((PKG)) COMIC-CON 2018
((Banner: Superheroes & Society))
((Reporter/Camera: Elizabeth Lee))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: San Diego, California))
((NATS: San Diego Comic-Con 2018))
((Popup Banner: How Superheroes are changing the way Hollywood handles diversity))
((Courtesy: Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures))
((Banner: Superheroes & Diversity))
((NATS))
((ALICE MEI CHI LI, FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR))
There’s a lot of diversity in creators, artists, writers. A lot of people of color really want to get into creating comics, but the key is to get more diversity on the editorial level: editors, publishers, anyone who makes the decisions on who to hire.
((BEN SAUNDERS, ENGLISH PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON))
The initial wave of Superheroes of the 1930s and 40s is predominantly male and always exclusively white.
((NICKY WHEELER-NICHOLSON, GRANDDAUGHTER OF MALCOLM WHEELER-NICHOLSON, FOUNDER OF DC COMICS))
The African Americans were always drawn with big white lips, which is just horrible and the Asian characters were usually, their skin tone was yellow, which is just weird. And so, they were usually the menace. So, they were usually the evil bad guys.
There are definitely stereotypes in these early comics, and it’s important to see that, so that we recognize how some of these stereotypes were continued because they were in popular culture.
((BEN SAUNDERS, ENGLISH PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON))
The first characters of color, the first superpowered characters of color in the Marvel universe are green and orange. The Hulk is readily sort of understandable as a kind of complicated allegory for race as a sort of figured through ideas of monstrosity. The thing in the Fantastic Four is also a character that is legible as a kind of a coded raced figure.
Those characters of color are introduced in the early 60s. The process of diversification then, really sort of proceeds much more rapidly through the 70s and 80s and at this point if you are talking about the comic book universe at least, rather than perhaps some of the film and TV universes, it would be almost silly to try and count off characters of color or queer characters. There’s more than I could easily name quickly now.
((VITA AYALA, FREELANCE COMIC BOOK WRITER))
Print, I think, tends to be able to kind of get away with that first and kind of test the waters.
((ALICE MEI CHI LI, FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR))
Comics are like the fertile ground from which a lot of movies draw their inspiration from.
((SHANICE SOUVENIR, BLACK PANTHER MOVIE FAN))
So, I am Princess Shuri from Wakanda. Everybody knows her from Black Panther. We’re not all the way there yet, but it’s a start. So when Black Panther came out, I was so excited and to see that my future children have something to look up to.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures))
((ALICE MEI CHI LI, FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR))
Hollywood doesn’t think that, you know, diverse stories could sell overseas, so they make less of it and they don’t give chances to diverse stories that could be good.
((End Courtesy))
((ALICE MEI CHI LI, FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR))
A lot of the times I do hear that China doesn’t want to see black people.
((Courtesy: Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures))
((ALICE MEI CHI LI, FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR))
Black Panther did very well worldwide,
((End Courtesy))
((ALICE MEI CHI LI, FREELANCE ILLUSTRATOR))
regardless of the, you know, the culture of the market, so it really is about creating stories
((Courtesy: Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures))
that are universal to people, that people want to hear.
((End Courtesy))
((NATS))
((Banner: Superheroes & Politics))
((Map: San Diego, California))
((NATS))
((DORIAN BLACK, SUPERMAN FAN))
The reason why Superman to this day is such an icon is because he embodies an element, a spirit of America that just will never go away.
((NATS))
((BEN SAUNDERS, ENGLISH PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON))
The modern superhero sort of explodes onto the scene in 1938 with the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1.
So, when Superman first appeared, and a lot of people don’t know this, but he’s almost a kind of anarchist, socialist. He fights representatives of the oil companies. He fights advertising executives who are out to fleece the public. He campaigns for prison reform.
He’s a really remarkable, sort of, crusader for social justice in his first appearance. With the outbreak of World War II and with the rise of the commercial value of Superman as a property, he becomes a more socially conservative character as American values change in the 40s and 50s.
((NATS))
((AARON LOPRESTI, COMIC BOOK ARTIST))
Superman - Truth, Justice and the American Way - I really think that was sort of all the characters were ingrained with that sort of mentality, but I think as we got into the 60s and 70s, you started to see characters develop different personalities.
You know, right now, especially in popular media, you’re seeing more of a progressive slant because most of the creators tend to be leaning more in the progressive point of view so that, I think, is what’s getting more reflected in the characters.
The characters become the voice of whoever’s creating them at the time, whoever the writer is or the artist. You know, the things that are important to them are going to get interjected into those characters.
((NATS))
((HAYLEY WEST, CAPTAIN MARVEL FAN))
I am dressed up as Captain Marvel.
I would say now I would equate her to the female Superman and now people actually want to see that story. You know, strength and female strength especially which I think is really important in our current world.
((NATS))
((AARON LOPRESTI, COMIC BOOK ARTIST))
Their personalities aren’t something that are separate from what’s going on in society. I think they tend to reflect more what’s going on in society. And so, when things change or different ideas come into view, I think, sometimes, a lot of times, you see those things reflected in the characters or the situations they’re in, in their comics.
((ISRAEL TRUJILLO, SUPERMAN FAN FROM MEXICO))
The American culture has been starting to lose its values. They’re becoming more, I would say like egocentric in some ways, and I think that Superman shows the opposite of it. It’s a symbol of hope for people and I think that most people identify with him because they see him as the best person someone could be.
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((DORIAN BLACK, SUPERMAN FAN))
He was born on another planet. He was an alien refugee brought here as a child from a dying world, and he’s always represented that part of America, that immigrant spirit.
There was a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment happening at the time that he was created and I don’t feel like that’s ever changed. We’d like to pretend that, you know, America has changed greatly from that time period. And a lot of ways it has for the better, but we’re still having this argument of, like, you know, do we let in refugees? How much is too much? Do we help? Do we not help?
((NATS))
There will never be an America that Superman isn’t relevant in.
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