DC: Diverse or Dumb?

[ed2962]

The recent "Wildstorm" revamp comic by Warren Ellis had a really diverse cast. There was a "Michael Cray" spin off but I didn't think it was that good. There were "Names" and "Frostbite" starring black women from the Vertigo line over the last couple of years. "American Carnage" coming out right now ( although the art could be better). "House of Whispers" from the Sandman Line starred a black woman, it's started out interesting but began to meander after awhile.

I only read a couple of issues but there was a campy spy romp called "Knockout" that starred a WoC and her gay male sidekick.

A really good comic for LGBT representation was "Enigma" but I'm not sure if it's in print right now.

[The no face guy]

There is often the idea that Marvel (especially in recent years) does diverse characters better than DC, I want to see if that's true.

Essential Reading

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I think Marvel has the edge on heroes of colour, DC often seems stuck in 1960's demographics, on the other hand, I think DC has a far better representation of notable female characters (X men aside) Wonder Woman, Zantana, Black Canary, Batgirl, Huntress, Powergirl, VIxen, pretty much the whole Birds of Prey cast, and beyond.

Marvel has always had good characters like Rogue, Storm, Mockingbird, and the Scarlet Witch, but for whatever reason, they don't seem to catch on like the women of DC, to the point, that Marvel pissed their readership off by replacing Logan, Hawkeye and Thor. Not the best way to bring in diversity without hurting your bottom line.

[BroHomo]

Wonder Woman

So 1

Kyle Rayner
John Stewart
Jessica Cruz
Black Lightning
Cyborg
Mister Terrific
Kate Kane
Cassandra Cain
Damian Wayne

Who?

[J. D. Guy]

It really didnt help riris case that her first hero appearance is wearing armour cobbled together from stolen science projects and she knocks over a van in such a way that it's reasonable to assume its occupants were dead.

Not a reason to hate her character, though, even if it was used as an excuse.

[kjn]

To complexify things a bit more, people of colour is far from a monolithic group. While Marvel seems to have have an edge in black characters (DC has no-one on the level of Storm or Black Panther), I'm not sure that holds true for other ethnic minorities.

There is also a difference in tone or approach. Superman can either be written as an alien living hidden amongst us, or as the superior human. Here I think that DC tends towards the latter approach (though you can easily find exceptions), while Marvel (perhaps mainly thanks to the X-Men) seems towards the former approach.

I think Marvel has a slight edge in handling disadvantaged groups due to its formative period coinciding with the civil rights struggles, but it's not evenly distributed. When it comes to female characters, I think DC has a slight edge, even discounting Wonder Woman.

[EmeraldGladiator]

John's reimagined Mr Terrific might be DC's best minority creation in quite some time he became a pillar of John's JSA which is hard to do on a team that has members going all the way back to the Golden Age. As for strictly storylines, Green Lantern Mosaic (starring Green Lantern John Stewart) was a close to the perfect GL sci-fi/Vertigo sensibilities mash up you could possibly get. It is my definitive take on out there takes on the GL franchise while remaining in continuity.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I liked the Signal but I wish Snyder bit the bullet and gave him a solo instead of all the backups. The mini and the backups were fine but underwhelming.

[El_Gato]

To complexify things a bit more, people of colour is far from a monolithic group. While Marvel seems to have have an edge in black characters (DC has no-one on the level of Storm or Black Panther), I'm not sure that holds true for other ethnic minorities.

There is also a difference in tone or approach. Superman can either be written as an alien living hidden amongst us, or as the superior human. Here I think that DC tends towards the latter approach (though you can easily find exceptions), while Marvel (perhaps mainly thanks to the X-Men) seems towards the former approach.

I think Marvel has a slight edge in handling disadvantaged groups due to its formative period coinciding with the civil rights struggles, but it's not evenly distributed. When it comes to female characters, I think DC has a slight edge, even discounting Wonder Woman.

You are right in that regard. While DC doesn’t have a Black Panther, Miles or Storm (Cyborg, John Stewart and Black Lightning are the closest), Marvel doesn’t have a Jaime Reyes or a Jessica Cruz (Robbie Reyes is probably the closest). Likewise for LGBT (DC has Batwoman, Constantine, Harley/Ivy).

