically bleaching skin. So no plot or reasoning will be coming from that direction.

Seriously, what the hell is up with that? You know there is no way that from writer to printing press Superman could suddenly show up in a series that’s part of current continuity, sporting braids and a darker skin tone.

Because people would call you on that!

LOUDLY.

Interesting. First, it was just the film industry using (what I assume to be) their discretion to change the Fox’s black roots to fit big budget film draw Angelina Jolie.

However, this was done by DC Comics. Don’t y’all check these things before you go to press? I just find it amazing that an industry that is trying to diversify in order to attract younger demographics (and to keep older fans engaged) would do something as obvious as race change one of their heroines.

It’s not like there’s a glut of black female comic heroes so we can afford to let this one go.

Articles about diversifying the comics industry go back ages and ages, from this 1993 New York Times article identifying the new push toward diversity to this 2006 article…also touting the new push toward diversity.

Hmm. 1993 to 2006 and we are still talking about “new diversity initiatives?” And that’s just with the mainstream media reports that I read. I do not read comics industry trade journals, where I am sure the conversation has been happening for much longer and with more detail. (There was actually another article I had in mind to reference, but I am unable to find it as the Washington Post archives all articles over sixty days old.)

Diversity is still an issue in the daily newspapers as well as with major publishing houses like Marvel and DC. While the companies have made impressive strides in including more characters of color, more women characters, and more queer characters it appears that these initiatives were designed to give a token sense of diversity.

So, we see things like a gay character who is announced, but disappears from major plot points and group illustrations. Or the fact that we have amazing super heroines – that for some reason end up raped, tortured in the most erotic way possible, and/or turn up dead in a refrigerator. And characters of color? Well, if they can manage to stay their original coloring, they are often relegated to side roles.

Willow continues:

And in all honesty, as cool as the idea would be to randomly show the heroes as different ethnicities and cultural identities to show how universal they truly are;

Today Superman is Black.

Today Batman is Korean.

Today Wonder Woman is Latina

Today Flash is Indigenous Australian…

You aren’t that cool, DC.

You just aren’t that cool.

Instead it all comes across very much like:

“We’ve secretly switched the usual black superheroine, for a white chick. Let’s see if anyone notices.”

Exactly. There are innovative ways to work diverse characters into the comics universe. I just wish the creators would stop taking one giant step forward and then take yet another step back.

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Comments

Dan wrote:

Interesting. Does anyone happen to know exactly what comic the above image is from? I’m hoping it’s just a coloring mistake that got past the editors somehow. Because I’ve noticed the exact same type of thing many times in the past, although maybe not on such an overt level. I’m wondering if it’s just that one page, or the whole issue.

And although Incognegro (which you have to read if you haven’t already, it’s fucking great. I want a sequel NOW.) is published by DC under their Vertigo imprint, there’s always been a huge difference between the quality of their creator owned/original material and their work for hire superhero stuff.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:52 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:

I think you need three instances of something before you can call it a trend. With only one instance, I’d assume Vixen’s coloring is a simple mistake before I’d assume it’s evidence of an anti-color conspiracy.

A quote from the latest NY Times article:

At DC Comics, an effort is under way to introduce heroes who are not cut from the usual straight white male supercloth. A mix of new concepts, dusted-off code names and existing characters, the new heroes include Blue Beetle, a Mexican teenager powered by a mystical scarab; Batwoman, a lesbian socialite by night and a crime fighter by later in the night; and the Great Ten, a government-sponsored Chinese team.

Over at Marvel Comics, Black Panther, king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, will soon marry Storm, the weather-controlling mutant and X-Man. Luke Cage, a strong-as-steel black street fighter who married his white girlfriend in April, plays a key role in “New Avengers,” the company’s best-selling book.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 3:07 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:

FYI, the image is apparently from Justice League of America #18: Sanctuary, Part Two; “Meanwhile, Back at Owl Creek Bridge…,” which is on the stands as we speak.

For what it’s worth, I think Vixen often has been-portrayed as a light-skinned black. If there was a movie, Halle Berry probably would play her.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 3:13 pm ¶
Lyle wrote:

That brings to mind the case of Connor Hawke the son of Green Arrow, who’s mother is supposed to have a parent of Korean and of African descent (not sure of their citizenry). In his early appearances he looked multiracial, but as time went by he looked more and more like his pale-skinned, blond haired, green eyed father, especially after he became the new Green Arrow and the star of the title.

