My Heroes Don’t Always Need to Be White Guys

Avengers NOW 2014!

Not nearly enough pundits are complaining about Marvel’s all-new White Power Iron Man.

For those just joining the fray: pictured above are the new incarnations of Thor and Captain America that Marvel Comics will be introducing later this year. A recently depowered Steve Rogers will be passing on the Captain America mantle to a black man, most likely his old partner the Falcon. Meanwhile, the Norse god Thor will be transferred into a female identity under as-yet-unrevealed but probably magical circumstances.

The media thought these developments were so vital to our nation’s integrity that I first heard the news from morning-radio DJs while we were on vacation last week in Minneapolis. If commercial radio thinks it’s big news, then clearly it’s Big News whether I agree or not.

In what may or may not be a similarly themed development, the media was alerted today that Hollywood A-lister Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has reached a deal to star in a film based on a DC Comics character to be named later this week. All hints seem to point toward DC’s Captain Marvel, a.k.a. SHAZAM!, whose skin tone doesn’t match his. Preparing their rebuttal days in advance of the official announcement, comics fans nationwide have rushed to brainstorm their list of nonwhite DC characters that the Rock should be allowed to play. How nice of them to be so vigilant in helping the major publishers keep their cross-media adaptations demographically unmodified. And all without being asked first or getting paid for the job.

It’s my understanding that certain loud, obnoxious parties are up in arms on message boards and social media and such, because How Dare They or whatever. Fortunately these overhauls bounced harmlessly off me and my not-so-fragile peace of mind. And here’s why…

Comics are for Everyone. Period.

Comics are for everyone

Design by Jordie Bellaire and Steven Finch. See unaffiliated link at end of entry for buying from them.

This shirt doesn’t exist yet, but I’ll be camped out in line as soon as the line forms.

Hot on the heels of last week’s double-barrel underage-hero-ogling/rape-threat controversy, another brouhaha hit the comic spheres Sunday evening when comics writer Landry Walker (The Incredibles, Danger Club) wandered around the show floor at WonderCon and was startled to find the following objet d’hate existing for sale:

https://twitter.com/LandryQWalker/status/457997405321842688

…ugh. Not that exclusionary fanguys didn’t already have plenty of merchandise tailored specifically to them, but this one speaks directly to the heart of so many recent hostilities. I may not read the same comics as everyone else, but it’d the height of arrogance to proclaim that all the comics should be all for me. Some publishers may be better a diversity than others on all the available levels, but taken as a whole, if you can find trusty guides to point you in the right directions, the medium really does have something for every reader out there. As well it should.

To that end, colorist extraordinaire Jordie Bellaire (Deadpool, Moon Knight, Magneto, Pretty Deadly, Three, etc., etc.) and a cohort named Steven Finch (parenthetical credits here if I knew who he was) designed the proposed T-shirt you see at the top of this entry. Bellaire hopes to have a site up and running circa May so this can exist, so supporters can buy several for themselves and friends, and so she and Finch can die heroic and wealthy. She hopes to see stickers and buttons in the mix as well for all your anti-dudebro needs.

I’ll happily update here as more info becomes available. The C.A.F.E. shirt sadly won’t be ready in time for this weekend’s C2E2, but I’d love to sport this at Indy Pop Con at the end of May. I can bide my time if I must, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing other artists producing more merchandise along these lines, in even bigger and bolder designs. It’d be nice to fortify my wardrobe with more defenses like this to wear at cons and balance out the presence of card-carrying reps from the He-Man Woman-Haters Club or the boys down at the Get Rid Of Slimy girlS treehouse.

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[Updated 5/13/2014: Shirts are now available for purchase! Go buy some for the entire family!]