The Minority Report! Diversity In The MU.

[Kasper Cole]

...any comics out there-- indie world, etc., where heroes are functioning in a predominantly minority city in the USA?

Any comic that takes place in New York should be shown as being predominantly non white. Unfortunately comics rarely reflect that reality unless they're spotlighting Harlem....

I love Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man but It has been a bit glaring that he's the only black person in that book right now.

[KOSLOX]

Any comic that takes place in New York should be shown as being predominantly non white. Unfortunately comics rarely reflect that reality unless they're spotlighting Harlem....

I love Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man but It has been a bit glaring that he's the only black person in that book right now.

It did have Cloak for awhile, and they are both in New Ultimates. In fact they are the only men on that team.

Also, the two most prominent characters are usually Miles and Ganke (usually) so while it may only have one blakc person it's still pretty good about having PoCs in the starring roles.

[aja_christopher]

Been busy with a lot of personal projects. New artwork in the gallery below (Graphics) and new music in the (Music) link -- acoustic covers of The Cure, Foo Fighters and Radiohead among others.

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"Why It Took So Long For The X-Men To Become Popular"

"...The rest of the team was, of course, filled out with an international roster, and that’s one of the most brilliant things that the relaunch did. Since they were situated out in Westchester rather than being in New York City proper, the X-Men had always been slightly apart from the Marvel Universe. It’s only about 30 miles, sure, but Spider-Man wasn’t exactly going to be swinging by on his way to the Bugle like he could in the background of Daredevil. By throwing in characters from Africa, Europe and even Canada, Wein and Cockrum gave the team a global scale that set them apart from neighborhood heroes. It was something they’d already had, but now there was a personal investment in it.

It also brought that civil rights metaphor right to the forefront, on a very basic visual level. These were people who looked different from each other — the gigantic wide-eyed Russian, the African goddess, the weird blue elf with the accent — but they all had something in common. They were united as members of a race despite their differences in appearance, and that also meant that they had a common enemy in the forces that were out to oppress and destroy them because of their differences from “normal people.” Compare that to the five white kids in suits from the original lineup. One of them has large feet. That’s about as much visual variety as you get, and it doesn’t exactly underscore what you’re dealing with.

Right away, you’re dealing with something that has a much stronger hook, with creators who are far more invested and devoted to what they’re doing. But more than that, everything that works against X-Men in 1963 ends up working for it in 1975..."

genesis.jpg

http://comicsalliance.com/ask-chris-...#ixzz35r9A526N

[aja_christopher]

I feel a little guilty because I haven't gone to the shop to pick this issue up yet... too busy recording music and drawing anthropomorphized ponies for my gallery...

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"For those of you who might have passed this by or have been living under a rock for the past few months, Ms. Marvel is about Kamala Khan, a New Jersey teenager. Due to the “Infinity,” event, she’s been super-powered by the Terrigen Mists and given shapeshifting abilities. Inspired to do good by her favorite hero, Captain Marvel, she helps friends and fights bad guys but is still looking for direction in her life. There are family hijinks and even some culture shock.

Representations of other cultures and nationalities in mainstream American superhero comics typically have been a little awkward and shallow (see Chris Claremont’s fondness for peppering dialogue with expressions like “Unglaublich” or “Begorrah”). Different ethnicities have been so easily, and so regularly, fumbled that we’ve become accustomed to it. But in Ms. Marvel, the portrayal feels less like culture shock and more like a cultural comparison as Kamala’s problems and lifestyle don’t exactly revolve around her heritage, but rather who she is and becomes spins off from it. Her family is a lot like mine — they just have a different motivation. Not fitting in is the root of Kamala’s teen woes, but being Muslim is merely a new flower on this common problem. She’s inspired not by representation but by success. Nothing is pigeonholed, so everything is relatable to one extent or another.

Kamala’s problems could be yours..."

msmarvel5_perfect.jpg

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com...-of-ms-marvel/

[Lorendiac]

The recent post about Kamala Khan reminded me of a couple of loose ends I wanted to pin down for something I'm working on -- regarding the way members of different ethnicities have gradually been "integrated" into Marvel's superhero universe in prominent roles. Here are a few questions I hope someone can answer:

1. Who was the first Marvel character of "East Indian" heritage to be the star of at least one story published in an issue of an anthology title?

