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Stereotypes in comic books
superhero
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if there's already a thread like this sorry. i couldn't find it.

wonder if you guys can help me? i'm writing a paper about stereotypes in the media in comic books. I already written some about Luke Cage and how Native American characters seem to have powers that relate to their heritage. is there any minor or major characters i'm missing?

Posted on: 3 04 07 03:05 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
Fanboy Extraordinaire
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How about every Oriental character being a 50th degree black belt in every martial art there is? I've also seen classic comics from the 1940's (Captain America and Wonder Woman for example) portraying African-Americans as mammies, porters and butlers who all talk like the Kingfish. Do a little research and I'm sure you'll find them.

Posted on: 3 04 07 03:20 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
superhero
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Er.... how about all mainstream heroes?
All men appear to be built like a body builders, but most women are like playboy pinups, which begs the question how do they run around all day fighting crime without getting knackered!
The fat ones are always stupid, e.g the blob,shape,slab.
The smart ones are skinny or not so physical.
You can't die.
Brothers and sisters,mother and fathers can appear at any time although there has been no mention of them before.
The easy cop out for a super hero name is ... (power) = girl,boy,woman,man.
The uglier you are relates to the amount of power you have or how evil you are, lets face it apocalypse really isn't a looker & he's seriously evil.
The list could go on......

Posted on: 3 04 07 03:39 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
There was a Adult Swim cartoon called Minoriteam that spoofed all comic cliches. It was great.

Posted on: 3 04 07 04:12 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
superhero
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- Black guys in comics tend to have electricity-based powers (Coldcast, Jakeem Thunder, Black Lightning, Static, etc.), causing their eyes to crackle with electricity when they get mad (which seems to happen quite a bit with black guys in comics...)

- Pyrokinetics almost always have red hair and a temper and often have a history of mental trauma that either caused or was the result of the outbreak of their powers, as in the case of Liz Sherman (BPRD), Magma (X-men), Lee Jackson (Rising Stars), Rusty Collins/Firefist (X-Men).

- Gay men and/or transvestites in comics have are usually either shape-shifters or controllers of light or shadow. Examples of the former include Josiah Power (Power Company), Flatman (Great Lakes Champions), Anole (New Mutants), Hulkling (Young Avengers), Tasmanian Devil (JLI), Vivisector, Phat and Bloke (X-Statix). Examples of the latter include Obsidian (JSA), Sanctuary (Rising Stars), and Northstar.

There are plenty of other stereotypes, but I can't think of them right now.

Posted on: 3 04 07 08:45 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
superhero
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In superhero comics all recurring female cop characters are lesbians. (Maggie Sawyer, Renee Montoya.) And their lovers are all costumed vigilantes.

Posted on: 3 04 07 11:11 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
Dazed and Confused... mostly Confused
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Read up on the creator of Wonder Woman. The man was a freak and he originally created her to be a serious man hater. BUT in the 50's the culture wasn't about to have a woman do anything more than lick the dirt a man walked on. So for the most part she was basically the secretary for the Justice League.

Telepath's/Psychic's all seem to do alot of fighting in an astral realm.

If you're strong you're huge or possibly disfigured.

In some ways you can actually make a comparison between Charles Xavier and MLK, as well as, Magneto to Malcolm X. Adding in the idea of human vs mutant reflects black vs white. Dig deep young jedi, there's tons o' crap there.

Posted on: 4 04 07 04:35 am
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
Criminal Mastermind
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Unless it's in the realm of online fan-comics, most real mainstream comics that feature characters that have growth powers don't end up naked when they metamorphasize. Some of them have the handy "unstable molicule" outfits to preserve their modesty, but they are always featured wearing these clothes and when they're not they change and somehow - to use the originators for example - the Hulk and She-Hulk always manage to keep bits of clothes on covering up their naughty bits. You never see characters like Giant Man or Elasti-Girl growing too big for their regular clothes either. Or the Atom shrinking too small for his clothes.

