Native Americans in Comic Books

This blog entry is an attempt to recreate an essay I wrote in College for my sociology course about Native Cultures. Since the teacher was herself Native American, we ended up focusing a lot of the class on the treatment of native cultures in America. And I of course being a giant geek had to find some way to incorporate comic books into the class, as I managed to do with nearly every course I took in college.

The simple truth is there are quite a few Native American super heroes and comic books. And while many ethnicities don’t feel the need to emphasis the characters cultural background, Native American super heroes are always depicted in some sort of ceremonial garb and even names that would be embarrassing to see in the credits for Dances With Wolves. They make sure their Native American heritage is broadcast front and center for all to see.

My problem is not that there are comic book characters that are proud of their Native American heritage. My problem is that the displaying of said heritage is so forced. An obvious example of this is the character of Forge from the X-Men. Forge is a mutant whose special mutant ability is that he is a technical genius. Basically he can make any possible machine he can imagine. As such he is responsible for outfitting the X-Men with much of their technological gadgets. He also happens to be a Native American. And we know this because he decorates a typical blue and yellow X-Men uniform with fringe and tassels straight out of an old timey western. He, along with being a mutant, is also a Shaman. In fact it seems like every super hero of Native American heritage is a shaman or medicine man of some type.

The X-Men are actually the worst offenders when it comes to exploiting Native Americans. They have had two characters by the name of Warpath (first John Proudstar and then his brother James) and then the character of Moonstone from the New Mutants. While one would think it is a good thing for a super hero group to feature so many Native Americans, the problem is that they basically scream they are Native Americans. Their costumes and codenames all have a hint of tribal culture to it.

But Marvel is not the only offender. There is of course the famous character from the DC cartoon show Challenge of the Super Friends, Apache Chief. The characters ability is to change size so his super hero name makes no sense other than to simply show that he is a Native American. Also the character’s costume looks like he should be an extra on Bonanza. Meaning he is not showing off true Native American cultural heritage but more what Hollywood stereotypically perceives to be Native American culture.

While costumes are one thing, even the powers given to most Native American super heroes seem to be stereotypical. As I mentioned with Forge, even though his main power is mechanical prowess, the writers felt they had to give him a shamanistic role. And that is where many Native American super heroes seem to lie on the super power spectrum. All their powers are in some way connected to nature and the earth. Warpath is a skilled tracker with animal like senses. Rainmaker of the super team Gen 13 can control the weather. Danielle Moonstar of the New Mutants is connected to people’s souls. All characters with a connection to the earth, a stereotypical Native American trait.

Diversity in comics is good. But diversity based on ignorance is not true diversity. Trying to depict characters as what uneducated people perceive them to be does nothing. To truly show diversity in a book, the writer should instead try to expose the writer to something they may be unaware of about a culture they would otherwise be ignorant of.

The Impossibility of Batman

As a comic book fan, I would love to be a super hero. It’s safe to say most fans are right there with me. And when people discuss becoming a super hero it always seems to me that the hero most people say is the most possible is Batman. Well, as someone who has read many Batman comics, seen all the Batman movies, been a fan of the many Batman TV shows, and even played several of the Batman video games, I have to say Batman is probably one of the least likely heroes to ever exist. Recently I bought and played the video game Batman: Arkham Origins. Truly the Arkham games have come closest to replicating the mechanics and gadgets of what someone like Batman would actually be like. The rapid fight mechanics, the various gadgets, the solving riddles and puzzles, all of that is what I imagine life like the Dark Knight is like. But as I play the game I come to realize, none of this is possible for a normal human to do.

One of the main mechanics of the game is you get around Gotham City using your trusty bat grappling hook. Of all the gadgets in your utility belt, this is the one you’ll end up using the most. Not only does it help you ascend to the rooftops, it is also used to grab far off items, pull down hard to reach air grates and portholes, pull far off enemies off of their feet, and also pull you along on a raft made of glue (yeah, you make rafts using glue bombs). Truth be told though, if you actually used the grapple in real life as much as you do in the game, your arm would rip right out of your socket. The grapple doesn’t merely lift you off the ground; it violently pulls you through the sky. The entire force needed to lift a full-grown man in a heavily armored bat suit is distributed into your arm. True, Batman is not the only hero who gets around by swinging on a rope. Spider-Man and Daredevil are also fans of the swing. But both of them are super human so you can believe they have superior muscle structure that can take that kind of activity. Batman is just a man.

