Diversity in the Batman line

[Orpheus]

The bat line was getting good at having a diverse cast around 2002-05. There was Orpheus, Onyx, Crispus Allen, and Commissioner Akins who were black. Tarantula and Renee Montoya who were hispanic. Cassandra Cain who was half Chinese. Unfortunately, all of these characters are now absent from the bat-verse and now with the exception of Luke Fox (who rarely participates in the main story lines), the characters are white the whole way through. This is just plain wrong. Gotham is a big city, and big city's have diversity. Having a diverse cast enriched the stories and reflected the population of Gotham even if not all the characters were from Gotham themselves. I'm not accusing anyone of being racist, and I am not saying getting rid of all the minority characters was intentional, but seriously, this is a problem that needs to be fixed.

[Badou]

They really should have reintroduced Stephanie Brown as a person of color if they were going to do the same for Wally. Their stance of wanting to show more diversity in their books would have felt a lot more genuine. I'd still love to see DC answer why they decided to change Wally but not Steph.

[Flash Gordon]

There's no reason for Dick, Jason, and Tim to all be interchangeable. Tim is useless, but Jason could have been anything other than Dick with guns.

[Coal Tiger]

It's crazy how a line of comic books based around the idea of a rich white man imposing his own ideals and beliefs upon basically the entire world through physical force and economic dominance would have a diversity problem.

[son of booyah]

It's especially bad when a hero is chasing down criminals on the street. If you're just fighting supervillains and you're part of a group that's all white that's not too bad, although diversity in that group could be better. But a group of white heroes versus a city that obviously has minorities, and if criminality is spread across all skin colors, minority criminals, that's messed up in the meta sense.

[son of booyah]

It's crazy how a line of comic books based around the idea of a rich white man imposing his own ideals and beliefs upon basically the entire world through physical force and economic dominance would have a diversity problem.

Haha nicely said

[Aliltron]

Batwing? Doesn't he count?

[godisawesome]

Cassandra Cain would solve part of this problem.

I'm just saying.

Or spicing up the backstories and histories of the Robins. For a while Dick was supposed to be Roma, while Jason was a red head, Tim was written (though later canonically debunked) as a kid of Jewish descent, and Damian is canonically of both European and Asian descent. Seriously, they should not be pallet swaps of each other.

Also, Azrael would be the perfect character to merge into a new character.

[nepenthes]

Cassandra Cain would solve part of this problem.

I'm just saying.

Or spicing up the backstories and histories of the Robins. For a while Dick was supposed to be Roma, while Jason was a red head, Tim was written (though later canonically debunked) as a kid of Jewish descent, and Damian is canonically of both European and Asian descent. Seriously, they should not be pallet swaps of each other.

Also, Azrael would be the perfect character to merge into a new character.

I love the idea of mixed up Robins: in my mind Jason is always a freckly redhead of 2nd generation Irish stock and Dick a dark eyed dark skinned Roma with obvious Eastern Euro, almost even Indian features. I never knew about Tim being Jewish but that's awesome too, I'll go with that.

Diversity is much of the reason I hope the Incorporated crowd continue to appear throughout the line. When Morrison introduced the Australian aborigine Ranger I cheered and high fived him in my astral form.

[Aliltron]

Cassandra Cain would solve part of this problem.

I'm just saying.

Or spicing up the backstories and histories of the Robins. For a while Dick was supposed to be Roma, while Jason was a red head, Tim was written (though later canonically debunked) as a kid of Jewish descent, and Damian is canonically of both European and Asian descent. Seriously, they should not be pallet swaps of each other.

Also, Azrael would be the perfect character to merge into a new character.

I agree, Azrael would be a really good choice!

[Orpheus]

Batwing? Doesn't he count?

I acknowledged him but he almost never shows up outside of his own series

[Star-Lord]

What about Batman Inc? That's pretty much as diverse as it could get. There's no need to make existing white characters black, hispanic, asian, etc. Plus you've got Killer Croc. Show me another comic that faithfully portrays crocodile men as well as Batman does.

[oasis1313]

There's no reason for Dick, Jason, and Tim to all be interchangeable. Tim is useless, but Jason could have been anything other than Dick with guns.

There must be a breeding farm for black-haired orphans somewhere near Gotham City. Or maybe a website: There's PuppyFind.com; howzabout SidekickFind.com? But agreed, Tim is totally useless. Maybe that's why DC Editorial loves him so much.

[Batknight]

I acknowledged him but he almost never shows up outside of his own series

He'll be playing a pretty big role in Eternal I believe.

[Aliltron]

I acknowledged him but he almost never shows up outside of his own series

Oh oops sorry I must have missed it!