The New York Times looks at efforts by the two biggest superhero publishers to diversify their fictional universes by adding more minority characters.
The focus is on DC Comics, which, in the wake of Infinite Crisis, has introduced a Mexican-American Blue Beetle, a Chinese Atom, and now a Chinese superhero team and a lesbian Batwoman.
That’s right, The Times has the scoop on the “new” Batwoman, whom some readers thought might be former Gotham police detective Renee Montoya. Instead, the newspaper reports, this Batwoman will be a little of the old mixed with a little of the new: She’s still Kathy Kane — introduced in Detective Comics in 1956 — but now she’s a lesbian socialite who has a history with the hard-drinking Montoya.
Judging from the concept sketch, the new version has abandoned her traditional “utility purse,” charm-bracelet handcuffs and expanding hairnet for a more practical utility belt.
DC’s Dan DiDio said that because readers are often resistant to new characters, the companies are carefully linking fresh faces to “legacy” heroes.
More interesting, I think, is the Chinese government-controlled Great Ten, which has Grant Morrison’s name written all over it. Shaolin Robot, Accomplished Perfect Physician, August General in Iron, and Mother of Champions, “who can give birth to a litter of 25 super-soldiers about every three days”? That has to be Morrison.
The team is set to debut next month. (You can see character designs here.)
The newspaper also speaks to Marvel’s Joe Quesada, who spearheaded the creation of the Latina superhero Araña in 2004: “I do look at the universe with a different set of eyes, but I don’t let race enter or interfere with the story. There’s nothing worse than thinking, ‘We need three more black characters in the Marvel universe.’ ”
Writers Judd Winick and Reginald Hudlin are also interviewed. And Winick has a few words for those who complain about him pushing an agenda in his stories: “When I get gripes for my need to force my social agenda into comics, I always ask: which social agenda are you complaining about? Is it the gay people? Or the black people or the Asian people? After a while, it doesn’t look like a social agenda. This is the world we live in.”
Related: Dan DiDio tells Newsarama about the new Batwoman
June 5th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Good on Judd in that last graf. I always feel he gets a bum rap on the “pushing an agenda” thing.
June 6th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
[...] By this point, everybody knows about Batwoman. Even my Mom. And the mainstream media have been abuzz this week with talk of Superman’s sexuality and “gay appeal.” Fred, Barney and friendsBut at Cracked, comedian Vinnie Penn is more interested in other figures — namely, “10 Movie and TV Duos That Were Probably Gay.” [...]
June 7th, 2006 at 10:07 am
[...] Batwoman in actionTen days into the “lesbian Batwoman” story, the initial torrent of media attention has slowed to a trickle, giving way to reaction roundups, satires and the occasional think piece. [...]
July 6th, 2006 at 9:21 am
[...] In the wake of May and June’s big “lesbian Batwoman” story, the Brownsville (Texas) Herald takes a closer look at sexual orientation in comic books. Hulkling and WiccanMarvel Team-Up writer Robert Kirkman, who’s introduced a gay superhero named (ahem) Freedom Ring, is a little critical of how Batwoman’s sexuality was announced. [...]
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:06 am
[...] This doesn’t have anything (directly) to do with comics, but I think it provides an interesting comparison*, particularly in light of recent industry news: [...]
June 8th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
[...] Because I didn’t join the team until a while after they moved to this site, I don’t have any “Just Past the Horizon” from one year ago. However, last year about this time was a busy period for Melissa and I at When Fangirls Attack. I would say that last Spring was the time the “Feminist Comics Blogosphere” was fully realized as a community in its own right. Its really all Mr. Larsen’s fault. Starting with his assertation that the appeal of Power Girl and Phantom Lady was entirely contained within their flimsy bras, he wrote three columns that managed to collectively enrage 90% of the female population of the online comics community. To be fair, Larsen is an artist and not a wordsmith, but the fact that he’s a high-ranking bigwig at the 4th largest publisher and spewing such sexism was more than many readers could bear. There is much ranting and raging all through the month of May, as each column written by Larsen that mentions the topic manages to dig him a deeper hole. Towards the end of May, X-3 hit the theaters to the horror of feminist Jean Grey, Rogue, Storm, and Magneto fans. Two days later we learned about the sensational character find of 2006: Lesbian Batwoman! Kevin followed her trail across the mainstream global media right here as I followed her across the blogosphere for WFA. On the heels of Lesbian Batwoman, Girl-Wonder.org (which had been organizing through the entire Larsen debacle) officially launched their plan for fangirl world domination, Step One of which involved burying the Editor-in-Chief of DC Comics in a swarm of fan letters. We can probably gather that he was very surprised to learn that Stephanie Brown, the object of these letters, had so many fans. [...]
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
[...] response to this weekend’s revelation that the “new” Batwoman will be a lesbian socialite has been a somewhat surreal [...]
January 17th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
I’d like to see your privacy policy, can’t find it though!
January 17th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Never thought blogging could be soo fun and interesting. Man you know how to do it brother.