Race + Comics Notes: Black Panther & DC Comics Update
So, because of the work of a black writer whose run was continually interrupted by company crossovers, a series about Chinese characters which was canceled before it wrapped, and the fact that Milestone heroes Static & Hardware have been “allowed” into the DCU, raising race questions is “inappropriate.” Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool also noticed Phiegly dropping the ball:
The interviewer then changed the subject rather than saying “Dwayne McDuffie on JLA, the man who you wooed with promised of integrating the Milestone characters into DC continuity, only to drop them all, and give him the JLA for as long as he wanted – until you fired him for talking about the writing process on your own companies boards which you were happy to keep up for none months until other people noticed? The same Dwayne McDuffie who saw his Milestone Forever books micro-edited for legal concerns over using quotes which a) weren’t a legal concern and b) you owned one of the quotes? And the JLA who, as soon as Dwayne had been fired off the book, saw minorities all but ethnically cleansed from the team?”
“And Great Ten, the book that received more criticism for stereotypical portrayals of foreign citizens than Banshee in the X-Men? And the series that you canceled early anyway?” “Those are the examples you use to proclaim DC’s commitment to diversity? Books DC no longer want to publish?”
In any other industry, DiDio’s comments might be cause for public censure, or some sort of disciplinary action. But because the comics business insists on having it both ways – promoting and pricing itself as Real Entertainment while hiding behind the veneer of escapism – and outlets like CBR continue to let them skate on these types of questions by dismissing them as the focus of an unnamed “some,” it won’t happen.
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In less FAIL-ridden news, today marks the U.S. release of that Black Panther animated series we asked about four months ago. Funny thing, though: it won’t be airing on BET, as had been originally planned.
“Who Is The Black Panther?,” adapted from the comic-book by Reginald Hudlin and John Romita Jr., will instead be available on iTunes, Xbox Live, Microsoft Zune and the Playstation Network. The nice thing about this is that it’ll allow the Panther (voiced by Djimon Hounsou) to interact with other Marvel characters, like The X-Men (Jill Scott will voice T’challa’s eventual bride, Storm), Captain America and the Juggernaut. And yes, Stan Lee will also have a guest role. Here’s a look at the show’s opening credits:
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