Damian Wayne/Robin Appreciation 2023.

[dietrich]

A while ago I read Marvels Snapshots series from Marvel, it was basically about different creative teams doing single story about some hero and maybe some civilians. Anyway, one of the stories by Russel (don't remember who the artist was) was about black kid and Captain America a bit. So black kid joins A.I.M (basically some terrorists) that wear yellow hazmat suits. And well Russel figures out a weird excuse for why his black kid never wears the helmet so that, you know, in every panel that he appears you'd see that he is black.

And well, I guess that the idea here is that if Damian wasn't darker than the average person from Middle East then nobody would understand that he is actually not 100% white. Because readers are morons, I guess.

This type of approach is likely one of the reason's why a lot of readers resist new minority characters. Writers and management sign-posting the agenda [making comics more inclusive] when they should be blending it in with great story telling, fleshed our characters and narratives that make sense.

So low effort and sadly this makes these new characters diversity quotas 1st, characters 2nd. What a way to start a character off with the odds stacked against them


Social media and several comic sites have been praising the Web series for not Whitewashing Damian which to me shows that these people don't care about inclusion or accurate representation or being respectful to all ethnicities as much as they care about saying the right things and appearing tolerant.

It's disingenuous. To the casual observer, Damian's visuals doesn't represent his heritage. He looks like a kid of African and European descent.

There are other ways to represent his mixed background. more Damian stories should include references/elements of the various cultures in his ancestors.

So far only a few titles have done that. RSOB, Tim's 90's Robin series [the last Annual], RR, Truth and Justice and DC's 1st Asian Celebration anthology.

DC can't make up their minds. Damian was missing in the latest Asian celebration issue. He is by far DC's biggest character of Asian heritage and yet somehow they forgot or didn't think to promote that the current holder of one their best known mantles is part Asian.

DC can't even pander well. Comics industry has been scrambling to appear progressive and push their under represented minorities. Most efforts are labelled as 'forced' by those who don't want change. They use they argument that diversity characters don't sell.
DC has one that did manage to break through but they don't care to capitalize on that.

I will forever be grateful that Damian's ethnicity is secondary to the character himself but it's dumb not to embrace it and make it part of the character.

I can't think of any reason why he wasn't part of the Asian celebration but their approach to representation and their overall handling of minority characters is half arsed at best.

[thwhtGuardian]

He's like that in every panel.

He only looks like he has tan complexion here...it doesn't look too dark to me. Maybe it's my monitor setting but Damian doesn't look any darker than your avatar, which is I believe Aomine.

[Rebeca Armus]

He only looks like he has tan complexion here...it doesn't look too dark to me. Maybe it's my monitor setting but Damian doesn't look any darker than your avatar, which is I believe Aomine.

Agree, it's not your monitor

[Rebeca Armus]

When I started read american comic, I remember being angry about how Bruce's eyes color changed a lot, blue, grey, black, brown, like, it's the same character! Why it keep changing with no explanation?? Nobody besides me care about it, but when a character change then skin color internet really go crazy, you can accept a alien man with super powers, but not a black alien with super powers, it needs to have the most better explanation, and people will keep saying it's not good enough, if it's not explained = it's bad writed, if it's well explained = it's not natural. It can be a woman, a queer character, a colored person, if it's not the best of the best story people will find a way to destroy it, but never saying that the problem is a changing of patronized heroes.

So tell me, why skin color bother people and eyes color doesn't?

[Rebeca Armus]

Glad they decided to release a print version

Sorry for ask, but is "food war" really a thing in USA? I hadn't a opinion about it, but this happens so much in movies, series, comics that I started to think more about it.

[Astralabius]

This type of approach is likely one of the reason's why a lot of readers resist new minority characters. Writers and management sign-posting the agenda [making comics more inclusive] when they should be blending it in with great story telling, fleshed our characters and narratives that make sense.

So low effort and sadly this makes these new characters diversity quotas 1st, characters 2nd. What a way to start a character off with the odds stacked against them


Social media and several comic sites have been praising the Web series for not Whitewashing Damian which to me shows that these people don't care about inclusion or accurate representation or being respectful to all ethnicities as much as they care about saying the right things and appearing tolerant.

It's disingenuous. To the casual observer, Damian's visuals doesn't represent his heritage. He looks like a kid of African and European descent.

There are other ways to represent his mixed background. more Damian stories should include references/elements of the various cultures in his ancestors.

So far only a few titles have done that. RSOB, Tim's 90's Robin series [the last Annual], RR, Truth and Justice and DC's 1st Asian Celebration anthology.

DC can't make up their minds. Damian was missing in the latest Asian celebration issue.

