Minorities In Comics and Related Media

[Michael P]

The Black Panther movie has been pushed up to February of 2018 to accommodate an Ant-Man/Wasp movie in July. This also means the movie will come out before Part 1 of Infinity War, not after.

[Smoov-E]

The Black Panther movie has been pushed up to February of 2018 to accommodate an Ant-Man/Wasp movie in July. This also means the movie will come out before Part 1 of Infinity War, not after.

Marvel is like "we got a movie about a African superhero coming out during black history month, we don't know how else to say we're coming for your wallets black people"

[Malvolio]

Marvel's coming for all of our wallets. That's what they do. They don't care what color your skin is. The only color they care about is the green of our money.

[leo619]

I didn't say that Miles wasn't relatable, I said Miles isn't a fully realized character and that he lacks any sort of authenticity or depth. I also said every Miles story doesn't need to focus on race or social issues. The issue is these things aren't even so much as acknowledged in the slightest bit. I'm not even talking about deep stories that delve into political issues, it could be small things such as Miles occasionally using a Spanish word here or there to acknowledge his Latino heritage.

A good example of this would be how Bendis often writes Kitty Pryde. Every issue featuring Kitty isn't about how Jewish she is, but her being Jewish IS a part of her character and informs her back story and how she reacts to certain things. It's not a continual ongoing thing but it does happen from time to time and helps make her a more fleshed out and realized character.

I've read every issue featuring Miles as Spider-Man and I genuinely couldn't give you a description of Miles as a person beyond his physical appearance. He's just blank character that gets caught up in events.

The crazy thing is Bendis did a good job of fleshing out his dad and uncle. Hell Ganke is more fleshed out character than Miles. Same goes for Bendis version of Cloak and Dagger.

I'm a bit confused by your first statement then. You stated Bendis cannot make a black character in New York that's doesn't have anything to do with race because he pats his back for making a black character that's relatable. My point was, Miles is relatable. Hence the fandom that continues to grow regarding the character even though race had no part to play so far in the story. With that said, none of the characters I previous mention actually focuses on race. That's not the point. Even though Luke Cage has a lot of social exploration, the focus in his, or any superhero storyline to my knowledge, is never about race, it's about the adventurer. Now depending upon the hero, the level that race plays within the character varies. You have Luke Cage where race plays heavily with the character, vs prodigy which to my knowledge, doesn't play any sort of factor at all.

And that's why I said it's fine to have that balance. It's not just in comics either, television shows, movies, books, you name it, when it comes to black characters, you will have some where race plays a major point with the characters, and others where race isn't even mention in the story. As mentioned before, it provides variety. Just because you have a minority character, does not mean that race has to play a role in that story. Too much of anything because one note and stale.

Regarding Bendis and Kitty, it's most likely due to her history. But you notice how with Kitty, it's a part of her lifestyle, but with Cloak and Dagger, it isn't. They were, are, a hot button taboo regarding a BM/WF relationship, and yet race was never mentioned with them as characters. It still didn't change the fact they were well developed characters.

As for Miles, that I also disagree. He's definitely not blank, he's just not extroverted. That's why it seems like he's blank. But I can pull out Miles characteristics very well. He's a timid, meek, introvert that is trying to act like an extrovert when he puts on the costume due to the fact this responsibility was forced on him. He doesn't like the responsibility, but he does it anyway because he knows he can make a difference. But this contrast his natural tendency of wanting to stay away from the lime light and be invisible. This could also be a reason why one of his powers is camoflauge, due to his introverted nature. This is what makes miles refreshing because he's one of the few introverted, meek characters out there, as most characters are either extroverted or stoic. But an introverted character also provides a writing challenge, because he's not going to express himself as openly as an extroverted character will. If we have thought bubbles around, it would be perfect. Because then we can see what makes him tick. But since there's not thought bubbles, we have to rely upon his interaction to slowly pull away the character known as miles. So it's definitely not that he doesn't have depth, it's just that it's not on the surface like you would see with say Peter Parker, whose more of the smart alec, wise cracking extroverted type. (Well I would consider him 50% introverted, 50% extroverted. He's introverted towards people he don't know when he's not in costume, but if he knows you, he's pretty open. Miles is like 85% introverted, 15% extroverted, if that.)

[Double 0]

I think there are more interesting ways to highlight introverted characters. Problem is, Bendis' style is all about extroverted characters.

[Agent Z]

Diversity in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Star Wars’ Poor History and New Hope in Representation

http://www.themarysue.com/star-wars-diversity/

I think there are more interesting ways to highlight introverted characters. Problem is, Bendis' style is all about extroverted characters.

I like Miles but that could be because I'm rather introverted myself and have even been kind of accused of being boring by peers.

Out of curiosity, are there any examples of introverted characters you like?