Now, his father is back from the dead (which reliably happens with major white male charracters) and Connor just died.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 3:28 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:

More on diversity in today’s DC comics:

Flash’s wife is Korean. The new Atom is Korean. The new Question is a lesbian Latina. The new Isis was an Arab, but she died. Alternative versions of Wonder Woman have been Egyptian and Incan, but they made only brief appearances.

On the other hand, the new Batwoman and the Great Ten are only minor characters. There are no significant male homosexual heroes–because, you know, lesbians are less threatening than gays. SCALPED, a non-superhero book, stereotypes American Indians badly.

All in all, I’d say comics are about where TV is. Out of every 10 characters, expect maybe two to be minorities. You may have two blacks, or a black and a homosexual. You’re still unlikely to see Latinos, Asians, or American Indians, not to mention Arabs or Asian Indians.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 3:31 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:

Rob –

Where did I call this a trend? The comics industry generally fucks with characters of color – this is just one instance of many. Willow’s blog and the carnivals she links to have very good examples of this over time.

And yes, Vixen is fair skinned with straightened hair. But if you checked the links Willow provided (3 of the 4 work) you would see that while her skin tone and hair color vary in all three photos, you can still recognize the character.

Also, Willow was dead on in pointing out that this is a continuity issue – this character is currently in play, so why wouldn’t she remain consistent from one issue to the next? If this was a cover for a paperback, instead of a comic, it could be a simple mistake. But again, like Willow says, I never saw them slip up and give a white character ethnic features.

Vixen would most likely be played by Halle Berry – if they don’t give the role to A. Jo.

“Flash’s wife is Korean. The new Atom is Korean. The new Question is a lesbian Latina. The new Isis was an Arab, but she died. Alternative versions of Wonder Woman have been Egyptian and Incan, but they made only brief appearances.”

Yeah, again, tokenism. That is why I included the links and examples I did above. And Iris is a ridiculous example of this – she was a POC superhero who died. Please tell me it wasn’t in a refrigerator.

It’s the same shit as what happens in the gaming industry. There may be some token characters, but they don’t front games, and a lot of times the franchises geared toward being inclusive tend to focus so much on what they *think* we would like that they exclude what makes a good game. Translate that into comics, and its shading the characters differently but not really allowing them to have a spot at the table.

As I said in the piece, comics have made great strides on this front – it is a very different environment now than when I stopped reading about a decade ago. So, it is easier for kids now to pick up a comic hero that may or may not look like them. BUT – and I wish I could find the original, long ass Style or Arts piece I read in the Post a few years back – for an industry who wants to improve diversity in an attempt to capture a larger share of the youth market (especially the part they lost to manga), they’re fucking up.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 3:58 pm ¶
SR wrote:

As much as I despise Frank Miller, he managed to make a positive African-American character in Martha Washington.

As far as DC/vertigo books are concerned, I recommend Exterminators for its sincere diversity. Unfortunately, this comic will end prematurely with only thirty issues.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 4:18 pm ¶
Cheryl Lynn wrote:

Here’s a link to the full image in case anyone wants to take a look.

http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/4989478.html

I’m so surprised to see that image here! I’ve discussed the representation of black women in comics before.

http://digitalfemme.com/journal/index.php?itemid=352

And anyone who wants to know a bit more about black female characters in comics is welcome to stop by Torchbearers.

http://community.livejournal.com/torchbearers/

Okay, I’ll stop with the links!

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 4:26 pm ¶
Paul wrote:

In my opinion, the most egregious use of race in recent comic history is when Marvel turned the Punisher black. He had a major facial reconstruction and somehow ended up as a black man. It seemed to be one of their many pulbicity stunts designed to move issues rather than a real examination of the vigilante character’s possibly racist connotations.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 4:37 pm ¶
dnA wrote:

I’ve been reading DC comics for a long time…and I have to say that I think the panel above is simply an example of an artist failing to draw the light on Vixen correctly.

I believe Vixen was added to the JLA roster because of her popularity on the TV show, which did a great job of creating black identities (rather than just putting white heroes in blackface). One of my favorite examples:

Vigilante: Can’t you use your jungle powers to track them down?