Posted on: 4 04 07 07:33 am
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
Guardian of the Great White North (Webmaster)
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Canadians in comic books, with the exception of Wolverine, are hockey loving lumber jacking Eskimo's.

Puck, Captain Canuck.... for the love of God, eh! if you are from Canada you need to be a Indian or a idiot or both.

Posted on: 4 04 07 08:38 am
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
superhero
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Quote:

darth_paul wrote:
Unless it's in the realm of online fan-comics, most real mainstream comics that feature characters that have growth powers don't end up naked when they metamorphasize. Some of them have the handy "unstable molicule" outfits to preserve their modesty, but they are always featured wearing these clothes and when they're not they change and somehow - to use the originators for example - the Hulk and She-Hulk always manage to keep bits of clothes on covering up their naughty bits. You never see characters like Giant Man or Elasti-Girl growing too big for their regular clothes either. Or the Atom shrinking too small for his clothes.


Not true. Ultimate Giant Man has ended up naked twice because of his powers, Atom Smasher's clothes ripped when he grew in size to stop on an OMAC. Stature's clothes were ripped the first time she grew. J2 ended up naked the first time his powers manifested. Of course, these are all recent examples.

More stereotypes:

- Career miltary guys are unstable and sadistic (Major Force, Americommando, Warhawk, Shaggy Man, Punisher, Typeface, Bombshell)

- Male speedsters are either clowns (Flash, Impulse, Ray I, Speed) or A-holes (Quicksilver, Spin Doctor, Ray III, Blitzkrieg [DC])

- Female powerhouses are more often than not blonde (Supergirl, Wonder Girl II, Power Girl, Ultra Girl, Liberty Belle, Thundra). Non-blonde powerhouses tend to have something wrong with them (Inertia, She-Hulk, Grace Choi, Titania)

Posted on: 4 04 07 08:42 am
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
Kling on HM (WebMaster!)
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Quote:

Winterhawk wrote:
Canadians in comic books, with the exception of Wolverine, are hockey loving lumber jacking Eskimo's.

Puck, Captain Canuck.... for the love of God, eh! if you are from Canada you need to be a Indian or a idiot or both.




I thought the sterotype for ALL canadians, not just the superheroes, was that they are Hockey Loving lumber jacks... that live in Igloos... and say ABOOT instead of About... and...

But yeah... othre than that... I gots nothing. Uhm... if you green and live on land you are dumb. And if you are green and live underwater... you can breath underwater.

Posted on: 4 04 07 10:59 am
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
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Quote:

Gnostic85 wrote:
Quote:

darth_paul wrote:
Unless it's in the realm of online fan-comics, most real mainstream comics that feature characters that have growth powers don't end up naked when they metamorphasize. Some of them have the handy "unstable molicule" outfits to preserve their modesty, but they are always featured wearing these clothes and when they're not they change and somehow - to use the originators for example - the Hulk and She-Hulk always manage to keep bits of clothes on covering up their naughty bits. You never see characters like Giant Man or Elasti-Girl growing too big for their regular clothes either. Or the Atom shrinking too small for his clothes.


Not true. Ultimate Giant Man has ended up naked twice because of his powers, Atom Smasher's clothes ripped when he grew in size to stop on an OMAC. Stature's clothes were ripped the first time she grew. J2 ended up naked the first time his powers manifested. Of course, these are all recent examples.

More stereotypes:

- Career miltary guys are unstable and sadistic (Major Force, Americommando, Warhawk, Shaggy Man, Punisher, Typeface, Bombshell)

- Male speedsters are either clowns (Flash, Impulse, Ray I, Speed) or A-holes (Quicksilver, Spin Doctor, Ray III, Blitzkrieg [DC])

- Female powerhouses are more often than not blonde (Supergirl, Wonder Girl II, Power Girl, Ultra Girl, Liberty Belle, Thundra). Non-blonde powerhouses tend to have something wrong with them (Inertia, She-Hulk, Grace Choi, Titania)


O.k. How about this one: All aliens from another world know how to speak English.

