Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, katie kubert, marvel, Ron Wimberly

Rereading Wolverine & The X-Men With Ron Wimberly In Mind

Ron Wimberly wrote and.drew for The Nib a comic strip detailing his experience with skin colour as an artist working on a Marvel comic book. That comic was Wolverine & The X-Men #10. He writes,

Melita Garner is a X-character, reporter and ex-girlfriend of the ex-Wolverine, first appearing in Wolverine: Weapon X. And she takes the lead in Wolverine & The X-Men #10, edited by Katie Kubert.

Marvel Wiki tells is "Melita's father is Mexican and her mother is African-American." Wimberly looks at the colours he was requested to amend. Curious at the disparity he queries the issue, only to be told,

So what changes did he make?

I understand this strip caused considerable upset at Marvel, especially to the editor in question. EIC Axel Alonso responded to CBR defining himself as "Mexican-American, so that makes me #caa468", saying,

The issue in question was "Wolverine and the X-Men" #10, a jam book that featured 8 different artists — 14, if you include colorists — one of whom was Ron Wimberly. The editor simply asked Ron to match the skin-tone that had been established for the character — Melita Garner, a Latina — on previous pages. She would have done the same if Ron had made Melita's skin too light.

So let's take a look. Wolverine & The X-Men #10, courtesy of ComiXology.

As Alonso says, it's a jam issue, featuring lots of different artists doing different scenes in the comic. Otherwise known as a deadline issue… so this is how the comic opens

With other artists offering their take, as Melita interviews people about their experiences with the recently deceased Wolverine.

While skin tone stays relatively consistent, hair doesn't…

Indeed, when Ron's pages come along, the hair seems more inconsistent than the skin colour, which as he said, he didn't change.

And shortly afterwards…

That seems to be a much bigger change. Jam issues like this thrive of different takes but you need to probably be able to tell one character from one scene to another. I remember a few comics when that was more of a challenge.

This is how Melita originally appeared back on Wolverine: Weapon X #1.

Ron asked the question,

But what is the "this"? If it's asking for a colour change to make it more consistent with other treatments in that very comic book, then probably not. If it's changing the ethnic background of a character, in a comic book that isn't exactly brimming with female black characters, well that may be more of an issue for some.

Ron also does also make the point,

Which is probably a little more telling.

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