Exiles #1

[history79]

Comments

[cyberghostface]

This artist at least is giving her distinctly African features when her great grandmothers in 616 at least on both sides were white.

[locuatico]

great-grandmothers, actually.

[malitia]

If it helps that aunt she is having lunch with at the beginning is black.

[long_silence]

As far as I know we only saw that two of her direct ancestors were white, Frederick Slade and Ms. Ferguson. Presumably their offspring was on Clarice's paternal side since she inherited the name Ferguson. They were from the 18th century, due to the sliding timescale of comics and the immortal nature of Apocalypse and the Clan Akkaba, it might be fair to say that they could be a generation or two farther back than "great-grandparents".

But let's say they aren't. A person has 8 great-grandparents. We only know that two of Clarice's were white. That still leaves 6 unaccounted for.

And now we've met a version of her aunt, her mother's sister who has "distinctly African features". So her mother likely had them as well.

tl;dr Clarice inherited African features from her mother, and possibly her father as well since he apparently spoke with a West Indies accent.

[cyberghostface]

"tl;dr Clarice inherited African features from her mother"

Which only surfaced until now for some reason.

[long_silence]

So you're mad that she stopped straightening her hair?

[cyberghostface]

I'm not 'mad' and I'm not just referring to her hair.

[long_silence]

You seem hyper focused on these vague African features that you refuse to specify that she supposedly never had before.

Forgive me for assuming you were upset over this "change"

[cyberghostface]

"You seem hyper focused on these vague African features that you refuse to specify that she supposedly never had before."

Not "refusing", I would hope I don't have to specify the differences in facial features that she has never been drawn with. Like if you look at this picture of Mantis do I have to go into detail as to why she's being drawn as having Asian features despite the green skin?



So yeah, I asked if which Blink this was (given that we have a new MCU-centric Valkyrie and an alternate Kamala) and when I was informed that she was the same I wondered why they changed things.

"Forgive me for assuming you were upset over this "change""

Cool, it happens.

[long_silence]

And here's Mantis in a more recent depiction.

Does the lack of those "Asian features" by this and other artists mean she was never Vietnamese? Or that they've changed her ethnicity?

[cyberghostface]

I’ve seen Asian characters drawn that way by more cartoonish artists, yes.

[long_silence]

And I've seen Black characters drawn like Blink was in the original Exiles series, ie generic female facial features that don't particularly denote a specific ethnicity.

[cyberghostface]

So you think Blink was always intended to be black then?

[long_silence]

I don't think a lot of thought was put into her initial origin or design other than looks like a "pink mutant elf" because 616 Blink was created to die in Phalanx Covenant.
And then the character was repurposed for Age of Apocalypse and was turned into a pin up model, and the creators didn't consider the implications when they revealed that her family was from the Bahamas.

Considering how often you hear creators say "We're plenty diverse, we've got people with blue skin and purple skin" they probably didn't intend for her to be Black, but just yet another mutant stand-in for diversity.

And yet nothing in continuity really contradicts the revelation that she is part Black other than an assumption that she was completely white because that's the default in most Western fiction.

Maybe I'm more open to the possibility because I've spent time actively looking at different characters and thinking "they've been kinda vague, maybe this character isn't white, maybe this character isn't straight"

[malitia]

I'm just adding some things: The one thing actually established about her background early is that she is from the Bahamas. Given the demographics of the place (I looked it up on wikipedia ^^;) it wouldn't make sense for her to not have any Black relatives.

[locuatico]

I think she was as originally intended to be black just as much Bruce was originally intended to have a cousin

[cyberghostface]

So that’s a no.

[locuatico]

that's a "who honestly cares?"

[cyberghostface]

Who cares about fictional characters and comics period? Not like any of it matters in the real world.

[locuatico]

Lots of people, actually. It's the only thing keeping the death of the industry a slow one. none of which will even remember her black ethnicity had not been highlighted before this point if this series is succesful.

[cyberghostface]

Thats debatable at best given how continuity-obsessed fandom is.

[mistersandman]

And here I thought Blink looked like Fan Bingbing.

[arilou_skiff]

19th century, not 18th. The clan Akkaba thing was in the Dracula Vs. Apocalypse story which was set in Victorian London.

[long_silence]

Sorry, my fault for consulting the wiki.

My point still stands on the fact that Blink has other great-grandparents and that multiracial lineages exist.