Minority Successors

When I stopped by the comic shop this past weekend, one of the books I picked up was the new copy of Blue Beetle. In case you're not a comic book geek like me and didn't know, the most recent incarnation of Blue Beetle--Ted Kord, a former Charlton hero who was brought into the DC universe after Crisis and who was an on-again, off-again member of the Justice League--was killed at the beginning of the recent DC mega-crossover, Infinity Crisis.

The Blue Beetle in the comic I picked up on Saturday is the newest incarnation of the hero. And he's much different than his rich, white, scientist predecessor. The new Blue Beetle is a sixteen-year-old Latino named Jaime.

So far, the story and art for the series have been surprisingly good. I'm not sure what compelled me to pick up the first issue, but I've been enjoying the book. It's very reminiscent of the Crimson series by Humberto Ramos and Brian Augustyn in the late nineties, in that they both feature a similar, cartoony art style and teen heroes thrust unwillingly into costumes and a supernatural world. And I loved Crimson right up until the awful ending.

As good as the book is, however, every time I read it, I start thinking about DC's habit of re-casting B-list heroes as minorities. It seems as though, every few years, DC kills off or retires a hero or two and replaces them with an African American, Asian, or Latino equivalent. Often, these new heroes get their own books (none of which ever seem to last).

I'm not totally opposed to this trend, by the way. I'm all for more minority heroes appearing in the funnybooks. It's obvious that the minority populations are drastically underrepresented in comics, often appearing as sidekicks, secondary characters (cops, doctors, etc.) or non-powered buddies, if they appear at all. I was doing a project the other day where I was trying to find the equivalent of Marvel's Falcon in the DC universe. I was looking for a black character that flies...and couldn't come up with one. Eventually, I remembered Northwind from Infinity Inc. Considering that he mutated into a hybrid hawk-thing a few years ago, I'm not sure he even counts. But that sort of proved my point. While there is a Caucasian hero and villain of every type, power, and origin, there are significantly fewer minority heroes and villains of note.

Anyway, once I started thinking about the many heroes and villains recast as minorities, I started trying to list them out, to see which ones I could remember. DC's definitely done a lot more "minority recasting" than Marvel, and neither company seems to have touched their biggest heroes with the affirmative action rule.

Here are the ones that came to mind. Please add your own in the comments, as I'm sure I'm missing a ton:

DC
The Atom - formerly Caucasian scientist Ray Palmer, now Asian-American professor Ryan Choi
Black Condor - formerly Caucasian Ryan Kendall, now Latino John Trujillo
Blue Beetle - formerly Caucasian inventor Ted Kord, now Latino teen Jaime Reyes
The Crimson Avenger - formerly Caucasian newsman Lee Walter Travis, now African-American female Jill Carlyle
Dr. Light - formerly Caucasian villain Arthur Light, concurrently Asian hero Kimiyo Hoshi
Firestorm - formerly Caucasian physicist Martin Stein and Caucasian student Ronnie Raymond, recently African-American teen Jason Rusch and Asian-American teen Mick Wong
Green Lantern - formerly Caucasian Hal Jordan, concurrently African-American John Stewart
Johnny Thunder - formerly Caucasian Johnny Thunder, now African-American youth Jakeem Johnny Thunder
Mr. Terrific - formerly rich Caucasian Terry Sloane, now African-American hero Michael Holt
The Spectre - formerly Caucasian hero Hal Jordan, now African-American cop Crispus Allen
Wildcat - formerly Caucasian boxer Ted Grant, recently Latina journalist Yolanda Montex and Latino boxer Hector Ramirez

Marvel*
Captain Marvel - formerly Kree soldier Mar-Vell, recently African-American cop Monica Rambeau
Yellowjacket - formerly Caucasian scientist Henry Pym, recently Latina thief Rita DeMara

* Marvel seems to like to recast characters as females, more than minorities (see She-Hulk, X-23, Spider-Girl, Moonstone, Captain Britain, Lady Octopus, Lady Bloodstone, Namorita, etc.), which I'm not counting for the sake of this exercise. While I believe that women could definitely be treated better in comics, given more respect, greater roles and less T&A shots, I'm not including them in my minority report because I am sexist.