Vixen: What makes you think I know anything about the Jungle? I live in an apartment in SoHo.

That said, comics often try to pattern their heroes after celebrities. Producer Bruce Timm openly identified Sam Jackson as the inspiration for John Stewart on the show. Black Lightning has gone from Bobby Seale to Colin Powell over the past 30 years.

So I think the “whitening” of Vixen, if it is occuring, is probably an attempt to make her more like Halle Berry. There’s a more subtle racism at work there, but I don’t think it’s an attempt to “make Vixen white,” but rather tie her to a known quantity that makes her a more accessible fantasy for a vastly male comic book audience.

DC has shown a willingness to re-introduce old heroes as minorities (the new Blue Beetle is Chicano, the new Firestorm is black) often to a chorus of whining from comic fanboys crying “tradition!”. So I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 4:44 pm ¶
dnA wrote:

messed up the block quote. it was supposed to be:

Vigilante: Can’t you use your jungle powers to track them down?

Vixen: What makes you think I know anything about the Jungle? I live in an apartment in SoHo.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 4:44 pm ¶
tasha wrote:

I think it was a loft in Chelsea, not an apartment in SoHo.

Vigilante: Aint this supposed to be your territory? Use some of your animal tricks to give us a leg up.

Vixen: What makes you think I know anything about the jungle? I live in a loft in Chelsea.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 7:07 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:

I am sorry….

The lightened character that I saw in the pic (the one posted with the original piece) was SIGNIFICANTLY lighter than Halle. If dnA’s comment, “the “whitening” of Vixen, if it is occuring, is probably an attempt to make her more like Halle Berry” is true, then they are way off base. Halle Berry cannot pass for White. She does not look like a White woman with a tan. Jennifer Beals could play the “whitened” Vixen, not Halle.

Halle Berry is not lightskinned, not like the lightened Vixen character. I know this is off topic, but I just can’t take it anymore. Jasmine Guy is light, lighter than Halle. Jurnee Smollett is light, lighter than Halle. Jenifer Lopez is light, ligher than Halle. Lisa Bonet is light, lighter than Halle. Halle is not dark, she is not brown, but why do people always make it seem like she is sooooo excessively light skinned. She is lighter than Oprah, but since when does that make you light? Lena Horne is light skinned, lighter than Halle. It just seems like people are making her into someone who is just soooo light. I have to disagree.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 8:06 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:

When you didn’t chalk up Vixen’s coloring to a simple mistake, Latoya, you implied it was part of a trend.

If you look at the link provided by Cheryl Lynn, you’ll see that Amanda Waller and Black Lightning are also colored a dusky beige rather than a chocolate brown. Unlike Vixen, they’ve always been portrayed as dark-skinned blacks.

Meanwhile, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the other Caucasians are colored a dusky pink rather than a pale pink. What that tells me is that colorist Peter Pantazis was trying for a stylized effect where everyone looks kind of dusky. I’d say he made the wrong choice, but he probably could defend it on artistic grounds.

If I were the publisher, I wouldn’t allow that kind of homogenization as a rule. But I’d have to think twice about saying, “Scrap your several-thousand-dollar coloring job and do it over. This time, make the browns brown and the pinks pink.” Instead, I’d probably grit my teeth and bear it.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 10:27 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:

As for Vixen’s features, artists often don’t take the time to give minority characters the proper hair/nose/lips. More often than not, a black (or a Latino, or an Indian) is portrayed as a Caucasian with dark-colored skin. It’s an ongoing problem in the industry, but it’s nothing new.

As a publisher myself, I’ve had to battle to get artists to draw Indian characters with Indian features. Often they don’t do it–or conversely, they make the features too exaggerated. I feel like shaking them and saying, “Don’t you see the subtle but real differences between Indian and Caucasian faces? Why don’t you pay attention to the photographs I sent you?”

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 10:37 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:

As for Flash’s wife, I was referring to Wally’s wife Linda Park, not Barry’s wife Iris Allen. Read about her here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Park_(comics)

Linda Park (also Linda Park-West) is a fictional character in the DC Universe. She first appeared in Flash (2nd series) #28. Linda is Korean-American, although some artists mistakenly portray her as Caucasian.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 10:41 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:

For a more egregious case of whitewashing a comic-book character, check this out:

http://www.bluecorncomics.com/2008/02/silver-fox-in-wolverine-movie.html

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 4:59 am ¶
Eccentric1 wrote:

If this was an accident then there would be more instances of white characters being inked darker. But, it doesn’t happen that way. Superman and Wonder Woman stay white, or dusky pink or “flesh” colored. Heros of color like Vixen or Storm can go through a transition of melanin loss.