What issue are we talking about here?
He was in the 2021 special, there was no special in 2022 only variant covers and Robin #14 had one and the 2023 special is missing LOTS of popular asian characters because it's there to promote new asian characters and their new books. Not just Damian is missing.

[Astralabius]

When I started read american comic, I remember being angry about how Bruce's eyes color changed a lot, blue, grey, black, brown, like, it's the same character! Why it keep changing with no explanation?? Nobody besides me care about it, but when a character change then skin color internet really go crazy, you can accept a alien man with super powers, but not a black alien with super powers, it needs to have the most better explanation, and people will keep saying it's not good enough, if it's not explained = it's bad writed, if it's well explained = it's not natural. It can be a woman, a queer character, a colored person, if it's not the best of the best story people will find a way to destroy it, but never saying that the problem is a changing of patronized heroes.

So tell me, why skin color bother people and eyes color doesn't?

I don't get people getting mad at Damian getting a tan complexion either.
Especially when they say stuff like "there are light skinned arabs too!"
Well, there are arab and also chinese people with darker skin too.
It's just that colorism is a thing basically everywhere.
Which is why it would be cool to have a hero of arab/chinese heritage with non-white passing skin.

[dietrich]

I don't get people getting mad at Damian getting a tan complexion either.
Especially when they say stuff like "there are light skinned arabs too!"
Well, there are arab and also chinese people with darker skin too.
It's just that colorism is a thing basically everywhere.
Which is why it would be cool to have a hero of arab/chinese heritage with non-white passing skin.

What are you talking about? Arabian people are officially classified as Caucasian.

Colourism might be a thing for but it's not the case for everyone. You only speak for yourself.

Representation isn't just about skin colour since lot of under represented groups are white. Representation is also about culture and lifestyle.

Damian is mixed. 1/4 Arabian, 1/4 Chinese and 1/2 European. He shouldn't be that dark.
Rather than miscolouring him/grabbing the brown marker DC should put in effort and have him embrace some traditions from ethnic heritage. I can guarantee you Chinese and Middle Eastern fans would appreciate that a lot more than occasionally brown Damian.

[Konja7]

He only looks like he has tan complexion here...it doesn't look too dark to me. Maybe it's my monitor setting but Damian doesn't look any darker than your avatar, which is I believe Aomine.

Yeah. Damian's skin in Wayne Family Adventure is similar to Aomine.

The issue is Batman Wayne Family gives Damian a tan to represent that he is Arab descendant. Honestly, a darker skin shouldn't be necessary to correctly represent Damian as a minority.

Damian's skin has never been so dark in comic even when they want to represent his heritage.


PS: I think Damian should be as light-skinned as Bruce since they are mentioned to look pretty similar, but I've understand many people don't like this idea.

[Eckri]

I don't it get with Damian's skin color.

If they wanted to represent his heritage of being Middle Eastern Arab (Which btw is a broad statement, has to be more specific which Arabian country his family comes from) and Chinese descent. Wouldn't it make more sense to have Damian do things that represent those cultures? It's not about the skin color, it's about the cultural heritage.

Which I really find hard since Ra's al Ghul was a nomad, making Ra's more of an international type of guy.

[NOCTPHOENIX]

I don't it get with Damian's skin color.

If they wanted to represent his heritage of being Middle Eastern Arab (Which btw is a broad statement, has to be more specific which Arabian country his family comes from) and Chinese descent. Wouldn't it make more sense to have Damian do things that represent those cultures? It's not about the skin color, it's about the cultural heritage.

Which I really find hard since Ra's al Ghul was a nomad, making Ra's more of an international type of guy.

This type of approach is likely one of the reason's why a lot of readers resist new minority characters. Writers and management sign-posting the agenda [making comics more inclusive] when they should be blending it in with great story telling, fleshed our characters and narratives that make sense.

So low effort and sadly this makes these new characters diversity quotas 1st, characters 2nd. What a way to start a character off with the odds stacked against them


Social media and several comic sites have been praising the Web series for not Whitewashing Damian which to me shows that these people don't care about inclusion or accurate representation or being respectful to all ethnicities as much as they care about saying the right things and appearing tolerant.

It's disingenuous. To the casual observer, Damian's visuals doesn't represent his heritage. He looks like a kid of African and European descent.

There are other ways to represent his mixed background. more Damian stories should include references/elements of the various cultures in his ancestors.

So far only a few titles have done that. RSOB, Tim's 90's Robin series [the last Annual], RR, Truth and Justice and DC's 1st Asian Celebration anthology.

DC can't make up their minds. Damian was missing in the latest Asian celebration issue. He is by far DC's biggest character of Asian heritage and yet somehow they forgot or didn't think to promote that the current holder of one their best known mantles is part Asian.

