Lesson Four
Inequity and Discrimination
Have you tried not being a mutant?
The comic book industry often addresses a number of pressing political and social issues in its narratives over the years, including drug and alcohol abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia, gun control, poverty and environmental devastation. This lesson will cover discrimination and inequity in-world as well as in the comic industry overall.
Perhaps the biggest discrimination in the comics, certainly a well-known one, is the mutant hate occurring in the Marvel franchises, most notably the X-Men titles. Ever since the X-Men comics came out, it became obvious that mutants and hate towards them were a metaphor for LGBT+ community and other civil injustices that still plague our society today.
One of the peaks of mutant hate (in the movies as well as comics) was the Mutant Registration Act. Registration of mutants was first mentioned in Uncanny X-Men #141 (1981), where Moira McTaggert suggests that Senator Robert Kelly deems the registration of mutants as a necessity. This is confirmed in Uncanny X-Men #181 (1984), where they mention it by name, Mutant Affairs Control Act, when they show Kelly discussing the bill with a colleague. In Uncanny X-Men #184 (1984) the Act was introduced to Congress by Kelly. Later, they say that if it is accepted as a law, it would not be able to be struck down by the Supreme Court.
When Mutant Registration Act was eventually passed, it did not have an immediate impact on the plots of Marvel's comic series, but it was referenced in various titled, looming in the background as a threat. It also motivated the forming of new superhero teams, such as X-Factor by Jean Grey and Scott Summers (Cyclops).
The Act became important later, most
notably in Uncanny X-Men #199 (1985). In the issue, a government agent Val
Cooper and a mutant terrorist, Mystique, form Freedom Force, a government-sanctioned
superhero team, which mostly comprised of former members of the Brotherhood of
Evil Mutants. They sought to enforce the Act by arresting unregistered mutants,
like members of the X-Men and New Mutants. However, after a disastrous Freedom
Force mission in Iraq, the team was disbanded and the Mutant Registration Act
stopped appearing prominently in Marvel stories. It also helped that the writer
who developed the Act as a sub-plot no longer wrote X-Men stories.
In the X-Men movie (2000) the Mutant Registration Act was, once again, proposed to Congress by Senator Robert Kelly. He advocated for all mutants, no matter if they were superheroes or just ordinary citizens, to be identified in an official census, which documented their names, numbers, abilities and whereabouts. In the beginning of the X-Men, we saw Jean Grey and Kelly debate about the act on opposing sides. Kelly's promotion of the act led Magneto to single him out, ordering Toad and Sabretooth to capture him. They forcibly changed his molecule structure to make him a mutant (in the hopes that if he, and other world leaders, would be mutants, they would not accept mutant controlling laws).
After Kelly died as a result of genetic manipulation, Mystique took his places and called off the Registration Act.
The idea of the Registration Act was briefly mentioned in X2: X-Men United (2003), when William Stryker planned a (thankfully botched) assassination of the President of United States, by using a teleporting mutant called Nightcrawler. Storm (one of X-Men members, and later their leader) theorized that this could be used as an excuse to reintroduce the Act to the Congress.
Going from the in-world problems to the comic industry at large, up until 2000s, there was barely any real diversity in comics, mostly because comic books from all publishers had to adhere to the criteria of Comics Code Authority (CCA) if they hoped to be published on the US market. CCA served as an alternative to government regulation and allowed the comic publishers to self-regulate the content of the comics. The code itself, which was a set of rules, updated through the years, imposed strict restrictions on the content of comic books to a ridiculous degree. If the content was approved, the comic book received a seal and permission to be publicly published.
The original Comic Code criteria were published in 1954 and following are some of the demands:
- Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.
- Policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.
- In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.
- No comic magazine shall use the words "horror" or "terror" in its title.
- All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.
- Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.
- Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, and werewolfism are prohibited.
- Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden.
- Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure.
- Illicit relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed /.../ as well as sexual abnormalities, are unacceptable.