On a side note, what is up with Wonder Woman’s outfit??? I can’t help but look at it and think this is a drawing of Superman, Wonder Booty, and Vixen.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 9:16 am ¶
Cheryl Lynn wrote:

This seems to be something that happens to female characters a great deal more than male characters. I haven’t seen an instance of Luke Cage or Shang Chi appearing white. Take a look at this picture of Vixen:

http://i8.tinypic.com/4kxqcg5.jpg

Or this one of Storm:

http://i16.tinypic.com/61vp4bp.jpg

Or this one of Thunder:

http://i27.tinypic.com/np56df.jpg

I grew really frustrated with artists who had no problem depicting handsome heroes of different races but drew all of the heroines standing amongst them with the same face. A white one. If this were just a matter of poor skills, wouldn’t the male heroes be poorly rendered too? Yes, I think in some instances that poor skills are at fault, but there also seems to be a preference for white beauty norms making its way into the art when heroines are drawn. Is the whitewashing of minority female characters a current trend? I hope it’s a dying trend. One that’s on its way out because fans spoke up and placed a spotlight on an embarrassing problem.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 9:28 am ¶
dnA wrote:

What we should all really be mad about is the fact that the one black superhero from “A New Frontier,” who basically walked around the South clobbering Klan members with a Giant Hammer was almost completely edited out of the movie version that just came out.

It makes me mad. Apparently DC decided its audience was adult enough to deal with the red scare, just not adult enough to deal with segregation and Jim Crow.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 4:14 pm ¶
Sugimoto68 wrote:

Untitled Document

Take a look at the ‘85 version of Vixen. That’s MY image of Vixen. The ‘whitewash’ conversation probably started when the ‘new millenia’ Vixen was introduced!

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 6:00 pm ¶
dnA wrote:

Yeah, it’s not like there’s another hero with animal powers and that haircut…bub.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 8:40 pm ¶
Tlönista wrote:

@Rob Schmidt: A fellow comic book nerd and I were following Y: The Last Man early on, until we found out that the character Dr. Mann was supposed to be Asian. A character who had been drawn as an unambiguously white brunette. For chrissakes, people…

Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 9:00 am ¶
Jemima wrote:

Lemme think. What black comic heroes and heroines do I remember clearly. Hmmmm X-men is my most frequent haunt so: Storm, Cecilia Reyes (semi-heroine and doctor from x-men), Maggot aaaaand…. that’s it.

Jubilee is supposed to be Asian… I think, but everyone else is Caucasian, and in the case of our lovely mutants, only the males get to have ugly mutations, except for one female (Marrow) who ended up making her mutation pretty eventually. ‘Cause apparently heroines must be white as well as pretty.

And whiteyfying Vixen and The Fox is just… gimme a moment I need to kill something… it’s so unnecessary. Why the hell is Vixen suddenly white? Why is it necessary to get Jolie (not that there’s anything wrong with her acting) when there are plenty of actresses of colour that could fill the role. ARGH!!!

/rant

Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 10:37 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:

To clarify:

Angelina Jolie was assigned to play the Fox, a different character.

Vixen looks like a white woman on this cover. If you follow the links that digital femme provided, you will see that she was back to somewhat normal inside the current comic.

As far as I know, there are no plans for Angelina Jolie to play Vixen in a film role. (That was a joke on our part.)

Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 10:45 am ¶
Vik wrote:

Ah…comic book race confusion. As a person who is around comic books all day I would say that the discoloration of Vixen would be due to either the Colorist or it occurred during the printing process itself. I’ve seen a lot of great comic art get ruined by bad coloring (i.e. Jim Lee’s HEROES cover for the book). The way a hero looks also generally depends on the artist. Ed Benes tends to draw his woman with the same basic face. It’s just his style which means Vixen’s face is Wonder Woman’s face is Black Canary’s face is Psylocke’s face is Red Sonja’s face.

