Racist Batman comics

[Reubin]

I am doing a school project on the representation of race in popular superhero comics and need help finding the most notorious examples of racism. Thanks!

[Restingvoice]

I know the older ones, like from the 40s, but I don't remember which issue.

There's a case where Batman is investigating a group of cultist murderer. Every character just calls them "Hindus" and they worship Kila. They meant Kali, of course. The whole vibe of the cult is kinda like Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.

There's also Batman's friend named Wong who live in the Chinatown but he dresses like he's from Ancient China. Chinese people during the world war II era do wear traditional clothes, but a different, more simple one.

Then there's a time where world greatest detectives are gathering, some of them are from Japan and Mexico. The Mexican one wears a sombrero, and the one from Japan is colored yellow and always talk about honor.

Now to be fair, every time there's someone from Texas the always wear full-on cowboy garb but it's still making fun of other people not from the city.

Does writing foreign accent phonetically count? Whenever there's a french people or even just Alfred, they always write them in an accent that's supposed to be French or British. Like "mawster" instead of "master"

I'll update this post with pics once I find the issue.

Edit: Here's the Kila cultist one.

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Detective Comics (1937-2011) #35
January 3 1940

[Montressor]

Wonder Woman as I recall featured a stereotypical black character in a Golden Age issue that I saw a scan of, as did Captain Marvel...I recall lots of racist comments towards Japanese people made by Captain America, Namor and the Human Torch...and Bucky had a black 'friend' named Whitewash Jones who was caricature with a capital 'C'.

[Restingvoice]

Okay here's the Wong issue, but I misremembered. Wong wore a modern jacket, but his hat and hairstyle is still based older era instead of the 40s. Here is the splash intro page, and everyone looking ancient.

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Detective Comics (1937-2011) #39
May 1, 1940

[Osiris-Rex]

Not a comic book, but the 1943 Batman movie serial was very racist.

[Mataza]

Going by most answers theres a lot of stereotyping, but very little actual racism.

[K. Jones]

While not specifically racist in depiction, and I don't want to shoot off without at least making it aware that I haven't read the material yet because I've got loads of backtracking Batman comics that I haven't had a chance to yet, Obeah Man at least now really comes across as a pretty unfortunate example of, not outright racism, but like ... mega cliche tropes.

I'm actually particularly fascinated by that character and don't think it's a total loss in possibility, but yeah it's definitely a classic example of "oh let's do a Caribbean Haitian Voodoo crime lord" guy. I'm historically, mythically, culturally pretty interested in Voodoo and the freaky folk practices of Afro-Caribbean people but that doesn't mean I can't see the cliches and tropes built in a lot of the time. You sort of get the same thing in 007: Live and Let Die, and a bunch of other stuff. (LALD is a weird example, too, because it's a 70s take on a 50s book, Fleming's original novel is racist as hell and so 20 years of pretty great strides were made in adapting that troublesome original into something far less heinous, and even kind of embracing the tropes of the blaxploitation era of filmmaking ... but you know, now, 40 years later, it's ... novel ... just how far we've come from even that.)

Obeah Man always felt like a continuation of that kind of trope. And he's also just not a character that ever really took off, so never got a chance to get past being that kind of two-dimensional depiction. Obviously there's also the built-in issue of the fact that he's pretty much a lift of Mister Big/Baron Samedi from that James Bond story, transferred into Batman's universe. So he's not particularly original, either.

Anyway this one came to mind specifically because I've been researching and thinking about how to modernize and make Obeah Man relevant lately. So yeah ... maybe not overtly racist, but definitely unfortunately cliched and tropey? Kind of a footnote in the history or evolution of racial depictions in comics, where even things from the 1990s are still perhaps a bit problematic now 25 years later.

Just writing about that it occurs to me that perhaps the ... oddly ... best? At least, most notable, most "infamous", cool, well-known and least stereotypical black Batman character is Killer Croc. That's a trip to think about.

[Mataza]

Tropes are not bad, or unfortunate by default, they exist for a reason, they work.
Positive or negative representation of a character in a work of fiction isnt a bad thing either, Obeah-man wasnt there to represent his entire ethnicity, race or the practices of Voodoo in general. He was there to tell a story of how Tim Drake lost his mother.

Why do writers use stereotypes? because it makes it easier to tell a story without having to explain and worldbuild, a thing that takes a ton of effort and time.
As long as the comic doesnt tell you that one race is clearly better or worse than the others, its not racism.

PD: You should read european, southamerican and asian comics to broaden your views a bit, especially when it comes to the whole "representation" thing.

