Comments

1. thinkingdifference wrote:

   It all comes down to beliefs in the end. If you do not believe there’s discrimination, almost nothing will persuade you to do so. Facts can be countered by facts, arguments by arguments. I think accepting discrimination, or racialized/ genderized power lines in society does come to combination of beliefs, social awareness and political willingness. And collective beliefs do not change in the lifetime of a generation.

   Cynthia Eller makes a good point in her book “Am I a Woman”, saying race hierarchies is no longer an accepted topic of academic research, because society -as a whole - has sanctioned the view of the hierarchy of races. This doesn’t mean there are no racists or discrimination, but that there is an awareness, and every time someone talks about racism and discrimination, a small change does take place.

   Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 10:10 am ¶

2. Arturo wrote:

   In following the responses after the last instance of Vixen being white-washed, one theory that emerged was that it’s a cultural thing.

   The theory says that because the artist, Ed Benes, is Brazilian, drawing lighter women with their cleavage & booties hanging out is how things are done. I don’t buy it, personally, but that’s the theory.

   Another dismaying aspect to the story is that the current JLA writer, Dwayne McDuffie, is an African-American man — he’s the guy behind Static Shock, which starred a young black superhero. You would think he’d “get it” as regards to the concerns being expressed about Vixen. But — and if I’m wrong here, please, somebody let me know — it’s tough to say, because no comments about it from himself or Benes have been posted.

   Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 10:40 am ¶

3. Gregory A. Butler wrote:

   It is pretty damned obvious that 1) Vixen was whitewashed, from a Black woman to a White woman 2) Whoever whitewashed her also added a bit of all too typical comix t & a and 3) this was NOT an accident.

   I’m quite sure that every book these publishers put out goes through an extensive process of planning, editing and quality control - these folks are in the entertainment business and they would not allow a mistake of that magnitude to come off the presses.

   So, this was deliberate.

   Why?

   The publishers themselves would be best positioned to answer that - but perhaps they feel that Vixen would be more appealing to their core audience if she were a silicone breasted White woman.

   Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 10:54 am ¶

4. Pedro Tejeda wrote:

   Arturo -

   Comics are collaborative effort by many different people.

   Stories are written and then sent to the artist
   who then sends them to the inker and then the books are colored and lettered.

   A writer could have had an issue written months before an issue was put together and printed.

   I really don’t like the fact that people are kind of calling Mcduffie some sort of collaborator for talking about work that he may not even see yet. It’s also really bad taste to call out a bad artist in the industry while working with them. Sometimes a writer is stuck with an artist who can’t convey emotions or draw more than one face. Sometimes an artist will go ahead and do something that could be asked to be redrawn, but the book has to be printed on a monthly schedule.

   I’ve spoken to a couple people about this and everyone feels this is more a combination of Benes inability to draw and a crappy colorist.

   http://image.comicvine.com/uploads/item/3000/2551/2847-vixen_400.jpg is an image of Vixen done properly by an artist who can draw and a good colorist. This is what her modern look should look like. In the hands of quality people, there is no “whitewashing”. Shitty artists unfortunately have their default set to one white face which in their eyes is the norm.

   I don’t question that at all. But I don’t think this was ordered from down up. Comics even at large companies are kind of done really flight by night. I really feel that these two creators just half assed it and someone finally caught them at it.

   I think if we want real change, we need to call it for being shitty art that can be seen as racially offensive than something that actually is.

   Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 11:30 am ¶

5. DivergentDana wrote:

   “The theory says that because the artist, Ed Benes, is Brazilian, drawing lighter women with their cleavage & booties hanging out is how things are done. ”

   While that may explain her features, the colorist is usually — like the person who inks — another person entirely who doesn’t draw the comic. Growing up reading X men, I wondered why Jubilee was consistently depicted as blue-eyed… only in a Gen X spinoff drawn by Jim Mahfood do I remember her being given a notably ethnic appearance.

   Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 11:44 am ¶

6. macintyre wrote:

   Something can be a pattern without it being intentional. Unintentional prejudice can only be remedied with intentional acts. However, people taking unintentionally prejudiced acts will object to being called “racist,” because that term (as popularly understood) connotes intention. So maybe the proper focus (at least as an initial matter) is results and changes rather than intentions.

   Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 11:53 am ¶

7. Arturo wrote:

   Pedro,

   I’m well aware that comics are a collaborative medium. But, McDuffie’s name, and Benes’, and the colorist’s are all on the work. To say nothing of the JLA editor. My overall point was that none of these people has, to my knowledge — and, again, if they have, I’d love to read it — posted or said something explaining, “__________ is why Vixen came out looking like she did.” I’m not asking for anyone to be thrown under the bus; just for some sort of explanation from the creative team.

   Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 12:36 pm ¶

8. The Cruel Secretary wrote:

   Latoya: How many times does something have to happen before it stops being coincidence and starts becoming a pattern?

   TCS: Hmm…I use the Rule of 3:
   1st time: accident
   2nd time: coincidence
   3rd time: pattern (with a can of whoopass ready to go)

   TCS’s second response: It’s about the happening; it’s about who’s noticing.

   I kid…sort of.

   Seriously though, let’s reverse the situation. What if that most beloved of comic heroes, Superman, had *an* issue where his skin tone was like Sendhil Ramamurthy from “Heroes.” Then, in the second issue, Superman’s hair became curly like Mr. Ramamurthy’s. Then in the third issue, Superman facial features looked exactly like the “Heroes” actor. The explanations of “coloring errors” or “coding difficulty” or “we just weren’t thinking about that, we were making a game/comic/film/movement/company for everyone” would fall down faster than Superman in front of kryptonite.

   Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 12:54 pm ¶

9. The Cruel Secretary wrote:

   Oooops, I meant to say, “It’s *not* about the happening; it’s about who’s noticing.”

   Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 1:30 pm ¶

10. johnjihoonchang wrote:

    Wow, I didn’t even think Vixen was on the cover when I first looked at it.

    Maybe it will be explained as a body swap and then later retconned? (j/k)

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 1:32 pm ¶

11. Colin wrote:

    Didn’t you get the memo? Everyone = white people.

    If it’s a coloring error, then doesn’t the person doing the coloring suck ass? If we’re to believe that this was a coloring error, why are they still on the staff? They keep making the same ERROR! That at least shows they’re incompetent. Otherwise, I can’t see any other conclusion than that they decided white would be a better color.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 1:49 pm ¶

12. Tasha wrote:

    Have these color errors happened in the othr direction? Characters accidentally getting darker their features become more asiatic, hair color brown curly instead of blonde.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 2:07 pm ¶

13. Cynthia wrote:

    Tasha,

    I believe there was a colouring error on The Simpsons once where Smithers had brown skin instead of the usual Simpson yellow. I believe this was in the 90s. Matt Groening/his people explained the error by saying that Smithers went away and came back to Springfield with a tan.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 2:21 pm ¶

14. Cheryl Lynn wrote:

    She’s lighter than the other black character in this recent image here.

    http://i27.tinypic.com/sv2khe.jpg

    And here.

    http://i30.tinypic.com/2dgvocx.gif

    But she is thankfully not depicted as white! Still, there has been an obvious decision to vary the skin tones of black characters in DC and Marvel comics. I think that’s great! Black people do not come in one shade. But I find it interesting that when fairer skin needs to be handed out, the decision is to make the “attractive” female characters lighter. It doesn’t happen to Luke Cage, Black Panther, Green Lantern, Firestorm or Amanda Waller. It happens to M and Storm and Vixen. Why? Probably for the same reason that lighter women are preferred in men’s magazines, movies, runways, and pretty much everywhere else.

