Characters of Colour in superhero comics - the men (part one)

Following on from our previous post about good women characters of colour within superhero comics, we come to the second post, about male characters of colour.

Firstly, an explanation of the label system. 

On the blog we label all our posts with CoC for Characters of Colour if the character has a significant role in the book.  You can view all posts tagged with this label here, this includes the independent comics.

Don’t forget our manga reviews.  Most of our manga is set in Asian countries so the default ethnicity becomes Asian and there are very few white people in the books.  As such we won't list any manga titles in this post.  Independent and manga comics will be covered in another post.

DMZ: On the Ground

written by Brian Wood
art by Riccardo Burchielli and Brian Wood
colours by Jeromy Cox

What's It About?
A second American Civil War has broken out, anti-establishment militias banding together in the American heartlands to form the Free States while the US government is busy fighting foreign wars. US forces have managed to halt the Free States' advance in New York. The US holds Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island while the Free States hold everything inland of New Jersey. In the middle is Manhattan Island, a no man's land, a warzone known to the world as the DMZ.

Matty Roth is a young photo-journalist interning with Liberty News (“News for America and Americans!”) attached to an award-winning journalist being flown into the DMZ. Caught in an ambush the news team and its military escort are slaughtered, leaving only Matty alive. With only a press pass for protection Matty finds himself the only embedded journalist in the centre of the warzone. Either it'll make his career or kill him.

Outsiders

Writer: Judd Winick

Art: Various

Publisher: DC

What’s it about?

The Outsiders are a superhero team set up to deal with the more dangerous threats to the DC Universe.  They have no interest in good PR or in being symbols of hope, instead they want to do the job – take down the dangerous guys and go home at the end of the day.  It’s work, not family.

Astonishing X-Men: Gifted

written by Joss Whedon
art by John Cassaday
colours by Laura Martin 

What's It About? 

Marvel created the Astonishing imprint as a showcase for big name creators. The idea was to give these high-profile creators free reign to work magic on their own favourite characters, to tell the stories they really wanted to tell. Astonishing X-Men was the first title in the imprint and paired Joss Whedon of Buffy and Firefly fame with the art team of Wildstorm's flagship title Planetary.

As a team of super-powered mutants the X-Men are ostracised from mainstream humanity. As such, they have always been a vehicle for allegorical stories about prejudice, be it racial, religious, sexual and so on. Whedon opens his series with the announcement that scientists have discovered a way to “cure” mutants, to safely remove their powers and render them “normal”. But where did this cure come from? What secrets are the Benetech corporation hiding? And what will this cure mean to the mutant community?

Characters of Colour in superhero Comics - the women (part one)

Someone on the facebook group recently asked where all the strong female characters of colour in superhero comics were.  This is a very good question and one that I feel needs answering.

I think there is a feeling that superhero comics tend to feature only white heroes (and male ones at that).  Whilst historically this was certainly the case, in recent years it has got better.  There are now several characters of colour in the superhero books (although not as many as there are white characters).  They are also in independent publications and manga.  I'm going to use this post to highlight a few particularly great female characters, and then do another post of the male characters.

Superman: Sacrifice

Publisher: DC
For full credits see the other information section at the end of this post.

What's it about?
This is a dark time in the DC Universe.  Heroes have been murdered.  Trust is being lost.  Civilians can't be saved.  Is it any wonder that tempers are frayed?  Against this background, Superman sees his arch enemies going after Lois, killing her.  Lois is the love of his life, so when he sees her dead body, he can't cope and he vows to destroy the murderer.

But things are not what they seem, and in his fury he has really taken down one of his closest friends, Batman, and nearly killed him.  It is revealed that he is hallucinating the murder sprees, and Wonder Woman is the only one that can stop him.  How will she do it?  What will the consequences be?

Manhunter: Street Justice

Today's review comes courtesy of Alexander Lyons.  Alex is a UK-based feminist theorist with a speciality in identity politics and poststructuralism in comics. He's got a weak-spot for Greg Rucka, Wonder Woman, and the obscure ramblings of Helene Cixous. You can find his own ramblings on Twitter. He has very curly hair.

Writer: Marc Andreyko

Penciller: Jesus Saiz

Inker: Jimmy Palmiotti

Colourist: Steve Buccellato

Letterer: Jared K Fletcher

Publisher: DC

What’s it about?

Hot shot federal prosecutor Kate Spencer is used to stalking big game in the courtroom, but when a new case doesn’t go her way, she decides to take her war on crime onto the streets.

After a meta-human serial killer, Copperhead, escapes the death penalty in her latest case and then manages to break out on the way to prison, Kate borrows the name ‘Manhunter’ and helps herself to a super-powered suit to take the villain down herself. A firm believer in lethal force for the country’s worst and most sadistic criminals, Kate hunts down Copperhead to deliver justice as she sees it, and then rushes in to a career as a costumed villain-killer.

Raising interesting questions about the grey areas between heroes and vigilantes, villains and saviors, fate and free will, Manhunter follows the decisions that Kate makes as they pit her at odds with some of the world’s deadliest criminals.  This work creates conflict with her ex-husband, challenges her role as a part-time mother, and puts her in contrast to DC’s premier heroes: the Justice League.