[K. Jones]

Tropes are not bad, or unfortunate by default, they exist for a reason, they work.
Positive or negative representation of a character in a work of fiction isnt a bad thing either, Obeah-man wasnt there to represent his entire ethnicity, race or the practices of Voodoo in general. He was there to tell a story of how Tim Drake lost his mother.

Why do writers use stereotypes? because it makes it easier to tell a story without having to explain and worldbuild, a thing that takes a ton of effort and time.
As long as the comic doesnt tell you that one race is clearly better or worse than the others, its not racism.

PD: You should read european, southamerican and asian comics to broaden your views a bit, especially when it comes to the whole "representation" thing.

Agreed.

I mean my views are broad but I do have a dearth of a wider range of storytelling.

[Shamrock Holmes]

Just writing about that it occurs to me that perhaps the ... oddly ... best? At least, most notable, most "infamous", cool, well-known and least stereotypical black Batman character is Killer Croc. That's a trip to think about.

I might be reaching here, but I'd say Lucius Fox qualifies under notable, well-known and least sterootypical better than Waylon Jones (though I'll give you infamous and maybe cool though).

[Arctic Cyclist]

Are you only interested in the overt racism from the days of segregation, or are you looking for covert modern examples?

If it's covert modern examples, you don't have to go any further than Bruce Wayne's love interests:

Of his love interests of color, one (Shondra Kingsolver from the Knightfall/Knightquest era) was de aged. Keep in mind that there are several issues building up to how she's his perfect love interest that include breakdowns of why everyone else doesn't work, including Catwoman.

Talia is the most notorious example of orientalism, particularly in the modern era where she's been stripped of her positive qualities so they could be reassigned to the white love interest. It's also been pointed out, and it's blatant in the Batman comics, that if she's being portrayed as an irredeemable villain her skin is colored darker. If she has her older, sweet, noble and self sacrificing temperament and personality she's depicted with pale skin and hair. A striking example of this occurs in King's Batman story arc, The Rules of Engagement, where Talia is the darkest she's ever been portrayed as, has a haram of lovers, and is treated as a cold hearted bitch and an incompetent fighter. It aligns with how she's portrayed in The Silencer, aside from the being an incompetent fighter. These depictions are in direct contrast to how she is pale skinned and noble, focusing on the good of the world, in Red Hood and the Outlaws and Dark Knights: The Forging. The one example of a dark skinned non villainous Talia occurs in Robin: Son of Batman, but she's also treated as a villain in that book so it's questionable as a subversion of the racist trope. The most notable aspect of the racism applied to her is retcon of the consensual sexual encounters that had been canon into date rape. Note, Morrison had responded to the outrage initially by erasing the retcon by Batman 700, and it wasn't initially a part of the New 52 until editorial demand insisted that the rape be brought back into canon for Incorporated #2, which also showed several scenes of previous BruTalia stories but removed the mutual attraction and regret from all of the stories. Talia's also depicted as very Eurasian throughout the series.

Morrison also introduced Jezebel Jet, an African super model, who is written as entirely evil and manipulative. (See a pattern yet? He writes Selina and Vicki as noble women who overcome selfish impulses to do the white–sorry, right– thing. Both women are depicted as Western European white.)

There's Jana, The White Rabbit, from the New 52 who is Indian (sub continent India). Again, a potential love interest of color depicted as a villain. Snyder's Batman, in his flashbacks to Bruce's training, introduces a Chinese love interest who is later revealed to be a villain.

In fact, the only love interest of color who isn't eventually revealed to be a sociopathic villain is Shondra Kingsolver, an African American. Every other love interest of color is treated as an irredeemable villain, sex fiend, and rapist.

What makes this incredibly notable, particularly when it comes to Tom King's writing, is how Pamela Iseley is treated. As a character she was introduced as a rapist, thief, and murderer. However, she's white. Very white, just like Harley Quinn, and just like Harley, the fact that Pam is a serial/spree killer has been downplayed to the point that in some media she's treated as a hero unlike any and all female villains who are not white. Pam's Forever Evil issue established that long before she met Bruce Wayne she was a remorseless killer, yet King treats her as a hero.

Ivy's treatment, along with how the other prominent white female villain, Harley Quinn establishes that misogynoir is the rule at DC. Only white female villains and criminals are treated as if their choices to become criminals weren't their fault, they're victims of circumstances and can be redeemed as people. All female characters of color, particularly Talia who for 40 years was generally depicted as an antihero (unless she's dressed in Middle Eastern dress) was an antihero, are all psychopathic, manipulative, evil bitches. The browner the skin, the more evil the woman.

The tumblrs, KateFatale and OnlyTalia, have excellent breakdowns on the misogynoir in Batman comics, far better written than this with all of the relevant issues and scans of the pages.