Latinos of the DCU

[Robotman]

‘Blue Beetle': Angel Manuel Soto to Direct Film About DC Comics’ Latino Superhero.

https://www.thewrap.com/angel-manuel...c-warner-bros/

Im so damn happy about this! Also I’m grateful they didn’t just charge the ethnicity of a white character and call it diversity. They’re actually utilizing one of their original POC characters!

So many people don’t realize what it’s like to have next to no representation in pop culture. This means a lot.

[Robotman]

I would love to see WB give Jaime some more mainstream appearances before the movie is released. He has an ok following but I think more people, especially Latinos, need to be introduced to the character. If they want Blue Beetle to be the Hispanic Black Panther, it's going to take some work. Black Panther had 50 years worth of comic book appearances and was already a cultural icon to the African American pop culture community. Not to mention debuting in one of the biggest movies of all time even before his solo flick. Jaime will never be as big as T'Challa, but I would love to see him get some more mainstream success.

Hollywood is very reactionary so I'm very worried that if Blue Beetle doesn't do well, studios will give up on Latino lead movies. Similar to how WB and Fox claimed that female lead superhero movies don't sell because Catwoman and Electra bombed. Of course, those movies were terrible but they blamed the characters and not themselves.

They need to spread the word and get the Latino audience excited about this. It's a pretty huge cultural milestone.

Maybe the upcoming Showcase short will be amazing and generate some buzz.

[J. D. Guy]

https://lucianovecchio.tumblr.com/po...e*********-era

Luciano Vecchio's name just came back into mind (love this guy's art and art style/art aesthetic; he's very into mysticism and mindscape type stuff), and happened upon this commission he posted at the end of last year.

VIBE!
From 1980s Justice League Detroit era.

Digital Commission
#Vibe #JusticeLeague #JLA #DCComics

I flipping love this! Luciano Vecchio proved that old-school Vibe's design was strong, cool, and slick. Frankly, I've always been of the mind that Detroit's Vibe isn't anywhere close to the ever so conveniently used object of scorn and ridicule that he has been treated as being. People have always been far too quick and gleeful to take advantage and dump on OG Vibe. And as far as I'm concerned, that Vibe deserved vindication and appreciation. I'm always for vindication by history in ways such as this!

[krazijoe]

https://lucianovecchio.tumblr.com/po...e*********-era

Luciano Vecchio's name just came back into mind (love this guy's art and art style/art aesthetic; he's very into mysticism and mindscape type stuff), and happened upon this commission he posted at the end of last year.





I flipping love this! Luciano Vecchio proved that old-school Vibe's design was strong, cool, and slick. Frankly, I've always been of the mind that Detroit's Vibe isn't anywhere close to the ever so conveniently used object of scorn and ridicule that he has been treated as being. People have always been far too quick and gleeful to take advantage and dump on OG Vibe. And as far as I'm concerned, that Vibe deserved vindication and appreciation. I'm always for vindication by history in ways such as this!

It's not the way he was drawn, it was his actions and writing. The world was not ready for a breakdancing, Latino.

[J. D. Guy]

It's not the way he was drawn, it was his actions and writing. The world was not ready for a breakdancing, Latino.

Alas, they were not. Which was a shame.

[atomicskull]

Are there any Superman arcs that Gangbuster plays a role in?

[Agent Z]

The original Vibe had potential but he was too much of an annoying stereotype.

[Azrael11]

On the May DC solicits.

SUPERMAN #31
Written by: Phillip Kennedy Johnson | Art by: Scott Godlewski | Backup story written by: Sean Lewis | Backup story art: Sam Basri | Cover by: John Timms | Card stock variant cover by: Inhyuk Lee | On sale: 5/11/21 | $4.99 US | 40 PAGES | FC | DC | CARD STOCK VARIANT COVER $5.99 US

“The One Who Fell” part two!

And in the backup story, Jimmy Olsen’s plan to build a backup squad to help out his pal Superman looks like it’s already falling apart when two of its members, Loose Cannon and Gangbuster, would rather fight than be friends.

