Do Comics Need More Diversity?

It's not a new point of contention, but comic books are terribly lacking in racial diversity. While there are multi-ethnic backup characters, and in a few cases a few lead characters who aren't young white men, it's a statistically insignificant amount. It's true of many mediums beyond the comic book industry, but that is hardly an excuse. Many people strongly feel that comics should represent a larger variety of races, genders, and other forms of identity. Still others argue that it's not relevant to the enjoyment of the stories, and that the status quo is not up for debate.

The question of diversity has fired up only in recent years, but comics have long struggled with the issue. Earlier comics and their authors have taken a lot of heat about often using stereotypes and caricatures of various races. This reflecting less on the individuals, than on the tone of media as a whole during the various eras. However its a problem that creators are still struggling with. Dancing around stereotypes and playing nice with various races is tricky stuff. Often times ignoring them can be equally bad. Frankly it's hard to do or say anything that doesn't offend anyone.

One of the biggest draws of comics, is the allure of putting yourself in the place of the heroes that grace their pages. In order to do that you have to be able to relate to the characters. So naturally people will want to read about characters who they can identify with. Furthermore it is certainly true that the audience reading comics is much more diverse than the people who populate said comics. So it seems fairly reasonable that comics should reflect that. Furthermore there are a lot of stories that remained untold because they require different perspectives and characters to tell them.

However the fact is that companies do try to make books with lead characters who don't fit the white male mold, and they usually don't sell that well. The most popular characters are pre-established characters, who don't often change races (though in comics it does happen). Also the people writing comics tend to be white men, and writers write what they know. Whatever the reason, it's just the state of things. Publishers won't, and certainly shouldn't be forced to, print comics that nobody wants to buy.

So what's the solution, what do we get out of this? Honestly we're pretty much back at the start. It's a complicated issue. However when you look at the industry and how it's treating minorities, while there is a lot of room for improvement there has also been a lot of progress made. Hopefully we'll see some more in the future, but it certainly looks like we're on the right track.

Where are all the Super Heroes?

When was the last time you saw a new super hero title on the stands? Chances are it's been a while. The Big Two will occasionally introduce new characters into the mix, and rarely give those characters a book. Indy companies avoid super hero comics too, again with a few exceptions. Super heroes started the genre, and even if you hate every single comic written by them, it's just common sense to want more titles out there to broaden a very narrow section of the industry. And yet it doesn't happen, why?
One reason could be in the difficulty of finding something that stands out. Pretty much every super hero is a derivative of some other character or archetype. You've got the noble paragon of a hero, the dark street smart hero, the misunderstood hero, and so on and so forth. There's also the problem of powers. Most of the good ones have pretty much been taken. You can extrapolate and get creative, but for the most part it's hard to come by a unique powerset these days. When you add in the fact that super hero books rarely vary in the plot structure, it leaves you with very little wiggle room in terms of concept.
For some reason in the comic book industry concept is everything. There actually are reasons but that's a whole different bag of peanuts. Essentially you're selling a concept to the audience though. Which is odd because media doesn't usually work solely in that one field. Sure the basic premise is always important, but certainly as much as the characters and their relationships, or the tone, or writing style. I mean there are a million and one legal shows whose concepts are pretty much the same, and there are just as many fantasy stories who share that same fault, but they each have their own unique qualities.
Just because two super heroes have the same powers, backgrounds, or methods, it doesn't necessarily mean that they have the same personality. Exploring who these people are behind the mask is probably the biggest draw to any single super hero story. Still the fact that a hero might resemble another one too closely hinders a lot of potentially good stories from being told.
It's become a common theme in these posts, but it is my firm belief that you can't overflood the comic book market with material. Even if the greater portion of that isn't great, you always want to have new voices telling stories. We should have more super heroes, new super heroes, and new people writing them.