Raph's Girl
05-30-2006, 05:14 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/arts/28gustines.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
X-RAY vision. Teleportation. Shape-shifting. Flight. The special abilities of superheroes are certainly diverse. But historically the faces behind the masks have been much less so. Out of costume the biggest difference was black hair or blond. Green skin was more common than any shade of brown. And on the rare occasion when nonwhite heroes were included, names like Black Panther and Black Lightning telegraphed the difference.
But this year will be a banner one for diversity in the $500 million comic book business. At DC Comics, an effort is under way to introduce heroes who are not cut from the usual straight white male supercloth. A mix of new concepts, dusted-off code names and existing characters, the new heroes include Blue Beetle, a Mexican teenager powered by a mystical scarab; Batwoman, a lesbian socialite by night and a crime fighter by later in the night; and the Great Ten, a government-sponsored Chinese team.
Over at Marvel Comics, Black Panther, king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, will soon marry Storm, the weather-controlling mutant and X-Man. Luke Cage, a strong-as-steel black street fighter who married his white girlfriend in April, plays a key role in "New Avengers," the company's best-selling book.
Comic books have featured minorities before, but the latest push is intended to be a sustained one, taking place in an alternate world that nevertheless reflects American society in general and comics readers in particular, in much the same way that the multicultural casts of television shows like ABC's "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" mirror their audiences. "I'm glad we're at the point when they're being rolled out without flourish — not 'Minority Heroes Attack!,' " said Judd Winick, who has written many comics for both Marvel and DC. "It's important just to see them as characters and not a story line about race."
Credit is due in part to diversity behind the scenes. Reginald Hudlin, Black Entertainment Television's president for entertainment, is writing the Black Panther series. Joe Quesada is editor in chief at Marvel, the first Hispanic to have that job.
"I do look at the universe with a different set of eyes," Mr. Quesada said, "but I don't let race enter or interfere with the story. There's nothing worse than thinking, 'We need three more black characters in the Marvel universe.' "
In the DC universe, many of the heroes are closely tied to "52," an ambitious, yearlong series, published weekly, that began this month. With the established heroes Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman mainly offstage trying to find themselves after a strained alliance in "Infinite Crisis," the events of "52" force the new heroes into bigger roles.
"We're trying a lot at the same time," said Dan DiDio, DC's vice president and executive editor, "but we don't know how it's going to be accepted."
The concern is understandable given DC's uneven history with introducing minority characters en masse. In 1988 it published "The New Guardians," about a super-powered team that included an aboriginal girl, an Eskimo man and Extrano, an H.I.V.-positive gay man who wanted to be called Auntie, who was dismissed online by a fan as a "limp-wristed caricature."
In 1993 DC printed and distributed the work of Milestone Media, an African-American-owned company specializing in comics with black, Asian, Hispanic and gay heroes. Some of the titles ran for nearly four years, but all ceased publication during a volatile time in the comic industry. One character, a black teenager with electrical powers, found greater success in the animated series "Static Shock."
In 2000 another batch of international heroes — from Turkey, India, Japan, Argentina and elsewhere — were introduced under the "Planet DC" banner. These champions of justice have had few adventures since.
This time around the writers and editors are taking pains to avoid that fate. Mindful that readers can be especially resistant to new faces, the creators are carefully orchestrating introductions and linking unfamiliar characters to "legacy" heroes.
The previous Blue Beetle, who was white, was murdered last year in a hot-selling story that paved the way for the new Blue Beetle, a k a Jaime Reyes, a Mexican-American teenager in El Paso. Fans of the old Blue Beetle posted online messages decrying his death and griping about DC's new, generally more somber direction. But comics devotees are notorious for buying titles out of loyalty, whether from completist compulsion or from a need to be able to complain about what they don't like, and DC knows it. "It's hard to introduce any new hero," Mr. DiDio admitted. But, he said, if using familiar names "gives us a leg up so they're more readily accepted, I think that's the way to go."