Honestly, I don't usually rant, but a buddy gave me a heads up that Gangbuster just showed up in Superman #30 a month earlier than the above solicit. As he's been my favorite Hispanic DC character since forever, I stopped by my LCS and..............W T F??? First, Hector Ayala (my favorite Hispanic Marvel character) becomes "Angela" then eventually "Ava." Then Aztek the Ultimate M A L E “Uno”(my second favorite Hispanic DC character) becomes "Nayeli" Una? And now Jose Delgado is now what? Josephina? I am tired of this hack writer b*llsh!t of feminizing these ORIGINAL existing diverse male characters of color...for what? To be more woke? More progressive? Do they not have enough Caucasian male characters that they can transition? Nothing against creating new ORIGINAL female characters. Nothing! But the key word is ORIGINAL. How hard would it have been to create original legacy or connected characters without killing off and/or replacing the original----Tigre or Tigre Blanca, Azteka or Maya, Crimebuster or Justice? Or an original non-connected female Latina character from scratch. Originality is literally part of their jobs!

Yes, these are C-listers, maybe D-listers to some. But these characters mean something to some of us. The White Tiger is credited as Marvel's very first Hispanic superhero. He's all we had for the longest time. I'm Mexican-American and as a child I embraced this Puerto Rican hero as my own. Who else was there? I'm not 100%, but outside of the non-US based Global Guardian heroes (Fury, Bushmaster) and El Dorado (limited to cartoons) for the life of me I can not remember a Hispanic hero appearing in comics before Gangbuster. Why do we not have more Hispanic writers who grew up with these C-Listers like myself, that can take the reigns on these characters instead of hacks who have no appreciation for them?

I’m sure I’ll get crap for caring about characters that most of comicdom doesn’t, but I’m not a Caucasian who could look up to and appreciate a Batman, a Spiderman, a Flash and fall back on a Captain America, an Iron Man, even a “Kryptonian” Superman. Or an African-American fan who could look up to and appreciate a Black Panther, a Cyborg, a Luke Cage, Bishop, Mr. Terrific, or War Machine. We’ve had no representation then and no representation now that are even close to being at the A-List level of these 12 aforementioned characters and I’ve grown very tired of it. I would bounce off the walls if we did…even just one! Hell, just before he passed away, Stan Lee announced that he would introduce a new original Latino superhero under his own banner. Losing Stan the Man was devastating, but you can’t help but wonder what could have been.

I love comics. Well, loved comics, for the better part of almost 40 years. On top of everything, today’s current storylines are not doing it for me anymore and 40 years is just too long to wait on representation. We are an afterthought. Maybe it’s time to walk away from comics as there doesn’t seem to be anything left for me. Why spend another dime on something so dissatisfying. At least from the big 2. Sh!t, I can’t even get that C-lister Gangbuster anymore. With both DC and Marvel coming out with anthologies focusing on diverse groups like Native Americans, LGBQ, Women and Asians among others, I guess it is kind of expected that at least one of the two will produce one representing Hispanics(September?) I do not have high expectations for it. Character-wise or creator-wise. I really hope I’m wrong.

Well, I have been working on some of my own graphic novel writing for awhile. Maybe I’ll just revisit and focus on that. On top of some other existing life matters, this latest frustration just has me so deflated. Maybe writing can keep me connected.

Off my soapbox, thanks for reading.


And for the curious, here’s "Wokebuster".
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/upl...gangbuster.jpg

[Alpha]

Wonder Girl Yara Flor is a native brazilian and DC seems to want her to be in the forefront of the new era. You should check out her Future State book because it was so much fun, and she has a regulae book starting in May. (the regular Wonder Woman book has also been great since 770 but this has nothing to do with the topic of the thread)

[Azrael11]

Wonder Girl Yara Flor is a native brazilian and DC seems to want her to be in the forefront of the new era. You should check out her Future State book because it was so much fun, and she has a regulae book starting in May. (the regular Wonder Woman book has also been great since 770 but this has nothing to do with the topic of the thread)

Thanks for the recommendation, but I've never really been a WW fan. Glad you're enjoying it though. Still, I am hoping that Blue Beetle wins the round-robin tourney. And I'll most likely check out the new Reptil book coming out over at Marvel. Unless of course Jaime and Humberto become Jamey and Roberta

[Alpha]

Thanks for the recommendation, but I've never really been a WW fan. Glad you're enjoying it though. Still, I am hoping that Blue Beetle wins the round-robin tourney. And I'll most likely check out the new Reptil book coming out over at Marvel. Unless of course Jaime and Humberto become Jamey and Roberta

Fair enough. I still think you would love the Wonder Girl book even if you were never a fan of Wonder Woman, but I won't push you on that.

