Why are DC's minority character's lagging behind Marvel's?

[married guy]

I'll add this:

John Stewart-
Being that Hal is the one who's forever getting the limelight as the main GL, alter John. I used to think that him being a variant of an Alpha Lantern would have been a nice way to differentiate them. John could be a living power battery.

This is why I enjoyed Darkstars.
John Stewart was THE guy in charge of the entire Darkstars.
He was centre stage and was given plenty to do.
It was also a great way to move him away from Hal's rather large shadow plus make him more than the replacement GL or token black character.
Darkstars turned me into a huge John Stewart fan.

[kurenai24]

So nycc is coming up, does anyone expect any news on their fave minority characters ...or a better question is does anyone have any expectations on news involving the token characters (of their respective commuties) that DC does push i.e Cyborg and Blue Beetle?

[Robotman]

So nycc is coming up, does anyone expect any news on their fave minority characters ...or a better question is does anyone have any expectations on news involving the token characters (of their respective commuties) that DC does push i.e Cyborg and Blue Beetle?

Sorry, did you just refer to Blue Beetle as a token character?!?

[Iconic]

I'm expecting big news on Static and all of Milestone

An outlook (and hopefully a new look) for Cyborg after what happened in Metal

Anything Black Lightning related is welcomed news

[Assam]

So nycc is coming up, does anyone expect any news on their fave minority characters ...or a better question is does anyone have any expectations on news involving the token characters (of their respective commuties) that DC does push i.e Cyborg and Blue Beetle?

Well, regarding my favorites:

Cass Cain- Maybe if we're lucky Tynion will tease her next arc in 'Tec, but not likely.
Jessica Cruz- Maybe a trailer or sneak peak of her in DC Superhero Girls.
XS- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
Jakeem Thunder- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
Fire- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
Empress- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
The Justice League of China- What comes next for their book MIGHT be announced (Luen Yang isn't attending the Con from what I can tell). But if it is, I will be very glad.

And of course the return of Milestone is something to hope for.

Sorry, did you just refer to Blue Beetle as a token character?!?

I mean...he is. I love Jaime don't get me wrong, but how many other prominent latinos are in the DCU right now? (Don't say Sideways, he'll be gone in two years.) You know I adore Jessica Cruz, but yeah, right now she's there token latina. These two are brilliant characters, but they'll be tokens so long as DC maintains their ridiculous (seemingly existent): Only one prominent latino and latina at a time, rule.

[Agent Z]

Well, regarding my favorites:

Cass Cain- Maybe if we're lucky Tynion will tease her next arc in 'Tec, but not likely.
Jessica Cruz- Maybe a trailer or sneak peak of her in DC Superhero Girls.
XS- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
Jakeem Thunder- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
Fire- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
Empress- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
The Justice League of China- What comes next for their book MIGHT be announced (Luen Yang isn't attending the Con from what I can tell). But if it is, I will be very glad.

And of course the return of Milestone is something to hope for.



I mean...he is. I love Jaime don't get me wrong, but how many other prominent latinos are in the DCU right now? (Don't say Sideways, he'll be gone in two years.) You know I adore Jessica Cruz, but yeah, right now she's there token latina. These two are brilliant characters, but they'll be tokens so long as DC maintains their ridiculous (seemingly existent): Only one prominent latino and latina at a time, rule.

I keep wondering, does Fire count as nonwhite? As for Sideways, he's kind of connected to the Bat franchise so his chances are stronger than most.

Personally, I would have like Ed Dorado from Young Justice.

[Johnny]

Yep, I think a character whose full name is "Beatriz Bonilla da Costa" and comes from Brazil, should indeed be considered a diverse character.

[El_Gato]

Yes, Fire counts as Non-White, especially since her live action appearances confirm that. That's also a big reason why she's currently absent from Rebirth. Since Jessica Cruz is around, according to DC logic, that means Renee Montoya, Fire and Black Orchid must disappear.

As for Blue Beetle, well he's DC's go to Latino character. Probably their most reknown one too, although El Diablo got a huge boost from Suicide Squad. Anyway let's hope Sideway's push doesn't end the same way Vibe's did! Though I'm wondering if Kyle still counts as a Latino?

[MoneySpider]

Vixen has a cool power set but it's not the most visually interesting power set, which is kind of a big deal in a visual medium.

How do you think DC can fix this? I have noticed that some writers will actually show the spirit form of the animal(s) Vixen is mimicking, so that is a bit better than them just having her think about the animal she is using, or having her say outloud what animal she is using (which makes no sense to me when they have her say it outloud, doesn't make sense for her to do that in-universe. They should just have her use thought balloons).

Couldn't DC just take a Spider-Man like approach to the way they show Vixen moving and behaving, but instead of just doing whatever a spider can, she is doing whatever any animal can? I'm thinking that if so many people are cool with the visuals of Spider-Man using his powers, than they should have no problem with Vixen doing the same, only she'd be doing it on a much broader and grander scale because she's got the entire animal kingdom at her disposal.

[mace11]

I mean...he is. I love Jaime don't get me wrong, but how many other prominent latinos are in the DCU right now? (Don't say Sideways, he'll be gone in two years.) You know I adore Jessica Cruz, but yeah, right now she's there token latina. These two are brilliant characters, but they'll be tokens so long as DC maintains their ridiculous (seemingly existent): Only one prominent latino and latina at a time, rule.

I disagree.
You using that word token incorrectly and they are not tokens.

Sorry, did you just refer to Blue Beetle as a token character?!?

