Romita, Sr. and George. Tuska. ⧠Posi ves: First major ... by: Dwayne McDuffie, Robert. L. Washington III and John ... from Donald Glover. ⧠Created by: Brian ...
The Evolution Of Ethnic Minority Superheroes
How the representation of ethnic minorities has changed over the past 5 decades Luke Cage
Vibe
StaHc
² InspiraHon: DC’s desire to “modernize” Jus0ce League, follow pop culture trends, give Jus*ce League a younger cast
² InspiraHon: Blaxploita*on Cinema Sweet Sweetback, Sha, ² Created by: Archie Goodwin, John Romita, Sr. and George Tuska
² InspiraHon: Dwayne McDuffie and his company Milestone Media wanted to get away from “angry black men” stereotypes and provide new role models.
² PosiHves: First major publisher African American *tle character, updated version possesses many posi*ve traits (husband and father, fights to protect them)
² Created by: Chuck PaTon, Gerry Conway ² PosiHves: Best known Puerto Rican superhero, updated version removed most of the nega*ve stereotypes
² NegaHves: Reinforced many nega*ve stereotypes of African Americans (e.g. ex-‐con, angry at the man, jive-‐ talking) “One of the more embarrassing characters in comic history, Cage typified Marvel’s disregard for the cultural effects their images were producing.” -‐Michael van Dyk
² NegaHves: ATempted to cash in on pop culture trends of the *me, reinforced stereotypes, blatantly relied on pop culture for character traits “I would have loved to have drawn a 64-‐page special on the ‘Death of Vibe’ with Paco dying a horrible death each panel.” -‐George Pérez
Yellow Claw
1956
Black Panther
Black Racer
1966
1971
1972
Miles Morales ² InspiraHon: Marvel wanted to push the envelope regarding minority characters Visual inspira*on from Donald Glover ² Created by: Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli
² Created by: Dwayne McDuffie, Robert L. Washington III and John Paul Leon ² PosiHves: Rejected stereotypes of African Americans, was a smart, geeky superhero alter ego with typical teenage problems ² NegaHves: Relied on using some nega*ve stereotypes in Sta*c’s origin
² PosiHves: Shook up the Marvel Universe and character of Spider-‐Man. Showed that his origin works for other ethnici*es ² NegaHves: Physical traits (flat nose and big lips) and family full of criminals can s*ll be considered stereotypical “Its certainly long overdue. Even though there’s some amazing African American and minority characters bouncing around in all of the superhero universes, it’s s*ll crazy lopsided.” -‐Brian Michael Bendis
“The goal of comics has always been to give readers, to give children, someone to look up to, something to strive for, and the hope with Sta*c was to bring that back” -‐Dwayne McDuffie
Blade
Storm
White Tiger
Black Lightning
Wildcat
Rictor
Jubilee
Cecilia Reyes
1973
1975
1975
1977
1985
1987
1989
1998
1984
1993
Black Tarantula
Rama Chandra
Jamie Reyes
1998
1999
2006
Kamala Khan
2014
2011
As American culture continues to expand and demographics continue to change, creating successful, honest, and accurate ethnic minority superheroes will be essential for major publishers to remain relevant for the decades to come.
