Question for the real defenders of justice and truth

[engen]

As a comicbook collector for nearly 20 years, I'm astounded at the neglect that the comic book industry has towards black,brown etc. superheroes. I'm tired of fanboys making excuses or giving examples of the same heroes ie. storm, bishop, black panther, cage,blade and several other mainline characters that i can name with all 10 digits. It's pathetic and i think the industry just doesn't give a f^%$ about them. If they do introduce a major hero they have a limitation that gets them offed quickly. Doesn't the industry know of the amount of non white collectors who are dedicated to reading innovative thought provoking storylines and characters? I guess not. The last person with industry power who seemed to really have an open mind and take risks about introducing new superheroes of color was Stan Lee. For real. I'm pissed cause after thousands of dollars and hours of devotion towards the comics medium they're still aren't any black superheroes with even omni level powers like phoenix, professor x, silver surfer; intellectual types like reed richards, tony starks or even the heroes' hero The Sentry. I think if the Sentry was black or latino or asian,native american Marvel could and would have innovated the genre. Even the most supposedly openminded comic The X-Men has a cast full of noncolored supermodels. Ofcourse the character requires great story telling, because color isn't all there is, but come on: after 60+ years of comics, black readers still don't have a major icon to look up to. it's a shame. what do you think?

[DJAC]

question what about spawn? he's african-american super powers.
and a decent fighter

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Someday there will be hell to pay put it all on the bill-taylor dayne origianl sin

[Zac]

what do you think?

I think you're just looking for something to complain about.

Black Panther has been relaunched and I've heard it's pretty good. Jon Stewart Green Lantern has been gaining in popularity in years. Ultimate Nick Fury is a tough-as-nails black man, in charge of SHIELD, no less. I've been pretty out of the loop with comics the last years so I know there are more, but those come to mind right away.

While I do agree there is a bigger population of white comic characters, I think you're just looking for something to whine about when it comes to it being any kind of racism. If you want there to be more ethnic variation in comics, you should write to Marvel and DC, get some friends to as well, explaining your well thought-out opinion. However, calling them a bunch of racists is going to get you no where.

[easy D]

Well, there are more black, latino, or other ethnicites, superheroes. The thing is they don't have the same benefit the other, mainstream characters have, like having talented artists and writers. But, you know, you could be glad that there are black superheroes with real staying power (like Storm or Black Panther), but a lot just become flash-in-the-pan types (like Night Thrasher), and Blade was in danger of that until the Blade movies were done, and Spawn, well, Spawn is quietly fading away.

Also, I think the Sentry was meant to be a spoof, and wasn't supposed to be in any actual comics. I could be wrong...

But, my answer is, yes, but only the ones made in the 70's.

Also, Black Panther's a king! Storm's a goddess! I think those titles are impressive.

[engen]

Black Panther and Storm. Great characters I admit. But i think fanboys get cocky and act as if the non white population should be happy to get what they get. That's ludicrous. There are thousands of black and brown comic lovers who would love to get on these books. Like I said i've been reading for 20 years and I've written alot but last time I checked it wasn'
t the easiest to just waltz in to DC or Marvel and get a job as a writer. It's not. And where whining is concerned there's a difference between whining and stating an opinion on an issue that I see everyday. I collect thousands of comics so it's not that i'm just complaining about something just to do that. My kid does that enough. What I do want to do is see more background characters of color. I wasn't turning it into a racist issue like a lot of forum readers would like it to be. That's the reason that I love comics because it's one of the few places where I don't have to be thrown that in my face. I would like to see more revelant and prevalent black and asian characters. If that's hard for you to understand than imagine being the minority, but so many fanboys feel like it's their mythology. Superheroes are modern myths and to my knowledge every culture has had mythology since the beginning of time. So why only cater to one type of man when myths are universal? They don't care and obviously tons of readers don't either.

[imported_Thom]

I'm willing to bet it's simply a matter of looking at the demographic breakdown of the readers.

Certainly, there are minority readers out there, but among total readers, I bet they're in fact quite the minority. Art is self-segregating... That's not meant as a bad thing, it's just that people tend to read/watch/listen and enjoy characters they can most closely relate with. So if it's largely a bunch of scrawny white boys reading, it's more likely they're reading used-to-be-scrawny white superheroes.

The reason it's stayed this way is that this generation's talent was the previous generation of readers, and that makes for a rather limited pool of talent to begin with. But talent is talent is talent. If enough minority artists and writers hone their talent, the issue should eliminate itself. And with today's opportunities for small press, print-on-demand, digital distribution, etc., and certainly with the advertising & marketing tool that is the Internet, you don't *have* to be at Marvel or DC to get noticed.

[The Xenos]

I know Static Shock is a minority superhero who even got his own TV show though creator Dwayne MacDuffle had worked a damned ahrd uphill battle to get there. Thankfully, he is currently heading up the excellent Justice League cartoon which features African American Green Lantern

Recently I read an article on a racist cartoon charcter on the original art of an X-Men cover. It was covered up on a bar code. The author also went into racist overtones and comments in the DC and Mavel offices. It features recent writers Christopher Priest and MacDuffle and their experiences.

Scroll down or search to where it says 'BARCODE OF CONDUCT'.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2306

Now I myself am Greek. I guess I can complain that they cast a WASPy white actress as Elektra in a crappy movie. Also, Wonder Woman is kinda Greek and she's often left behind. Though that could be a sexist thing. Anyway, I don't have too much to complain about myself, though I rather

-Xenos

[Pod]

I would say I 'm neutral about this subject. But I voted no anyway, so I guess I think that the minority character sometimes just are ignored. And with all the big popular heroes on most of the top sellers it makes sense.

Static shock...I didn't like the comic version but was definitly a fan of the cartoon.