    There are four black characters who have appeared in JLA recently: Black Lightning, Green Lantern, Firestorm and Vixen. Three men and one woman. And the black woman is given the lighter skin tone? And I’m supposed to chalk that up to coincidence? After Storm being called “the best of all the races” in X-Men? After older issues where she’s not even identifiable as black? After M goes from a shade of milk chocolate to tan? After Angela Del Toro goes from looking like Lauren Velez in Daredevil to Eva Mendez in her own miniseries? After Misty’s Afro is replaced with pin-straight locks and the last woman with a natural in mainstream comics vanishes?

    I can’t believe it’s just bad art. I can’t believe these are just coincidences. Not when it’s something that black women have already endured in every other art form. Lightened skin. Narrower features. Straightened hair. Just because it’s comics instead of movies, music or fashion, we’re seeing things that aren’t there? We’re making it up? When the comic industry is even more segregated than other forms of art? Why should we believe the people creating comics to be immune to a preference for women with lighter skin when the men who make movies and television shows and fashion aren’t? C’mon, now.

    Maybe when Firestorm, Luke Cage or Black Panther take a dip in the Porcelana or Fair & Lovely, I’ll believe it’s just coincidence. Until then? No. I honestly think that a call came down from editorial to vary the skin tones of black characters and good ol’ fashioned light-skinned beauty preference reared its ugly head and yet again only the fair ladies received the fairer skin. But hey, I’m very used to it. But what I am not used to is people telling me that I’m making up something so obvious to the naked eye. Something that appears in almost every single American art form from rap videos to bank ads. That’s what’s frustrating. How do you solve a problem that people refuse to admit exists? I guess you just endure it. The next time another black female character is altered in appearance and shows up with lighter skin, narrower features or straighter hair, I suppose I won’t even bother saying anything. And trust me, it’s going to happen.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 2:22 pm ¶

15. Sherin Nicole wrote:

    RE: “The problem exists. I know it exists. You know it exists.”

    Not only does it exist, it has a name. Over at Bugle’s Planet Daily we’ve dubbed it the MinoriBeam®! And yes, Vixen is one of the examples we cited. It was this same kind of frustration that prompted us to write a post called “…And Then I Woke Up Chinese” *Dun Dun Duhhh* Lex Luthor Unleashes the MinoriBeam!”

    We were sick of wondering what ethnicity Vixen was going to be this month. Especially when she was designed and presented so beautifully on Justice League Unlimited.

    We were sick of hearing how Storm ‘doesn’t act black,’ Wrong. She doesn’t always look it. And what the hell is ‘actin’ black’ anyway? I want someone to school me ‘cause I may be out of order.

    We couldn’t understand why you should have to ask “Really? Jubilee and/or Janet Pym are Asian?!”

    And it didn’t make sense that a character’s personality had to change so drastically in those cases they were magically turned black. (see below)

    Here’s our breakdown on the myriad powers of the MinoriBeam (feel free to add your own):

    1. Asian characters appear white or Black characters become some indistinguishable shade of tan.
    Jubilee, the Wasp, Vixen, Storm

    2. Through some strange plot device white characters are suddenly transformed into black people. Not only does this change their skin tone and hair texture but somehow their speech, clothing and taste in food. Ss become Zs, Ds and Gs get dropped all together:

    Lois Lane (don’t let the rain mess up yo’ ‘fro Lois!) http://absorbascon.blogspot.com/search?q=I+am+Curious+%28Black%29+Week%2C+2%3A+It%27s+Alive%21,

    The Punisher (look Ma I’se colored) http://www.the-isb.com/?p=81

    3. (a funny side to the issue) White characters appear to be another minority for a single panel.

    4. An uproar is caused when a black actor portrays a character that is white in the comic book. Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, Halle Berry as Cat Woman, Will Smith as Richard Matheson in I Am Legend or even my suggestion that Gina Torres would be a perfect Wonder Woman.

    The MinoriBeam definitely exists and I have no idea how to fix it. It’s just not seen as a problem. Many artists just don’t know how to draw Black or Asian people without worrying that they will somehow fall into stereotypes. In other instances, specifically as it applies to female characters, they are drawing their personal idea of beauty and for them the pale skin and flaxen hair just makes sense.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 2:36 pm ¶

16. Daniel wrote:

    So how do we put pressure on the publishers to correct this?

