Race + Comic-Book Notes, Part 1: Comics Alliance Speaks Up

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

Remember when we asked, “Will Jim Lee Take After The Brave And The Bold?”? Apparently the answer is no. But we have to give props to Chris Sims at ComicsAlliance for also noticing this.

Late last week, Sims published a column calling out DC Comics after another round of white-washing its’ primary cast – in this instance the most recent Atom, Dr. Ryan Choi, was killed off, allowing his Silver Age predecessor, Ray Palmer, to don the red-and-blue mask – another nod to the penchant for nostalgia Lee and Geoff Johns are overseeing at the company:

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing — I’m certainly not an exception to fan culture, and there are stories that push my “Oh hey, I remember that” buttons as hard as anyone else’s — except that the form it takes ignores that much of what made Jack Kirby or Cary Bates or Alan Moore or Frank Miller so exciting wasn’t what they were doing, but that they were doing things that hadn’t been done before. Instead, we’re in an industry right now that wants to constantly reset itself, running on nostalgia rather than innovation, moving backwards instead of moving forwards, and while I complain about it both often and at length, it seems to be what the majority of comics readers want, no matter how wrong-headed I think it is.

The switch of Palmer for Choi comes on the heels of the company’s latest event, Blackest Night, and another change, involving Firestorm. For the past few years, the character’s primary alter ego was Jason Rusch, a young black character who went from his own short-lived solo series to being included in the Justice League of America. (Indeed, there was a brief stretch during Dwayne McDuffie’s run writing JLA where the team included not only Rusch, but Vixen; Kimiyo Hoshi as Doctor Light; and Green Lantern John Stewart. Compare that line-up to this somewhat less diverse team.) At the conclusion of Blackest Night, though, we learned that Rusch and his own white predecessor, Ronnie Raymond, would have to bond to form the flame-headed hero – but that it was Raymond providing their shared body’s “default setting.” These decisions look even more questionable when you factor in the following:

* The heavy promotion given to problematic “retro” stories like First Wave.

* The replacement of Cassandra Cain as Batgirl for Stephanie Brown.

* The “off-camera” killing-off of a half-Asian child character, Lian Harper, in the critically-reviled Cry For Justice miniseries. When questioned at a convention about the decision to kill Harper off, DC Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler said, “I’m happy it upset people because it means that the story had some weight and emotion.”

* The lack of attention given to the Milestone Universe characters aside from Static, and issues with McDuffie’s Milestone Forever mini-series.

Page 1 of 2 | Next page