Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, dc, scott lobdell

When Is A Black Character Not A Black Character?

Published Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:20:29 -0600

So in Red Hood and the Outlaws, Crux is a black man who turns into a giant green monster.

And, in Teen Titans, Skitter is a black woman who turns into a grotesque arachnid-like being.

Scott Lobdell, what in the actual fuck were you thinking?

The comments back her up.

DC, you just keep giving me reasons not to give you my money.

Oh and lets not forget that there's Voodoo as well. Who isn't Lobdell's fault but it's sort of a TREND over at DC to make black people turn into monsters, isn't it?

There has been a recognised trope for black characters to lose their "blackness" in some way, in an overproportionate level. The charge is that somewhere people think a black character can't be commercially successful, so they try and hide it somehow. The most popular black comic book character in the US has probably been Spawn – a character who not only had all the flesh flayed off his skin, but when he uses his shape shifting powers to look human, can only look like a white guy. You can see how it might chafe.

But how does this stand up with the new 52, and specifically Scott Lobdell? Is he a racist trying to cover up?

Well, it's pointed that few people have gone after Cyborg's portrayal, despite him being the victim of his parent's experiments and winding up as 1/5th a human and 4/5ths a robot. Whereas Crux is a brilliant scientist who created a way to shape-shift. Who is the better role model?

Well, um, I mean aside that Crux is a bad guy. Even that is debatable, since his whole reason for transforming himself was to get rid of aliens on Earth like the ones who killed his parents. One man's villain is another man's self-sacrificing vigilante…

But, you know, Scott Lobdell did once say "The comic industry doesn't need any more white male super heroes". And characters of colour that he's created who don't shape shift include M, Mondo, Noir, Dr Cecelia Reyes, Maggot, Centennial, Shard, Synch and Vibrania. His most popular shape shifter, Husk, is white – unless she shape shifts into something else. As for whether a shape shifting ability makes a person any less black – well, some might consider that a little rude.

Thoughts? Seriously, what else were you going to do tonight?

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