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 3:13 pm ¶

17. Jack D. wrote:

    Has anyone ever confirmed Vixen’s default brownness?

    I’m really not trying to “whitewash” the problem itself, but I can’t help but wonder about the different skin tones that appear in comic books in general. Seems that all white people are the same color (at least within the same book as a reference to each other). It would be damned amusing if Vixen’s “natural” skin tone is actually not as dark as we’d like to see. There’s more than one way to color a black person, after all.

    … Of course that’s probably not the case here. Just food for thought.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 4:44 pm ¶

18. Safiya Outlines wrote:

    Mistake/artist error my foot. I’ll believe it when they ‘mistakenly’ draw her without a heaving cleavage.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 5:07 pm ¶

19. Jack D. wrote:

    re “No strange lighting in this one”: Actually, yes, there is. It’s supposed to be a reddish-brown haze on the battlefield (suggesting the Red Tornado’s destructive power), which becomes more dominant in the background. Maybe might possibly could have had some effect on the colorist’s choices/options. … Or not.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 5:13 pm ¶

20. Black Canseco wrote:

    Remember the outrage over Cedric the Entertainer playing Ralph Kramden in that crappy honeymooners flick?

    People hadn’t seen a script or a trailer, but the notion of “blackening up” a white character rubs folks the wrong way whether it’s film or comics.

    I gotta agree tho. this ain’t no accident. and it’s far more common to see it happen with black women characters than the rest. Call it “cultural arrogance” call it “color cluelessness”, but don’t call it an accident or downplay it.

    And at some point you become what you do. If you tell enough lies, you’re a liar. If you sleep with members of the same gender as your own, you’re not “experimenting’–you’re homosexual. If you get liquored up then get behind the wheel, you’re a drunk driver.

    At some point you are what you do.

    A big part of the solution for this and others is to stop giving mainstream folks the “i didn’t know any better” card. Because when black cartoonists don’t know how to draw “certain types”, they don’t get to work. period.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 6:23 pm ¶

21. beware_the_sluagh wrote:

    It totally amazes me that they would change the race of an established character, even if racism were not part of the issue. Although comic books have stories, an obviously very large part of them is the pictures. What the characters look like is … it’s their brand, who they are, how they’re recognised. Why would someone change an icon? Super-heroes should only change with very good reason as they’re supposed to be instantly recognisable. Which leads me to conclude that the people responsible for this change are so stupid I’ll never understand them.
    For it to be a colouring error would be ridiculous - it would be like miscolouring superman’s uniform and saying - “oh, whoops, I thought the ‘S’ on Superman’s chest was SUPPOSED to be purple”.
    Other than that, I don’t know much about this issue, but I think people have reason to be angry, or at least nastily suspicious.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 8:55 pm ¶

22. Latoya Peterson wrote:

    Jack D -

    If you paid attention to the original post (and the link is supplied in the text) you would have seen four different pictures of Vixen in varying shades of brown.

    Also, Pedro’s link shows Vixen’s concept art.

    And yes, there is a slight haze but brown + red does not create the color Vixen is shaded.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 9:19 pm ¶

23. Jack D. wrote:

    Latoya, I’m not arguing the racial undertones of the color change. In fact, I’m actually approaching this from the perspective of nearly 30 years of reading/collecting comic books. I’ve seen superhero characters (yes, mostly white) change appearance from book to book, artist to artist, year to year. Sometimes it’s a creative statement or style; often it’s shoddy production values.

    Is it offensive now? Enough, yes, to merit comment. But I also know that Vixen’s appearance (and skin tone) will probably morph again within three to six months. It’s the nature of comic books in the current market.

    Definitely worth bringing to the attention of DC’s editors, though. Let ‘m know someone screwed up and it’s not appreciated.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 9:35 pm ¶

24. dnA wrote:

    I see where they’ve made Vixen lighter in this picture, and in general.

