That stalwart of superhero pulp, America’s DC Comics, sent tongues a’wagging when they recently ressurected a long dead character. But the fuss wasn’t about rising from the dead. It was about the fact that Kate Kane, aka, Batwoman, had transformed from Batman’s love interest to lesbian socialite.
Ms Kane was first introduced in 1956 as a companion to the infamous Dark Knight, but she was killed off in 1979. So what thinking was behind her rebirth as a thoroughly modern maven?
Dan Didio, Vice President and Executive Editor of DC told the Associated Press that the comic producer wants to improve diversity in the DC universe. “We have strong African-American, Hispanic and Asian characters,” he said. “We’re trying to get a better cross-section of our readership and the world.”
And it seems rebirth is the way to do it. Other leading DC white superheroes that have been killed and resurrected are the Blue Beetle, reincarnated as a Mexican-American teenager, and Firestorm, remade as African-American.
The reason, says Didio, is that new heroes are hard to introduce, whereas familiar names have been more readily accepted by fans. Back story is appropriated and names are changed to preserve market value.
Not to be outdone, DC’s rival, Marvel, has released several series featuring gay comic heroes. Freedom Ring is a young gay man with an extra-terrestial ring; Young Avengers follows a group of super-powered teenagers, including Wiccan and Hulkling, who are romantically involved; and The Rawhide Kid charts the adventures of a gay super hero cowboy.
Marvel too have had issues grafting diversity onto its super-stable. Take Araña, a Hispanic character with Spider-Man-like powers who lasted only a year with readers.
But the move to embrace diversity, fuelled by the arrival of Ms Kane on the scene, is meet with cynicism by some audience members. Take Joe Palmer, website administrator for Gay League, an online community for queer comic fans and artists. He points out that, even though queer characters are becoming more visible, it’s multi-ethnic characters that are the real winners, finally rising beyond the token. “Marvel points to its efforts at racial diversity, which is still an important topic to address, while remaining quiet on the issue of sexual diversity,” he says. “Marvel should be commended on its efforts, but it also dodges the bullet. Let’s be realistic. There won’t be any flak from conservative groups about the inclusion of non-white characters.”
And there is undeniable irony in DC Comics re-casting Batwoman as a lesbian. Last year, DC issued warning letters to a New York art gallery and website Artnet.com, who were showing artwork by artist Mark Chamberlain that depicted Batman and Robin as sexually intimate.
In 1954, psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham’s allegations of paedophilic relations between Batman and his sidekick Robin led to Senate sub-committee hearings on indecency – which in turn prompted the formation of the Comics Code Authority (CCA). Two years later, Kathy Kane/Batwoman was created in direct response – as a love interest for Batman and unflinching testament to his heterosexuality. Half a century later, she leads the diversity parade.
In terms of the mainstream marketplace, the portrayal of non-white, non-heterosexual and non-male leading superheroes in comics and in movies is a cultural reflection on mainstream acceptability. Before World War II, minority ethnic groups and African-Americans were hardly seen on the pages of comic books and newspaper comic strips. The closest thing to a multicultural publishing house was Milestone Media, which was owned by African-Americans, with DC publishing the work.
In its four year run, Milestone published 200 comics with culturally diverse and queer heroes. Other ventures in producing multi-ethnic heroes by DC were equally, if not more, short-lived.
Experts cite economic and cultural factors when reasoning away the short life span of culturally and sexually diverse superheroes. Omar Bilal, creator of the website, www.blacksuperhero.com, told The New York Times that many minority children crave white dolls and white images, a phenomenon portrayed in author Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Furthermore, readers of comics have been dominated by young white males. The same article cites Jeffrey A. Brown’s groundbreaking work, Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics and Their Fans (University Press of Mississippi: 2000). In the book Brown suggests that a fear of alienating audiences (and their disposable income) made comic store owners reluctant to stock Milestone titles.
One black hero that has made it into the mainstream is Blade, the half-human, half-vampire character. The comic, created in 1973 for Marvel, enjoyed a boost in popularity after the success of two Hollywood films based on the character. Now, Blade the television show screens on an American cable network.
Over in Bollywood, popular filmmaker Rakesh Roshan has unleashed Krrish to wage the diversity war, a homegrown Indian superhero with Chinese martial arts skills, who flies and saves the world.
In the first week at the box office, a film version of Krrish surpassed its budget by $5 million dollars, with a third of ticket sales coming from overseas. Vamsee Juluri, a media studies professor at the University of San Francisco told The Christian Science Monitor that Krrish signals India’s emerging self-awareness as a burgeoning social and economic powerhouse. “Traditionally, Indian cinema reflects what it means to be Indian,” she says. “Now we have a superhero, and that reflects our own image of our country as a growing superpower.”
In America, the home of Hollywood, DC Comics and Marvel, misogyny, institutionalised racism and homophobia have contributed to the lack of women, queers and non-white creators and readers of comics. Perhaps with an understanding of factors that are historical, social and political, the universe of superheroes will be truly diverse.
