The Minority Report! Diversity In DC and the Nu52

[neonrideraryeh]

I think DC is doing great at gender diversity in the New 52. They have made a lot of great solos featuring female leads and also given female characters major parts in team books too. Marvel is following suit now too with the All-New wave of books. All in all, I feel very optimistic about that.


I don't want to start a ruckus so I won't go in depth as to why I prefer the new Wally xD

Also, I hope after Forever Evil, they do some more things for Simon Baz. I'm not ruling out the character and think it can continue to be done well. Him being trapped during the event has hurt a bit of Baz's momentum but I think he can regain it ^_^

[Spy Smasher]

The end result of turning "established" white characters black is a more racially diverse group of characters.

Couldn't you do it better by creating black characters from scratch?

And anyway, why the focus on black characters? Where are the Latino and Asian characters in the DCU?

And here's another question: Does "diversity" actually sell comics? Are there any numbers or any market research to support that assumption?

[leo619]

I don't necessarily agree with him, but I don't think there's anything offensive about that statement. Having editorial make a conscious effort to get writers to use minority characters or change them into minority characters (rather than just letting it "happen") is quite like Affirmative Action, and both were necessary to accomplish the goal.

Not the same, often people use the term Affirmative Action in a way to provide this idea that somehow this person doesn't belong because he of a different race, gender, etc. There's a video by Dwayne Mcduffie which talks about fallacies and perhaps bigotry comic fan uses for lacing Affirmative Action with fictional characters. Add the reparation comment along with the statement, which has nothing to do with comics or comic book characters in general, in which no one was given 40 acres and a mule, and indeed his comment is extremely offensive. I'm going to give until the end of the day and than I'm reporting the post. We can provide constructive criticism regarding the wally west incident without resorting to discriminatory remarks such as these.

[GlennSimpson]

Couldn't you do it better by creating black characters from scratch?

And anyway, why the focus on black characters? Where are the Latino and Asian characters in the DCU?

And here's another question: Does "diversity" actually sell comics? Are there any numbers or any market research to support that assumption?

1. It would be great if that worked, but it's been shown that readers don't care for new characters all that much. They don't buy the books they are in. So in terms of achieving success and getting the black characters in front of readers, having it be someone tied to or a remake of an existing character seems to be more effective.

2. Nobody is necessarily singling out African American characters - I just just referenced that because that was the group you had mentioned in your statement.

3. It's unclear whether it does or doesn't, but the opposite notion "we should just have straight white male characters because they sell better" is not something anybody wants to stand behind in today's world.

[GlennSimpson]

Not the same, often people use the term Affirmative Action in a way to provide this idea that somehow this person doesn't belong because he of a different race, gender, etc. There's a video by Dwayne Mcduffie which talks about fallacies and perhaps bigotry comic fan uses for lacing Affirmative Action with fictional characters. Add the reparation comment along with the statement, which has nothing to do with comics or comic book characters in general, in which no one was given 40 acres and a mule, and indeed his comment is extremely offensive. I'm going to give until the end of the day and than I'm reporting the post. We can provide constructive criticism regarding the wally west incident without resorting to discriminatory remarks such as these.

I suppose it depends on whether you are taking the terms at face value or indulging in the how some people view them or how they resulted.

I don't personally think they are offensive terms but if you feel strongly about reporting it that's certainly your right.

[gwangung]

Couldn't you do it better by creating black characters from scratch?

And anyway, why the focus on black characters? Where are the Latino and Asian characters in the DCU?

And here's another question: Does "diversity" actually sell comics? Are there any numbers or any market research to support that assumption?

These are questions that are interest and should be on the table.

Somehow, creating characters from scratch and putting them on the table alone fails pretty miserably. Maybe legacies and maybe pairing them up with established stars might work. Actually, doing both might do the trick.

Heh. Asian and latino characters should also be considered.

In other fields, diversity does sell; there's a slight uptick in ratings and ticket sales for diversity for TV and movies. And certainly a there are markets for them. But the distribution channels for comics are geared for an audience that is dominated by white makes; diversity in comics may not sell.

[Thor-Ul]

Excellent video. What a great job he did with the JL animated. But his Justice League comics were horrible.
I didn't know than now "Affirmative Action" was a politically incorrect term. I believed that was something good.

[Marvell2100]

Couldn't you do it better by creating black characters from scratch?

And anyway, why the focus on black characters? Where are the Latino and Asian characters in the DCU?

And here's another question: Does "diversity" actually sell comics? Are there any numbers or any market research to support that assumption?

Just because one someone mentions black characters, that doesn't mean they don't want to see other minorities as well. I don't think that was his point.

As far as diversity, does it hurt to try? No one is saying reduce the number of white male characters, just bring in and use a more diverse number of characters.

[leo619]

Excellent video. What a great job he did with the JL animated. But his Justice League comics were horrible.
I didn't know than now "Affirmative Action" was a politically incorrect term. I believed that was something good.