    But she’s still black. Everyone knows she’s black. No one is going to read Justice League and think she’s not black.

    There’s an argument to be made here for colorism, but not for a conspiracy to make Vixen a white woman.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 10:07 pm ¶

25. Rob Schmidt wrote:

    Dwayne McDuffie doesn’t have any say over the comic’s coloring. He probably doesn’t see it until the comic is published. About all he can do is protest it and risk losing his job.

    Did anyone at Racialicious really say Vixen’s coloring was a one-time error? I don’t remember that.

    What I remember is people like me saying it was a coloring choice, not a coloring mistake. Benes wants to homogenize everyone by making light skins darker and dark skins lighter. He prefers people to be dusky pink or golden brown.

    If you look at the illustration, you’ll see he also made Black Lightning lighter. True, he made Vixen lighter than Black Lightning. That may be for the reasons you’ve suggested: that he prefers light-skinned women.

    But I doubt it’s part of a DC comics conspiracy. I repeat that once the several-thousand-dollar coloring job is done, no one is going to redo it without a compelling reason. One character’s skin being too light according to some activists isn’t exactly a compelling reason.

    Now if I were the publisher and the coloring were wrong, I’d do it over. Or not pay the colorist until he corrected it. But I’m a one-man operation. A corporation simply doesn’t work that way.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 10:59 pm ¶

26. Rob Schmidt wrote:

    Re “How many times does something have to happen before it stops being coincidence and starts becoming a pattern?”

    Three times from three different colorists, not twice from the same colorist.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 11:00 pm ¶

27. Tony wrote:

    The thing is, with that other panel that was published, the first one
    In every OTHER frame of Vixen in that issue, she IS her usual skintone, noticably darker than the rest of the team.

    I don’t have this particular issue yet, but I’d assume it’s the same since this one panel is taken as a definitive proof.

    If they where trying to whitewash her, they’d whitewash her in every panel ever, not just ONE panel an issue.

    Call me when they do whole issue, with her looking almost white.

    Then we’ll have a discussion.
    But two panels in two issues?
    Not definitive proof, sorry.

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 11:42 pm ¶

28. Tony wrote:

    Also before anyone gets it twisted. I do acknowledge there is a serious problem with Black heroes getting a raw end of the deal

    But there are other characters who FAR more deserve this outrage because their changes are unarguable.

    Remember SYNCH?
    He was from the X-men comic Generation X, he was a black teenage hero in the 90s who wasn’t all thugged out.
    Infact he was intelligent, and poised to be a team leader.
    So what happened? He got killed…off panel, during a reboot.
    They had a nice chance to bring him back with House of M…and they killed him AGAIN.

    How about Bishop?
    He went from future police officer who was trying to save people, who being perfectly willing to kill a baby.
    (admittedly the baby could possibly cause a bad future, but any time traveller should be able to figure out some other way than killing a baby. A baby who happens to be BLOND and BLUE EYED who ALL HOPE rests on)

    How about some posts about stuff like THAT, instead of “hey, in this one panel, she’s lighter than I personally feel she should be!”

    Posted 27 Mar 2008 at 11:57 pm ¶

29. Nick wrote:

    Had any of you read the issues in question, you’d find that Vixen was her normal, black self barring those two pages. It was probably just a case of a shitty colorist trying to deal with weird lighting and failing.

    You may have a point about there being a trend of whitewashing characters of color to appeal to white readers in various media, but this isn’t one of them.

    Posted 28 Mar 2008 at 3:28 am ¶

30. Jack D. wrote:

    I’m with Tony on the Bishop thing, too. As soon as it was revealed he was the bad guy (against Cyclops’ son, Cable) in the current story arc, I was, like, “Where’s the love for the black man?!”

