Asian and Latino superheroes?

[exile001]

Yes, it is. HE was born and raised in a Latin America island, speaking (I assume) spanish. It doesn't matter if he wears it on it's sleeve, or if he is a "minority" (which, technically, he isn't). I'm latino (brazilian), and not a minority (I live in Brazil ). There's no obligation for him to clearly a latino at all times.

Yes, Bane has always been able to speak Spanish. To add to this, his mother has always been Santa Priscan, so definitely latino.

[SilverZeal]

Wow this list is criminally low. It's really a shame that there aren't more Asian characters in SH comic books. I don't understand why it was they made the Earth-1 Power Girl Black/half Black. They really should have made her another race.

Agrd...same can b said abt Val frm Earth-2.

[Lorendiac]

As far as "latino" (you'll probably get a few definitions)

Kyle Rayner - is usually trotted out on this list, he is/was created as Irish American character from the get go, the name screams it and the character through his mom only ever identified as that. The years later potential retcon isn't even referenced it's not part of his identity and never was so it's hard to count (maybe if he'd taken the name, but why would he, it's not him).

That's right -- the idea was that about 100 issues after Kyle received a power ring, it was suddenly "retconned in" that his long-lost father was not an Irish-American named "Rayner," but instead a man of obvious Mexican heritage, with "Rayner" having simply been a cover identity for him at one time. Kyle himself had spent the first twenty-odd years of his life thinking his heritage was very, very Irish. So he sure wasn't supposed to have grown up thinking of himself as being part of a "Mexican-American" or "Hispanic" or "Latino" subculture. Writer Judd Winick apparently thought it would be a peachy keen idea to make Kyle part-Hispanic all of a sudden, but as far as I know, practically everybody else who's written any later stories about Kyle Rayner has basically just shrugged and ignored that little detail.

This reminds me of a point I was researching a few weeks ago. (I asked for help on this forum.) My basic question was: "I've heard that Kendra Saunders, the Hawkgirl in the JSA comics of the 2000s, was revealed to be part-Hispanic on her mother's side at some point. Just when did that first get mentioned for the record?" The answer turned out to be: Almost three years after her debut appearance, it was casually mentioned in one line of dialogue in "Hawkman #1" that Kendra's mom (Trina Saunders) had been a "beautiful Hispanic woman." Until then, nobody had any solid reason to think the new Hawkgirl wasn't just another dark-haired girl with an Anglo-Saxon-sounding name and a spiffy costume! (Which raises the question of whether the Hispanic heritage was part of the official game plan for that character from day one, or just a belated retcon in the name of diversity?)

[Robotman]

Finding out that Kyle was half Mexi was one of the best days of my young nerd life. If it offended you I'm sorry. But there are so few Hispanic superheroes anywhere in comics. Finding out that I share an ethnicity with one of my favorite heroes was something I had never experienced. You obviously have no idea how that feels.

There are a number of female Asian characters in comics but it's odd that there are next to no prominent Asian male superheroes. I know they exist but they're hardly, if ever, featured in a monthly title. Hopefully Earth 2 Captain Steel comes back and plays a large role in World's End.

[Lorendiac]

Finding out that Kyle was half Mexi was one of the best days of my young nerd life. If it offended you I'm sorry. But there are so few Hispanic superheroes anywhere in comics. Finding out that I share an ethnicity with one of my favorite heroes was something I had never experienced. You obviously have no idea how that feels.

I get the strange feeling that you seriously misunderstood somebody in this thread. Possibly me, since your post came right after my previous post in this this thread, although I can't be sure, since you didn't mention any names or quote any text from whatever you thought you were responding to. When you use the words "if it offended you," I think: "Offended? Who ever said they were offended?"

In other words, it seems as if you are "reacting" to something that nobody ever said in the first place!

Basically, all that happened (on the subject of Kyle's ethnicity) was that Guicho and I each commented that after Kyle Rayner had been Irish-American for his first hundred issues or so, it was suddenly retconned in out of nowhere that his long-lost father was a man of Mexican heritage. We also agreed that after Judd Winick "established" that item when he had Kyle finally come face-to-face with his father for the first time, virtually everybody else at DC just ignored it. Which means that Kyle himself usually doesn't even mention it in dialogue. Those are the simple facts.

I don't see where anybody in this thread ever said, "And gosh darn it, I was so shocked and offended by that retcon about Kyle's ethnic heritage that it made me cry myself to sleep!"

I bought that story when it first came out, and while I was very surprised by that twist, I didn't start screaming in horror. I think the only reason I bothered to mention it in this thread, in response to Guicho, was that I found it kind of amusing (in a sad way) that DC went ahead and established that a big-name hero's heritage was half-Mexican . . . and then, having done that, felt no commitment to the idea of doing anything further with the concept. (Similar to my sad amusement at the way they invented Kendra Saunders to be the new Hawkgirl, and then mentioned her own half-Hispanic heritage once in a blue moon in the actual scripts!)