The entire fact that Batman is just a man is the core to the argument that anyone can be Batman. But when you look at Bruce Wayne, that’s not true.  Bruce Wayne, besides being a billionaire (which is hard enough to achieve) was already an intelligent child and gifted athlete. The building blocks are already there for Bruce to become someone amazing. Had his parents not been killed, Bruce Wayne would still become an amazing individual, surpassing his peers. He just would do it in some field other than heroics. The odds of finding an intellectually gifted, genetically athletic, billionaire heir, who then undergoes a personal tragedy, seems pretty long. Wanting to fight crime just isn’t enough. I keep thinking of the line in the movie Rudy “I wish I could put your heart in some of my players’ bodies.” That line sums up great what is wrong with just wanting to be Batman. You need to be Bruce Wayne first.

And the sad truth is, humans are not good at dealing with tragedy. Most people when confronted with a traumatic life event end up either lashing out inappropriately or shutting down completely. The ability to take all the rage and anger felt by a young Bruce Wayne and focusing it into such a productive and dedicated one-man war on crime is hard to believe. Most likely a real world Batman would go out to fight crime and end up crying in a fetal position as soon as he remembered his parents were dead. Or the even more likely situation is that Alfred would have gotten little Bruce to a really good grief counselor as soon as the Waynes were in the ground and kept Master Bruce doped to the gills on Xanax for the rest of his life.

Sadly the one part of Batman that does seem believable is a multibillionaire extorting funds from his company for his own personal use. We see that sort of behavior all the time in the real world. Unfortunately when such individuals are caught, it’s never crime-fighting endeavors they have devoted their stolen money to. It’s usually hookers and blow. The few times they do devote money to worthy causes it is usually just as a way to avoid paying taxes or as an act of contrition for some scandalous act they performed in their personal life. Honestly, if the people on Wall Street were using their bailout money to fight crime, Occupy Wall Street never would have happened.

The sad truth is that the character of Bruce Wayne is alive and well in our society. That image of the spoiled playboy who parties too hard is a common occurrence in the tabloids. The sad irony is that that character is a fiction portrayed by Batman in order to mask his crusade. A fictional character acting fictional. What the world really needs is more Batmen and fewer Bruce Waynes.

Adjusting the Timeline

I was never a good student when it came to history. I loved English class, Art class, even math had a certain appeal to me. But history? I just couldn’t get into it. I think I just had lousy teachers because as an adult I find myself very interested in history. It is a wonderful source for inspiration for my writing. But I never took serious classes about it. So basically my understanding of the past, like my understanding of almost everything, mostly comes from comic books. Many of my favorite characters are tied to events in history. Which presents a bit of a problem because comic book characters like most fictional characters are supposed to be immortal. So what happens when it is no longer believable for a character to have witnessed an event in history?

What exactly do I mean? Okay, I’ll give you an example. The Fantastic Four were initially greatly tied into the Space Race. When they first debuted, part of their origin was tied into the fact that America wanted to beat the Russians to space. Well the Fantastic Four debuted and the space race pretty much ended in 1969 (after a man walks on the moon, there’s not much more you can do to top that). So roughly 40-50 years have passed since both these events occurred. Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) is supposed to be in his mid-thirties at the oldest. So sadly we have to remove the Fantastic Four’s role in history if we wish them to remain the age they are.

Now the Fantastic Four can still work as characters without having participated in the space race. Mankind will always have an interest in space and as long as we are reaching for the stars, stories about characters who do likewise will still be relevant. But how will a character who was forged in a war that is long since past still be relevant today? I am speaking of Frank Castle, The Punisher. The Punisher is such a product of the Vietnam War it is hard to imagine him existing without such a conflict. The Punisher, long before mobsters murdered his family, was forged in the crucible of the jungles of Vietnam. He was grizzled and tough long before he ever put on a skull shirt and started a war of his own. He is not like Batman, training to avenge his murdered. Frank Castle was already trained to kill, he was just looking for a new target. Granted, America has been involved in armed conflicts since Vietnam. American troops are stationed all around the world in a number of different conflicts. But there is something about the Vietnam war that seems to inspire images of the brutal and damaged American soldier prone to fits of violence. It is hard to imagine a Punisher who had not served in that conflict but eventually the character will simply be too old to have served.

