Latinos of the DCU

[El_Gato]

I noticed DC has some pretty cool/legit Latino superheroes with tons of potential. This is a thread dedicated to them, however utilized or underutilized they may be. I decided to add images and a poll of what I consider DC's top Latino heroes (villains too), so I might have missed some (if so, feel free to post them).

Let me start off by saying I'm excited for Suicide Squad and El Diablo!! Here's hoping he doesn't die!!


wikipedia was a big help haha


HEROES
ACRATA [Andrea Rojas]
AGENT 33 [Santiago Vargas]
AQUAGIRL [Lorena Marquez]
AZTEK [Uno]
AZTEK [Nayeli Constant]
AZUCAR [Veronica Lopez]
BLACK CONDOR [John Trujillo]
BLACK ORCHID [Alba Garcia]
BLUE BEETLE [Jaime Reyes]
BUNKER [Miguel Barragan]
COLTON RIVERA
CRAZY JANE [Kay Challis]
DETECTIVE ALVAREZ [Carlos Alvarez]
EL CASTIGO [Fernando Juarez]
EL CASTIGO [Rodrigo Gaynor]
EL CASTIGO [Shelly Gaynor]
EL DIABLO [Rafael Sandoval]
EL DORADO [Eduardo Dorado Jr]
EL MUERTO [Pablo Valdez]
ENGINEER [Angela Spica]
EXTRAÑO [Gregorio De La Vega]
FIRE [Beatriz Da Costa]
FIREBRAND [Alex Sanchez]
FUERZA [Alexa Antigone]
GANGBUSTER [Jose Delgado]
GREEN LANTERN [Kyle Vasquez-Rayner]
GREEN LANTERN [Jessica Cruz]
HAWKGIRL [Kendra Muñoz-Saunders]
HERO CRUZ
IMAN [Diego Irigoyen]
MIGUEL MONTEZ
MIRAGE [Miriam Delgado]
MONSTER GIRL [Rita Lopez]
PANTHA [Rosabelle Mendez]
PEDRO PEÑA
P.O.W [Dominick Torrez]
RENEE MONTOYA
ROBINA [Isabella Ortiz]
SIDEWAYS [Derek James]
SUPERMAN [Hernan Guerra]
TARANTULA [Catalina Flores]
TAROT [Marguerita Arroyo]
TEEN LANTERN [Keli Quintela]
VIBE [Francisco "Paco" Ramone]
VULCAN [Miguel Devante]
WILDCAT [Yolanda Montez]
WONDER WOMAN [Maria Mendoza]

VILLAINS/ANTI-HEROES
ATOMICA [Rhonda Pineda]
BANE
BABYLON [Sofia Ramos]
CHRONOS [Walker Gabriel]
EL DIABLO [Chato Santana]
ECLIPSO [Alex Montez]
GODSPEED [August Heart]
MENAGERIE [Pamela]
MENAGERIE [Sonja]
RICHARD DRAGON [Ricardo Diaz, Jr.]
SCANDAL SAVAGE
TOUCH N GO [Amelinda Lopez]
WAVELENGTH [Eduardo Reyes]


HISPANIC/LATINO SOLO SERIES [On-Going]
(1989) El Diablo #1-16
(1994) Kobalt #1-16
(1994) Green Lantern #51-181
(1996) Firebrand #1-9
(1996) Aztek: The Ultimate Man #1-10
(2006) Blue Beetle #1-36
(2006) Hawkgirl #50-66
(2011) Blue Beetle #0-16
(2011) Green Lantern:New Guardians #1-40
(2013) Justice League of America's VIBE #1-10
(2016) Blue Beetle Rebirth-18
(2016) Green Lanterns Rebirth- 57
(2018) Sideways #1-13
(2021) Wonder Girl #1-7



HISPANIC/LATINO SOLO SERIES [Maxi/Mini]
(2005) Son of Vulcan #1-6
(2006) Ion: Guardian of the Universe #1-12
(2008) El Diablo #1-6
(2016) Suicide Squad's Most Wanted: El Diablo #1-6
(2017) Bane: Conquest #1-12
(2018) Suicide Squad Black Files: El Diablo #1-6
(2019) Dial H For Hero #1-6

SHOW SOME APPRECIATION
Blue Beetle Appreciation!!
http://community.comicbookresources....Appreciation!!

EL DIABLO Appreciation!
http://community.comicbookresources....O-Appreciation

Jessica Cruz Green Lantern Appreciation!!
http://community.comicbookresources....n-Appreciation

The Artist's Touch-Kyle Rayner Appreciation
http://community.comicbookresources....r-Appreciation

The Right Kind Of VIBE! The Cisco Kid Appreciation Thread!
http://community.comicbookresources....n-thread/page1

Green Flames Galore! Beatriz Da Costa aka Fire Appreciation!
http://community.comicbookresources....-Appreciation!

