Legion of Super Heroes #1 preview

[HandofPrometheus]

I'm not sure if KK is depicted as a stereotype because he always seem to be appreciative of the old cultures he respects. That hairstyle is very old but it connects to the old practices and cultures he had learned. Him being drawn more Asian with that hairstyle can seem too border a stereotype but I'm not Asian so I can't really say.

If anything, I would've given him the Neji hairstyle

[HandofPrometheus]

The real problem with that hairstyle is that it used to be mandated by the emperor or you'd be faced with execution. (and it was done by the ...1930's?) From what I understand, it was a sign of an oppressive time that really makes no sense unless Bendis has a specific reason for having KK wear his hair like that. Maybe Val just saw old "karate" movies and had no idea what the hairstyle meant. (like how some people will wear a Che shirt or X hat with no idea what they mean)

Oh wow didn't know that. I thought it played some type of significance since so many Kung-fu movies I watched had that hairstyle.

[Frontier]

This seems like a decent compromise design-wise:

[manwhohaseverything]

I'm not sure if KK is depicted as a stereotype because he always seem to be appreciative of the old cultures he respects. That hairstyle is very old but it connects to the old practices and cultures he had learned. Him being drawn more Asian with that hairstyle can seem too border a stereotype but I'm not Asian so I can't really say.

If anything, I would've given him the Neji hairstyle

From what i know neji is primarily based on chinese culture, not Japanese. Kishimoto wanted to draw more inspiration from other parts of asia.neji, hinata and hyuga have very serious tao influences.And also used taichi like style. Tenkentsu is similar to acupuncture pressure points.

[HandofPrometheus]

From what i know neji is primarily based on chinese culture, not Japanese. Kishimoto wanted to draw more inspiration from other parts of asia.neji, hinata and hyuga have very serious tao influences.And also used taichi like style. Tenkentsu is similar to acupuncture pressure points.

And I didn't know that either.

[HandofPrometheus]

This seems like a decent compromise design-wise:

The animated designs are honestly my favorite right next to the 90s designs.

[BroHomo]

Ever since I saw Dawny's redesign, I thought it was borderline offensive. Her old look was fanservice-y yes, and toning it down is good, but other people and I find it a problem because she STILL looks like a stereotypical native american from an 80's cartoon.

I mean at least shes wearing pants lol

Because her old costume didn't have her with f**king glowing warpaint on her face.

Buuut its are reference to her culture...how is it more offensive than Katana's mask? or the Asian Superman's costume? or Captain Americas?

Are you really trying to present this as a serious argument? No, actually, it doesn't make someone more likely to know martial arts if they live in East Asia. You do realize that its not a mandatory part of the Chinese curriculum that kids are sent to train with Xiaolin monks. Saying that a Chinese person is more likely to know martial arts by the mere virtue of living in East Asia is like saying that a Welsh person is more likely to be a medieval knight by mere virtue of living in the UK.

Well dude there are more Asian schools that offer martial arts as an extracurricular than the States. How is that racist?

or that a New Yorker is more likely to be obsessed with Nascar and monster trucks by mere virtue of living in America.

No But if he was From/living in Alabama........

We're just gonna ignore the fact that retcons to Val's origin from way before Flashpoint already made him Japanese?.

Honestly My Bad I had no idea he was Japanese...Idont know much bout the Legion This is the only look I've seen

If this is him after the Japanese Flashpoint, than his Bendis look is so much better

2) If "repping all facets" of someone's background means otherizing and tokenizing them to such an extent, then no, it's not better. At the very least, it's just as bad.

I'm not sure how his look would be othering or an example of Tokenization?

This is what the reboot version of KK looked liked. You could see his asian heritage more here without it being an outdated offensive sterotype.

Honestly if you hadnt told me he was asian I wouldnt have known he was anything other than a white dude :/

[manwhohaseverything]

Honestly My Bad I had no idea he was Japanese...Idont know much bout the Legion This is the only look I've seen

If this is him after the Japanese Flashpoint, than his Bendis look is so much better

I am a hindu.is it better for me to wear a sikh turban or a dhoti(which btw is worn differently or not worn at all depending on the part you come from in india. Because india isn't one culture ) or a pungi for snake charming than something want to wear? You know that's nonesense because guess what? hindus don't wear sikh turban. Similarly, chinese and Japanese are different. If you don't understand the difference don't mow it down. I am not going to be outraged for the natives. It is not my place. But, i can tell you this using stereo typical portrayal with out any damn nuance Can be offensive many times.It Is similar to portraying hindus others from subcontinent with a dhoti or pungi

[manwhohaseverything]

And I didn't know that either.

It's alright. Kishimoto has Japanesised the chinese culture in naruto. But they are very much chinese in nature. He has also taken things from the subcontinent which has origins in hinduism and Buddhism like ashura and indra, chakra, seven gates, the 7 paths, avalokiteshwara... Etc aside from shintoism which was his base culturally . Kishimoto loves the taoist philosophy which is the base philosophy of naruto . But that aside, Asia was fairly linked culturally because of chinese through the land and india through the seas in the past. Cultural exchanges was inevitable. You can see bits and pieces of each other every where.so it's natural that naruto has all these things.