Cyborg and blue beetle are not tokens.You are correct.
A token is someone that's different from the rest and the only one and DOES NOT DO ANYTHING or hardly anything.
Tokens are put on teams only and do not have support cast of thier own either and they don't have thier own books.
Some of the support characters are same background they are.
The word token is being use incorrectly.
Latino is latino,so that's two latino characters so clearly again they are not tokens so don't split into gender like that,like one female latino and one male latino.
No, they are two latino characters.
Again the word token is being use incorrectly.
It's amazing how this word token has change over the years from what i see on the internet from some,not all.

If john stewart was on the justice league team i would not call him a token either,but there are some that did when he was on team.
You know the folks that keep calling him the back up lantern and not as good as hal jordan lantern.
Is amazing i when i see comments recently sometimes that wonder woman after all these years is called a token female character.I never heard that before.
Only on the Internet you read stuff like this.
Folks just have stop that.

[phantom1592]

Cyborg and blue beetle are not tokens.You are correct.
A token is someone that's different from the rest and the only one and DOES NOT DO ANYTHING or hardly anything.
Tokens are put on teams only and do not have support cast of thier own either and they don't have thier own books.
Some of the support characters are same background they are.
The word token is being use incorrectly.
Latino is latino,so that's two latino characters so clearly again they are not tokens so don't split into gender like that,like one female latino and one male latino.
No, they are two latino characters.
Again the word token is being use incorrectly.
It's amazing how this word token has change over the years from what i see on the internet from some,not all.

If john stewart was on the justice league team i would not call him a token either,but there are some that did when he was on team.
You know the folks that keep calling him the back up lantern and not as good as hal jordan lantern.
Is amazing i when i see comments recently sometimes that wonder woman after all these years is called a token female character.I never heard that before.
Only on the Internet you read stuff like this.
Folks just have stop that.

I've heard varying definitions of 'Token' that don't 100% match yours. Heck, by your definition I don't think there ever has been a token character.

oxford dictionary says...

Token: Noun...

a person chosen by way of tokenism as a nominal representative of a minority or underrepresented group.


followed closely by
Tokenism: noun, the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce.


I think by those definitions you just have to look at characters like Cyborg and Blue Beetle objectively. Was Cyborg rebooted to be on the Justice League because he's an awesome character that the writers wanted to do awesome things with... Or was he put on the team because there weren't any black founding members? Are these characters actually author favorites.... or because he's filling a slot trying to be 'diverse'. And frankly that's a really hard line to balance 'adding diverse characters to a team.... without it being JUST because they represent a minority race'...

[kurenai24]

Sorry, did you just refer to Blue Beetle as a token character?!?

Yes I did, cause he is the only male latino that is being pushed ...not the only one being used but the one being pushed which is a difference b/c DC pushes more than one white male/female character and uses a lot.

Cyborg is the token black male being pushed while John Stewart is just being used.

Jessica is the token latina being pushed while ...is there any female latinas being used at the moment?

Bumblebee is the token black female that is being pushed while Vixen is being used, and you can only tell b/c it seems they want to use Bumblebee in the DCEU.

And so on and so forth with other minorities.

I'm expecting big news on Static and all of Milestone

An outlook (and hopefully a new look) for Cyborg after what happened in Metal

Anything Black Lightning related is welcomed news

I don't expect much of anything related to Milestone that we don't already know, but I hope we get some news on Black Lightning's future in DC Comics.

Well, regarding my favorites:

Cass Cain- Maybe if we're lucky Tynion will tease her next arc in 'Tec, but not likely.
Jessica Cruz- Maybe a trailer or sneak peak of her in DC Superhero Girls.
XS- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
Jakeem Thunder- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
Fire- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
Empress- Nothing. And this makes me very sad.
The Justice League of China- What comes next for their book MIGHT be announced (Luen Yang isn't attending the Con from what I can tell). But if it is, I will be very glad.

And of course the return of Milestone is something to hope for.

Just found out about the character of Empress, I really wish they would use her.

I mean...he is. I love Jaime don't get me wrong, but how many other prominent latinos are in the DCU right now? (Don't say Sideways, he'll be gone in two years.) You know I adore Jessica Cruz, but yeah, right now she's there token latina. These two are brilliant characters, but they'll be tokens so long as DC maintains their ridiculous (seemingly existent): Only one prominent latino and latina at a time, rule.

Yep.

How do you think DC can fix this? I have noticed that some writers will actually show the spirit form of the animal(s) Vixen is mimicking, so that is a bit better than them just having her think about the animal she is using, or having her say outloud what animal she is using (which makes no sense to me when they have her say it outloud, doesn't make sense for her to do that in-universe. They should just have her use thought balloons).

Couldn't DC just take a Spider-Man like approach to the way they show Vixen moving and behaving, but instead of just doing whatever a spider can, she is doing whatever any animal can? I'm thinking that if so many people are cool with the visuals of Spider-Man using his powers, than they should have no problem with Vixen doing the same, only she'd be doing it on a much broader and grander scale because she's got the entire animal kingdom at her disposal.

I actually think those mirage type images is what makes her abilities so visually appealing especially when she's using animals that are not well known.

It would be great to see in live action for a movie especially when LoT does it so poorly (when they could have easily used animal sounds)

[Red Wolf]

How many members make up the average JLA team? I'm talking starters not reserves or back ups.

[The Question]

How many members make up the average JLA team? I'm talking starters not reserves or back ups.

JLA is Atom (Ryan Choi), Vixen, Ray (Ray Terrill), Killer Frost (Caitlin Snow), Batman, Black Canary and Lobo

JL is Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg, Flash (Barry Allen), Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Green Lanterns Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz

[Agent Z]

How many members make up the average JLA team? I'm talking starters not reserves or back ups.

Seven to eight.