Hernan Guerra/Superman Appreciation!
http://community.comicbookresources....n-Appreciation

Lorena Marquez (Aquagirl II) Appreciation Thread!!
http://community.comicbookresources....ciation-Thread

Going Live!
Sideways Appreciation Thread!
http://community.comicbookresources....ciation-Thread!

[Robotman]

Blue Beetle all the way. As Keith Giffen said "Blue Beetle was a deliberate attempt to do an ethnic character that did not traffic in his ethnicity. It wasn't about being Mexican-American. It was about being Jaime."

That's pretty revolutionary for a Hispanic character. He was just a typical kid who happened to be Mexican-American.

[mace11]

There is a list here too.
Latino superheroes
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Latinos

MORE
Characters by Nationality
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Ch...by_Nationality

Latino superheroes
http://community.comicbookresources....no-superheroes

[Güicho]

Not surprisingly my favorites are the ones actually most developed long term.

Jaime Reyes
&
Rene Montoya

Sadly these two characters were given Legacy identities instead of developing and giving them their own. So later writers will and have returned to the previous version.
-Montaya, once one of their most interesting and prominently rising characters, ended up non-existent (or dead) so they could bring back the original Question.
And who could blame them.
DC's obsession with Legacy always becomes a dead end. Instead of using it as a temporary tool where a Legacy is used as an arc, where the original temporarily steps aside, the new hero inherits the mantle, but to eventually becomes their own character with her own name. They just end up the other extreme, being in the way of the previous version, and are discarded.

-Jaime similarly is struggling with the same, although DC seems genuinely trying to have him inherit the mantle, most older fans (and creators) might not embrace it, and understandably want to focus on and develop the previous version.
The potential upcoming Booster & Beetle movie will likely be Booster and Ted, who have the popular buddy dynamic everyone loves.

Both Jaime and Rene two of their most prominent Latino characters will always be seen as the usurpers to the Legacy roles they inherited, instead of their own, which is incredibly frustrating.
Vic Sage & Ted Kord are great characters with great fanbase, who I am part of.
I don't want Montoya and Reyes, characters I love, ever hated on for stepping on the toes of any previous version and ther fans.
It's horrible.
-

Two or three others who are often trotted out on these lists as being Latino representative are Bane and Rayner (and sometimes Saunders) .
But if you look at their actual development and history in the book, you find they are not
So it kind of bothers me when people bring them up.

-Rayner 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 ignored retcon was never even referenced, it didn't become part of his identity, he didn't take or add the name Vazquez to his, he wasn't ever shown to connect or identify with the culture in any way, so what makes him Latino? He's white and his dad seemed maybe slightly brown, so what? Latino is not by race alone, you can be any race, it's more a what you grew up as, or identify as, cultural, ethnic identity, which he never did or had. (Maybe the simplest most obvious way would have been if he'd just taken or added the name Vazquez to his own (Rayner Vazquez) , but why would he, it's not him, it never was, which is the point).

I know Tom King recently championed him as DC's most "prominent Latino character" which is a wonderful intention, but looking at the character's actually history (see above) this notion is somewhat offensive. .
Learning some spanish, doesn't suddenly make you latino. It's a horrible joke, especially if other creators don't follow up on it.
And how do you, without adding scenes people will decry as cliches.

If Tom King or DC are serious about this, the strongest (and easiest) way to show it, is if the character simply adds his father's name to his own, it's 's clear, it's how he wants to identify, and you actually never have to mention it again because the character did it for you. Later writers don't have to (unless they want to) fumble creating "cliche identifier" scenes, I wouldn't want them to have struggle with that. Because with one strong act the character by claiming the name has already done it for them, and shown how he wants to identify.

-Bane - Some creators seem to identify him as latino, others seem to completely dismiss it, his origin story can be read either way. His mother was potentially Latina(name), his dad is ambiguous. He grew up however in the prison, that was his culture. In the end, being/identifying as Latino is not a developed/ing part of his identity.
The most telling is when it came time to represent him on film the most prominent representation, as far as casting, or any reference to it, it was completely ignored as NOT part of his identity.

If when casting to be played by a real person, it's the first thing they drop as not important to the character, then stop telling me they are Latino.

Similarly Hawkgirl (Kendra Sanders)

[OBrianTallent]

Fire first and foremost for me! Then Vibe, Beetle and Bunker. I really wish DC would invest in Bea again. She can be an awesome, fun character with a really string power set.
Likewise I wish DC would continue to invest in Vibe. His too short lived series was a lot of fun and really good. If not in the proposed JL of A series, then I would love to see him in Titans!

