Reflection of Race Ethnicity in Superhero Comics

This article examines the portrayal of race, ethnicity, and culture in popular superhero comics from the 20th and 21st centuries. It analyzes the treatment of sensitive issues and explores whether these comics have done justice to the representation of diverse communities. The article also discusses the impact of these portrayals on movies and television programs based on superhero comics.

Running Head: REFLECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY IN SUPERHERO COMICS
Reflection of Race Ethnicity in Superhero Comics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1Running Head: REFLECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY IN SUPERHERO COMICS
The birth of the concept of the ‘saviour’ or ‘superhero’ is attributable to domination of
the evil powers. The reflection of such a noble concept can be observed in different form of
arts. Superheroes arrived in comics when United states was struggling with socio-economic
turmoil and corruption and became successful to create a positive impact among the mass.
With an aim to make the background of such comic stories more realistic, the creators started
portraying the ideas, culture, beliefs as well as the social issues of the early 20th century
United States, in order to form a perfect. Naturally, the movies, television programs based on
such comics have also followed the trend of representing social and cultural factors. An in-
depth analysis of some popular super hero comics of 20th as well as 21st centuries will reveal
whether these comics have done justice with the sensitive issues related to race, ethnicity,
culture and society.
One of the popular superheroes who arrived a few years earlier than superman, was
Mandrake, a magician who was known for his superfast hypnotic tricks. He had the power of
creating illusionary effects and making people believe anything with the help of his hypnotic
gestures. He utilised his power to fight against gangsters, extra-terrestrials, selfish scientists.
This comic introduced the character of Lothar, probably one of the first characters of
African origin, who was projected as a crimefighter. He was the best friend of Mandrake
whom Mandrake met for the first time, during his visit to Africa. Lothar assisted Mandrake
in his noble work of abolishing the evils. Lothar was presented as a savage man man with
immeasurable strength, resistant to heat and cold. He spoke poor English. The creator’s aim
to project him as an uncivilized African man reflected in the initial pictures of Lothar, in
which he was wearing short pants and Leopard skin. He was sometimes referred to as “giant
black slave” of Mandrake. (King Features Syndicate, 1935) Naturally this raises questions
about the creator Lee Falk’s treatment of racism and ethnicity. Also, this comics portrayed

2Running Head: REFLECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY IN SUPERHERO COMICS
women as villains incapable of applying any trick successfully to the Mandrake. Some of the
female characters were portrayed as assistants of Mandrake who are less powerful than him.
The next superhero who made his official debut in Action Comics#1, in the year
1938, was the Superman. The creators Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster projected him as a man
with incredible strength who originally belonged to a planet named Krypton, from where he
was sent to earth by his scientist father, just after his birth. He was adopted and brought up by
Jonathan and Martha Kent who inspired him to utilize his super power to fight against crime
and make world a better place.
. DC had introduced a hero of Dark skin in the Superman comics and associated the
term “Black” with his name by calling him “Black Lightening”. The strong believe of the
creator that the men of dark skins usually came from crime-ridden areas reflected, when it
was revealed that “Black lightening” had come from "Southside of Metropolis," popularly
known as "Suicide Slum". The creator did not want the white skinned super hero to go to the
Southside, so developed the character of a “not so popular” dark hero for the people living
there. Thus, the creator had unnecessarily divided Metropolis into two parts. Instead of giving
the message of unity the creator had showcased the existing discrimination between the dark
and white skin people of United states. Also no significant and powerful female characters
are found except the character of Superman’s girlfriend.
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby designed the character of captain America. Captain
America emerged as a patriotic super-soldier in Captain America Comics#1 during the
turbulent period of World War II, in the year 1941.
The way how Marvel treated black people, instigated the issues of racism again and
again. In the Captain America series of 1960 September Sam Wilson, also popular as Falcon,
was introduced as a person equally powerful as Captain America. There was the possibility

3Running Head: REFLECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY IN SUPERHERO COMICS
that after some years Falcon could become Captain America. but Steve re-wrote the
backstory of Falcon and represented him as a rogue.
Another incident of from the comics of Captain America (1941 series), bears a
prominent symbol of racism. Marvel provided Bucky Barnes, the homeboy of Captain
America, a squad named Young Allies who were basically his sidekicks. The creator
projected, one of them as a heinous as well as racial stereotype by making him look like a
black monkey, representing him as an idiot and a savage who speaks poor English.
This have been partially outweighed by the recent attempts of the creator of Captain
America series to free this super hero comics from the narrow thoughts of racism as well as

4Running Head: REFLECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY IN SUPERHERO COMICS
Ethnicity. This has also been reflected in the movie, through the interaction of Steve Rogers
with a German doctor. Steve asked Dr. Erskine about the place he had come from, Dr.
Erskine mentioned that he was a Germen and in turn throw a question whether it would
bother Steve or not. A convincing “No” from Steve followed by his loyal and affectionate
behaviour to Dr. Erskine, conveyed the changes in ideas and beliefs of 21st Century US
people. Also Marvel had introduced the homosexual characters like Northstar in order to
break the shell of stereotype thinking.
Batman comics first published in the year 1939 by DC comics. Bob Kane and Bill
Finger represented Batman as the greatest detective of the world who hid his identity under
the veil of an wealthy American businessman, the owner of Wayne Enterprises. After
witnessing his parents murder in childhood, he had taken the oath to abolish crime from
Gotham which he fulfilled using his knowledge of technology.
Batman as took the vow of not killing any innocent, but, the earlier series of the
comics consisted of some pictures where batman was falling directly from a building on a
guy whom he repeatedly referred to as "Chinaman." Also, some of the dialogues were evident
of the hatred of US people for Japanese. Thus, the discrimination according to race as well as
ethnicity was vivid in Batman comics too. This comic series also lacked powerful female
characters. Women were portrayed as human beings, dependant of men.
Batman #44, the latest comic series protested against the racism that exists in United
States even in 21st Century. It reflected the real problems of US like the death of a black teen
ager in the hands of a white police in the fictious city of Gotham. This fictious event actually
has the resemblance with the real protest of the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray.
Also, Batman’s act of saving a Chinese kid proved that he was no more ethnically bias.