Another character linked to the events of a war is Magneto. As depicted so perfectly in Bryan Singer’s big screen adaptation, Magneto is a Holocaust survivor. His family was Jewish and he survived the concentration camps while the rest of them did not. This has done much to inform the characters strong feelings about the plight of mutants. He sees a similar atrocity occurring to mutants as occurred to the Jews. Not only does it justify his brutal actions, it gives him a great deal of sympathy from the audience when he threatens humans. He’s seen the worst that humanity can do. But as I’ve said, while fiction characters are immortal, time marches on. We will reach a point where it will be impossible to believe that Magneto had been alive during World War II. Even now in the comics writers are making excuses like “Mutants age slower than humans” to give Magneto some vitality and make him a threatening character. But even with that excuse it only buys so much time and throws a huge wrench into the X-Men universe because now ALL mutants have to age slower than humans. This takes away some of the uniqueness of a character like Wolverine, whose healing factor is supposed to slow his aging. If all mutants age slowly, then Wolverine is just a guy who can’t cut himself shaving.

There are a lot clever cheats used in fiction to get around a character forged in one time living in another. Captain America was frozen in ice so he can still be the man from the forties living in modern time. Most characters simply adapt to the new world they are in, leaving behind the character traits of the time of their creation and becoming to avatars for the world they currently inhabit. Instead of battling the social ills of the past, they fight the social ills of the present. And the majority of characters can do this with ease. But that works for characters whose identity are not linked to a particular time. Captain America must always be a person who was frozen and woke up. There is no way he could have first been created in modern times. He is a product of World War II patriotism and his origin must always remain there. Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, they can all adapt to the times no matter how long their stories are published.  

Hangin’ With The Police

Of all the different types of television programs, one of the most popular types is the procedural crime drama. I’ve noticed a trend in these TV shows and that it seems to be perfectly okay for untrained civilians to hang out in police precincts and accompany the police in whatever investigation they are involved with. While I am familiar with the concept of the police ride along, a practice where civilians (usually writers or other individuals doing research) accompany an officer on a general day of work, I doubt such a practice can be considered open ended with an all access pass.

The show that most inspired this blog entry is ABC’s Castle, starring Nathan Fillion (Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly). He plays Richard Castle, an eccentric mystery novelist, who is inspired to base his latest book (series of books as the show progresses) on an actual police officer, Detective Kate Beckett, played by the gorgeous Stana Katic. While initially seen as a burden, Castle actually becomes a valuable part of Detective Beckett’s team, often supplying the last vital piece of information that solves the case. While the show explains Castle’s presence by claiming he is a celebrity with many connections (specifically the mayor of New York) one would assume there would be some restraints placed on his access to police records. There are scenes in this show where Castle, a complete civilian, is not only walking through crime scenes but also handling (or as police would say, contaminating) evidence. While not a police office, he acts as if he has the same authority as any man with a badge. And rather than getting in the way of the police, the show is written with Castle’s unofficial position actually being a benefit to the investigation.

But the character of Richard Castle is by no means unique on Television. I daresay he is but one of MANY consultants who seem to be extended the same privileges as an actual police officer to meet out justice. The Mentalist, Psych, Elementary, Monk, Bones, all are shows that have a non-cop interfering and often times solving crimes alongside the police, with no objection to police procedure being ignored. The Mentalist is a not a cop, he’s a con artist, who uses his amazing powers of observation to mimic psychic ability. Psych does the same, albeit in a more humorous manner. Monk WAS a cop but left the force after the death of his wife. He still is brought in by the police to consult on difficult cases, which he is able to solve despite his many personality disorders. Elementary is a modern update of Sherlock Holmes, who although famous for being a detective, has no license as such. Bones is about a doctor brought in by the FBI to examine remains, but ends up going far beyond simply examining remains.

My simple point is that none of those people are police officers. They are doctors or psychics or just really really smart, but not a trained officer of the law. Police officers have to undergo training and learn specific procedures for entering a crime scene. They have to read a person their rights before they bring them into custody. They learn what is an acceptable and unacceptable level of force for apprehending a suspect. They also have been given permission to deal out such force. Ordinary citizens cannot tackle a person to the ground and handcuff them without some form of reprimand (don’t believe me? Try it). And that is what all the above individuals are. They are ordinary citizens. Despite their expertise or unique ability, they are not law enforcement officers, no matter how much their contribution assists the police.

Police are responsible for keeping order in our society. We trust in their exclusive ranks to be a special breed. To give police privileges to nonpolice officers is an invitation to chaos.