Showing posts with label MIghty Avengers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MIghty Avengers. Show all posts

Saturday, August 22, 2015

The Other Side of Representation in Comics

So, earlier this week, I was doing research online for what might turn into a Black Nerd Problems article sometime soon. And anyone who knows me or even follows me on Twitter or Facebook knows that my doing research on the internet equates to my finding a new awful inner layer of the internet that I never knew about before. Fortunately, I didn't quite find that but the past few months put me onto a new degree of naysayer geeks I didn't really know/acknowledge previously.

In this case, it's the New Marvel Defectors (that's not a thing, internet...it's just my term). New Marvel Defectors generally have a problem with the direction the company is taking in being more socially inclusive (more female characters, Black Captain America, Woman Thor, etc). The biggest complaint I hear is that Marvel's approach constitutes as lazy writing and that instead of repurposing existing characters to take up the mantle of an existing white superhero, they should just make new characters.

Now, let me first state that this IS AT LEAST HALF TRUE. Yes, the Big Two SHOULD be developing new characters and, mainly in DC's case, working a little harder to develop existing characters of color and non-binary characters. However, let's not pretend that this isn't something that's actively happening. There's been an all woman squad of X-Men in a series that's run right up until Secret Wars, I believe. Al Ewing had a great run on Mighty Avengers, a book about Luke Cage's Avengers team that consisted mostly of characters of color. All New Hawkeye is basically a buddy hero book that highlights Kate Bishop every bit as much as Clint Barton. And, of course, before that, Matt Fraction's Hawkeye basically splits up to two individual self sustaining stories, one with Barton vs. the Tracksuit Mafia, the other with Kate Bishop vs. Madame Masque. And of course, there's G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel, which is a great look at identity, race and coming of age. The people that think original inclusion isn't happening just aren't looking close enough.

Second of all, even with creating new characters, it still misses part of the point of representation and what we're telling little kids (because sometimes, we forget that kids read this shit, too). I like Superman. I've liked Superman ever since I was a kid. My first example of what it meant to be a superhero was Superman. When I played Justice League with my friends, I wanted to be Superman. Once, a kid told me that I couldn't be Superman because he was white and I was black. I knew everything there was to know about Superman. I knew and lived by (or at least TRIED to live by) his ideals. But the kid boiled it down to mere skin color because that's all he knew. I'm not calling the kid racist, of course. For him, it was a matter of aesthetics although it speaks to so many levels of colorism.

Despite cynicism being trendy nowadays, the superhero is still hugely tied to the latter day mythologies of modern culture for now and for always. They are fables inextricably tied to the values by which we live, the hope we pass down from generation to generation. They link us. Sometimes, they even shape us. When you tell people to create new characters instead of breaking the gender/color boundaries of the existing franchises, you're telling a whole readership of children that no matter how much they look up to Captain America or Thor, being black or a woman or gay or whatever you are....means that Captain America will always be off limits to them on some level. You saying that a white person is allowed to take that character's place (as has been the case with Captain America, Batman, Daredevil that I can think of right off the bat), but never a black person or a woman. You're essentially chastising them for wanting to have the attributes of an awesome character that they really like.

Although some heroes' obstacles and outlooks on the world are undeniably linked and shaped because of their race, superheroes are not just men and women built on race. They're ideals, principles, morals and deeds. Yes, Static is an awesome superhero (who occasionally suffers from being in bad comics) and yes, he could stand to be built upon and really SHOULD be built upon, but Superman is a legend, an icon. As great a character as he is, Static is NOT Superman. Representation isn't just building a new foundation for an institution. It's about changing transcending barriers and rearranging the way we look at the old one.

My comic reviews for Archie and Star Wars are available for your viewing pleasure on Black Nerd Problems. Feel free to like, hate, share, comment at your leisure. You know the drill.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

It's Just Hair, Folks....

Mighty Avengers is a very special treat and if you're not reading it, you're missing out on some damn good reading with a lineup mostly comprised of heroes of color. If someone had told me I'd be reading a comic that builds on the Blue Marvel's story in such a compelling way, I'd have laughed right in their face. For all the fanwhining about a lack of focus on diversity and gender politics, this title (and some others) is one that breaks a lot of those rules.

One of my personal favorite things about this book (other than Luke Cage) is the addition of Monica Rambeau. Every once in a blue moon, someone finds a decent venue to bring her back and this is probably as good as premise as any. She's one of these characters that has basically had her entire history built upon being "that hero that's quietly been around for years." One major complaint has been Spectrum (as she now calls herself) now appearing with relaxed hair after most of the character's lifespan being her with either a fro or locs. One comment I read even went so far as to say that Marvel had "whitewashed" her (which, by the way, is ABSOLUTELY NOT what whitewashing means).

You know, as a nerd of color, I tend to get excited about and welcome when "our" issues are addressed in comic culture. That's an enormous part of why I signed on to work at Black Nerd Problems. However, there are a couple of issues that get way too much airtime from the Black Blogsphere I prayed would not creep into comics. Chief among them is the "natural hair vs. permed hair" wars. Extreme "natural" ideologues shout down the people who perm their hair and those who perm their chastise the "naturals", believing them to be elitist. This argument is older than many of us realize and, to my great disappointment, isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Now, we're not going to talk about that because I don't have the time or the energy this week to open myself up to yet another brand of trolling. We WILL talk about the merits of attaching such a debate to a fictional character.

Spoiler Alert: There are none.

It's the same problem as I've explained previously about Superman. Once you begin inventing values for a character (which, often times, means you're attaching your own) because they can't speak for themselves unless the writer makes it so, you start internalizing the narrative you've had a hand in creating. And it's a rather flawed narrative. I mean, as far as I can tell (and you're free to correct me if I'm wrong), I've never read a comic in which Monica Rambeau said anything that would leave me to believe she stood on either side of the natural/perm argument or that she even acknowledges it at all. I mean, Luke Cage used to have an afro, he shaved all his hair off and I don't remember there being any backlash about that.

Then again, it's best to not get me started on the strange double standard forced upon women, fictional or otherwise in nerd culture. That's a whole other post

Honestly, I think making Monica/Captain Marvel/Photon/Spectrum's hair was a fiercely bold move on Marvel's part. Because if you want to accurately depict people of color in your medium, you have to capture all sides of the spectrum realistically. Some of us stand fierce to certain hairstyles, some of us use our hair to make statements, some of us just don't give a shit. But like Monica, ALL of us can't, won't, and shouldn't be defined completely by our hair. Because it's just hair.