2. Who was the first Marvel character of "East Indian" heritage to be the star of his (or her) own regular monthly title?

In this context, when I mention "East Indian heritage," I basically mean: "At least half of this person's ancestry seems to come from one or more of the ethnic groups which have long inhabited the area we call the Indian subcontinent -- including the nations currently known as 'India,' 'Pakistan,' and 'Bangladesh.' Any of the above will do!"

(On the other hand: A man of solid White Anglo-Saxon Protestant heritage who just happened to have been born in a hospital in New Delhi would not qualify as a case of "this character is obviously East Indian!")

[Ajala]

The recent post about Kamala Khan reminded me of a couple of loose ends I wanted to pin down for something I'm working on -- regarding the way members of different ethnicities have gradually been "integrated" into Marvel's superhero universe in prominent roles. Here are a few questions I hope someone can answer:

1. Who was the first Marvel character of "East Indian" heritage to be the star of at least one story published in an issue of an anthology title?

2. Who was the first Marvel character of "East Indian" heritage to be the star of his (or her) own regular monthly title?

In this context, when I mention "East Indian heritage," I basically mean: "At least half of this person's ancestry seems to come from one or more of the ethnic groups which have long inhabited the area we call the Indian subcontinent -- including the nations currently known as 'India,' 'Pakistan,' and 'Bangladesh.' Any of the above will do!"

(On the other hand: A man of solid White Anglo-Saxon Protestant heritage who just happened to have been born in a hospital in New Delhi would not qualify as a case of "this character is obviously East Indian!")

Do counter parts like Spider India count? Because that's the earliest that I've read, right off the top of my head.

[7thangel]

oops, wrong thread, lol

[aja_christopher]

The recent post about Kamala Khan reminded me of a couple of loose ends I wanted to pin down for something I'm working on -- regarding the way members of different ethnicities have gradually been "integrated" into Marvel's superhero universe in prominent roles. Here are a few questions I hope someone can answer:

1. Who was the first Marvel character of "East Indian" heritage to be the star of at least one story published in an issue of an anthology title?

2. Who was the first Marvel character of "East Indian" heritage to be the star of his (or her) own regular monthly title?

In this context, when I mention "East Indian heritage," I basically mean: "At least half of this person's ancestry seems to come from one or more of the ethnic groups which have long inhabited the area we call the Indian subcontinent -- including the nations currently known as 'India,' 'Pakistan,' and 'Bangladesh.' Any of the above will do!"

(On the other hand: A man of solid White Anglo-Saxon Protestant heritage who just happened to have been born in a hospital in New Delhi would not qualify as a case of "this character is obviously East Indian!")

The only Indian hero that comes to mind for me is Karima Shapandar (Omega Sentinel) from the X-Men and apparently Neal Shaara (Thunderbird) is of Indian descent as well. I find it interesting that both were created by Chris Claremont -- it seems as if he is one of the few Marvel writers who has made a concentrated effort to create and likewise focus on characters of "diverse" heritage.

I say this as someone who was drawn in by his great characterization of Danielle Moonstar (Native American) back in the New Mutants, as well as his depiction of characters like Karma (Vietnamese and lesbian) and Sunspot (Afro-Brazilian) among others. It is very telling that once he left the X-Books, characters like these (along with characters such as Storm, Forge, Stevie Hunter, Gateway, etc) fell into mis- and disuse in the X-Titles.

(I likewise recall that he had an Arabic character named Jetstream as a member of Emma Frost's Hellions and I'm curious as to what became of him...)

While I give credit to writers such as Wood, Vaughan and Bendis for trying to do the same in more recent titles, one would be hard pressed to find the level of consistent devotion Claremont displayed to pushing such characters to the forefront of their respective books for such an extended period of time as Claremont did during his proverbial "prime".

Personally, I already have a character of Indian heritage for my book "Primus" ("Harmony") and I'm trying to develop one of Chinese and Indian heritage, but as she is a character from the "past" (Harmony is from the future) I need to do a little more research before I can consider her fully developed. Time to watch some Legend of Korra for inspiration...

Anyway, here is a list of characters of Asian descent that might help you find the answer you're looking for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asian_superheroes

[aja_christopher]

"Marvel is realizing straight white guys aren't the only ones who can save the world"

"In the Marvel movie universe, a straight white guy has played some part in saving the world 20 times in the past nine years. On the pages of Marvel's comic books though, a different story is unfolding.