As for heroes of color in the DC Universe…don’t be so surprised by their absence and their minor roles. You have the Trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman all of which are portrayed as white characters. Superman didn’t come to earth thinking he was going to be labeled a white man. He’s from Krypton. His race is Kryptonian but on earth I guess we assigned him to the white race. I guarantee though that if you take a look at any statue, bust, or model of Superman in your friendly neighborhood comic shop you’d think the guy was Asian.

Anyway, none of the major comic book companies has ever done a very good job portraying minority characters. Jubilee is Chinese and what do you know she shoots fireworks from her hands. Black Lightning happens to be black. Black Panther…don’t get me started on Black Panther especially Reginald Hudlin’s super ethnocentric run on Black Panther. Thanks for ruining Storm, my favorite character of all effin’ time! Have you seen Super Friends? Samurai. Oy.

The only comic from a major publisher that I’d say is any good at portraying minorities is Runaways. I’d provide you with a summary of what it’s about but I’d rather you give the title a chance first.

Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 5:47 pm ¶
Roy wrote:

For more white-washing, check out Ultimates 3- Wasp has gone from being Asian to a red-haired white woman. No explanation that I’ve noticed, no reason… just, one day she’s suddenly white.

Lemme think. What black comic heroes and heroines do I remember clearly. Hmmmm X-men is my most frequent haunt so: Storm, Cecilia Reyes (semi-heroine and doctor from x-men), Maggot aaaaand…. that’s it.

Jubilee is supposed to be Asian… I think, but everyone else is Caucasian,

Generally, I agree that most comics suck at including racial or ethnic diversity, but the X-Men, especially in the last few decades, have been pretty solid about it. They’re sort of like the exception that proves the rule…

What about Bishop (black), Surge (Japanese- current leader of the New X-Men), Dust (Sunni Muslim), Darwin (half black, half Latino), Warpath (Native American), Rictor (Mexican), M (half Algerian), Omega Sentinel Karima (Indian), and Armor (Japanese)?

And those are just the currently active members- if we look back, we can start adding Forge (Native American), Kwannon/Revanche (Japanese), Sunfire (Japanese), Thunderbird (Native American), Mirage (Native American), Risque (Native American), Karma (Vietnamese, and the first lesbian X character), Sunspot (Brazilian), Skin (Mexican)… well, you get the idea.

only the males get to have ugly mutations, except for one female (Marrow) who ended up making her mutation pretty eventually. ‘Cause apparently heroines must be white as well as pretty.

Yeah, that’s mostly true. Unless you’re evil. If you’re an evil woman, you can sometimes be conventionally unattractive, but you usually have to be fat, then, too.

Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 6:57 pm ¶
Jennifer wrote:

They did the same thing with Storm (X-Men) as well when they started Ultimate X-Men. Storm has always been half Kenyan, half African-American, but when they did Ultimate, they made her Moroccan. Guess they needed her to be brown enough to be exotic, but not brown enough to actually be black.

Posted 25 Feb 2008 at 1:00 pm ¶
Seth wrote:

Actually, not that it reduces the tokenism of it at all, but Ryan Choi (the new Atom) was born in Kowloon, Hong Kong, which would make him Chinese, not Korean.

Posted 25 Feb 2008 at 1:11 pm ¶
Billy wrote:

“Interesting. First, it was just the film industry using (what I assume to be) their discretion to change the Fox’s black roots to fit big budget film draw Angelina Jolie.

However, this was done by DC Comics. ”

Can’t help but think of the ‘89 Batman film: I remember Grant Morrison was instructed to drop a hallucinatory sequence featuring the Joker in a basque (from his then soon to be published Arkham Asylum novel) just in case it made anyone think Jack Nicholson was a real-life transvestite!

Yep, the film industry has always had the social sensitivity of a rampaging rhino when marketing a hot-property-to-be.

Posted 25 Feb 2008 at 8:21 pm ¶
Alexa wrote:

Fuck, this really annoys me. I may be white, but goddammit, I’m fully aware that people of other races exist. I see them every single day. I go to class with them. I have friends of other races. FFS, cutting out non-white characters does not make the book more appealing to me, it makes it less appealing by not reflecting real life.

Posted 26 Feb 2008 at 3:32 pm ¶
Andrew wrote:

The unfortunate thing is, its hardly just race that gets to be tokenized. Batwoman being a lesbian is blatant, horrible, tokening, especially with her 2 year postponed series.