Here is an image of Gay Batwoman (Kathy Kane).
http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/52/BatwomanColor_t.jpg
Here is also more info on her:
http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72016
And The Great 10:
http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/52/GreatTen/gallery.html
X-RAY vision. Teleportation. Shape-shifting. Flight. The special abilities of superheroes are certainly diverse. But historically the faces behind the masks have been much less so. Out of costume the biggest difference was black hair or blond. Green skin was more common than any shade of brown. And on the rare occasion when nonwhite heroes were included, names like Black Panther and Black Lightning telegraphed the difference.
But this year will be a banner one for diversity in the $500 million comic book business. At DC Comics, an effort is under way to introduce heroes who are not cut from the usual straight white male supercloth. A mix of new concepts, dusted-off code names and existing characters, the new heroes include Blue Beetle, a Mexican teenager powered by a mystical scarab; Batwoman, a lesbian socialite by night and a crime fighter by later in the night; and the Great Ten, a government-sponsored Chinese team.
Over at Marvel Comics, Black Panther, king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, will soon marry Storm, the weather-controlling mutant and X-Man. Luke Cage, a strong-as-steel black street fighter who married his white girlfriend in April, plays a key role in "New Avengers," the company's best-selling book.
Comic books have featured minorities before, but the latest push is intended to be a sustained one, taking place in an alternate world that nevertheless reflects American society in general and comics readers in particular, in much the same way that the multicultural casts of television shows like ABC's "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" mirror their audiences. "I'm glad we're at the point when they're being rolled out without flourish — not 'Minority Heroes Attack!,' " said Judd Winick, who has written many comics for both Marvel and DC. "It's important just to see them as characters and not a story line about race."
Credit is due in part to diversity behind the scenes. Reginald Hudlin, Black Entertainment Television's president for entertainment, is writing the Black Panther series. Joe Quesada is editor in chief at Marvel, the first Hispanic to have that job.
"I do look at the universe with a different set of eyes," Mr. Quesada said, "but I don't let race enter or interfere with the story. There's nothing worse than thinking, 'We need three more black characters in the Marvel universe.' "
In the DC universe, many of the heroes are closely tied to "52," an ambitious, yearlong series, published weekly, that began this month. With the established heroes Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman mainly offstage trying to find themselves after a strained alliance in "Infinite Crisis," the events of "52" force the new heroes into bigger roles.
"We're trying a lot at the same time," said Dan DiDio, DC's vice president and executive editor, "but we don't know how it's going to be accepted."
The concern is understandable given DC's uneven history with introducing minority characters en masse. In 1988 it published "The New Guardians," about a super-powered team that included an aboriginal girl, an Eskimo man and Extrano, an H.I.V.-positive gay man who wanted to be called Auntie, who was dismissed online by a fan as a "limp-wristed caricature."
In 1993 DC printed and distributed the work of Milestone Media, an African-American-owned company specializing in comics with black, Asian, Hispanic and gay heroes. Some of the titles ran for nearly four years, but all ceased publication during a volatile time in the comic industry. One character, a black teenager with electrical powers, found greater success in the animated series "Static Shock."
In 2000 another batch of international heroes — from Turkey, India, Japan, Argentina and elsewhere — were introduced under the "Planet DC" banner. These champions of justice have had few adventures since.
This time around the writers and editors are taking pains to avoid that fate. Mindful that readers can be especially resistant to new faces, the creators are carefully orchestrating introductions and linking unfamiliar characters to "legacy" heroes.
The previous Blue Beetle, who was white, was murdered last year in a hot-selling story that paved the way for the new Blue Beetle, a k a Jaime Reyes, a Mexican-American teenager in El Paso. Fans of the old Blue Beetle posted online messages decrying his death and griping about DC's new, generally more somber direction. But comics devotees are notorious for buying titles out of loyalty, whether from completist compulsion or from a need to be able to complain about what they don't like, and DC knows it. "It's hard to introduce any new hero," Mr. DiDio admitted. But, he said, if using familiar names "gives us a leg up so they're more readily accepted, I think that's the way to go."
Here is an image of Gay Batwoman (Kathy Kane).
http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/52/BatwomanColor_t.jpg
Here is also more info on her:
http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72016
And The Great 10:
http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/52/GreatTen/gallery.html