The company has, in the last few months, been aggressive in giving women and minority superheroes starring roles. That means solo books for heroes like Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, and Black Widow; the launch and re-imagining of the Ms. Marvel as a teenage Muslim-American girl; an all-female X-Men title; a new solo series for Storm; and perhaps most excitingly, the formation of The Ultimates, a superhero team comprised of women and minorities..."

The All-New Ultimates might be the most diverse group of heroes in the Marvel universe. They exist in an alternate universe in Marvel, but it is actually the same universe that the Avengers movies borrow heavily from. The comic is its nascent stage— the first issue came out April.

Four of six heroes in the Ultimates are women, making men the minority as opposed to the movie version of the Avengers. And they're racially diverse too. Cloak is black, Miles Morales is a half-black half-latino Spiderman, Kitty Pryde is Jewish, and Spiderwoman a.k.a. Black Widow is actually a clone of Peter Parker.

Michel Fiffe, who writes the comic, explained that the heroes' diversity was something readers were asking for. "Aside from coming closer to representing the world we actually live in, it's important that these 'types'- all types - are represented and treated with the same weight and nuance as the status quo," Fiffe wrote to me over e-mail. "Otherwise, you're left with dangerous and inaccurate uniformity..."


All_New_Ultimates.jpg

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/2/5672328/marvel-tk

[aja_christopher]

One more before I go hit the buffet at Shakey's and watch the World Cup...

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"Meet the Women Who Are Changing Marvel and Comics"

"Kelly Sue DeConnick doesn't care about being liked. She doesn't care about making someone else uncomfortable. And she, for the most part, doesn't care about hurting feelings. She has to be tough as Captain Marvel, the heroine she writes, so her daughter and your daughter won't have to.

"I am willing to make other people uncomfortable so my daughter won't have to," DeConnick said during the Women of Marvel panel at New York Comic Con on Sunday.

"I appreciate and I am proud of the progress that’s being made and I don’t want to sweep it under the table. But this job ain’t done. Nobody sit down!" she said, after being asked about the criticism that minorities and women were making "too big a deal" of wanting to be represented in comics...

DeConnick, with her cherry-soda tinted hair and spike-studded heels, is perhaps the most influential, recognized and vocal feminist in comics today. What she writes and her place in Marvel's boy's club (she was the only female at Marvel's Inhumanity panel on Saturday) inspires comic-reading men and women. And I only say 'perhaps' because the woman that she currently writes, Carol Danvers a.k.a. Captain Marvel (and formerly known as Ms. Marvel), is giving DeConnick a run for her money.

Over the last year, DeConnick has taken Danvers and turned her into the one of the most powerful, complex, and unbreakable heroes in the Marvel universe. (In the first Captain Marvel comic, Danvers is quick to remind a villain, along with the audience, that she outranks Captain America.) And in doing that, Danvers has become one of the most popular heroes among women (and men) and proved the "women don't read comics" and "men aren't interested in stories about female superheroes" tropes are wrong..."


marvel.jpg

http://www.thewire.com/entertainment...-comics/70484/

[Smoov-E]

It did have Cloak for awhile, and they are both in New Ultimates. In fact they are the only men on that team.

Also, the two most prominent characters are usually Miles and Ganke (usually) so while it may only have one blakc person it's still pretty good about having PoCs in the starring roles.

I gotta reread "Venom" and "No More" but there was always people of color in crowd scenes cheering or doing something. There was Judge and the cop who seems to have been swapped out for Maria Hill

[Lorendiac]

Do counter parts like Spider India count? Because that's the earliest that I've read, right off the top of my head.

I vaguely remember reading some online articles about his debut, many years ago now -- but before today, I probably hadn't even thought of him in years. (I never bought any comics in which he appeared.) If he appeared in comic books with the Marvel logo on them, then I guess that makes him an eligible candidate if no other Marvel hero of "East Indian" heritage had beaten him to the punch.

After typing the above paragraph, I used Wikipedia to bring me up to speed on exactly how much had really been done with Spider-Man: India. It looks like it happened this way:

1. Pavitr Prabhakar, aka "Spider-Man," was the star of a 4-issue miniseries published in India by a company called "Gotham Entertainment Group." (They had Marvel's permission to do this.) The Indian comics appeared in 2004.