    Of course I think it’s hilarious that every white male superhero ever drawn in a comic book has the exact same chin, forehead hairline, eyes, nose and mouth. Take away the masks and colorful costumes and you’ve got one dude, over and over and over again. No freckles, pointy noses, tans, overbites, anything. You know how they differentiate superhero women (of any color)? — hair style and cleavage. It’s that simple. Does the front of her outfit unzip to the bellybutton or are her boobs trying to escape in an impossible cutaway. … Thank goodness we have mutants and aliens, who can be drawn with interesting features!

    And don’t even get me started on the trend of giving all Native American superheroes Indian-stereotype code names…

    Basic truth about comic books: Most of the material underlying characterization is CRAP. And it doesn’t help that the creative process is passed around in committee every three months so that a new guy has the opportunity to screw things up again. We just have to keep providing feedback and pushing for intelligent change.

    Posted 28 Mar 2008 at 7:29 am ¶

31. Persia wrote:

    For it to be a colouring error would be ridiculous - it would be like miscolouring superman’s uniform and saying - “oh, whoops, I thought the ‘S’ on Superman’s chest was SUPPOSED to be purple”.

    I’ve actually seen panels with lead characters’ costumes mis-colored. Never Superman’s uniform, but I never read Superman, either.

    It is pretty damn interesting to see how ethnicity and skin color change, though. And depressing.

    Posted 28 Mar 2008 at 9:49 am ¶

32. mordicai wrote:

    Yes. Actually– I don’t think people should be outraged. I want, instead, everyone to just stop buying it. I don’t know anyone who is still picking it up. Vote with the wallet & all that. Outrage is almost the adage of “any news is good news” for the comic industry, it seems, & so I’d rather disgust. Can’t we all just be disgusted with this? I am.

    Posted 28 Mar 2008 at 10:03 am ¶

33. Jen wrote:

    Argh! This pisses me off for so many reasons. She was such a badass black woman! We have few enough women and minorities in comics as it is. They did something similar to Storm in the XMen movies - turning her from an extremely dark Afrocentric warrior, to a lighter skinned girl who just takes orders.

    Posted 28 Mar 2008 at 10:29 am ¶

34. Kevin Huxford wrote:

    I’m not going to read through every comment because, frankly, I’m too depressed by the issue and frustrated with a particular poster.

    Arturo, you keep coming back to everyone who has their name on the project. McDuffie, unfortunately, hasn’t even had that much control over what stories get told in the book, let alone any kind of approval control over the artwork.

    The letterer’s name is on the book, too. Are you going to suggest that he/she/they should have seen the final product and said they weren’t lettering this ish (as Cheryl says) until the penciller and colorist fix some things?

    Posted 29 Mar 2008 at 12:18 pm ¶

35. kenny wrote:

    While changing the color of a minority to make them more like a white person is wrong and inherently racist, I think there’s a bigger question: Who the Hell is Vixen?

    I don’t understand superhero readers at all….

    Posted 29 Mar 2008 at 9:52 pm ¶

36. Em wrote:

    I should have known that racism is expressed by racist people even in comic books. I am seriously getting ashamed of white people*. This crap has gone on far too long.

    *because there’s no way I could have any unexamined bias of my own. /sarcasm

    And why don’t these comic creaters take this criticism seriously? It’s highly insulting to take the attitude that they don’t have to address this issue!

    Posted 30 Mar 2008 at 8:13 pm ¶

37. david brothers wrote:

    Just as a couple quick sidenotes–
    They did something similar to Storm in the XMen movies - turning her from an extremely dark Afrocentric warrior, to a lighter skinned girl who just takes orders.

    Storm was never an extremely Afrocentric warrior, and Halle Berry is actually decently close to her average skin tone in the comics when the movie dropped.

    He went from future police officer who was trying to save people, who being perfectly willing to kill a baby.
    (admittedly the baby could possibly cause a bad future, but any time traveller should be able to figure out some other way than killing a baby. A baby who happens to be BLOND and BLUE EYED who ALL HOPE rests on)

    The baby is a little girl who has red hair and green eyes, first, and second, Bishop was raised in a concentration camp-style ghetto and grew up in an awful future. It’s a change for the character, but not one that’s entirely out of character. In fact, it makes him much more interesting than he’s been in the past three or four years, maybe more.