Oh yes, Dwayne Mcduffie was a fantastic writer but he was sadly lambasted with all different type of unfortunate comments. As for AA, the idea behind AA is technically good,
that indeed is correct. As the entire purpose behind Affirmative Action has been to create a more diverse working environment with females and minorities of different types, however it's name has been dragged through the mud in an attempt to provide the idea that these groups (but primarily black people) do not belong in said working field, saying they had to use AA to get the job because they are technically inferior to their white male brethern. Hence why the term is not given a negative sting instead of the positive message it was meant to use.

The same with the term "PC or politically correct". The idea behind PC was to provide everyone with the rightfully entitled idea of respect that each group deserved. But we as a culture are highly into a "blame the victim" mentality. As such, instead of rooting out culprit who dishes out the disrespect, instead we penalize the victim who was disrespected by indicating they should tolerate being disrespected. As such, they put a negative connotation behind the term PC.

For example, in britain there was a lady who issues racial slurs to british immigrants and was video taped, the lady was later thrown in jail as racial slurs is not allowed in britain. We don't have those type of rules or regulations here in America sadly.

[Sutekh]

As long as Miletone partners with DC, they're never going to be their own imprint for the same reason Wildstorm isn't. It won't sell.

And yet, if DC felt that they didn't have enough diverse characters, the Wildstorm universe was crawling with interesting and diverse characters.

Gen 13, DV8, Stormwatch (pre-Authority), WildCATs, Wildcore, etc. had a ton of interesting female characters (Taboo, Sublime, Zealot, Maxine Manchester/Ladytron), black characters (Jackson King/Battalion, Flint, Serge, Frostbite), etc. No need to stuff them into a solo book (as they did with Voodoo), a move almost guaranteed to fail, but having one or two scattered among various other Outsider-y, League-y, Titans-y teams might help to balance them out, without replacing any pre-existing white male characters with a minority replacement.

[Jabare]

Robotman just posted this in another thread. It's pretty relevant so I figured I'd post it here as well

Here's a pretty good article about women and minorities in comics. The author talks about how much she and her young daughter enjoyed seeing Cyborg featured in the free comic book included with some General Mills cereals.

http://lamonthela*****************/2...hy-it-matters/

http://lamonthela*****************/2...hy-it-matters/

CYBORG & WONDER WOMAN ARE ON A CEREAL BOX: WHY IT MATTERS

you can click here to go to the blog or just google: cyborg-wonder-woman-are-on-a-cereal-box-why-it-matters/ it should be the first link to pop up


I thought this was well written. It really addresses the comic industry as a whole not just Wonder Woman and Cyborg.

[Double 0]

Random question, with all the new solo ongoings coming out from Marvel with a wide range of diversity (Ms Marvel, Ghost Rider, Storm, War Machine, Nightcrawler), will there be a response from DC?

And if so, which minority characters would you like to see get ongoings? And are there any minority creators you'd like to see DC acquire?

[GlennSimpson]

Random question, with all the new solo ongoings coming out from Marvel with a wide range of diversity (Ms Marvel, Ghost Rider, Storm, War Machine, Nightcrawler), will there be a response from DC?

And if so, which minority characters would you like to see get ongoings? And are there any minority creators you'd like to see DC acquire?

Marvel is a bit more of a successful company, in terms of comics, and possibly (if these things mix) in terms of movies. So they have more room to experiment with things that might not be sure bets.

DC is obviously trying to keep experimenting, but they are probably going to stick to things that are sure sellers, like the weekly Batman and Earth 2 books to keep overall sales up.

[Ebon]

And yet, if DC felt that they didn't have enough diverse characters, the Wildstorm universe was crawling with interesting and diverse characters.

Gen 13, DV8, Stormwatch (pre-Authority), WildCATs, Wildcore, etc. had a ton of interesting female characters (Taboo, Sublime, Zealot, Maxine Manchester/Ladytron), black characters (Jackson King/Battalion, Flint, Serge, Frostbite), etc. No need to stuff them into a solo book (as they did with Voodoo), a move almost guaranteed to fail, but having one or two scattered among various other Outsider-y, League-y, Titans-y teams might help to balance them out, without replacing any pre-existing white male characters with a minority replacement.

I think they missed a big opportunity by not dropping one of the Gen-13 people into the Titans. Freefall would have been an interesting addition, especially with her powerset.

[Overhazard]

Random question, with all the new solo ongoings coming out from Marvel with a wide range of diversity (Ms Marvel, Ghost Rider, Storm, War Machine, Nightcrawler), will there be a response from DC?

And if so, which minority characters would you like to see get ongoings? And are there any minority creators you'd like to see DC acquire?

I doubt that there will be a response. DC has a tendency to stick to what works, sometimes they mix things up with either diverse characters or genres like Vibe, Threshold, and the movement but they don't promote them enough then when they fail they blame the fans.

If they did decide to respond, I would like to see a Vixen ongoing, she could be the new agent of the red. I'd like to see a cyborg ongoing too. I think that Blue Beetle and Static should be the new blue and gold team.

I can't think of any minority creators off the top of my head. I'd like James Roberts to write the legion of superheroes but he's white.