Then the second Green Lantern appeared in 1959, his name was Hal Jordan, he is the most famous.
Both superheroes had the same powers, and used the same "power ring". I know you are wondering:
Why am I writing about Green Lantern?
I'm writing about Green Lantern because these ones, like the others superheroes of DC comic company
( superman, batman, flash, etc) Green Lantern was a white person.
The comic world was not so foreign to the fight for black equality, in 1960's the first black superhero appeared, he was Black Panther (by marvel). Then in 1970's lots of afroamerican characters proliferate .
When DC comics saw this, they also wanted to create a black superhero, because they were seen like a discriminative company, and then they launched their first afroamerican superhero.
Their first black superhero was a new version of Green Lantern, his name was John Stewart.
This topic shows us the fight against segregation in a different aspect.
In the picture we can see all Green Lanterns, including John Stewart.
Both superheroes had the same powers, and used the same "power ring". I know you are wondering:
Why am I writing about Green Lantern?
I'm writing about Green Lantern because these ones, like the others superheroes of DC comic company
( superman, batman, flash, etc) Green Lantern was a white person.
The comic world was not so foreign to the fight for black equality, in 1960's the first black superhero appeared, he was Black Panther (by marvel). Then in 1970's lots of afroamerican characters proliferate .
When DC comics saw this, they also wanted to create a black superhero, because they were seen like a discriminative company, and then they launched their first afroamerican superhero.
Their first black superhero was a new version of Green Lantern, his name was John Stewart.
This topic shows us the fight against segregation in a different aspect.
In the picture we can see all Green Lanterns, including John Stewart.
It's really interesting how you used a comic book's character to analize how the perceptions of which race is more "valuable" than the others have been changing. You are completely right, and honestly I hadn't noticed before, but most of the original superheroes always were whites. It's great to see that nowadays black people are allowed to be important in fiction as well as in the real world.
ReplyDeleteI think the comic world use this like a method to attract more people to buy their comics, a few days ago they anounce a new version of green lantern and they make Alan Scott (The original green lantern) GAY, or maybe they only are including minorities to show us the importance of being tolerant, who knows?
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ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting how the Comic Industry in the United State have always told story about the important events and topics in the U.S. history in their comics. For example the creation of Captain American in the World War II. But sadly, all this is just used as a selling point by the Comic Industry although they could have use it to "educate" people and teach them how to be more tolerant in some topics.
ReplyDeleteI really like your post, actually, I'm a big fan of comics and from my point of view comics give us a universe where all you could imagine can be posible. : )
ReplyDeleteDespite, this initiative started because of an eternal competition between DC and Marvel comics, I appreciate the respect to diversity in any aspect.