Superhero Comics 101

[eldargal]

The new Iron Man :


never liked Tony Stark, the capitalist *******, but might give this one a chance.

Oh wow the the white ****boy demographic is going to lose its ****. I think she looks magnificent.

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However, the person who pointed out that Marvel could really use some black women writing their comics was spot on. Marvel does reasonably well with diversity in the pages, less so with the creators.

[Mr Mystery]

So far, main question is 'how does she get her magnificent head of hair in such a tight fitting helmet'?

I mean, obvious answer is 'that's your concern? Not the technology that goes into the suit itself, or the powers of the villains she'll be chinning on a regular basis?'

But....I think they're genuinely light-hearted comments, rather than poorly veiled rachelism.

[eldargal]

Her helmet is considerably larger than her head, I'd imagine she pulls it into a a ponytail and just tucks it in there.

[Psychosplodge]

I kinda liked RDJ's tony stark so that'll suck. He must have finally asked for too much money

Apart from that pretty much whatever. At least its a continuation not another reboot- heres Toni Starke or some nonsense.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

However, the person who pointed out that Marvel could really use some black women writing their comics was spot on. Marvel does reasonably well with diversity in the pages, less so with the creators.

one friend she isn't keen on it "another white guy thinking he's gonna write this when he can't even take care of his own daughters? HELL NO" to quote her. not sure what she meant by that last part about his daughters though.

[eldargal]

I don't know about anything with Bendis' daughters either, but I do know he gets a lot of flak from people of colour about how he writes people of colour. His 'I'm not black Spider-man, I'm spider-man' speech he gave Miles Morales in particular.

[Gotthammer]

[URL="https://stitchmediamix.com/2016/07/06/the-reality-of-bendis-writing-blackness/"]This article comments on it[/URL]:

I’m especially vexed that the man behind this is Mr. Brian Michael “My Spider-Man doesn’t see what so important about him being Black in a world that loves Blackness but hates Black people” Bendis.

Look, the second you take a legacy character of color and you decide that they’re going to express discomfort with the fact that people are excited by them being a person of color, you’re not someone I want writing any character of color.

By having Miles say that he doesn’t want to be the “Black” Spider-Man in direct response to seeing someone on television freaking excited about him being brown in a world where white superheroes crowd the skies, Bendis has ended up on my **** list.

(Note also that there’s definitely a “mock the supposed average tumblr user” vibe inherent in the language and character used as a foil to Miles just wanting to be “normal”.)

Bendis is white. Super white even. Sure, he has two adopted Black daughters (one who is African-American and another who is Ethiopian), but, as evidenced in his work, that doesn’t mean he knows **** about Blackness.

Things that happen to Black people, happen around him.

Over-average police brutality? Being followed around in stores because of your blackness? Having people refuse to date you because you’re black? Being labeled a “fast tailed girl” the second you start to get a hint of breast tissue?

He never grew up hearing the talk about what to do when the police confront you in order to have some hope of surviving. He watches news reports of Black people being killed by the police (122 so far in 2016 with the death of Alton Sterling) and knows that it will NEVER happen to him.

Bendis won’t (can’t) have access to the painful parts of Blackness, but he also doesn’t have access to the joyful parts of Blackness.

These are so many things that Bendis will never experience, that he just straight up cannot bring to the table when he writes a Black character, because the closest he comes to Blackness is through his daughters.

Bendis writes Miles being unaware of what it means to be the “Black Spider-Man” when people of color in public spheres talk constantly about how they strive to provide representation to children like them who grew up without seeing themselves in movies or shows.

In his books Miles is adrift, removed from Blackness and his Puerto-Rican-ness due to being orphaned and leaving his universe. He doesn’t interact with or exhibit Blackness in any meaningful way being being dark skinned. Miles exists in whiteness that’s nearly unbroken except for his friendship with Ganke and occasional hangouts with Nick Fury.

Remember what I linked to about “[URL="http://ohsoang.tumblr.com/post/144901889915/advanced-racism-ending-the-digital-minstrel-show"]digital brown paper dolls[/URL]” in the Dragon Age fandom?

Miles is fast becoming one of them with Bendis’ colorblind approach to blackness.

I can only imagine that his take on Riri will also lack nuance and understanding of what it means to be a Black woman in a world dominated by white male heroes and villains.

And that’s messed up considering how he’s being tapped to write these Black legacy characters when he has no actual idea of what it means to be Black in America.

I’m annoyed at how Bendis keeps being handed opportunities to write young black people in comics when he has exhibited (via Miles) that he has no experience with or understanding Blackness in its many forms.

His writing is clearly coming from a place of white privilege and I am beyond pissed that Marvel keeps refusing to do the legwork and get Black creators (especially Black women) on their books that are about character who are Black.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

I don't know about anything with Bendis' daughters either, but I do know he gets a lot of flak from people of colour about how he writes people of colour. His 'I'm not black Spider-man, I'm spider-man' speech he gave Miles Morales in particular.

It's a fair point that it is better to hire people of colour to write people of colour. It's good they want more diversity, but they need to match that with the writers too I guess.

what did you think of the Silver Sable news btw? are you familiar with that character?

[eldargal]

The film spin-off from Spider-man? I'm surprised the yare going with Silver Sable rather than a higher profile Spider-man female character like Black Cat but maybe they figure she is too close to Catwoman lol. Hopefully they will do a good job.

[Mr Mystery]

I don't get why they wouldn't hire a person of colour to write a character of colour.

A massive part of Spidey's appeal to us bloke nerds is that, for the large majority of us, we were as feeble as pre-bite Peter Parker in school. We did get picked on by the Flash Thompson's of the world. We did unsuccessfully lust after our own personal Mary-Jane Watsons.

He was us, granted powers. And the whole moral 'great power, great responsibility' did resonate, at least with me. We'd been on the receiving end of abused power (however petty, it was still an abuse of power), and could get that revenge is a hollow thing, and drags you down to their level.

But that's speaking as a white nerd. Nerds of Colour will have had a far different journey throughout school - so this Spidey needs to also reflect that. I don't know how different, because I'm white. And it follows that a white writer would have to either do a hell of a lot of research and interviews to get it right - so why not just give it to a person of colour and get pretty much guaranteed veracity.