[Atlanta96]

Wasn't there a scene in Omega Men where Kyle Rayner was praying in Spanish while clutching a rosary? If that's the writers idea of embracing his Latin background, they might as well have had him in a sombrero eating a taco.

On a more positive note, I'm pretty excited for the upcoming Blue Beetle series. Jaime's 1st series was one of my favorite comics as a teenager (his 2nd series, not so much) and the inclusion of Ted Kord will make it more accessible for older fans, and could make for an interesting mentor/protege story. Mask of Zorro comes to mind.

[MadFacedKid]

Is Hawkgirl and Vibe even Latin?

[Aahz]

-Bane - Some creators seem to identify him as latino, others seem to completely dismiss it, his origin story can be read either way. His mother was potentially Latina(name), his dad is ambiguous.

Pre flashpoint his dad was revealed to be Sir Edmund Dorrance (aka King Snake), who was British.

Is Pantha really a latina? Afaik it was never revealed who she was before the Wildebeast Society transformed her.

[Robotman]

Remember these guys?

image.jpg

[mace11]

Pre flashpoint his dad was revealed to be Sir Edmund Dorrance (aka King Snake), who was British.

Is Pantha really a latina? Afaik it was never revealed who she was before the Wildebeast Society transformed her.

Pantha

Pantha is a cat-like super-hero and a member of the Teen Titans. Originally a normal woman named Rosabelle Mendez, the Wildebeest Society mutated her into a were-beast. With no knowledge of her origins, she used the name X-24 given to her as a test subject. Much of her career was spent looking for information about her past. When she left the Titans, she formed a family with Red Star as her partner and Baby Wildebeest as her adopted child. During Infinite Crisis, she was murdered by Superboy-Prime. She has also been a member of the Black Lantern Corps. Pantha was created by Marv Wolfman and Tom Grummett, first appearing in New Titans #73. (1991)

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Pantha

[Will Evans]

Pre flashpoint his dad was revealed to be Sir Edmund Dorrance (aka King Snake), who was British.

Is Pantha really a latina? Afaik it was never revealed who she was before the Wildebeast Society transformed her.

Yes she is. We found out about her origin after her death. She’s Rosabelle Mendez.

[Kenozoic]

Blue Beetle all the way. As Keith Giffen said "Blue Beetle was a deliberate attempt to do an ethnic character that did not traffic in his ethnicity. It wasn't about being Mexican-American. It was about being Jaime."

That's pretty revolutionary for a Hispanic character. He was just a typical kid who happened to be Mexican-American.

I agree 100%. He was a breath of fresh air, and I loved his original series, and I mostly liked the New 52 series too.

[mace11]

The actress in supergirl that plays Samantha/Reign is latino or half latino in real life.

Odette Annable

Odette Juliette Annable (née Yustman; born May 10, 1985) is an American actress. She portrays Samantha Arias/Reign in the third season of Supergirl.

Odette Annable was born Odette Juliette Yustman on 10 May, 1985, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Lydia Yustman née Nodarse, is Cuban, and her father, Victor Oscar Yustman, was born in Bogotá, Colombia, of French and Italian descent.

http://arrow.wikia.com/wiki/Odette_Annable

Samantha Arias as Reign

http://arrow.wikia.com/wiki/Samantha_Arias

[Robotman]

just gonna copy and paste my post from the Blue Beetle thread.


A really awesome Tweet from John Rogers, co-writer of Jaime’s first series, about the power and importance of diversity and representation in pop culture.

https://mobile.twitter.com/jonrog1/s...0%7Ctwterm%5E1

i hope people reTweeted this to Geoff Johns and Didio. we Hispanic fans are desperate for representation in pop culture! with the massive success of Wonder Woman and pretty much guaranteed success of Black Panther, i really hope DC/WB realizes that having a Hispanic superhero in a starring role would be huge. there was already a lot of excitement just from having El Diablo appear in Suicide Squad. would love to see a Blue Beetle movie. Ted and Booster could have their own separate flick.

[El_Gato]

DC's most popular Latino superheroes, at least according to google trends. Outside media matter as you can see! I expect Jessica Cruz (purple) to rise soon thanks to her role on Super Hero Girls. Jaime Reyes (Blue) will likely rise as well with the premier of YJ3 later this year, like he did when he was announced for Injustice 2. El Diablo and Vibe are self explanatory, one had a movie and the other is on a popular show.

PS: I didn't include Bane because of the unfair Batman advantage. Plus he's appeared in the most outside media.