If you got a big thrill out of that story when you first read it, then I'm happy for you.

There are a number of female Asian characters in comics but it's odd that there are next to no prominent Asian male superheroes. I know they exist but they're hardly, if ever, featured in a monthly title. Hopefully Earth 2 Captain Steel comes back and plays a large role in World's End.

Off the top of my head, the only male Asian character whom I can recall being the Big Star of his very own DC or Marvel title for a long time (not in a short-lived title, and not just as "one of several regulars in a title named after the entire team") would be Marvel's Shang-Chi, "Master of Kung Fu." He was the headliner of his own title for over a hundred issues, but -- unfortunately -- that was way, way back in the 1970s and early 1980s. Since then, he's only been used intermittently.

[Thesanmich]

The comic industry should really push Asian heroes. There's such an abundance of black superheroes now and yet I still have trouble naming three non stereotypical asian male heroes.

[bdiggs]

Latino is not a race. Kyle Rayner is white and learned that his father was Mexican. But Kyle's ethnicity was Irish-American; not Mexican and not Latino.
Trying to present Kyle as Latino simply because he discovered his father was Mexican was racist.

I doubt that background is still in play in the New 52.

[mr_crisp]

Asian and Latino heroes? No one cares about them. It's only black heroes you need.

[Toreador]

Don't forget the New Guardians. They had Ram (Japanese), Extrano (South American) and Thomas Kalmaku (Eskimo). The new Ray, Lucien Gates, is Korean. The old Teen Titans had semi-members called Thunder and Lightning who were half Vietnamese and half alien.

[Desh]

I doubt that background is still in play in the New 52.

It doesn't seem to be. I think Kyle Rayner's dad is now an entirely different guy who doesn't appear to be Mexican at all.

I didn't read this thread, so these have most likely been mentioend, but off the top of my head for superheroes of Latin American descent:

Blue Beetle
Vibe
Faith
I guess some versions of Hawkgirl
Bunker
Fire

Uh... that's about it. There don't seem to be any in American superhero comics that are major superheroes. The closest is probably Hawkgirl, but the most popular iteration doesn't seem the least bit Latina to me.

[Nomads1]

I wish DC had done more with Faith. Of all the additions Kelly made to the JLA, I think she was the one that had most potential.

Peace

[BushidoBlade2]

The comic industry should really push Asian heroes. There's such an abundance of black superheroes now and yet I still have trouble naming three non stereotypical asian male heroes.

There's is not an abundance of black heroes. They're just as nonexistent as Asian & Latino heroes. And most of them suck because they're all similar power-wise.

[Lorendiac]

The comic industry should really push Asian heroes. There's such an abundance of black superheroes now and yet I still have trouble naming three non stereotypical asian male heroes.

Asian male heroes? Not total stereotypes? Let me see what I can do from memory. I'm guessing that such martial artists as "Val Armorr, Karate Kid" and "Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu" strike you as stereotypical, right? So I'll see what else I can dredge up from my memory.

(Although I don't think Shang-Chi seemed like such a stereotype when he debuted, way back around the mid-70s, and quickly got his own title. And it's worth pointing out that when Karate Kid debuted in the Silver Age Legion of Super-Heroes, he looked like just another brown-haired Caucasian teenager with nothing "Asian" about his pedigree!)

How do you feel about DC's "Rising Sun," a Japanese man who used to be part of the Global Guardians? I admit he wears a costume inspired by his nation's flag, but having a "solar-powered hero" be Japanese (or any type of Asian) is not, as far as I know, a blatant cliche.

I guess a similar point applies to Marvel's "Sunfire," a mutant with powers very similar to those of the Human Torch. He also wore a costume similar to a Japanese flag when he debuted.

I never read the "All-New Atom" title which starred Ryan Choi, so I don't know much about how he was written. I believe he possessed a Ph.D. in physics. Did that make him come across as a stereotype in your eyes?

Grunge (Percival Edward Chang) of Wildstorm's "Gen 13" in the 1990s did not strike me as a stereotyped teenager of Chinese heritage, and his powers (transforming his body to match the elemental composition of something he was touching) likewise was fairly unusual. (Although Marvel's "Absorbing Man" had been doing much the same thing for many years.)

Chris Claremont created an East Indian mutant named Neal Shaara with fire-based powers who ended up calling himself "Thunderbird" when he started working with the X-Men.

Other than those, I'm not coming up with much.

[Güicho]

While they've explored it with a few black male heroes, and some female characters, I think DC has yet to create or even entertain the idea of a strong Adult Male Asian or Latino lead, who can stand shoulder to shoulder with their JL.

Does it just not seem possible to them?
Even in the wake of an all new universe. It's still non existent.

[Güicho]

Another female Latina (actually the first costumed hero in that universe) was Smallville's Andrea Rojas - Angel of Vengeance.




Of course there is no re-working or even a hint of her in the comics universe.