"It’s always funny to see people hiding behind an anonymous tag daring people to face them. Take off your sheet, step into the light, and we can have a conversation. Otherwise, you can do like the other lot."
Tom Brevoort, 2014
My name is Daniel Tonner.
I’m 27 years old. I live in Bremen,...
This resonated with me so much! As a male of Punjabi origin, I’ve always been told that I couldn’t be Spidey or other comic characters because “they’re white”. That didn’t stop me, because many superheroes wear masks ;) (my humour being the way to deal with the fact that there were very little Indian heroes). In fact, I don’t think India even has their own superhero team in either DC or Marvel continuities.
SO LO AND BEHOLD! When I read Xtreme X-Men and found that the new Thunderbird was Indian, and that there was an Indian version of Spider-man! I read those books over and over. Neal Shaara is still probably my fave “lesser known” X-Man, and where is he now? I’m still wondering if he’ll pop up in the multitude of X-books out there.
Like Daniel, it’s great there are more Black characters, but there are other races apart from WHITE, Black, or Oriental. It would be a nice nod to their consumer market by acknowledging that, they way that there is now a deaf hero (specifically created for that purpose, to resonate with those that are deaf). It’s a nice touch, but I doubt the Blue Ear will be prominent in the upcoming 2015 events.
On the flipside, I see the problem that the comics industry faces. If they create a character to appeal to a certain audience, or to acknowledge their fan base, they can be accused of creating something simply for that niche and not because that character has a big role to play within their comic continuity.
Daniel’s points about women in comics. Couldn’t agree more; I think he has covered it well. I must admit though, the points about Jessica Jones and Luke Cage I had not paid much attention to, but the description makes it sound horrific.
Either way, I appreciate what is being done, and to resonate with a hero it shouldn’t matter if they are of a certain race, gender or sexuality. It should be the way they are written that makes you empathize with them.
And finally, this is not aimed at Mr Brevoort. He has kindly answered my questions in the past.
pbnmj