Real Character Diversity

I don’t think it would come as a big shock to anyone that the world we live in today is a diverse one, so why is it that comics seem to be coming so late to the party?

When I learned that Ultimate Spider-Man would be resurrected with a new character donning the web-slinger’s garb, I was annoyed. Peter Parker is Spider-Man and that’s all there is to it. The death of Spider-Man should mean just that. God knows that death in comics is only temporary anyways. The scene exploded when we learned that this new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, would be half-black and half-Hispanic! Gasp! While the comic book world reeled, I was left wondering why the ethnicity of this kid mattered so much. Then I read Brian Bendis’ hard sell. “We have an African-American president, so why not an African-American Spider-Man, too?” I literally cringed as I read the words.

As a multiracial person, I’m all for diversity in comics. It’s more believable and better represented of the world we live in, but Miles Morales was quickly turning into force-fed diversity, which never goes down smooth. Diversity for diversity’s sake is the last thing we need in comics. Having someone else try to fill Peter Parker’s shoes is setting a character up for failure. Adding the grandiose show about diversity could quickly turn this into a disaster. For me, it begs the question, had they come out with this character without the “look how inclusive we are” spiel attached, would anyone have even cared that Miles is multiracial? It’s 2011 and I rarely get pointed at by mouth-agapedpeople on the streets, so would this have really been a big deal if they hadn’t forced it to be one? Bendis remarks that, “it’s certainly long overdue. Even though there’s some amazing African-American and minority characters bouncing around in all the superhero universes, it’s still crazy lopsided.” And he’s absolutely right. That said, as a minority, this is not how I want to see minority characters introduced.

I don’t need a display of how much you deserve an “I care about the little guy” award every time you introduce someone who’s not Caucasian or male. Show me you respect diversity by introducing and including characters as if they deserve to be there – no circus required.

Impress me by coming out with a solid character who may or may not be a minority, instead of a minority character who may or may not be solid. When we base a hero on the superficial instead of the character, we have no chance to hit that spot in readers that makes us forget our exterior differences and connect with the character’s being.

Although Marvel’s most recent endeavor was disappointingly handled at best, they’ve at least been on the diversity train for years. A train that DC now seems desperate to catch. With DC’s 52 new number ones coming out, they seem to be looking to catch up on the diversity of their characters. Some of titles include Batwoman, who is female, Jewish AND gay (Huzzah! A hat trick!), Batwing, who is basically the black version of Batman (with an open cowl sporting a coif of curly hair in case you forgot he’s the BLACK version) and Jaime Reyes as the Hispanic reboot of the Blue Beetle. While I can appreciate the efforts given by including this array of characters in the DC reboot, it seems they may have forgotten that diversity also needs to happen behind the scenes.

Of the 160 credited creators on the DC reboots, 157 are male. Using my brain to do some impressively quick math, that means only THREE creators are female. As a woman who lives and breathes comics, I know more than most that we’re not exactly common. Most of the time when I tell guys that my interests include mainly comics they ask me if I prefer Betty or Veronica, but rarity aside, there must absolutely be a way to have more than three out of 160 creators represented by women. And only two of the three are writers, which terrifies me. I can’t write for a middle-aged Caucasian male. I can give it a college try, but when it comes down to it, no one can write for a man like a man can and no one can write for a woman like a woman can. The same goes for ethnicity and sexual identity. If you’ve ever seen Disney’s rendition of a black character, you’ll know exactly what I mean. No, we don’t all talk like Will I. Am.

Now this doesn’t mean that with the right amount of research that any writer worth their salt can dive into a character with a different background and make it flow naturally, but it wouldn’t hurt to different backgrounds touching the piece throughout to keep it authentic.  I don’t think they’ll be able to get there believably until the reboot their creators to better represent their characters. What worries me most is when I hear about things like the now infamous Batgirl at the 2011 San Diego Comic-con. A woman dressed as Batgirl visited DC panels asking one question, “where are all the women?” Not only did the creators at DC, in her own words, “brush her off” completely, but her fellow comic book readers turned on her. She was met with boos and jeers as the panelists tried to squirm their way out of answering any questions directly.