DC can't even pander well. Comics industry has been scrambling to appear progressive and push their under represented minorities. Most efforts are labelled as 'forced' by those who don't want change. They use they argument that diversity characters don't sell.
DC has one that did manage to break through but they don't care to capitalize on that.

I will forever be grateful that Damian's ethnicity is secondary to the character himself but it's dumb not to embrace it and make it part of the character.

I can't think of any reason why he wasn't part of the Asian celebration but their approach to representation and their overall handling of minority characters is half arsed at best.

All the stuff said is why I find the webtoon is pretty shallow/bare minimum in representing his heritage. Yeah he's darker but he doesn't interact with his heritage/culture at all and probably never will because fanon doesn't and only cares about the 'easy' rep points.

[HsssH]

I don't it get with Damian's skin color.

If they wanted to represent his heritage of being Middle Eastern Arab (Which btw is a broad statement, has to be more specific which Arabian country his family comes from) and Chinese descent. Wouldn't it make more sense to have Damian do things that represent those cultures? It's not about the skin color, it's about the cultural heritage.

Which I really find hard since Ra's al Ghul was a nomad, making Ra's more of an international type of guy.

I suspect that Ra's creators didn't want "brown terrorist" label attached to him and thats why he wasn't really connected to any existing culture from the region.

[Konja7]

I suspect that Ra's creators didn't want "brown terrorist" label attached to him and thats why he wasn't really connected to any existing culture from the region.

To be fair, Ra's creators didn't drawn Ra as "brown". He has white skin and blue eyes. His name still implied he was from Middle Eastern.

Talia has more "foreign" features (she still had blue eyes).

[Fergus]

When I started read american comic, I remember being angry about how Bruce's eyes color changed a lot, blue, grey, black, brown, like, it's the same character! Why it keep changing with no explanation?? Nobody besides me care about it, but when a character change then skin color internet really go crazy, you can accept a alien man with super powers, but not a black alien with super powers, it needs to have the most better explanation, and people will keep saying it's not good enough, if it's not explained = it's bad writed, if it's well explained = it's not natural. It can be a woman, a queer character, a colored person, if it's not the best of the best story people will find a way to destroy it, but never saying that the problem is a changing of patronized heroes.

So tell me, why skin color bother people and eyes color doesn't?

Eye colour doesn't bother people because it's not one of the traits weaponised to divide, discriminate and rank the masses.

Race/skin colour is a man made construct that's used 'to other' [them and us world view] with white deemed as the superior [the skin colour of the European colonial invaders]

It manifests in a caste system which was used to justify the many many atrocities that were carried out in Era of the British Empire, Spanish Empire, Dash for Africa [A period when European nations conquered, carved up the African continent into colonies that they took over]

These continents and colonies were home to brown/black people who were considered savages due to the colour of their skin and life styles [including religious beliefs] being different from the invading white Europeans.

This caste system carried over into the systems and foundations modern civilisation/world is built on. It shaped the way the world views and treats the individual.

Your place on this caste system affects the quality of life you have. The way others perceive you etc.

White is deemed superior- The closer a persons proximity to whiteness the better/more privileged.

On the opposite end at bottom is Black skin. Which is deemed as inferior.

Skin colour has a great deal of impact on the quality of life a person gets. In extreme instances it could even be the difference between life and death. The same to varying degrees is true with a person's sexuality and gender.

Eye colour not so much.

There's also the fact that people are tribal. They tend to like belonging and a lot of folks feel very prideful about belonging to a group [ the LGBTQ+ Community for example] and excluding others [Aryan Nation for example].

Skin colour usually is a maker of origin. Where we hail from, so in comics people are very passionate/invested when a character's origin/race doesn't match the way they are drawn.

Damian is mixed and it's important to show that. I like Damian darker than his brothers however that's influenced by the fact that my kids are mixed race. They like Damian and they were happy when they learned he was mixed parentage like they themselves. They identify with the character even though they are Irish/African.

I do see however acknowledge the point being made that it's important to bare in mind what Damian is a mix of. Also what percentage.

Odds are Damian in reality would look like a regular white kid because half of his genetic make up is European and a quarter is from a region located between Africa and Europe. historically occupied by people who are Mediterranean [I think]

Yet we are talking comics not reality. The artists do have the power to super charge his minority genes. Let the Chinese and Mediterranean parts of the character come through in his visual appearance. He can look like a person who has colour in them without looking like he does in the web series.

[Konja7]

I should admit that I always liked the idea that Damian looks pretty similar to Bruce. So, I'm not really a fan of Damian's appearance needing to represent all his etchnicities.

Anyway, what bothers/worries me the most about changing Damian's appearance is that certain fans would complaint about whitewashing if Damian is drawn "white-looking" again in the future.

For example: I remember people complaining that Damian was whitewashed in Harley Quinn show due to his skin color not being darker.