Dear "real comic book fans" comedian Doug Stanhope once said "Tradition is nothing more than dead peoples' baggage" and I agree more than ever when it comes to incessant need to defend comics or "Canon" as you tend to refer to it. first lets hear your excuses and ill gladly show you why me and my fellow blerds refuse to buy the bridge your attempting to sell us culturally.
When defending against the idea that a traditionally white character should or is now a non white person of color, you often use the airtight logic of " BUT ITS ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY!" thats nice, but didn't your mother ever teach you to share? and I put emphasis on the word share. keep in mind, even when someone non white takes over as a white character, the white guy is still in the picture to some capacity, let alone the fact that most merchandise still features your precious canon hero. Even when Connor Hawke was Green Arrow, His dad was still in the picture to a degree and was still Green Arrow in other ongoing books. Carol Danvers isn't even the original Ms Marvel, a black woman is (Monica Rambeau), and yet her successor is still a person of color. Sam Wilson is still Considered A Captain America, but guess what, STEVE IS STILL HERE! and Steve wasn't even the first Captain America, that goes to Isaiah Bradley, Grandfather of Young Avenger Patriot. And oh, lets not forget that even as you were all pissed off that a Black Kid was Spider-Man, there was another book where not only was Peter alive, but he had switched bodies with one of his mortal enemies!
But of course, You'll bitch and moan that SOME people think that maybe we shouldn't have made Iron Fist white Because tradition. and then use the ALMOST clever defense of "Well, wouldn't it be racist to have a show about an asian guy practicing martial arts?" see, this would almost work as a defense if we weren't JUST now getting shows like "Fresh off the boat" that show asians in a non sterotypical role. See, the reason theres a demand to see Iron Fist as Asian is because (and i'm only repeating what i've heard asian fans say) they want to see a truly Asian-American hero in that the story could be about an AA man (or woman) who comes to K'un L'un to learn about their culture and becomes a hero to their people. Instead, We're going to be treated to several hours of Marvels' version of "Dances with Wolves" We could have gotten a badass, strong, alpha male Asian character that wasn't going to get rendered into an asexual monk; But of course your reading this and your rolling your eyes at the idea that maybe a 40 year old character shouldn't get with the times, and honestly I'm not surprised.
You guys don't tend to do well with things like progress in general when in comes to nerdy shit. You all are the same people who will watch a 69 year old man reprise his role for the 5th damn time in a 30 year old sci-fi franchise, But I've heard many of you say that Black Widow should be recast with someone younger. You guys got everything you wanted, but thought there would be no cost of comics going mainstream. But sadly, you were mistaken. See, there's ALWAYS been people of color who loved comics, but because you all decided that black people who don't fit into your narrative of being cool, rebellious, and scarring white America are invisible, you missed us. but we are very, very real. while you were reading Doctor Strange, We were Reading Blade. You had Superman, we had Luke Cage. You were reading Captain America, We were reading Black Panther. Hell, and we we're still reading the same comics as you on the side. But you pretended that we don't exist.
One person in particular fighting for things to stay Stagnant is Rob "I suck at drawing Captain America" Liefeld. The problem with guys like Liefeld is that these are figures in comics that make their fame off the fact that their biggest characters don't have alot of substance. lets be honest fans, whens the last time Marvel came out with a Deadpool comic you honestly cared about? Hell, Name a character that Liefeld made besides Cable & Deadpool that doesn't scream "90s EDGINESS!!!!!" and that's my point: alot of you fighting against this are fighting a war of attrition. And you are losing more and more as time goes on. look around: Captain America Is a Black man, Iron Man is now a Black woman, Thor is a woman, Hulk is Asian-American, Spider-man is Afro-Latino, Ms. Marvel is a Muslim Woman... But whats sad is that even as I list off just a few characters who aren't white, you'll still be mad. never-mind that essentially all of the original holders of these titles is still alive and could easily jump in the fight, no its just not right that THEY'RE the ones carrying the mantle.
Real comic book fans, I want you to realize something very uncomfortable about yourselves: That you, as fans of stories that often deal with the laws of physics, Time, logic and of several countries being broken cannot fathom a world where the heroes aren't white men. Your suspension of disbelief has such particular qualms that one can only conclude that you harbor some sort of prejudice, whether admitted or otherwise. If you are so dedicated to your favorite heroes that you truly believe that in the year 2016 that we should "other" ourselves rather than have a seat at the table as heroes, and believe in your hear of hearts that we should still only focus on only characters who are straight, white and male. I want you to look in a mirror and say it with me: I AM A RACIST.
Yes, you are. because as much as POC writers and artists have tried to get more of our heroes out there, you don't seen to care as long as you can IGNORE them. But we the NOC of the world refuse to sit around and be subject to being to we should just accept being ignored in a culture we love and have existed in as long as you have, if not longer. This idea that were all supposed to rally around the white guys & girls and never question why we don't get to see ourselves is over. go ahead, fight us, dox us, call us all sorts of names, but know that you've only proven our points. The revolution may not be televised, but it will come in color.
This submission comes courtesy of @awkblerd who you can keep up with on Twitter.
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Editorials
Alas, there are vast cohorts in North American fandom who still hold on viciously to the white male standard of who gets to be a super-hero style adventurer.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad for the expansion of the indie world where black creatives can create their own characters and entire worlds/universes centered on their experiences and perspectives. The Big Two (and the bigger 'indies') can still use many more Black and POC characters, regardless of being "legacy" characters or all new creations. More racial diversity in these fictional character worlds should always be welcomed, not scorned.