An example of both race and religious tokening is Mr. Terrific II. He’s a black atheist. While he’s pretty well kept to being a darker black man, he continues the tradition of black guy taking up a white mask. Then with his atheism, his origin involves the Spectre. Once you involve GOD in the origin of the irreligious, you’re doing something stupid. Likewise, his faith shifts into agnosticism when he’s written by certain writers who just don’t seem to want an atheist. Also, he’s seemingly the only atheist in all of comics, and not the strong rational thought leads me from faith kind, but the “God didn’t do it!” kind.

In Ultimate Marvel, Wasp hasn’t been Asian since Bryan Hitch left Ultimates, instead is her Marvel 616 counterpart with slightly different character traits. Not just in features, but brown hair, pale skin and everything.

Its disgusting that writers/artists often get away with flat-out ignoring the minority aspect of character, or treating minorities as something to just be put on a white person’s back.

Posted 27 Feb 2008 at 1:26 am ¶
Alex wrote:

Actually, this looks like a colourist error with no intentional malice. Her hair and her costume are ALSO too pale; it looks like she’s unfinished. Like she was meant to have another dark transparent layer that would have brought hair, skin and costume down to the right colour, and it never got applied.

Editors miss all kinds of stupid errors. There is no conspiracy here. Is she this pale through the whole book? If not, then someone messed up on this page.

Posted 29 Feb 2008 at 3:22 pm ¶
kingtchalla wrote:

Paul said

“In my opinion, the most egregious use of race in recent comic history is when Marvel turned the Punisher black. He had a major facial reconstruction and somehow ended up as a black man. It seemed to be one of their many pulbicity stunts designed to move issues rather than a real examination of the vigilante character’s possibly racist connotations.”

Well, White comic characters turning Black is nothing new. In Superman comic (I can’t remember the issue), Lois Lane becomes a Black woman thanks to a nifty Kryptonian device supplied by Superman. This has STUNT written all over it.

Another example is Mach 1 in Kurt Busiek’s Thunderbolts. In fairness, Busiek used Mach’s racial switch to explore how race relations have improved in some ways and regressed in others.

There are likely other examples in comics that I’m unaware of.

Posted 04 Mar 2008 at 9:01 pm ¶
kingtchalla wrote:

Vik said

“Anyway, none of the major comic book companies has ever done a very good job portraying minority characters. Jubilee is Chinese and what do you know she shoots fireworks from her hands. Black Lightning happens to be black. Black Panther…don’t get me started on Black Panther especially Reginald Hudlin’s super ethnocentric run on Black Panther. Thanks for ruining Storm, my favorite character of all effin’ time!”

Complaining about Black Panther being “too ethnic” (read: too African) is as silly as saying Captain America is too patriotic.

At heart, Black Panther is historic wish fulfillment: What if an African nation resisted the evils of slavery and colonialism to become a high-tech world superpower? Hence, the best Panther stories have embraced rather than buried this central aspect of the character. This is why Priest’s Black Panther was easily one of the BEST comics starring a Black superhero.

Another cool Black “Big Two” comic was Deathlok penned by Dwayne McDuffie (JLA, Fantastic Four, Static Shock). That series worked because McDuffie addressed issues besides race like “What is human?” and the pros and cons of emerging technology (e.g., the Internet).

So, it’s possible for a Big Two comic to portray Black heroes as interesting, cool and competent. The problem is that the bigwigs of both companies often lack the guts to take that “risk.”

“The only comic from a major publisher that I’d say is any good at portraying minorities is Runaways. I’d provide you with a summary of what it’s about but I’d rather you give the title a chance first.”

Actually, Runaways is considered racist or at least clueless among some Black readers because of the ignoble death of one of the characters. Writer Brandon Thomas explains:

http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/ambi/113087615979065.htm

Though I understand the logic behind the death of the above Runaway, I sympathize with critics of the comic. Black teen heroes at Marvel have lately suffered either lame deaths (Generation X’s Synch) or dated stereotypes (Young Avengers’ Patriot). This anger is born out of Black teen heroes at Marvel and DC being much rarer than adult ones.

Hence, more Black readers are looking to indy titles like Blokhedz which make Black teen heroes the center of the action instead of an afterthought:

http://www.4thletter.net/?p=371

Frankly, I think Marvel and DC won’t start respecting Black heroes and readers until they start losing money to the competition.

