DC Reboot: the tally

[kusonaga]

Somebody in one of the DC reboot threads asked for a running total on the number of racially and sexually diverse characters that are being promoted to hit the stands in September. Seeing as I was avoiding studying, a tally under the cut, based on covers.

Because I'm seriously avoiding studying:

Solo titles
Male: Aquaman, Flash, Green Arrow, The Fury of Firestorm, Mr. Terrific, Captain Atom, The Savage Hawkman, Batwing, Animal Man, Static Shock, I, Vampire, Frankenstein, Ressurection Man, Swamp Thing + four different titles each for Batman and Green Lantern (22 of which 5 featuring Afro-Americans, no LGBT)
Female: Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Batgirl, Catwoman, Voodoo (5 of which 1 LGBT, no racial diversity)

EDIT: Apparently, Voodoo's black/latino. I'm not familiar with the character, but that brings it to (5 women, 1 LGBT, 1 black/latino).

Notes on solo's: Frankenstein and Swamp Thing are definitely male, but not men in the traditional sense.

Teams:
Justice League: 6/7 men, of which 1 Afro-American
Justice League International: 5/9 men, 1 Chinese man, 1 Latino woman, 1 Afro-American woman
Birds of Prey: 4 women, 1 Japanese
Red Hood and The Outlaws: 2/3 men, 1 woman alien
Justice League Dark: 3/6 men, 1 LGBT in the form of John Constantine
Legion Lost: 5/7 men, 1 black woman, 1 alien woman
Legion of Superheroes: 3/4 men, 1 woman
Teen Titans: 3/6 men
Demon Knights: 1 man

Total for teams: 28 men vs. 20 women, teams are generally 50/50 or close. I'm not hip on the sexual diversity of the Titans or Legionnaires, but as I recall they're all pretty straight. Legion naturally has some alien members. No idea yet on Demon Knights. Justice League International is easily the most diverse team on the stands.

Odd man out is Hawk & Dove, featuring a man and a woman (straight and white).

There's still twelve titles to go, of which probably three or four will go to the Superman family, including a Supergirl book (and maybe Power Girl?).

Oh and for legality, a few out-of-context panels (scans not mine) from Checkmate (1987) #1, by Paul Kupperberg and Steve Erwin.

 

Comments

[synnerman]

Isn't Voodoo black? Or is it a coloring error?

[kusonaga]

She looks pretty white to me on the cover. Could be my bad though.

[shadowpsykie]

she looks latina on the cover to me....

[kusonaga]

She does have some colour, now that I look at it again.

[misterbug]

Wait, isn't Voodoo of Latin origin? (I have no idea, as I don't care about the character at all.)

[kusonaga]

Could be. I have no idea either.

[evilsneak]

I'm pretty sure Voodoo is Black, or at least she was in the Wildstorm Universe.

[shadowpsykie]

thought she was latino/mulata?

[drexer]

Huh, 'mulata' is one of those terms, that at least in Portugal ain't usually used in the most flattering of way... Is it connotation in english speaking countries more matter-of-factly or something?

Genuine curiosity here.

[shadowpsykie]

umm it depends... i was a little iffy on the subject. as first it was used as a prejorative... i think, or at least a way of classifying someone as lower class or the like... but for the most part now, it is used to decribed some one that is of mixed races *not Bi-racial*, (usually a mixture of anglo/white, latin, and black)

i could be wrong though. but as far as i know its mainly used in that way (though there are some that might take offence to it... just like there are some that take offence to Chicano or Mexican-America)

[arilou_skiff]

Mulatto is part of the entire casta-system, Wiki has an article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casta

[kksimone]

I don't think I've ever heard mulatto/a used in real life, and I'd assume it's fallen out of acceptable use in the same way that something like "negro" has. It's such outdated racism that I'm not entirely sure what the reaction would be if the term was used.

(I'm in Richmond, Virginia, so we're embarrassed by our history, but there's also our street of Confederate Generals + Arthur Ashe.)

[arilou_skiff]

I went to a school with a girl from Kenya who self-described as such, so I dunno.

[shadowpsykie]

they also have an article on the word Mullato

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullato

many people self identify as mullato/a i take it as a term like i said above akin to the term Chicano/a while offensive to some, others self describe as that.

so yeah... in this case it depends (in one of her last vampire books anne rice calls the main character Merrik, a mullata...) so yeah i still see it used... it really depends on the person it hink.

[kksimone]

I always err on the side of what someone self-identifies as, but there's a big difference between calling yourself something and having others refer to you by a term used for discrimination and oppression. I'd assume different people are going to have a different opinion on a term like this, but that's why I gave my location.

[droolfangrrl]

*snickers*

Hubby and I are American, I'm mostly northern european, he's mostly african/ european/ amer indian.

When our son was a baby, I took a photo of him when he was crying, I titled it "The Tragic Mulatto,"
to make fun of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragic_mulatto

[evilsneak]

Now that I think about it, I think she was mixture of Black / Hispanic / Creole / Daemonite.