[Robotman]

Honestly, I don't usually rant, but a buddy gave me a heads up that Gangbuster just showed up in Superman #30 a month earlier than the above solicit. As he's been my favorite Hispanic DC character since forever, I stopped by my LCS and..............W T F??? First, Hector Ayala (my favorite Hispanic Marvel character) becomes "Angela" then eventually "Ava." Then Aztek the Ultimate M A L E “Uno”(my second favorite Hispanic DC character) becomes "Nayeli" Una? And now Jose Delgado is now what? Josephina? I am tired of this hack writer b*llsh!t of feminizing these ORIGINAL existing diverse male characters of color...for what? To be more woke? More progressive? Do they not have enough Caucasian male characters that they can transition? Nothing against creating new ORIGINAL female characters. Nothing! But the key word is ORIGINAL. How hard would it have been to create original legacy or connected characters without killing off and/or replacing the original----Tigre or Tigre Blanca, Azteka or Maya, Crimebuster or Justice? Or an original non-connected female Latina character from scratch. Originality is literally part of their jobs!

Yes, these are C-listers, maybe D-listers to some. But these characters mean something to some of us. The White Tiger is credited as Marvel's very first Hispanic superhero. He's all we had for the longest time. I'm Mexican-American and as a child I embraced this Puerto Rican hero as my own. Who else was there? I'm not 100%, but outside of the non-US based Global Guardian heroes (Fury, Bushmaster) and El Dorado (limited to cartoons) for the life of me I can not remember a Hispanic hero appearing in comics before Gangbuster. Why do we not have more Hispanic writers who grew up with these C-Listers like myself, that can take the reigns on these characters instead of hacks who have no appreciation for them?

I’m sure I’ll get crap for caring about characters that most of comicdom doesn’t, but I’m not a Caucasian who could look up to and appreciate a Batman, a Spiderman, a Flash and fall back on a Captain America, an Iron Man, even a “Kryptonian” Superman. Or an African-American fan who could look up to and appreciate a Black Panther, a Cyborg, a Luke Cage, Bishop, Mr. Terrific, or War Machine. We’ve had no representation then and no representation now that are even close to being at the A-List level of these 12 aforementioned characters and I’ve grown very tired of it. I would bounce off the walls if we did…even just one! Hell, just before he passed away, Stan Lee announced that he would introduce a new original Latino superhero under his own banner. Losing Stan the Man was devastating, but you can’t help but wonder what could have been.

I love comics. Well, loved comics, for the better part of almost 40 years. On top of everything, today’s current storylines are not doing it for me anymore and 40 years is just too long to wait on representation. We are an afterthought. Maybe it’s time to walk away from comics as there doesn’t seem to be anything left for me. Why spend another dime on something so dissatisfying. At least from the big 2. Sh!t, I can’t even get that C-lister Gangbuster anymore. With both DC and Marvel coming out with anthologies focusing on diverse groups like Native Americans, LGBQ, Women and Asians among others, I guess it is kind of expected that at least one of the two will produce one representing Hispanics(September?) I do not have high expectations for it. Character-wise or creator-wise. I really hope I’m wrong.

Well, I have been working on some of my own graphic novel writing for awhile. Maybe I’ll just revisit and focus on that. On top of some other existing life matters, this latest frustration just has me so deflated. Maybe writing can keep me connected.

Off my soapbox, thanks for reading.


And for the curious, here’s "Wokebuster".
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/upl...gangbuster.jpg

I think it has less to do with being “woke” and more to do with what pop culture is comfortable with in regard to Latino characters. The vast majority of Latino/mestizo characters in comics, movies, tv, etc are female or kids. American pop culture is still not comfortable with a male Latino in a leading role. You’re far more likely to get “the spicy Latina” as the counterpart to a white male or even African American male lead character. That brings up another horrible stereotype that Latinas deal with.

The Mandalorian is a rarity and his identity is concealed for 99% of the show.

[CosmiComic]

Pedro Pascal is White, isn't he though?

[Robotman]

Pedro Pascal is White, isn't he though?

He’s from Chile. In the US he’s considered Latino.

[CosmiComic]

He’s from Chile. In the US he’s considered Latino.

US definitions of race are questionable though. It's not like there's no racial stratification in Latin America