Hey kids! IT’S LETTER COLUMN TIME! Gather ’round the fire and tell me your story, or what you’ve thought of mine! You’re letters will be in orange, my comments will be in the formal dress white.
I have to agree that the comics are pathetically white. Just a few notes:
1) Lois Lane underwent a “negroplasty” way back.
2) Astro City is pleasantly diverse.
3) The New X-men has a surprisingly diverse cast for comics.
Anyway, small bits in a large white space.
Charles H.
Right on, Charles. For as multi-cultural as the planet is, our entertainment is very vanilla. Though I can’t help but wonder if black entertainment as a whole isn’t part of the problem as well. Look at any number of “black” television shows and movies and consider whether or not anyone OTHER than black viewers would be interested. Sure, there are certainly cross-over shows such as Cosby or The Jeffersons or Dave Chappelle (COME BACK DAVE! WE MISS YOU!). But I think most of the shows are so narrowly focused that it leaves most other cultures out. How many whites went to see “How Stella Got Her Groove Back?” I don’t think small multi-colored bits in a large white space, to borrow Charles’ phrase, is how things should be. I think there’s more than enough room and money in the entertainment business–TV, movies, and certainly books and comics–for everyone to have a good-sized chunk of a colorful mosaic.
On to your specific points:
1) Lois Lane did indeed opt for the negroplasty procedure to go undercover for a Daily Planet assignment. Figures her boss, Perry WHITE, would make her, a white WOMAN, turn BLACK for a story. Makes you actually like J. Jonah Jameson doesn’t it?
2) I remember Jack-in-the-Box the best, but you’re right, Kurt Busiek does a good job with diversity on almost all of his works. Power Company had great representation. For the purposes of focus, I only discussed Marvel and DC. I could have pointed out Image as being nicely diverse too (one of the best black characters in my opinion is Jackson King of StormWatch/The Authority/The Monarchy, to say nothing of Spawn or Shadowhawk or Larry Stroman’s too short-lived Tribe – StormWatch as it orignally stood was the best mutlicultural book since Giant Sized X-Men #1), and there are many diverse independent comics, but I had to draw the line somewhere.
3) I also, due to my craptacular day job, didn’t have a great deal of time to do research on every Marvel and DC comic, but I’ve heard good things about the New X-Men, and my lists, I believe, included several of their number. I should hunt up a couple of their trades.
Hey there. Can’t really argue with the absurd lack of minority representation in comics. Though I think you missed one of the most glaring, and insulting examples of a race change in comics. That of the X-Man Psylocke. Really? How insulting is it that the most recognizable Asian superhero Marvel has is a British woman’s whose mind was transferred into a Japanese woman’s body?
Anyway enjoy this little post-Silver Age cover from Lois Lane #106. It seems this story is based loosely on John Howard Griffin’s real-life book Black Like Me, so it’s probably a little more excusable than the Punisher/Cage crossover you mentioned, though it’s still pretty damn outrageous.
Paul S.
Obviously this message arrived before I did my “Not Black but still not White” list. I agree, Psylocke is a sorry excuse for ethnic representation. I still believe, and nobody’s going to persuade me otherwise, that the only reason she became a ninja is because Jim Lee can’t draw Anglo Saxons. Everybody is sorta nondescript Asian. I can’t imagine there was ever an editorial discussion with Chris Claremont that resulted in, “Gee, you know, Jim likes ninjas, and the X-men are awfully white. I mean, sure, there’s Forge, but Indians don’t count. Ohh, here’s a thought, let’s make Psylocke Japanese! Her power manifests in a purple butterfly around her face, you know, kind of a Madame Butterfly thing. Brilliant!” Much clinking together of Guinness bottles later, the proper English wench is suddenly a sultry Tokyo temptress. Shee-ah, right, as if. (Note to self: get hired at Marvel, turn Aunt May into the girl from Warrant’s Cherry Pie video, get Greg Land to draw my book.) And thanks for the pic of Sister Lois! I don’t know if it’s more or less excusable than the Frank Castle angioplasty, but if there’s literary reasons involved, I’d consider it. Besides, is anything worse than trying to believe C. Thomas Howell as a black man in “Soul Man”? And thanks for the pic!
Good column, but isn’t Banshee from the Republic, and not Ulster? That’s not the UK.
Colin
Thanks Colin, for the kind words, but not for the geography lesson. Next you’re going to tell me Canada isn’t in the U.S. We’ll just see what Prime Minister Bush says about that, eh?
Hey Jeff,
Just read the first two parts of your Welcome To My Nightmare column over at Inside Pulse. One of the better comic book related columns I have read in a long time, and it’s refreshing to see one that does not simply review comics or write about comic book related retrospectives.
