Monday, August 3, 2015

Batman editor looking into Damian

A fan asked why Damian takes after Bruce rather than being portrayed as biracial and the editor promised to look into it. How the bat familys' diverse background has been written has been somewhat uneven in the past.


Kate Kane: Except for perhaps the last few arcs of her series Kate's sexuality and religious background have been written respectfully.

Bruce Wayne: To be fair the original plan wasn't to make Bruce and Kate cousins through his mothers' side. But it already has been revealed and since then nothing of his mothers' faith has been mentioned. While it's possible Bruce doesn't practice (some stories have had him give up all religion) it would be nice to see him respect the traditions even if it's only around the holidays.

Dick Grayson: Many don't know this but Dick is Romani. Or at least he has been since Devin Grayson wrote the character. While it's a nice addition Devin did tend to write stereotypes. Hopefully it will be written better since Dicks' second Secret Origins issue confirmed he's still Romani.

Cassandra Cain: It makes sense for Cass not to be too focus on her background since she grew up thinking she was "adopted" by David Cain. Later on she finds out he is indeed her birth father and searches for her mother. Unfortunately her Asian side is given negative attention when DC decided to turn her into a villain. We'll see how this is written in the relaunch.


Unconfirmed/Speculation


Tim Drake: Originally Chuck Dixon wanted to reveal that Tim was Jewish. However this idea never saw print.

Jason Todd: There are some fan ideas based on what happened in comics and artwork. 1.) Jason is part Asian. This concept came from Death in the Family since the dymanic duo have no problem with Lady Shiva being a potential mother suspect. This led many to believe Jason at least looks Asian and the fact we never received 100% confirmation that Haywood was his birth mother. 2.) Jason is either part Hispanic or Native America. Both are based purely on interpretations of the artwork on his father Willis during RHATO #0.

6 comments:

  1. This might be insensitive and dumb, but does it matter? In the end the characters aren't being written any differently to an average american person.

    Personally I don' think any character should be defined by his/her looks but rather his/her actions.

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  2. It matters to a lot of people that want to see themselves represented. For the characters themselves? It depends on your POV. I think Batwoman for example did a pretty good job at have her sexuality be part of her character but not being defining it.

    Cassandra had no reason to care about either of her parents background which is why her suddenly embracing her Asian side (while evil no less) was very jarring. Bruce on the other hand is pretty obsessed with his parents.

    Personally I find most additions to character stories pretty fascinating. Agreed but I've always been interested in family trees. Part of my love for history.

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  3. Is still odd, I'm mexican and every single mexican character I've seen it doesn't has nothing to do with the reality of living on Mexico, at some points it even feels somewhat insulting to be honest. Then again, I see fictional characters as sort of motivation to become a better person. Different strokes I guess.

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  4. Unfortunately a lot of media has trouble understanding how to write diverse characters. Fictional characters are motivating, before Princess Leia I never saw a strong female character. It was mind blowing and even today I'm surprised with how women are being portrayed. One of my favorite series was taken over by some popular writers and nearly all their female characters were sexist yet no one called them on it.

    It didn't help that they change one of their personalities to the point she became so annoying that I literally cringed when she appeared. No matter what race, gender, religion I just want the characters to be treated with respect.

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  5. I'm 100% with you on that, no matter what, creators must treat characters with respect.

    Sadly, it has becoming increasingly common for writers to throw characters under the metaphorical bus in a misguided attempt to seem progressive, ignoring years (sometimes decades) of solid characterization. And the worst thing is that some people actually believe that is the correct action.

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  6. It seems that because some writers are popular some believe they can do no wrong. For me character should always come first even above the plot. The problem, at least lately, seems to be many writers having the plot dictate a character. The story needs someone to do these actions even if it doesn't fit the character.

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