![]() ![]() There is still far less variety than there is in real life, though. I’m thrilled that they’re bringing back Jaime Reyes and featuring Mr. They’ve been making much out of the fact that they’re bringing in more characters of various colors. How do you think their representation of race stacks up to their representation of genders? There’s Silver Samurai and Radioactive Man and The Mandarin for Marvel, but they’re all villains. ![]() Men want to read about women, too.Įvan: How well do you feel the comic industry handles diversity as a whole? As an Asian I’m constantly on the lookout for characters I can identify with, but they’re few and far between. Plus, the idea that writing about women equals marketing only to women is just silly. With a greater variety of females to be peoples’ favorites, DC will attract a broader readership and sell more books. If I didn’t particularly like that male character, well, there wouldn’t be any other males for me to choose from, would there? Even though there are some strong, well-written female characters in the DCU, they don’t always appeal to me personally. Imagine if it were all women and only one man. ![]() But imagine if the gender ratio of the Justice League were reversed. Even if I don’t like, say, Aquaman or Superman, I can read about other characters I like, such as Batman. There are a lot of males, so coming across a favorite male protagonist in comics is easy. Similarly, in comics I have my favorites. One of them was my favorite – I adored her and kept watching in part just to see more of her. Let me put it this way: when I watched Sailor Moon, there were a good ten female leads. If DC wants to expand its fanbase to include more women, they will need to write more females that women want to read. In real life, of course, the ratio is very close to 50/50, and I think that’s a good target to shoot for. However, if DC wants to appeal to a broader range of people, they will need to bring in a broader range of characters. I’ve certainly watched and enjoyed female-heavy shows such as Sailor Moon, and shows with a majority male cast from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers to Star Trek have enjoyed commercial success. SDB: Well, I suppose that depends on your point of view. How would you respond to that? What would be a more ideal ratio? If DC were to bring these existing characters more prominently into the spotlight, it would be easy to make this ratio a little less extreme.Įvan: Some might argue that the fact that 1/4 of the heroes are female is fairly good. On the other hand, there are many existing female characters that aren’t being used or are being underused. ![]() As you can see, about a quarter of the DC universe lead characters are female – which means that the other 75% are male. Out of 28 single character titles, six were women. She went through and counted, and out of 98 prominent figures on the covers, 27 were women. But let me give you some statistics presented by another women at one of the panels. SDB: The female characters DC has are definitely strong. The main questions were simple: “Where are the women?” in response to the fact that there was not a single solo title cover featuring a woman in the entire Justice League line-up (though I believe Wonder Woman is supposed to be included), “Are you committed to hiring more women?” in response to the fact that the panels I attended were entirely male with only two exceptions, and one addressed to the room asking whether people there would buy and read a comic written about a strong, intelligent female protagonist.Įvan: Do you believe that DC has a large number of strong female characters? The audience, while receptive initially, eventually seemed to grow angry that I was asking these questions. SDB : I don’t know that I would say that I ‘made a scene.’ I attended several of the DC Comics panels and asked questions about what I saw as a lack of female presence, both in comic books and on the panels. Could you explain to us in a few short sentences what exactly went down? She responded with more thoroughness and thoughtfulness than even I expected, so I asked as many questions as I could before our time was up.Įvan: You made quite a scene at this year’s Comic-Con. While she was there she appeared at every DC panel and asked questions which were met with responses ranging from indifference to open hostility. Gotham’s Batgirl may have rid the city streets of crime, but San Diego’s fights to ask why there aren’t more women in comics. Yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity to interview “The Batgirl of San Diego,” a woman who was at this year’s SDCC dressed as Stephanie Brown’s alter-ego. ![]()
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