[Double 0]

Trust, I've run into the same issue, but I can extroverted in the right environments.

Classic example is of well developed introverts would be Amelie from the movie Amelie. There are plenty of comedic examples though: George from Seinfield, Rosa Diaz from B99 (though her's isn't an extreme case), etc.

I tend to think superhero comics don't do this well, outside of some portrayals of Reed or Cass Cain.

[leo619]

I think there are more interesting ways to highlight introverted characters. Problem is, Bendis' style is all about extroverted characters.

That is true, Bendis strength lies in extroverted characters.

But than again, I can't really recall introverted characters done well in comics, so it might not be just a bendis thing.

[Kasper Cole]

The easiest way to handle introverted characters well is to have the dialog in their head running most of the time. This is something Bendis usually does well, but he often fails at it with Miles imo. I still have no real sense of Miles personality even with the time Bendis does give us a peak into what he's thinking. It's usually just Miles reacting to things that happen around him.

*edit*

And to be clear, i'm not anti-Miles by any stretch, I desperately want to like the character more than I do. I just find Bendis handling of the character to be incredibly lacking and ultimately shallow. The story overall is fine in terms of scale of events and family drama, but I definitely feels like his afraid to broach certain topics. He'll dance around the edges of things but never actually address them.

I want to be able to like Miles as much as I loved Static.

[4sake Baned]

Marvel is like "we got a movie about a African superhero coming out during black history month, we don't know how else to say we're coming for your wallets black people"

Lol too tru

[Agent Z]

Okay, call me crazy but after watching Rosewood, I am legit curious to see how Morris Chestnut would play a character like Mr Terrific.

[leo619]

The easiest way to handle introverted characters well is to have the dialog in their head running most of the time. This is something Bendis usually does well, but he often fails at it with Miles imo. I still have no real sense of Miles personality even with the time Bendis does give us a peak into what he's thinking. It's usually just Miles reacting to things that happen around him.

*edit*

And to be clear, i'm not anti-Miles by any stretch, I desperately want to like the character more than I do. I just find Bendis handling of the character to be incredibly lacking and ultimately shallow. The story overall is fine in terms of scale of events and family drama, but I definitely feels like his afraid to broach certain topics. He'll dance around the edges of things but never actually address them.

I want to be able to like Miles as much as I loved Static.

Oh I don't think your anti-miles. I just don't think miles is meant to match your tastes. Dwayne Mcduffie approach for Static and Bendis approach for Miles are two completely different avenues. While what spark the creation was the same ( the desire for more diversity), how they wish to take that road are two completely different perspectives. And as stated before, that's fine. But Miles isn't going to have the same exploration as Static anymore than Val Zod would. And that's fine.
And there's nothing wrong with a certain character not appealing to your taste. For example, I prefer my characters to at least be super powered. I'm not interested in peak human characters so characters like black panther and captain falcon doesn't really peak my interest. Now I buy the comics just to support minority characters, but I don't expect for them to appeal to me just by the nature of the characters, and that's fine.

There's another guy on the DC forum who you can tell doesn't like high powered character, trey strain I believe. And that's fine, that his taste. But that still won't change the fact that high powered characters will be created to appeal to fans who like high powered characters.

In this specific case, it just sounds like Miles isn't meant to appeal to your taste, which is fine.

[Agent Z]

Black Nerd Problems asks if a Nancy Drew show "could finally mean melanin"

http://blacknerdproblems.com/site/co...-mean-melanin/

And a list of episode title they came up with

Nancy Drew and the Ghost of a Slave Economy

Nancy Drew and the Mystery of How a Clock Looks Like A Bomb But Nobody Called the Bomb Squad

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Reason Asian Americans Are Still Being Targeted By the Government

Nancy Drew and the Quest to Prevent the Murders of Trans and Queer People

Nancy Drew and the Secret to Dismantling the Kyriarchy

Black Lives Matter (the entire episode is just Nancy Drew unflinchingly yelling at White police officers that Black lives matter over and over again while the names of Black victims of police brutality appear on the screen).

[skyvolt2000]

I want to be able to like Miles as much as I loved Static.

Well to be fair Static does fall into the same trap as Miles.

Of the 52 solo issues of Static-he dealt with racism early in his career with some black guy trying to kill Jews. That last 3 issues. Then you had the Static Shock episode with Rich's racist Dad and Static in Africa.

We overlook it because we saw his entire life from being a hero to being a kid to being a boyfriend to supporting a gay friend and so on.

Miles has been held hostage by the shadow of Peter Parker and the the messed universe that he lived in. Now maybe the new book can focus on Miles the kid and give him the social life we saw with Static and Ms marvel.

[Vic Vega]

I frankly can't get past the idea of a Nancy Drew in her 30s.

At certain point you go so far away from the source material that you might as well make up something new.