Posted on: 4 04 07 02:55 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
Shaper of Worlds
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Quote:

Gnostic85 wrote:
- Black guys in comics tend to have electricity-based powers (Coldcast, Jakeem Thunder, Black Lightning, Static, etc.), causing their eyes to crackle with electricity when they get mad (which seems to happen quite a bit with black guys in comics...)


I have to disagree with this one. Not all Black heroes have electric based powers. What about Cage, Black Panther, Falcon, Triathalon, Rage, Misty Knight, etc..
The only stereotype that Blacks have in comics is that most of them are portrayed as lame or sidekicks [which covers the ones you mentioned]. How many blacks are major players in thier own series? Or have widely popular or top selling books? The only one I think of is Spawn [and because of his appearance, you can't even tell he's black].

And just for the record. damn near ever character with electric powers at some point or another are going to be shown with his/her eyes crackling .

Posted on: 4 04 07 10:58 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
superhero
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I think the electricity thing is somehow tied to our afros...

When I was in the Ethnic Studies Master's Program at S.F.State,I wrote a paper on Black/African American stereotypes in comicbooks. If you want to read it for ideas or reference, I can dig out a hardcopy,scan it and e-mail it to you... (no copying it...not that you would...). It covers the basic male and female characterizations of Blacks in U.S. pop-culture. For example: The Mammy- asexual, nurturer, non-threatening; Jezebel- permiscuous, coniving, mysterious; The Pick-A-Ninny- comic relief, stupid, lazy, worthless; Uncle Tom- loyal, disposible, strong, self-sacrificing; The Buck- strong, dangerous, criminal, savage and loves white women...there's more, but I don't want to ramble...

A line from a some movie sums it up pretty good:
"They like fried-chicken, but their d!cks are normal like ours."

Oh yeah, stereotypes are popular charaterizations because they are reality based, observations (often misconceptions)that are used by an external group to define another group. The dilemma is that definitions should ideally originate from within the group, but how can anyone outside the group fairly and accurately depict just representations of a group of which s/he is not a member? Can a comicbook created by a striaght, white male about a lesbian, black female ever be anything but stereotypical? I dunno...

Aside from all that, I pretty sure all that stuff they say about Canadians is true...eh? (don't get bend, I was joking...kinda).

Posted on: 4 04 07 11:15 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
superhero
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Quote:

Thayne_LuC wrote:
Read up on the creator of Wonder Woman. The man was a freak and he originally created her to be a serious man hater. BUT in the 50's the culture wasn't about to have a woman do anything more than lick the dirt a man walked on. So for the most part she was basically the secretary for the Justice League.


that dude was a total freak! i was watcing something this weekend about the history of comics and half that stuff was nothing but soft core bondage. and they say the 50's where american's innocent age.

Posted on: 9 04 07 10:55 am
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
Arch Nemesis
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I'm doing my part to stereotype my women at HM. I draw/ manip all of my female figures at 36B-C to try to get these guys away from a 42D that they think we should be...

Posted on: 9 04 07 09:20 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
I draw my girls with A cups sometimes.

Posted on: 9 04 07 09:54 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
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you mean all women don't have big boobies???? "Girls Gone Wild" lied to me!!!!

Posted on: 25 04 07 02:07 am
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
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I know your paper was most likely written long ago by now, but how about the fact that teen characters in comics act more like 8 year olds than teens?

How many guys here turned down sex when they were 14 because they weren't ready for it (like Tim Drake did fairly early in the Robin series).

Posted on: 8 06 07 02:54 pm
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Re: Stereotypes in comic books
deluded narcissist guru (Whateverator)
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Quote:

TangentRunner wrote:
I know your paper was most likely written long ago by now, but how about the fact that teen characters in comics act more like 8 year olds than teens?

How many guys here turned down sex when they were 14 because they weren't ready for it (like Tim Drake did fairly early in the Robin series).


I've been turning down Jr ever since we were teens together... I'm still not ready.

Posted on: 8 06 07 03:12 pm
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