[BroHomo]

I am a hindu.is it better for me to wear a sikh turban or a dhoti(which btw is worn differently or not worn at all depending on the part you come from in india. Because india isn't one culture ) or a pungi for snake charming than something want to wear? You know that's nonesense because guess what? hindus don't wear sikh turban. Similarly, chinese and Japanese are different. If you don't understand the difference don't mow it down. I am not going to be outraged for the natives. It is not my place.

I know Chinese and Japanese are different culturally. But honestly a cultural mixup is better than having a char 'be "Chinese... Japanese...etc and look white.Bendis Legion is a reboot sooo we don't know the background of the character he's obviously changed races once or twice There's probby an upcoming story that explains his new look. lol
I meeeean there's only been one issue....it's a liiiiiiil early for outage.....

[manwhohaseverything]

I know Chinese and Japanese are different culturally. But honestly a cultural mixup is better than having a char 'be "Chinese... Japanese...etc and look white.Bendis Legion is a reboot sooo we don't know the background of the character he's obviously changed races once or twice There's probby an upcoming story that explains his new look. lol
I meeeean there's only been one issue....it's a liiiiiiil early for outage.....

As I said, i never get bothered by these things. But dc rarely portrays cultures in a good way. They like tokenism rather than genuine interest .for instance, DC jackasses made Ram fall for wonder woman. That is the kind of bullshit they print. Ram has a vow and he is loyal to one woman for eternity. that isn't diana. Her name is sita. That is his key feature as a character similar to batman's no guns and no killing thing.what is next? a married hanuman. I wouldn't have been bothered by it at all if dc had ram be portrayed true to the character elsewhere. But he isn't.
Asking for racial differences to be depicted is different from culture. I can get behind that if the nuances are preserved in features(asians do not look the same) . But, we aren't talking about that. We are specifically talking about culture. Culture and race aren't the same thing.And culture is very much important. No, it isn't better.

[Gurz]

Now, i understand all the hate for bendis.......................

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

I mean at least shes wearing pants lol

Buuut its are reference to her culture...how is it more offensive than Katana's mask? or the Asian Superman's costume? Captain Americas?

Its not worse than Katana's New 52 look. Katana's New 52 design is atrocious. Let's remember a time when Katana had a much better design:



But even then, there's a difference between wearing the insignia from the flag of one's home country on the one hand and being portrayed as the stereotypical trope of a Native American woman. This isn't the case of a Native artist portraying how women in modern Native American culture dress. This is the case of some white dude saying to himself "I need to make it clear that she's Native American" and in so doing, engage in a whole host of stereotypes.

Well dude there are more Asian schools that offer martial arts as an extracurricular than the States. How is that racist?

Jesus Christ. I feel like you've missed the point.

No But if he was From/living in Alabama........

But that is the point. China is a wide, diverse country just like the U.S. is. So, therefore, painting Chinese people with such broad strokes is like saying that a New Yorker is obsessed with Nascar and fried food and country music.

If this is him after the Japanese Flashpoint, than his Bendis look is so much better

Again, no, its not. His new look makes him look like a Chinaman stereotype. If you think that's a good look, then I think you need to do some reevaluation on how you see the world.

I'm not sure how his look would be othering or an example of Tokenization?

Again, because a) it basically makes him look like an outdated stereotype and b) it conflates Chinese and Japanese culture.

[Killerbee911]

Again, because a) it basically makes him look like an outdated stereotype and b) it conflates Chinese and Japanese culture.

Actually it doesn't conflate Chinese and Japanese culture. We don't know the backstory of the character yet they could have changed the background of character to Chinese. We have seen something like this before in the Karate Kid Reboot with Jaden Smith. Jackie Chan does Kung Fu and it took place in China. They didn't name the movie "Kung Fu Kid" because Karate Kid is the brand.

As somebody who watched gazillion old Kung fu flicks I instantly recognized they were going for that look that many of characters in those films had, Now the question is rebooted "Karate Kid" from place where they are forced to wear that hairstyle. It is not out of realm of belief in the future an empire has rise up that has some of the same old bad habits as the past. The actually story will reveal if it is stereotype/token or not. I see his look is direct tribute to Martial art/Kung fu flicks not tokenization.

[manwhohaseverything]

Actually it doesn't conflate Chinese and Japanese culture. We don't know the backstory of the character yet they could have changed the background of character to Chinese. We have seen something like this before in the Karate Kid Reboot with Jaden Smith. Jackie Chan does Kung Fu and it took place in China. They didn't name the movie "Kung Fu Kid" because Karate Kid is the brand.

As somebody who watched gazillion old Kung fu flicks I instantly recognized they were going for that look that many of characters in those films had, Now the question is rebooted "Karate Kid" from place where they are forced to wear that hairstyle. It is not out of realm of belief in the future an empire has rise up that has some of the same old bad habits as the past. The actually story will reveal if it is stereotype/token or not. I see his look is direct tribute to Martial art/Kung fu flicks not tokenization.

And the reboot didn't a have thing from 'japan'. They used karate kid for the name itself and used the story. It basically said chinese, japanese.. Etc they are the same. No they aren't . It was as bad as this. It would have been better if they did change the name. Call him kungfu kid or taichi kid or wingchun kid. I don't care business talk. So the brand isof no conern to me.
Again i would say them same here. stop calling him karate kid. You and i know very well dc has no genuine interest in other cultures. Their track record suggests it. If colonisation is really the reason. It would have been better to show the guy as the rebel who refuses to wear it and chooses to wear his cultural attire in his way.