Comments on: Black History Month ‘09 #17: Still Dreaming

By: ewh84

ewh84 — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:03:26 +0000

When I was a kid I loved DC comics, such as All Star Comics, Justice League of America, Green Lantern, Black Lightning, Mister Miracle, but Batman and the Legion of Super Heroes were my favorites. If I remember correctly, Marvel was a bunch of bad asses dukeing it out, while DC had quirky little stories,with bizarre concepts that actually pulled me in. I remember seeing Luke Cage and being slightly embarrassed; mostly because of the exzagerated hip jargon. Marvel was about diversity, but their characters were incredibly stereotypical.

DC wasn’t big on diversity, maybe the Legion counts but it was about acceptance, rather then segregation.
I was reading about things that were new to me; bogus science that at the time felt futuristic and made me want to learn more. Thanks to DC comics I was two reading levels above my peers mostly because their books made want to do research, and I had a wider vocab.

Over at Marvel I loved Falcon and Black Panther , Shang Chi, X-Men, and Iron Fist and his supporting cast, and Thor.
Falcon was angry; I knew about that; at the time the Panther was involved with the inner city; I knew all about that. Iron Fist was in a relationship with a black woman; that was new to me. During the time I was reading the X-men (Claremont and Byrne ) it was high adventure and they weren’t hiding from no one. Thor tapped into another love of mine mythology.

I had a strong family system and I was highly involved in my church and community, and I had a fair amount of friends. You’re right, Marvel was about real world (relatively speaking) but when I read comics I did want to see people who looked like me, but I was also attracted to concepts that was new and different to me, and that wasn’t Marvel Comics

By: Vincent Murphy

Vincent Murphy — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:17:24 +0000

Kevin T, I know that. But there’s still no way to tell the difference between a rocket accident and a mutant, is there? To the general Marvel public, Mr Fantastic should be just as reviled as Magneto, because there’s no difference between the two, outwardly (and likely not a lot of difference DNA wise).

Why does the Marvel public love the Thing, but hate Kitty Pryde? It makes no sense.

By: e360

e360 — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:37:40 +0000

And of course just like so many enemies of the X-Men, the bigots out to get gays and other victims of discrimination have giant killer robots and cyborgs to commit mass murder for them.

By: Kevin T

Kevin T — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 06:14:08 +0000

Vincent, the key distinction is that mutants are a new race/evolutionary step/etc… The Fantastic Four were a freak accident, as were many other Marvel heroes. Thor is a relic of a bygone era, not an example of what is to come. The X-Men were proof positive that your genes could be as relevant as Cro-Magnon Man’s within a few generations.

They’re fear of white folks becoming the minority in America, or of gays mainstreaming. Those are the buttons they push.

Nobody is terrified that their cultural identity is going to be supplanted by people in experimental rockets.

By: Vincent Murphy

Vincent Murphy — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:56:25 +0000

“The X-Men and other mutants are hated and feared. Many of their heroes are outlaws. ”

To me, that’s the biggest fault of the Marvel Universe: why are mutants (and Spider-man) hated, while the Fantastic 4 and others are not: do all non-mutant humans in the Marvel Universe have the ability to instantly know if someone is a mutant, so that they know who to hate?

It always annoyed me that mutant haters weren’t running the Fantastic 4 and Thor outta town.

By: Name

Name — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:09:45 +0000

I always though of DC being more interested in social justice. Look at half of Alan Moore’s work, Seven Miles a Second, Hellblazer, Animal Man, Suicide Squad and countless others. It’s a bit more of a comparatively recent trend though.