- The treatment of love-romance stories shall emphasize the value of home and the sanctity of marriage.
While at first glance, some of these rules might sound smart and not such a big deal, they basically prevented the introduction of LGBT+ characters and characters of a different race than Caucasian. LGBT+ characters were put under "sexual abnormalities" and thus were not able to be featured in comics until 1989, when the revision of the code dropped any demands that were against LGBT+ characters. This prompted a surge of characters coming out as either bisexual, lesbian or gay. Most notable character is Jean-Paul Beaubier, known also as Northstar, who came out as gay almost two decades after his introduction.
In 2006, a new version of Kate Kane, codename Batwoman, was introduced as an openly gay woman. While allusions existed since 1940s, in 2016, it was confirmed that Wonder Woman dated women before leaving her island.
The most impactful coming out, however, was that of Robert Drake, aka Iceman, in X-Men comics. Iceman was one of the Original Five (with Jean Grey, Cyclops, Beast and Angel) and was shown dating women in the past issues. A lot of people said that Iceman's coming out was just another Marvel's diversity push for more sales with the younger generation, although that was never admitted by the company.
People of color did not fare well in the early days of CCA either. In fact, in 1950s, there was a battle between CCA and Entertaining Comics editor William Gaines about the portrayal of a black man in a position of authority.
The story was called Judgment Day and it
depicted a human astronaut, a representative of the Galactic Republic, visiting
the planet Cybrinia inhabited by robots. He finds the robots divided into
functionally identical orange and blue races, one of which has fewer rights and
privileges than the other. The astronaut decides that due to the robots'
bigotry, the Galactic Republic should not admit the planet. In the final panel,
he removes his helmet, revealing himself to be a black man.
CCA rejected the original story and objected to it on the grounds of "the central character being black". It feared that if the comics feature a main non-white main character, the youth reading the comics would be corrupted.
The late 1960s and 1970s gave rise to a lot of
prominent superheroes of color. One of the most notable ones is Storm, who
first appears in 1975 issue Giant-Size X-Men #1 and later joins the team. She
has had a strong presence in the issues onwards, even some solo ones, where she
took over the X-Men or led a team of her own.
Despite the comic industry's leaps in the area of LGBT+ characters and characters of color, characters with disabilities are few in number. Many people in the world suffer from various disabilities, physical and mental, struggling to live with them on a day-to-day basis. Heroes are meant to represent society, its values and its peoples. When it comes to diverse representation, comic industry has slowly started increasing the diversity of hero characterization from gender, race and sexuality to reflect the modern attitudes. However, people with disabilities are often left behind.
When you think of disabled superheroes, three might come to your mind: Charles Xavier or Professor X, the leader of the X-Men, Matt Murdock or Daredevil and Barbara Gordon or Oracle. Despite them being clearly disabled, two in wheelchair and one blind, two of the characters have powers that overcome them, in a way. Professor X has telepathic and psionic abilities, which give him an ability to float, or in some cases, even stand and freely move, while Daredevil "sees" more than a regular human does with his radioactively mutated "vision". There are also other minor disabled characters, such as Echo (also Native American) and Misty Knight, as well as Hawkeye. The latter is deaf in the comics, but does not retain his disabilities in the movies.
One superhero that does not fit the mold is Barbara Gordon. She, in fact, has no superpowers at all. She debuted as Batgirl in 1967 and was shot by Joker in 1988, leaving her legs paralyzed. A year later, Barbara was relaunched as Oracle, computer expert, information broker, tactical leader of various superhero teams and an integral part of their functioning. Barbara's portrayal in the comics can push readers to "reimagine disability" as a common human experience and work to be more inclusive of people with disabilities. Barbara is not marginalized or defined by her disability by those around her, and because of this, she is a full participant in her world.
The comic industry needs to remember that disabilities
need to be represented realistically, with great diversity, and with images and
writing that challenge our perceptions of how we construct them.