[j9ac9k]

You are right in that regard. While DC doesn’t have a Black Panther, Miles or Storm (Cyborg, John Stewart and Black Lightning are the closest), Marvel doesn’t have a Jaime Reyes or a Jessica Cruz (Robbie Reyes is probably the closest). Likewise for LGBT (DC has Batwoman, Constantine, Harley/Ivy).

What about Sam Alexander?

[Vordan]

What about Sam Alexander?

Dick Ryder has pretty much taken the Nova mantle back. Sam hasn’t even had his Nova powers for a while right? And Sam is not anywhere near Jaime in terms of public awareness.

[gooch4011]

So 1

Who?

Now I don't know if you mean Mainstream in TV and Movie or Comics but....

Kyle Rayner- I'm pretty sure is going to be the main Green Lantern in the coming up HBO Green Lantern series.
John Stewart- Is one of the current Justice League members. Pretty Mainstream in DC Comics.
Black Lighting- Has his own CW Show
Cyborg- One of the characters in Teen Titans and Teen Titans GO! Both very popular series, not to mention in the Justice League movie, had a roll in Smallville and currently one of the main characters in Doom Patrol.
Kate Kane- Currently has her own CW show.

I don't know if your "Who" was condescending or a legit thinking Wonder Woman was the only one of these as mainstream, either way there ya go.

[Electricmastro]

Well, for one, I think I enjoyed The Silencer more than many of Marvel ANAD titles.

[skyvolt2000]

What about Sam Alexander?

He met backlash the MOMENT he showed up.

How strong was it? I did not see his solo in any comic book store until the 2016 series. Let that sink in. Same with the trades. Not even the library had them.

Marvel has always had good characters like Rogue, Storm, Mockingbird, and the Scarlet Witch, but for whatever reason, they don't seem to catch on like the women of DC, to the point, that Marvel pissed their readership off by replacing Logan, Hawkeye and Thor. Not the best way to bring in diversity without hurting your bottom line.

The guys they replaced were STILL around in some form. None of them got the fate Wally West nor Cassandra Cain got originally.
Male Thor has a mini series and was around.
Male Hawkeye was around with Kate and in his own book by David Walker.
Logan was an old Man and something in Exiles.

Jane Foster's Thor SOLD very well.

Also you can not piss off folks who are NOT reading your books. Something we all discovered from a certain group. Some who have not touched a Marvel book since Dirk Nowitzki's rookie year. Dirk just finished a 21 year Hall of Fame NBA career.

Last time I check Scarlet Witch & Mockingbird had books during that time. But like Hercules, Prowler, Solo, Slapstick, Mosaic, Moon Girl, Foolkiller, Falcon, Luke Cage, Ironfist, America, Black Knight, Daredevil, Punisher, Odinson, Deadpool, Spider-Man (Peter), Cap, America Steve Rodgers, A Force, Man Thing, Vision, 2 Iron Man books, Dr Strange, Black Panther WOW, Black Panther The Crew, Black Panther, Squirrel Girl, Blackbolt, Jean Grey, Iceman, Mr & Ms X, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Venom, Gamora, Drax, Starlord, All New Hawkeye, Angela, Carnage, Karnak, Hyperion, Hellcat, Silkk, Silver Surfer, Inhumans & Red Wolf-guess who didn't want to support all these ORIGINAL creations that they SCREAMED at Marvel to do. 50+ books.

So it was not like Marvel wasn't offering original folks. They were in a larger number of books that folks willingly ignored to throw fits about POC, LGBTQ & women lead books.

[BroHomo]

You are right in that regard. While DC doesn’t have a Black Panther, Miles or Storm (Cyborg, John Stewart and Black Lightning are the closest), Marvel doesn’t have a Jaime Reyes or a Jessica Cruz (Robbie Reyes is probably the closest). Likewise for LGBT (DC has Batwoman, Constantine, Harley/Ivy).

Have you never seen the frenzied hordes of Wiccan/Hulking Tumblr/Instagrams?
Count yourself lucky..

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I rather they move beyond legacies and replacements but truly new characters are hard to do.

I think giving them a presence in DC Zoom or Ink would be a better way to go.