2. Marvel reprinted the material as a miniseries in the USA in 2005, and then collected the mini into a TPB.

3. Near as I can tell from Wikipedia, he's never been used again in any new stories.

The "4-issue mini" part is not quite what I was hoping for. I wanted a case where someone of "East Indian heritage" was the star of what was intended to be an ongoing monthly title that might (conceivably) last for many years instead of having a built-in time limit of a certain number of months. (As I understand it, Kamala Khan's solo title falls into that "open-ended" category, but I was hoping Marvel had given something similar many years earlier to another East Indian character.)

[Lorendiac]

The only Indian hero that comes to mind for me is Karima Shapandar (Omega Sentinel) from the X-Men and apparently Neal Shaara (Thunderbird) is of Indian descent as well. I find it interesting that both were created by Chris Claremont -- it seems as if he is one of the few Marvel writers who has made a concentrated effort to create and likewise focus on characters of "diverse" heritage.

I remembered Neal Shaara while I was posing the question earlier. I'm pretty sure he qualifies as "first East Indian hero to become a member of an X-Men team roster." But I was specifically looking for East Indian characters who got to be stars of their own stories -- either in a feature published in another title, or else in their very own "solo title" -- not just being "one of the faces in the current cast of a superhero team book." As far as I know, Neal Shaara never got that level of recognition ("we're going to let you star in some solo adventures!"). And while I don't know much about Karima, a little hasty online research doesn't suggest she ever got to fly solo in stories of her own, either.

I think I had previously studied the same Wikipedia page you suggested, but didn't find what I was looking for.

[skyvolt2000]

...any comics out there-- indie world, etc., where heroes are functioning in a predominantly minority city in the USA?

Only one I can think of is Savage Dragon in Chicago. Especially since Malcolm (his son) took over. Unless you want to say that he lives in a minority section of Chicago. Because all you see in the background are blacks.

Before he got ruined Jaime Reyes in the original run of Blue Beetle. He was in El Paso, Texas. Static's world was pretty much mixed. Aside from Falcon & Luke Cage's early stories-you had them in Harlem.

Maybe the upcoming Midnight Tiger comic.

[NexusTenebrare]

"Marvel is realizing straight white guys aren't the only ones who can save the world"

"In the Marvel movie universe, a straight white guy has played some part in saving the world 20 times in the past nine years. On the pages of Marvel's comic books though, a different story is unfolding.

The company has, in the last few months, been aggressive in giving women and minority superheroes starring roles. That means solo books for heroes like Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, and Black Widow; the launch and re-imagining of the Ms. Marvel as a teenage Muslim-American girl; an all-female X-Men title; a new solo series for Storm; and perhaps most excitingly, the formation of The Ultimates, a superhero team comprised of women and minorities..."

The All-New Ultimates might be the most diverse group of heroes in the Marvel universe. They exist in an alternate universe in Marvel, but it is actually the same universe that the Avengers movies borrow heavily from. The comic is its nascent stage— the first issue came out April.

Four of six heroes in the Ultimates are women, making men the minority as opposed to the movie version of the Avengers. And they're racially diverse too. Cloak is black, Miles Morales is a half-black half-latino Spiderman, Kitty Pryde is Jewish, and Spiderwoman a.k.a. Black Widow is actually a clone of Peter Parker.

Michel Fiffe, who writes the comic, explained that the heroes' diversity was something readers were asking for. "Aside from coming closer to representing the world we actually live in, it's important that these 'types'- all types - are represented and treated with the same weight and nuance as the status quo," Fiffe wrote to me over e-mail. "Otherwise, you're left with dangerous and inaccurate uniformity..."


All_New_Ultimates.jpg

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/2/5672328/marvel-tk

Women and racial minorities.
What little LGBT heroes are currently active have in general rather minor roles.
And with Avengers Undercover ending, we're about to lose one of the currently most active ones.
What's left? Northstar in Amazing X-Men's large cast? Thingy over in Uncanny? That's about as minor a role as you can get.
Marvel has been doing better with LGBT representation than say 20 years ago, but it's still pretty dire IMO. We get a book every now and then with prominent gay representation, but it gets cancelled/finished pretty swiftly and then we're left with a big void.