{"id":21290,"date":"2011-06-16T16:05:21","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T22:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=21290"},"modified":"2015-05-08T13:46:55","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T19:46:55","slug":"de-diversification-in-the-comics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/16\/de-diversification-in-the-comics.html","title":{"rendered":"De-diversification in the comics"},"content":{"rendered":"

My daughter Katherine grew up with (and still watches, on DVD), DC’s Justice League <\/em>and Justice League Unlimited<\/em> cartoons.\u00a0 They were, for her (and presumably a lot of other kids), the canonical takes on those heroes and villains.<\/p>\n

Which is why, when she sees comic books and comic book videos today, five years after JLU left the air,\u00a0 she still asks,\u00a0 “Why do they keep showing that <\/em>Green Lantern?” Or, “Why don’t they have Hawkgirl<\/em> in the Justice League?”<\/p>\n

A black Green Lantern and a female Hawk-person were her normal<\/em>.\u00a0 So what happened?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Well, sorry, kid.\u00a0 John Stewart has rarely been more than an anomalous second fiddle Green Lantern in the comic book DCU.\u00a0 So, despite 91 animated episodes over several years, if they were going to do a big budget GL movie, it was certainly going to be Hal Jordan (and certainly not going to include — it would be confusing, don’tchaknow? — fellow GL John Stewart, or white guys Guy Gardner or Kyle Raynor). Ditto, of course, for the last couple of Green Lantern straight-to-DVD movies DC’s done.\u00a0 Or various Justice League video efforts.\u00a0 Or pretty much anything else that DC has put out since the JLU cartoon folded its tent. And, of course, we know who The GL is who’s in the new rebooted JL comic this fall …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As for Hawkgirl — well, she’s usually been second fiddle to Hawkman anyway, aside from some brief moments about a decade ago.\u00a0 And now she’s dead. Again. But this time she’s been severed from the whole Hawkman\/Hawkgirl eternal love thing, so there’s no indication she’ll be back any time soon. Someone had to die in the Final Night Crisis Big Cross-Over Thing DC just did, so apparently Hawkman was considered better for retention than Hawkgirl.\u00a0 And Hawkman is, of course, who’s now getting his own book in the DCnU reboot.<\/p>\n

So the highly visible GL is a white dude again.\u00a0 And the only surviving Hawk-person is a guy.<\/p>\n

But I hope Katherine keeps asking the questions. Even if she’s less likely to read those comics.<\/p>\n

(Note: I’m not suggesting that Hawkman, or Hal Jordan, aren’t fine characters.\u00a0 But DC seems more than willing to throw away a pair of gender\/racially diverse characters — even with some non-canonical riffs to them — that had a built-in audience who were used to seeing them<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 And that’s a shame.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My daughter Katherine grew up with (and still watches, on DVD), DC’s Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons.\u00a0 They were, for her (and presumably a lot of other kids), the canonical takes on those heroes and villains. Which is why, when she sees comic books and comic book videos today, five years after JLU … Continue reading “De-diversification in the comics”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,852,740,348,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-comics","category-dc-cinematic-univese","category-race-racism","category-women","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/hawkgirl.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42558,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/13\/the-plans-for-the-dc-cinematic-universe.html","url_meta":{"origin":21290,"position":0},"title":"The Plans for the DC Cinematic Universe","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Jun-14 6:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone I've read is treating this list as solid as it gets, given the source. \u00a0The reported schedule:May 2016 \u2013 Batman v SupermanJuly 2016 \u2013 ShazamXmas 2016 \u2013 SandmanMay 2017 \u2013 Justice LeagueJuly 2017 \u2013 Wonder WomanXmas 2017 \u2013 Flash and Green LanternMay 2018 \u2013 Man of Steel 2There are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31362,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/14\/this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things-comic-book-movies-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":21290,"position":1},"title":"This is why we can’t have nice things (COMIC BOOK MOVIES!!!! edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Nov-12 2:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This is why we can't have nice things (COMIC BOOK MOVIES!!!! edition)Because Warner Brothers is less interested in giving us the \"Justice League\" movie I would easily spend a few hundred bucks on, watching and taking folks to and buying the Blu-Ray and all that ... and more interesting in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38433,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/09\/dc-comics-films-we-might-possibly-see-in-the-future.html","url_meta":{"origin":21290,"position":2},"title":"DC Comics films we might possibly see in the future","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 9-Aug-13 3:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"But don't hold your breath.Actually, the scariest thing here isn't Green Lantern 2, but Sandman being discussed in terms of an Harry Potter franchise replacement. \u00a0I mean, Sandman is brilliant, and I would personally chop off one of my own fingers to see a well-done series of movies faithful to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134398,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/23\/ranking-dcs-animated-tv-series.html","url_meta":{"origin":21290,"position":3},"title":"Ranking DC’s Animated TV Series","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Aug-17 11:00am","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't necessarily agree with this force-ranking (who ever does?), but it's a great reminder of some fantastic (and a few not-so-fantastic) animated series of decades past, and it's worth it just for that. If you don't want to page through show by show, here are their rankings: 22. Teen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/batman-beyond.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28025,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/29\/so-the-million-mom-march-folks-can-sleep-easier.html","url_meta":{"origin":21290,"position":4},"title":"So the Million Mom March folks can sleep easier","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-May-12 7:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"They were all up in arms, apparently, because DC announced that one of their \"beloved\" and iconic existing super-heroes was going to be identified as gay. Eek!Well, don't worry, Actually-few-thousand Moms -- the DC hero coming out is not all that beloved, only vaguely iconic, and until last month didn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":616,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/11\/what_would_it_b.html","url_meta":{"origin":21290,"position":5},"title":"What would it be like?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Sep-01 1:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"People watch with horror as the planes crash into the WTC towers. Fire burns. Buildings collapse. Mass hysteria. Evacuations, police sirens blaring, news sites swamped, a stunned population tied to...","rel":"","context":"In "9-11"","block_context":{"text":"9-11","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/9-11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50738,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21290\/revisions\/50738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}