First, some background details. I’m Asian (Chinese to be exact), and I hail from Malaysia, which is a very multi-ethnic country although the Chinese population represents roughly 30% of the country’s population. I’ve been reading comics for well over 20 years now (admittedly I completely missed out on Punisher’s stint as a black man).
This is gonna sound weird, but when I read comics, I never actually pay any attention to the character’s nationality or ethnic origins. I just like them as characters and enjoy reading their exploits. I may not identify with them, but that has never been a significant factor for me. While it would be cool to see more Asian representation in comic books, I’d rather have less Asian characters than to have a boatload of badly written caricatures. For example, NOBODY ever says anything as silly as “Well Done, Grasshopper”, but that didn’t stop Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird from giving Splinter that line of dialogue. Yes, he’s a rat, but he’s an Asian rat, yo.
In fact, the only well written Asian character that springs to mind is the second Doctor Light, Kimiyo Hoshi, who made her first appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Anyways, I was considered comics (especially the superhero genre) as a means to escape reality. So I like reading about Kryptonian farm boys, an emotionally damaged rich orphan who likes to dress like a flying rodent, and a Cimmerian barbarian. They all look Caucasian. And I never really notice that.
Just my point of view.
MCF
Great letter, MCF, and I like that your signature always reminds me of the Beastie Boys (MCA is one of their members). And I don’t think it sounds weird at all that you don’t notice nationality or ethnic origins in your reading. I don’t honestly seek it out. I don’t flip through every comic the Big Two put out and count minorities. I read for the same reason you do–escapism. But I find my suspension of disbelief comes crashing down to earth when I see glaring failures like the Punisher-Cage thing or Beetle-Black Mach II in Thunderbolts. There’s just no reason not to use a pre-existing minority character in these instances or make up a new one. By the same token, I wouldn’t want Sunfire or Shang Chi to suddenly become blond-haired blue eyed whites either. “Be yourself, no matter what they say!” –Sting, “Englishman in New York”
Hey Jeff,
Just thought I’d chime in from my POV, is all. Hopefully you get more responses from other readers from various racial/ethnic groups. See what their 2-cents are regarding this topic.
To be fair, I have only read an issue each of Priest and Reginald Hudlin’s Black Panther. I enjoyed Priest’s issue (it was Black Panther # 6, with art by Joe Jusko, for the record), although it couldn’t get the full impact of the story since I did not read any issues that came before or after. I thought Hudlin’s Black Panther # 1 was full of crap, not because of the character or writing per se, but the wholesale disregard of past continuity.
Similarly, I have not read any of New Avengers, Alias, or Pulse, so I cant say much about Bendis’ portrayal of Luke Cage. I thought Sweet Christmas was cool in a retro ’70s kinda way, and I really enjoyed the 1980s Power Man & Iron Fist series when it was written by Priest (when he was still known as Jim Owsley), as well as the 1990s Cage series by Marc McLaurin and Dwayne Turner.
Lastly, in regards to Jim Lee’s pencils, I have to disagree with you with everyone looking Asian. I have been buying his stuff from his early days on Punisher War Journal to his current run on All Star Batman, and I seriously do not see any overtly Asian features on his characters.
Looking forward to your letter column!
MCF
You again! You’ll never stop me, MCF! It’s too late! Bwahaha! And thanks, now I got “Paul Revere” stuck in my head again. Interesting point you make on Priest’s run of Black Panther vs. Hudlin’s run. They are very different. Honestly, everything Priest does is very different. I think that works against him a lot of the time, and honestly that SUCKS. Why does Priest get ragged on for being a unique voice in comics and Grant Morrison gets runs on every flagship title at both companies? Grant’s written things I’ve liked, such as JLA, Marvel Boy, Animal Man and some of the Seven Soldiers minis, and Lockjaw-sized crap like his X-Men. To be fair, I should point out that Frank Quietly’s art makes Grant’s worst work look like a sparkling pile of precious gems. Here, I’ll say it so you folks won’t have too: LIEFIELD IS BETTER. Where was I? Ah yes, Priest deserves an honest shot at a big title. IF he can get something out in a timely fashion, I’d give him Iron Man. Unfortunately Marvel only ever seems interested in pushing him into low-selling, lower-marketed, minority-driven books. I personally would love a Falcon on-going series, but I think I’d be disappointed on principle and politics if Priest was assigned to it. I thought his run at DC on Justice League Task Force was a lot of fun. I wouldn’t mind seeing what he could do as a regular Batman writer. Or maybe give him a Gotham Central-style book. There’s a vacuum for that kind of thing, obviously. Maybe he could do a Metropolis Special Victims Unit series. Hmmm…naw, there’s no black people in Metropolis. Did you know that Metropolis is set in Delaware? No wonder Superman is such a complete wuss. But I bet if Jim Lee did sketches of the residents of Delaware there’d suddenly be a lot more nondescript Asians on the census report.