5Running Head: REFLECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY IN SUPERHERO COMICS
In the year 1962 during the golden period of super hero comics Stan Lee and Steve
Ditko created an astonishing character of a super hero named Spiderman. An orphan, raised
by his uncle and aunt, acquire spider-like abilities after being bitten by a radio active spider.
Initially he was confused about the physical changes he faced later he realised his own
powers and emerged as a saviour to the troubled people of America.
Most of the Spiderman characters were white characters. Initially, the creator avoided
all the controversies related to the issues of racism and ethnicity. The Amazing Spider Man II
introduced electro-man, A dark man who used to be very honest, innocent as well as dutiful
person and a friend of Spiderman, but eventually became an electro-man due to the shock of
high voltage electric. In the course of proving himself more powerful than Spiderman, he
became a rival of Spiderman.
The issues of ethnicity also revealed through different superhero comics in which
Chinese men, dark skinned men or sometimes Japanese were shown as dumb. Even
superhero movies of 2018, like Aquaman, portrayed dark skinned men as pirates who are
even ready to destroy the human race in order to meet their own interest. It also showed that a
Chinese nurse turned into a villain after getting infected by the virus. Again, It showed a dark
villain harming a Chinese scientist. These are the instances of the existence of the
discrimination regarding ethnicity and race even in the 21st century. Other comics as well as
movies portraying super heroes like Ironman, Hulk, Avengers, Venom all showed a white
man with super power or extreme knowledge of technology emerged as a saviour, whenever,
crime like terrorism, smuggling, bank robbery, misuse of science brought devastation. Those
comics included some of the black skinned characters but never did justice with those
characters. Either people with dark skin were portrayed as villains, or they were portrayed as
powerful men who were less likely to face the limelight, or such the role played by such
characters were insignificant. Again, such comics or movies were gender bias. Apart from

6Running Head: REFLECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY IN SUPERHERO COMICS
Wonder-woman and Cat-woman almost no super heroines were introduced through comics or
films. Most of the female characters of those comics were dependant of men who were weak
and not much active to fight against the evils. This is the evidence of the gender issues that
exists in the United States even in the 21st century.
In spite of all these, in the conclusion, it can be stated that super hero comics shapes
the idea of children about humanity, develop a sense of morality in them. It conveys the myth
that super power of protecting the earth may be hidden even inside an ordinary persons, who
probably unaware of their strengths and in the course of finding their own selves they may
discover the god-gifted magical power within them. Not only the children even the teen agers
are also amused by such comics or movies, as they lit a lamp of hope inside their young
minds and inspire them to do good. Such tales generate the message- “do good to the people
around you and it will come to u in the form of happiness”.

7Running Head: REFLECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY IN SUPERHERO COMICS
References
Thomas, Shane. Ethics, and Perceptions of Class, Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation in
the Context of the Superhero Genre. Diss. Southeastern Louisiana University, 2018.
Bongco, Mila. Reading comics: Language, culture, and the concept of the superhero in comic
books. Routledge, 2014.
Ndalianis, Angela, ed. The contemporary comic book superhero. Routledge, 2009.
Stein, Daniel. "Superhero Comics and the Authorizing Functions of the Comic Book
Paratext." Stein, D. and Thon, J.-N.(eds.) From Graphic Strips to Graphic Novels:
Contributions to the Theory and History of Graphic Narrative. Berlin: de Gruyter (2013):
155-189.
Salyers Jr, John William. "Gender Performance and the Reclamation of Masculinity in Frank
Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns." (2013).
THOMAS, PL. "Can Superhero Comics Defeat Racism? Black Superheroes “Torn Between
Sci-Fi Fantasy and Cultural Reality”." Teaching Comics Through Multiple Lenses.
Routledge, 2016. 146-160.

8Running Head: REFLECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY IN SUPERHERO COMICS
Dellecese, David, et al. Comic Books as American Propaganda During World War II. Diss.
2018.
Curtis, Neal, and Valentina Cardo. "Superhero Comics and Third Wave Feminism." Feminist
Media Studies 18.3 (2017).
Brown, Jeffrey A. Batman and the Multiplicity of Identity: The Contemporary Comic Book
Superhero as Cultural Nexus. Routledge, 2018.
Scott, Suzanne, et al. "Trans Representations and Superhero Comics: A Conversation with
Mey Rude, J. Skyler, and Rachel Stevens." Cinema Journal 55.1 (2015): 160-168.
Ratto, Casey M. "Not Superhero Accessible: The Temporal Stickiness of Disability in
Superhero Comics." Disability Studies Quarterly 37.2 (2017).
Curtis, Neal, and Valentina Cardo. "Superhero Comics and Third Wave Feminism." Feminist
Media Studies 18.3 (2017).
Goodrum, Michael, Tara Prescott, and Philip Smith, eds. Gender and the Superhero
Narrative. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2018.
Curtis, Neal, and Valentina Cardo. "Superhero Comics and Third Wave Feminism." Feminist
Media Studies 18.3 (2017).
Pettitt, Joanne. "Remembering the Holocaust in American superhero comics." Journal of
Graphic Novels and Comics(2018): 1-12.
Fawaz, Ramzi. The new mutants: superheroes and the radical imagination of American
comics. NYU Press, 2016.
Casper, Monica J., et al. "Men In Tights, Women Who Fight: Gender, Race, & Superheroes."
(2016).