While I think that DC is heading in the right direction by including more diversity in their titles, this woman was absolutely right. There is no excuse for having 1% female creators in a publication as large as DC Comics and the only way that will change is with our voices demand it. As long as we turn on the one voice begging for equality, we’ll never have it. The nerd community has since rallied in Batgirl’s defense, but it makes you wonder how much of that is post-Con guilt rather than feminist passion. As the fans, we must dictate where the industry is going, and if we end up with an all male publication, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Rebooting for diversity is not a new concept. Over the years, characters have been rebooted or shown in alternate universes as different versions of themselves plenty of times. They almost never catch on and they almost always seem forced. We had Earth-D with the Justice Alliance of America, which gave us a black Superman and Supergirl, an Asian Flash, and an Native American Green Arrow (get it? Because Indians know how to use arrows). Colossus was portrayed as gay in Ultimate, as well as Nick Fury being black. Black Nick Fury has carried on to comic book movies, which also take a character’s ethnicity with a grain of salt. Middle Eastern Ra’s al Ghul was played by Irish Liam Neeson, Norse god Heimdall was played by African-American Idris Elba and Hispanic villain Bane will be played by English actor Tom Hardy. We’ve had a black Catwoman with Halle Berry *shudders* and there was once even talk of singer Beyoncé playing Wonder Woman on the big screen *shudders again*. So, at what point do we stop changing race to prove how “not racist” we are? Though I thought Elba did a great job as Heimdall, was it true to the comic? No! And as a comic book reader, that’s what I’m begging for every time a new comic book movie is announced. If you feel you need to reach out to the African-American comic book reader community with a character they can relate to, make a Black Panther or a Luke Cage movie!

I may be biased, as it is my favorite comic, but I have yet to see diversity done better than in X-Men. The entire idea of the mutant struggle has been compared over and over again to the struggles of being gay in America. The bullying, the coming out as a mutant and fighting against the status quo showed wonderful parallels in a respectful way. You can also liken the story of the X-Men’s struggle to civil rights in ethnic diversity.

X-Men has constantly introduced new and important characters in all different shapes and colors without making a grand show of it. The many X-Men titles feature characters like Native American Dani Moonstar, Afghanistan-born Dust and our fearless (sometimes) disabled leader Charles Xavier. We see the war of anti-Semitism through Magneto and his past as a Jewish child during Nazi times. Ethnicity, religion and lifestyle are built-in so naturally that you hardly notice. In the X-Men, you’ll find as many women as you will men as well as gay characters and heroes of every color in the book. In fact, in the X-Men universe alone there are 11 LGBT characters that are main focuses.

One of the X-Men’s most famous villains, Mystique, is in fact bisexual, something that you hardly ever think about because these distinctions are written in so seamlessly that it just feels like real life. No one would think twice if the next new mutant is a Mexican-American lesbian Methodist, so why are we making such a show over a mixed Spider-Man and a more diverse DC Universe?

Here’s my beef. My favorite character since I was 5 years old has been Rogue from the X-Men. I felt like I identified with her, and a white girl from Mississippi I am not. That said, if Marvel announced tomorrow that they were placing her with ‘new and improved’ multiracial Rogue from Michigan, I would undoubtedly be among those pounding down Marvel’s door picketing against this travesty.

It’s very possible to connect to a character that looks nothing like you. Don’t reboot a character I already know and love to try to reel me in more by putting my face on them. Give me new characters that represent the actual diversity of the world and make them uniquely their own. I want original characters that are female, black, Asian, Hispanic, Native, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, disabled – it makes the comic world a better representation of the world we know.

Rebooting already established characters as a different color feels forced. I want diversity the way it is – natural, not jammed down my throat. It makes no difference to me if this new hero is black, white or purple, just draw me in with how amazing their character is. “Look over here, Carmen! This new character is mixed! Just like you and the President!” is not going to do anything but leave a sour taste in my mouth.