Sometimes when I read or talk about superhero comics, television and film, I see a particular argument pop up regarding the appearance of certain characters. No, it doesn’t have to do with what color they’re wearing, but rather what color they happen to be.
Thus, we come to the issue a lot of people have with certain heroes: “Why do they HAVE to be white?”
Many popular superheroes, from Wonder Woman to Captain America, are clearly white individuals, causing people to consider the above question. Is it a sign of racial bias on the part of creators and writers in the realm of superhero media? To some, that is the case, and so these individuals have begun campaigning for racial change within superhero media.
As a result, superhero media has taken a progressive direction when it comes to race, making certain to feature many different characters of color. In several cases, the races of established white characters are changed, perhaps to better adapt said characters to modern times and to more diverse audiences. Films like “Thor: Ragnarok” and television series like The CW’s “The Flash” have chosen this direction, making the clear statement that superhero media can and should be diverse.
But these decisions ultimately are pointless when you consider that superhero media—especially comics—have had minority voices in mind for countless decades.
Within the past forty years alone of comics, we’ve had two black Green Lanterns, an Asian Atom and a Hispanic and a black Spider-Man. Popular superhero teams like the X-Men have always included minority members; for the X-Men in particular, characters like Psylocke, Storm and Warpath have existed for quite some time alongside their white counterparts. To be clear, these aren’t minor throwaway characters that get featured in one issue and are never spoken of again; these characters have popped up in numerous areas of superhero media throughout the years, and are even featured in merchandise just like popular white heroes such as Batman or Superman.
I think the real issue is not that superhero media isn’t diverse, but that we’re not promoting the right heroes. While characters like Black Panther or Cyborg have recently gotten more spotlight thanks to the likes of the films “Captain America: Civil War” and “Justice League,” there are countless other minority superheroes waiting for their chance, hidden from the eyes of a general audience that doesn’t read comics. Sony Pictures Entertainment seems to be addressing this with its recent announcement of the animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which focuses on Miles Morales, the aforementioned black Spider-Man. I think that this is a wonderful chance to introduce audiences to a character who is as impactful and interesting as the original Spider-Man.
The bottom line is that we should focus more on promoting and creating new minority figures rather than changing pre-existing ones. The latter method, at least to me, seems more like pandering and less like active change within our superhero media. If we want our diverse minority audiences to feel unique and distinct, we should have equally unique and distinct characters that aren’t literal re-skins of characters already portrayed as white.
The world of heroes is a big one, and a diverse one at that. You just need a wider lens to get the whole picture.