Why are there so few ethnic superheroes? and why are they treated like inferiors? mainly DC comics?

Question

I am a 14 yr old girl and love comics. but many times I'm disappointed by the sheer lack of good ethnic superheroes. Asian,Black, etc.

Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) Asian. Was recently made into a supervillian. She I really loved this character. and will replaced with a white lesbian girl. geez (pet peeve)

Anyway. Many ethnic superheroes are replacements for White originals in DC comics. Atom,Blue Beetle, Firestorm, Steel, Dr Light. Green Latern. Is it so hard to create a new character that wasn't a White person before? On message boards whites then complain about their loss. and how the original was better. I'm with them I don't want a 2nd rate replacement. I want new and original. Nightgirl not Batgirl or Cosmicflame instead of Firestorm.

They know these are only temps. Is John Stewart even used outside of the cartoon? Smallville fans. Pete Ross and Lana are white. why even change it. You pick up the comic and find out. enough with the revisionist history.

so what do you think?

Catwoman? see this is exactly what I'm talking about. She's a replacement in the movie but Still White in the comic. and all what blacks in star wars? Lando? who betrayed Hans? He's not even on the screen that often to be mentioned. Oh you mean Mace Windu (deceased) Great choices there.

Storm is marvel and I have no real problem with Marvel. They made Blade into 3 movies. Storm is leader of the X-Men. Then didn't have to add Robbie in the Spider-Man films cause he really does exist.

But DC oh don't get me started. They constantly use Minorities as replacements that they don't even recognize in the comic.

Answer 1

If you were to read of any of the comics of ethnic superheroes from the 1970's including Blade you will see why there is not many ethnic superheroes. They were given Afros and said stuff like "Sweet Christmas" and "Don't move Sucka!" DC in the 90's tried by having a whole universe ethnic It didn't last long. In my opinion the reason you don't see many ethnic heroes and for that matter women heroes is two reason. 1. Most people who read comics are white males. 2 white writers can't write a story about an ethnic group without using stereotypes. It is the only thing they know. If you read Black panther's old stuff from the 70's and early 80's he is fighting white pimps and white drug dealers in New York, or if the story happens to be in Africa he is fighting white poachers. Look at Apache Chief from the Superfriends. Horrible character he had the stereotypical native American talk. "Him ..talk-em.. like this."

But here is a list of really good ethnic superheroes
Black Panther
Thunderbird
Blade
Storm
Bishop
Sunspot
Elektra
Psylocke
Forge
Skin
Sunfire
Night Thrasher

If the writers would forget that if a character looks a certain way then this character automatically talks a certain way. Not true. Have them just talk like a real person and not a stereotype, we would have alot of better characters.

Answer 2

First off, I agree, it's the new millenium and comics, in the past, have mainly ignored minorities, but, there ARE many Aboriginal, African and Asian character floating around out there, to name a few ethnicities. Try to not stick with just superheroes or top selling books, look farther than X-Men or Superman and Marvel and DC. Another point you might want to take into consideration is the fact that many of the books you read to day started in the 1930's -1960's when tolerance of other groups of people was just starting to surface and it may be difficult to introduce new characters, let alone have them become household names overnight. Give it some time. After all, Superman, Batman, the Justice League of America and the X-Men didn't make it big overnight, either.

Answer 3

Because they where mostly created in the 30's with segregation and stuff. They change races now all the time. The first bat girl I know of was a white chic. The first green lantern was white as well. They are changing the character for the new market. They are adding in women who in the past were always captured for the hero to save. There are out of ideas. I'm sorry that is how the world is. Go to anemia where most the caucters are white aka saliormoon etc.

Answer 4

It really does stink that in this time and place there are so many bigots out there, but the comic industry (in my opinion) isn't too bad when it comes to varying their characters. I know that the classics like Batman and Superman have few to none characters that are racially diverse, but that's mostly because of the time period they were created in. But more recent comics, such as the X-men, are a little more varied. I mean, I could give you a list but Wolverine is Canadian, Gambit is Cajun, Storm is African, and NightCrawler is German, just to name a few. It's a tough topic, but the transition is slowly coming into effect. Just keep an eye out, soon there will be plenty of original ethnically diverse characters plastering stands across the world.

Answer 5

Best Superhero, Wonder Woman.... DC Comics are better

Answer 6

it's due to the fact that there's not that many ethnic writers in comics, or movies. When your fantasizing you project yourself into the situation and what you wish you could or would do.

Answer 7

Ethnic Superheroes

Answer 8

catwoman, storm, all the people in star wars, the black guy from star trek, i mean they are heroes right?

Answer 9

Nah nah nah...

You just have to look in the right places