There was an article on Salon about the backlash to the
recent increased diversity of characters in comics. The article was brought to my attention by
David F. Walker of BadAzzMoFo.com. I
thought about just re-releasing My Boys Can Be Idiots article. That article talks about the misogyny in and
directed at Comic Book fandom. It did
not talk about racism or behavior against any other minority (racial, religious,
cultural, or ethnic). I thought about
releasing my Iconography article about the changing of race, ethnicity, gender
or sexual identity of Iconic characters. I realized I needed readdress this
subject. The Iconography article talked
about changes these attributes. This
article is about how that diversity is viewed and can help positively.
Much of the backlash
had been direct towards a slew of new characters or character taking on new
mantles. The examples are the new Female
Thor, the Muslim Ms. Marvel, and Sam Wilson AKA the Falcon becoming Captain America
Diversity is a big deal to me. I grew up in a predominantly Mexican-American
neighborhood in a city with a large Japanese-American community. My family includes people of Filipino,
Mexican, Jewish, and Native American descent. Some of those heritages I share
and some I do not. Since I was
differently abled with a facial deformity, I felt even more different growing
up. To me there were very few people
like me, so my heroes would not be like me.
I grew up with heroes like Zorro, Sinbad, Bruce Lee, Mohammad Ali, and
Cesar Chavez. None of them looked like
me. I did not care I thought they were
cool are people to look up to. When I
was younger I created my own superhero universes I always made them diverse, it
was not a stunt for me. It was about
reflecting the world as I had known it.
The meat of the matter is that many responsible for the Video
Game misogynistic brouhaha are now setting their sights on Comic Book and the
Big Two’s recent pushes for diversity.
In the community itself there has been debate about whether or not these
characters or mantle changes are just a marketing ploy. In the past when
changes like these have happened more often than not the original version of
the character is restored sooner or later.
The new more volatile voices in the debate are saying, “How dare you
change our predominantly white straight male comic book paradigm”. They claim that the two companies are bending
their will to some leftist liberal and feminist agenda. This is similar to
their outcry in the Video Gaming arena.
These changes do not take away the already existing plethora
of White Male Straight comic book characters that already exist as cultural
icons. It is strange that the
controversy happens when a character crosses gender, racial, ethnic, religious,
or sexual identity lines. No one got
upset about Frog Thor, Spider-Ham or Beta Ray Bill (an Alien Thor). It also seems suspect that the recent spout
of attacks on this occurs when the Video Game misogyny controversy began to quiet
to a point. These people are reactionary
to the change of the status quo. They
dislike things changing to better everyone.
In a way, more diversity means those offended are not a special as they
thought. They want everything to be
about them and reflecting their myopic view of the world and their hobbies.
From a marketing standpoint, the more people interested in
comics the more money you make. With
that dynamic the Big Two are going to want to cater to as many possible
markets. There has been a debate in the
fandom and industry of comics about this.
The need for more diverse characters and diverse creators is there. It
seems to be getting better, but there is definitely room for improvement. Those critical of diversity would be critical
of any change to the status quo as they see it.
The sad thing is traditionally the more diverse characters do not always
sell well. In the past sales for Blue
Beetle and Static Shock led to their cancellations. That seems to be changing
too with the popularity of the new Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel. Vote with your wallet.
The reason to have such diversity is to give people of
differing backgrounds representation in our popular culture. It has been proven to help inspire youth of
those backgrounds. Studies have shown
that representation in popular culture helps build self esteem in
children. It gives them hope that they
too can participate in our larger society and world. Racism tends to come from fear of the
unknown. A more diverse representation
in popular culture shows everyone we are all people and all members of the
human race. There are differences, but
there are even more we have in common with each other. Is this going to solve this? No, these issues are too complex to be solved
by a more diverse popular culture alone.
It will help in the long run. This
Has Been My Not So Humble Opinion.