I write to disagree with your description of the South Side of Chicago. I live in Chicago, on the South Side. First, the South Side of Chicago is a large, diverse area. To disparage the entire South Side as a “ghetto” or “home to the White Sox and crack houses” is plain wrong and insulting. There are many black, middle class neighborhoods on the South Side. Your flippant comments are just wrong. I will, however, tell you as a comic collector for many years, there are two comic stores readily located near African American middle class neighborhoods on the South Side. The shop you mention, near the Sears Tower has not been there for years (which tells me how long its been since you have visited here). There is a comic store at Michigan Avenue, just across from Grant Park. This store has been downtown for years and is easily accessible via our fine public transit system. The Virgin Megastore here has a large selection of comics, as does Borders. While these options may seem limited in comparison to your little corner of suburbia, there are many more places for comic readers to find comics in Chicago, then you wrongheadly state.
Darryl D.
My flippant comments aren’t wrong, they’re just flippant. The south side of Chicago is indeed diverse. You can get weed and coke and heroin there too. I’ve visited Chicago twice in the last five years, and neither time made it back by the Sears tower, so if that shop’s gone, that’s a shame. But EVERY time I’ve been to Chicago, somebody’s tried to sell me drugs. EVERY time. The only people who talked to me and didn’t offer me a bag of something either white and powdery or green and herbal either asked me for my order or informed me that I was stepping on their pants leg while they laid across the steps leading up the ‘L’. When I was in the South Side, it was to see the Cleveland Indians play the White Sox. Frank “Big Hurt” Thomas hit a couple homers. And somebody tried to sell me some rocks as my car crawled out of the parking lot, and they weren’t diamonds. At no time did I purposely crisscross Chicago’s Downtown, South Side or suburbs for comic stores. I don’t doubt they exist. You wouldn’t know where the St. Louis stores are either if you didn’t look for them on purpose or stroll by one on accident. I’m disappointed that out of all of the points I tired to make on the handling of minorities in comics all you took from it is that I have no use for Chicago. I actually plan to go back up this year at some point. I think the Adler Planetarium is outstanding, and I haven’t been to the Museum of Science and Industry yet. I haven’t been in the Field Museum since I was a kid. Hopefully with all that I’ll still have time to see the great Carlos Guillen lead his Sox to another playoff run. Hopefully they’ll lose to the Indians. And hopefully they’ll let wrongheaded mutants like me in to town with out sending Brian Urlacher after me. I don’t run real fast. Too many years playing catcher. I’ll never understand blind civic pride. St. Louis has problems. We’re among the top murder cities in America every year, despite being a “small market”. Frankly, I’d rather get solicited for drugs than get shot. Remember that scene in the first “Vacation” movie? The Griswolds drive through St. Louis, hear gun shots, Clark says, “Roll ’em up!” and that’s the extent of our city’s representation. Do I care? Hell no. I probably SHOULD care, but I’m wrongheaded, so I don’t. Go Cleveland!
Hi Jeff,
I’m really enjoying the race article in comics that you’ve been doing. Since you’re doing a good job and asked for some feedback, I figured why not…
I’m East Indian and my culture/people haven’t really been presented too much in the popular comic books I read growing up and to speak the truth, it doesn’t really bother me too much. I look back to when I was a child and enjoyed reading about Batman, Superman, Spidey and even the Ninja Turtles and didn’t even think about the race issue as much. To me, I wanted to read about a hero and their adventures and didn’t really become aware of the race issue in comics till I matured.
Nevertheless, I like to think that the major publishers are on the right track and moving towards something positive. I look at recent events like the Blade franchise, John Stewart’s portrayal in the JLU cartoon, the exchange between Mr. Terrific and Black Lightning in Infinite Crisis, the character Orpheus showing up in Gotham (a death that was TOTALLY unnecessary) and his subsequent challenging of Batman in terms of not being able to relate to certain elements of Gotham, Luke Cage’s marriage as well as more Asian characters both supporting and not such as Wally West’s wife, Black Mask’s assistant, etc… although a lot of Asian characters still play stereotypical martial artist characters. Still, its small steps on the way to something…
Also, I think that in terms of the upper tier characters, it’s very difficult to break in. Look at Marvel and DC and in terms of top tier characters, who besides Wolverine has been created in the last 30 years has made it to that level? Virtually no one. Sure, there are fan favorites but very few “new” characters make it to the upper echelon. Look at a character like Spawn, an African-American character whose popularity was tremendous but dwindled based on a lack of interest.
Is it perfect…of course not. But progress takes time. There are still ethnic minorities who are portrayed in a stereotypical way but I think that eventually, we’ll get there. At least I hope so. There are still books in the major two companies that aim to tackle issues but I also think that maybe the reason why many writers don’t is because they believe readers don’t want to read about it. Do fanboy comic book readers want to see Batman try to make a difference in Inner City Gotham or have him throw down with the Joker AGAIN? Or do they want to see Spiderman trying to defend Sioux Natives or see the return of Venom? I think that enlightened comic book fans want to see something new and different and even socially responsible but the publishers don’t cater to the minority of fans…they cater to the ones who have no idea who Frank Miller and Alan Moore are.
