(This is part two of a two-part series. Read the first installation here. —Ed.)
In part one, I talked about the social implications for the lack of diversity in our superheroes and that youth need to see the best of themselves in the media that they consume. It is true that we are starting to see more heroes and superheroes of color coming about and many are original characters. We are getting Yohancé, an African, or Afro-futurist Space Opera. And a Nigerian comic start-up is putting together African superheroes. But they both are in for a long difficult road in bringing these characters to a widespread audience, especially for comics. Not just because they’re African heroes and publicity will be hard to come by, but because they are new.
It is very difficult to introduce new comic superheroes, even for established comic publishers. This makes Miles Morales and Ms. Marvel, a young Muslim woman, both of whom are Marvel Comic’s characters, growing popularity and success a revelation. And I’m looking forward to reading Yohancé and the comics by Comic Republic.
But to push things further, I fully believe that many of today’s tent poll hero’s backgrounds can be and should be reimagined.
Think of Steve Rodgers, Captain America, making him a black man in WWII America, fighting to find his place in the military. In a play off Americas history in using Black people for experiments, they use this black Steve Rodgers to test a super-soldier serum.
The serum is shown to work, but just like in the original, the serum is lost in the process, so he’s the only super soldier they have. He desperately wants to prove himself as an American and as a man. He hopes that as a black man he can help change things back home by serving in the war effort. He is frozen in time only to come back to see in many ways an unchanged America.
Now he’s back fighting against the powers that be, attempting to show what our ideals should be. Which is far from something strange from Steve Rodgers. We’ve seen it over and over again of Steve taking stances that are against the power structure of America. All of this would fit into the Steve Rodgers we know; it wouldn’t change the soul of the character. But it would put him in a new light and you could tell a whole new set of stories through this simple change.
Batman and Superman might be the best examples we have right now. Let’s look at Batman, arguably a crypto-fascist, using his mass wealth to militarize himself and fight, alongside a militarized police, crime in Gotham. Instead of addressing the economic (and I’m sure racial) disparities in Gotham city, he’s attempting to punch his way out and is supporting a police and security state. He does nothing to protect the people from politicians that created such an economic environment or a militarized police force.
Let’s make him black — a black Batman whose parents come from a line of northern Black aristocrats and they attempt to use their position to change the political and social climate of Gotham. They attempt to clean it up, addressing a corrupt and militarized police force, and addressing the political and corporate oppression of the city’s people.
Gotham can even be a diverse city, a tale of two cities — one of wealth and one of economic oppression. And in their attempt to clean the city up, a police officer is ordered to carry out their murders and to cover it up to look like the officer “feared for his life” and killed them in self-defense. Bruce was able to get away as his parents shielded him.
After their deaths, he goes through the same process but there is a twist on the end result. Bruce uses Wayne Enterprises to push for economic development and opportunities of the oppressed citizens of Gotham. He militarizes himself and creates Batman to combat the militarized and brutal Gotham PD.
It can breathe fresh air into him and even his rouge gallery. Harvey Dent could be a childhood friend, someone who served an older brother who helped look after Wayne after his parents died. Dent always attempted to make the balance of selfishness and selflessness, due to a tragic accident as Batman. Two Face is created and Dent betrays Wayne.
Gordon can serve as Wayne’s inside man inside the police department. The Penguin can serve as a politician or rival CEO attempting to keep the capitalistic oppression going in Gotham. The Joker can almost play as someone obsessed with individualism and survival of the fittest, testing Batman’s will to protect society in attempts to make Batman make a selfish, individual choice.
How about making Superman Latino? He has immigrant parents attempting to raise an immigrant to this planet. This could add some much needed humanity to Superman. This is something DC has attempted to do in various ways, sometimes with better results than others.
Superman has always been an attempt to show not just the best of America but the best of humanity, Superman even at one point renounced his American citizenship. What better way to bring Superman into the 21st century than by making him a part of a core part of America. To reflect the ideals we fail so spectacularly to uphold. This would make Lex Luther’s hate and fear of Superman even more reflective of the xenophobic views held by many in this nation.
Again, you can tell fresh stories that better reflect today’s world than the current comics do today. There are so many options — making Wonder Women actually come from the Amazon and come from a land lost in the Amazon rainforest. You can have Aquaman come from the South Pacific. You can have a queer women of color be a Green Lantern, where the power ring found someone that had the will to push themselves through obstacle after obstacle our society puts up for queer women of color. This breaks free of the white-man-with-unsurmountable-will trope.
Doing this would make their characters far more relatable. It would create the capability to write fresh new stories from brand new perspectives that the changing and more open demographics of today’s America can relate to.
“It would be amazing to have youth be able to see heroes in themselves and to not just see villains or criminals on TV. They would see people that look like them and struggle like them, but rise above and strive for greatness. Isn’t that what we want in our myths of heroes — great images that we can see a reflection of ourselves and ideals that we can strive for?”
Marvel would have a much easier route, but in doing so they can still open up fresh new ideas. They have a much more diverse cast of characters and most are already grounded in human struggle. Marvel can make Cyclops black, Latino, Native American, Hmong or whatever, and it wouldn’t take away or change the core of the character. But in doing so you can also add an intersection of life experiences to his life — think of a mutant Hmong male, growing up to be the leader of a quasi-militant force. There are all sorts of enriching cultural stories you can tell through that lenses.
You can have Wolverine a black escaped slave that was shown around as a freak of nature, just as black slaves were put on display. How about a transgender person as the shapeshifter Mystique, or a Beast/Hank McCoy trying to find a mutant cure that when he uses on himself turns him advances his mutation and how if he’s a person of color that could add all sorts of depth to his attempt to “cure” himself.
And in adding color or diversity of experiences, you don’t even need to highlight cultural differences and aim to write a “culturally enriching” story, you could just do it because it would be a better reflection of the world that we live and engage in.
It would be amazing to have youth be able to see heroes in themselves and to not just see villains or criminals on TV. They would see people that look like them and struggle like them, but rise above and strive for greatness. Isn’t that what we want in our myths of heroes — great images that we can see a reflection of ourselves and ideals that we can strive for?