    And frankly, we need more black villains. Bishop is a good choice for that, due in part to his history and his parallels with Cable.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 1:44 pm ¶

38. DivergentDana wrote:

    “Storm was never an extremely Afrocentric warrior, and Halle Berry is actually decently close to her average skin tone in the comics when the movie dropped.”

    If you look throughout the series, Storm’s been pretty consistently depicted as a dark-skinned African woman. She’s more akin to Naomi Campbell and Gabrielle Union in pallor… when the movie was in the works, there were rumors about Angela Bassett taking the role, and I thought that was about right, as far as Storm’s look is concerned. Halle Berry’s a beautiful woman, but she doesn’t look like your typical Kenyan + blue eyes and white hair. As far as any canon changes ante-movie release, comic books are dying and comic book movies are their life support. I’ve seen storylines and character designs alike change to make potential fans who are only familiar with the movie version feel more comfortable with making a transition to the book, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Ororo has indeed started looking more like Halle since the movies came out.

    Posted 31 Mar 2008 at 6:14 pm ¶

39. Tony wrote:

    The kid I mentioend coloring seems to change too.
    If you look at the end of Uncanny 494, she looks blond (perhaps slightly reddish blond) and emerald green eyed.
    You look in New X-men 46 and she’s more red haired and blue-green eyed.

    The joy of different colorists strikes again huh?

    Unless they’re revealing the kid is Askani, the story could have just as easily set up Bishop as the protector and Cable as the one wanting to kill her.
    (and the last thing they need to do with the convoluted summers line is say that kid is Askani)

    As to needing more black villains, perhaps, but do they need to come at the expense of Black heroes?

    Much less one of the few black heroes who isn’t either
    A-actually from Africa (Panther, Storm) or
    B-all ghetto/thug stereotype (Luke Cage).?

    Posted 01 Apr 2008 at 11:23 pm ¶

40. Rob Schmidt wrote:

    Hey, someone over at Talking Points Memo called this posting a piece of fluff. How dare he!

    Although I don’t agree, the person has a point. Native Americans are portrayed as evil, murderous savages several times a year in comics. In the last year or so, we’ve seen it happen in SCALPED, RIPCLAW PILOT SEASON, THE FOURTH HORSEMAN, JONAH HEX, and STREETS OF GLORY, among others. Sorry, but compared to this virulent racism, Vixen’s skin color, uh, pales in comparison.

    True, this isn’t a competition, as I’m sure someone will remind us. But Racialicious carries weight, so what it emphasizes is important. By focusing on such topics as fashion models and light-skinned blacks, I wonder if it’s missing the forest for the trees.

    P.S. See Newspaper Rock (http://www.bluecorncomics.com/newsrock.htm) for my ongoing coverage of Natives in comics.

    Posted 02 Apr 2008 at 3:28 am ¶

41. Latoya Peterson wrote:

    Rob -

    I don’t really care about TPM commenters. I don’t have any responsibility to them. (However, I do love the posters over at TPM - if one of them says something, I would be more inclined to respond.)

    If you want us to cover Native Americans in comics, just say so. We get tips all the time from readers who want us to cover topics that interest them. That includes light skinned blacks. And fashion models. And thousands of other things that Carmen may be interested in, but I’m not and vice versa.

    There is a lot of web space out here. You don’t have to knock what is being covered in order to request a topic.

    To all, if you have suggestions about what should be convered on Racialicious, please drop an email to team@racialicious.com

    Posted 02 Apr 2008 at 7:12 am ¶

42. Skye wrote:

    Ms. Peterson, can we link this from the 21st carnival of feminist sf on Thursday? Please let me know if that would be ok with you.

    Thanks,
    Skye

    Posted 29 Apr 2008 at 11:30 am ¶

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