Keep up the good work,
Jag
Well said, Jag. You didn’t leave me much to do except nod in agreement! But you didn’t think that would keep me from running my mouth (or fingers, truth be told) about it anyway? Silly you! You didn’t number your points, and of course you didn’t have to, but since Charles started things off that way, I thought I’d close that way. Circular logic, or some such crap. Then again, I might be way off. Haven’t you heard? I’m wrongheaded.
1) Orpheus getting the dirt nap is one of the few things I’ve read in the last several years that really made me stop and ask, “What in the Hell are they thinking?!?” Most of the time, I could just blame Fabian Nicieza (HA! YOU THOUGHT I FORGOT! SUCKERS!) but killing off Orpheus, in my mind, just underlines the problem with the way blacks are handled in comics. Instead of making him the hero of the story by letting him grow as Batman’s partner if not equal in fighting crime in Gotham, they made him a martyr. But nobody’s going to proclaim a day off school and work to remember him. All he did was try to work a different angle than Batman and it got him killed. No crossover with Superman, no brief membership with the Justice League, no wedding bells for Orpheus and…um…are there any black women in the DCU? Other than Amanda Waller (ewwww!) Maybe he’d have hooked up with Skyrocket from the Power Company or even the Huntress! Wouldn’t that have been fun? Think of the chip on their kid’s shoulder. But no, he’s dead and as we all know, in comics, dead is dead. Unless you’re white.
2) Jag my friend, I think I’m going to honor you by doing a future a column where I try to figure out what current characters actually COULD ascend to cornerstone status. You’re right, at least off the top of my head I can’t think of anyone newer than Wolverine to really attain “icon” status. Coming soon, to a Welcome to My Nightmare near you!
3) I quit reading Spawn around issue 25 because I just really don’t think Todd MacFarlane was ever anything that special as an artist or a writer. I do give him credit for drawing his own style, though, no matter it’s level of appeal to me personally. But thinking back to those early days, I can’t really recall any particular moment that ever struck me as being uniquely “black.” Nothing in the dialogue, nothing in the situations, nothing at all ever said, “I’m Spawn, and I’m a black man.” In fact, if you never saw Wanda or the kid, and all you ever saw was Spawn’s burnt mug, you’d never know he was ever black at all. I doubt Spawn ever drew a particularly black readership. I think the lack of real devotion to the “limited magic” gimmick hindered my interest. It was pretty apparent that he’d never run out. I kinda thought it would have been cooler to the book more like the Crow. Make the character a serial Spawn. When Al runs out of magic, presumably doing something selfless to protect Wanda or the kid, he either becomes a normal, whole and mortal man or goes to his final resting place. And a new character, a black, white, Asian, East Indian, American Indian, or even a Chicagoan (gasp!) takes the role. There could be subtle or drastic changes to the costume — perfect for marketing his toy line. Why don’t people consult me for this stuff?!?
4) I don’t know who Frank Miller is…anymore. I used to LOVE his Daredevil stuff, and the first Dark Knight Returns was brilliant. Sin City was crazy, but the striking use of black and white was remarkable and unforgettable. And so to was DK2, for all the wrong reasons. You’re right, the Big Two doesn’t cater to discerning readers. But as you’ll see when I get time to do another longer-researched column, I’m not convinced the Big Two knows who they’re catering to anymore. More on that in the future.
That’s all for this week folks, but don’t fret! I have a whole bunch more letters to post next week, so if you wrote me on the Minority Report and I didn’t answer it this week, check back in 7 days. And if you haven’t wrote yet, there’s still time. I’ll even still accept letters from Chicago. And deep dish pizzas. I accept those too. I always thought Pizzeria Uno was a Chicago-style deep dish chain. But I took a date there a year or so back and while I was chewing on the crust, it hit me. Bisquick. Bisquick? BISQUICK!! I paid over $20 for a pizza made from Bisquick?!? My mother would have made me a pizza out of Bisquick for FREE. I had frozen pizzas in the freezer, not deep dish, no, but no Bisquick either! I was so irritated I half a mind to walkout without paying the tab. But then I remembered what happened the one time I tried to get a deep dish pizza in Chicago. I went into a place called “Chicago Pizza”. Right next door to “Chicago Burrito”. I walk in to find that both restaurants share the same space, a cafeteria style serving line with burritos on one side and something less tasty than frozen Tombstone pizza on the other. All served by Asians. Hmm-mmm. Nothing beats a good, authentic Chicago-style pizza. So I’m told.
Welcome to my nightmare.