[icon_uk]

Christmas must be a blast and a half at her place...

[drexer]

I've also done something similar:

Click to see, and page two.

[drexer]

Oh, and I don't know the name of certain characters(mainly the legion ones) and I was in doubt if Voodoo was black or not. I'll correct those images a while from now and if anyone finds any other errors that should be corrected as well please warn me.

[shadowpsykie]

I'm not hip on the sexual diversity of the Titans or Legionnaires, but as I recall they're all pretty straight. Legion naturally has some alien members. No idea yet on Demon Knights. Justice League International is easily the most diverse team on the stands.

well, the legion, depending on who is on the cast, have been shown to have every letter in the LGBT spectrum.

and everyone knows that Tim and Kon fancy eachother... i mean Tim tried to re clone his "Best FRIEND"

[ebailey140]

As of September, Tim and Kon have never met.

[shadowpsykie]

doesn't matter :D

[luxshine]

hear, hear!

[shadowpsykie]

i mean look at his gloves! show your Claws Kon! Gaga reference

[cleome45]

"well, the legion, depending on who is on the cast, have been shown to have every letter in the LGBT spectrum..."

Implied maybe, here and there.

Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll move beyond the implication stage this time. :/

[shadowpsykie]

not just implied, Lightlass and shrinking violet were explicit, as were chemical king and... invisible kid? in several different incarnations...

[cleome45]

Did anyone ever openly state that they were paired up, though? Did they embrace and/or kiss like the straight couples?

That's what I'm talking about here. As in, I enjoyed seeing Vi and Ayla together in the last annual, but editorial decree (I presume) STILL kept everything just vague enough so that TPTB could plausibly deny it being a pairing if some jackass in the audience complained.

It's kind of tiresome. Hell, the Archie-verse is now officially more open about this shit than DC's "inclusive" future. :(

[shadowpsykie]

http://www.gayleague.com/wordpress/2009/06/01/shrinking-violet-lightning-lass/

implied, but so heavily implied it was obvious. i took it to mean, it goes without saying.

more lightly implied with Condo (chemical king) and invisible kid

the most explicit was element lad and shauvaghn erin http://www.gayleague.com/wordpress/2009/06/05/element-lad-shvaughn-erin/



here is a detailed list http://www.gayleague.com/wordpress/tag/legion/

[cleome45]

Yeah. I've read those, but my point still stands, for the most part. I haven't read any of the later Jan/Shvaughn stuff, but it provokes really strong opinions from most fans-- to put it mildly.

FTR, I believe that Levitz still says that he never intended for Vi/Ayla to be read as a romantic pairing. That it was something the other creative teams tacked on during 5YG.

[icon_uk]

The JLA isn't 7 people, it will be at least 13 according to reports.

[kusonaga]

I'm going by covers, hence 'promoted to be on the stands'.

[shadowpsykie]

the current cover of TT above is not going to be the one on the stands, and neither i think is the JL one

[kusonaga]

I know, but it is what it's being used to promote the rebooted version.

[greenmask]

Interesting.

Anyone know how that compares to pre-reboot numbers?

[ian_karkull]

I've always found John Constantine's identification as LGBT rather questionable. As far as I know, he only ever had a homoerotic relationship with that weird Bruce Wayne analogue and that was part of some sort of bizarre BDSM/sex-magic ritual. He gave no indication of enjoying it and even had more on-panel sexual encounters with women then.

Regardless, all the lists I've seen so far confirm that Xombi, a great book with an awesome Asian-American Lead has indeed been cancelled, so that's pretty much all I'm taking away from the diversity in the NewDC debate.

[icon_uk]

Xombi's gone already?

[ian_karkull]

I haven't seen it on any of the lists of post-reboot titles so far, even those that contain friggin' Voodoo, which seems like a very bad omen for the book.

[joasakura]

wait, Xombi was *back*????

[ghosty732]

Madame Xanadu is in the Justice League Dark, and wasn't she shown to be at least bi-sexual in her most recent Vertigo series? I thought she had a female lover in Inquisition-time Spain.

[kaete]

Yep, she definitely had a lady love in the series.

[innerbrat]

I'm pretty certain that Batwing is not African American, but Black African.

[kusonaga]

You're right. Apologies.

[innerbrat]

Ditto Vixen, I think. Less certain on this one.

[kusonaga]

Correct again! I never knew that about Vixen.

Funny, I used Afro-American to try and be inoffensive (never quite sure how simply calling someone 'black' is responded to in the US).

[bwhahahabeck]

Fire isn't Latina if that's who you are referring to. Brazilians are not considered Latino.

[kusonaga]

Ugh, I suck at these terms. What's the proper one then?

[bwhahahabeck]

Brazil has a multitude of ethnic groups. A good general term would just be Brazilian as we don't know much else about her background past that (and around Rio). She could be multiracial or really, just white.

[eyz]

Where's the diversity?!
I mean, I just want my Renee!Question back!! TT___TT

(or announce a new Chase on-going! I'll be happy with that!)