Posted 04 Mar 2008 at 9:31 pm ¶
kingtchalla wrote:

Andrew said

“An example of both race and religious tokening is Mr. Terrific II. He’s a black atheist. While he’s pretty well kept to being a darker black man, he continues the tradition of black guy taking up a white mask. Then with his atheism, his origin involves the Spectre. Once you involve GOD in the origin of the irreligious, you’re doing something stupid. Likewise, his faith shifts into agnosticism when he’s written by certain writers who just don’t seem to want an atheist. Also, he’s seemingly the only atheist in all of comics, and not the strong rational thought leads me from faith kind, but the “God didn’t do it!” kind. ”

I’m waiting for the openly Christian Black superhero myself.

Black atheist superheroes simply aren’t that rare anymore. Mr. Terrific, Blade and Todd McFarlane’s Spawn instantly come to mind. However, Black Lightning is the ONLY Christian Black superhero I can think of offhand.

This is odd since most Black people are Christian. And it’s not unusual to find these faithful Black people in the sciences. I can attest to this since I’m a Christian with a background in Civil Engineering. Atheism in Black America seems confined to the likes of 50 Cent, who could hardly be considered a positive role model.

In short, the only Black heroes being reduced to tokens are the Christian ones.

Posted 04 Mar 2008 at 9:50 pm ¶
Marco Milone wrote:

Interesting!

Posted 15 Mar 2008 at 2:16 am ¶
Greg wrote:

Rob Schmidt wrote:

‘As a publisher myself, I’ve had to battle to get artists to draw Indian characters with Indian features. Often they don’t do it–or conversely, they make the features too exaggerated. I feel like shaking them and saying, “Don’t you see the subtle but real differences between Indian and Caucasian faces? Why don’t you pay attention to the photographs I sent you?”’

I’m not sure to what differences you’re referring. My girlfriend is Indian, and neither she nor any of our many Indian friends looks notably more different from how I do than do say, our Polish or French friends. (I’m Norwegian/Apache, which has produced an odd quirk of pigmentation: in the space of two weeks in the sun, my skin moves from exceptionally pale to nearly as dark as Halle Berry, and travels the reverse course in four weeks of limited sunlight. It’s odd.)

(By the way, Indians *are* Caucasian; you might mean European/Slavic, but such a characterization ignores the wide range of features among that population.)

Posted 18 Mar 2008 at 5:45 am ¶
Amanda wrote:

Either way white washing is going on and especially among people of color it is getting worse and the sad thing is that most ppl of color see this and could careless. For some blacks, its make them light skinned along with the indians and so forth. This is sad and i’ll tell it like it is the crap won’t stop it will continue until thats all you see on the cover of comics and in it. Hell by the time you know it all characters will be white and the only way to tell that they r a minority is by giving them jet black hair, and the white ones, blond as usual or a nice lighted brown.

Posted 25 Jan 2009 at 1:44 pm ¶
ABosch wrote:

yeh. I don’t read regularly, anymore (too cost-prohibitive when you-re under-employed), but I was just looking @ one of Benes’ drawings of Mari, and thought “there’s no way those are african features.” I think the coloring was likely an error, but it galls me that a guy makes a living by rendering the same Eurasian concept of beauty on all his females’ faces, regardless of ethnicity. details,people! Oh well. Go look @ the covers to Identity Crisis. Does Zee look balkan/Mediterranean/Gypsy to you? Why, no sir. Her, Dinah, and Diana are all classic Nordic icons. *sputter sput* Rags paid more attention inside, tho’…

I guess what I’m trying to say is it seems less a corporate-sponsored xenophobic mandate than another example of an artist’s sheer hackery.

I refer you to Perez’s Avengers. Wanda’s clearly of Romany stock, Carol’s a midwest farmgirl, Bonita is decidedly Hispanic, Monica is definitely a proud, black woman, and Jan’s a cute, white pixie girl. That’s class.

BTW, does anyoe know who did the art for She-Hulk in The Marvel Encyclopedia? Jen seems to be patterned on Pam Grier. which is fine by me. I always knew she was a sister, deep down.

And Michael Holt’s the best
hero created since COIE in my book.

“Looks like God’s taken up dice.”

Posted 16 May 2009 at 5:56 pm ¶