The two superhero comics I chose to focus on this week were Totally Awesome Hulk Vol. 1: Cho Time and Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel: No Normal. The first told the story of Amadeus Cho, a new Korean-American incarnation of the hulk. The city I grew up in has a primarily Korean population so most of my friends and the people I spent a lot of time with were typically first or second generation Korean-American. As I was reading the comic, it was interesting to recognize little cultural elements I was exposed to in my youth being played out in a typical comic format. This is referring to small details that most people not of this cultural background would even take note of. I can imagine that it must be incredibly gratifying for someone who typically can’t see themselves in superhero worlds to finally have a unique connection like that. The second comic I read starred Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teen fangirl. The story essentially illustrates her journey of self-acceptance and figuring out her role in this world of super heroes. The story was kind of reminiscent of the classic Peter Parker/Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman idea with the young relatable quirky teen really just trying to do their best and help people while navigating the woes of being a youth in America. Except now it’s a female person of color, adding more flavor to that classic idea. In terms of diversity, it did a really good job of highlighting Kamala’s cultural background without exclusivity. Meaning that all kinds of readers can see themselves in her and enjoy the comic, not just those of her specific background. That is an incredibly hard balance to find, but they managed to do it here and hopefully that means they can do it more going forward.

The two D2L articles I read were It’s Time to Get Real About Racial Diversity in Comics and Keeping Score in the DC vs Marvel Diversity Arms Race. The main point of the first article is that while the increasing character diversity is good, diversity among the creators needs to increase as well. It discussed the issue of cultural appropriation and how if an individual tells the story of someone of a different cultural background to themselves it becomes immoral profit. I agree on the basic idea of what this article was saying, there were moments where the writer’s emotion got the better of their objectivity and ultimately took away from the credibility of the point they were trying to make. The bias was too evident which can be off-putting. The second article discussed the race for more diverse characters between Marvel and DC. I just enjoy this whole concept. While diversity, especially in the movies, still has long way to go, it’s fantastic that the rate at which they diversify has now become a competition. It shows a promising trend for the future.