What In The Hell Is Wrong With This Country?: September 2, 2022 Edition
In today's edition of "What in the Hell is Wrong With This Country?" we find ourselves looking at the recent actions of Warner Discovery-owned DC Comics. Why? Because the senior leadership brain trust over at DC Comics decided that the best way to "celebrate" National Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month was to reduce Latine and Hispanic culture to DC superheroes eating Latin American food on their "commemorative" comic covers.
Yes. You read that right. They went there.
In the year of someone's Lord, 2022, a major multimedia giant and comic book publisher said, "Let's celebrate Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month by havin' someone draw Green Lantern with a bodega bag full of tamales!" Because why try to create comic covers that are an homage to the contributions and perseverance of Latine and Hispanic communities in the Americas, in the United States, when you can whittle the identities of multiple cultures down to a couple of pieces of food that popped into your head when you think of them?
Face? Meet palm.
From NPR:
Although Hispanic Heritage Month doesn't begin until Sept. 15, DC Comics got an early start by revealing several special covers in their attempt to celebrate the upcoming month.
The covers, which were revealed in June, feature several of DC's superheroes surrounded by, holding, or eating a variety of Latin American foods such as tacos, flan, tamales, and platanos fritos. Comic book fans on Twitter, specifically Latino fans, aren't too happy with this interpretation of DC's heroes.
A cover featuring Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern has received more heat than the rest. It shows the hero holding a large green flag in one hand that reads "Viva Mexico!!" while the other holds a shopping bag filled with tamales. This was not, however, the original illustration.
In June, illustrator Jorge Molina revealed on Twitter that he created a Green Lantern cover for DC. The original illustration was supposed to be an homage to La Patria, a famous mural by Mexican painter Jorge González Camarena. In the unfinished illustration, Green Lantern was holding a lantern instead of tamales, had an eagle with a snake perched on his arm, and was holding a Mexican flag sans the coat of arms.
According to Molina, the cover was "not supposed to see the light of day" due to "legal issues," and how it got promoted by DC remained a mystery to him.
DC Comics tells NPR the Green Lantern cover that raised controversy was not going to be released. "It is part of DC's internal creative process to receive and develop multiple versions of comic artwork from our artists. Some are released as variant covers, others are never used," the company said in a statement. It was "incorrectly reported" to be the official cover.
DC says it plans to release Molina's original cover on Sept. 20.
The company didn't address controversy over other planned covers. Fans across Twitter have taken to the platform to call out DC Comics for portraying Latino heroes only in relation to their food.
Here's Jorge's original cover, inspired by Jorge González Camarena’s La Patria:
An image of DC Comics superhero Green Lantern Kyle Rayner holding a lantern in his right hand. He has an eagle with a snake perched on his left arm. Green Lantern Kyle Rayner is holding a Mexican flag sans its coat of arms. He is in space, floating outside the atmosphere of the planet Earth.
And here's the one DC Comics thought was the best way to go that they swear on a stack of Batman comics was "not supposed to see the light of day" yet somehow ended up getting placed all over social media by DC Comics' social media team:
An image of DC Comics superhero Green Lantern Kyle Rayner holding a large green flag in his left hand. The words "Viva Mexico!!" are splayed across the flag in off-white jagged letters. In Kyle Rayner’s right hand is a shopping bag filled with tamales. He is in space, floating outside the atmosphere of the planet Earth. Some of the tamales are escaping the bag and floating into space.
They can't possibly think anyone believes this was a "mistake," right? Especially when the other covers they previewed for National Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month look like this:
An image of DC Comics superhero Blue Beetle leaping from the top of a tall building. His mouth is full, as he is holding five tacos in his hands as he leaps and is in the middle of eating said tacos.
And this:
An image of DC Comics superheroine Hawkgirl retrieving a food order from a cafeteria window to take to a customer. Hawkgirl, wearing an apron, is balancing multiple plates to deliver to patrons while a brown hand comes from behind a kitchen pass-through window to give the food some finishing touches. A placard with the name “Platanitos Fritos Cafeteria” is on the wall above the pass-through.
And this:
An image of DC Comics superheroine Green Lantern Jessica Cruz happily eating a burrito as she stands with her right foot perched upon a pile of defeated supervillains. Her power ring has a large cartoon mallet protruding from it, presumably the weapon she used to defeat the supervillains.
DC Comics expects us to believe that the blatant microaggressions that are these "commemorative" comic covers for National Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month weren't intentional, don't they? The truth is that DC Comics commissioned multiple cover concepts from various artists and pushed for a particular theme, tone, and vibe. The truth is that they were fine with stereotypes and caricatures of Hispanic and Latine communities and, as all white supremacist systems and corporations do, felt that the public would be fine with this too. They especially thought that the Hispanic and Latine comic fans subjected to DC's social media team proudly sharing these tasteless covers all over social media would be fine with this horrible misrepresentation of Latine and Hispanic culture. Why wouldn't Latine and Hispanic communities be ecstatic about this? They tossed you a bone! Your food is on the cover of a comic book! *Insert sarcasm and side-eye here.*
Like many large corporations, DC Comics lives for large-scale performative efforts like these "commemorative" covers. They get to say they're "inclusive" and "are focused on elevating diverse voices" and every other bit of hollow nonsense we've all been subjected to over the years. Corporate white supremacist strategy dictates that if these companies toss melanated folx a bone once a year, we'll believe they care about our voices and experiences. The truth is that they only care about our dollars: the ones they can get from us directly and the ones they can make by twisting our likenesses, cultures, and experiences to turn a profit. And if you don't realize that?
You must've decided to drink the Kool-Aid a long time ago.
DC Comics has a rough track record regarding their treatment of melanated creatives. They've also established a damn near yearly pattern of being called out for capitalism-driven performative allyship, just like Warner Brothers, their parent company, so I'm not shocked that these "commemorative" covers were happily shared across social media with no thought on how harmful they were. I'm not surprised that DC addressed the Green Lantern cover call-out but has remained mum on pulling the other three covers that have been making the rounds. What surprises me, though, is how easy it is for companies like DC Comics to decide not to do better after being called to task for your behavior and actions on multiple occasions around the same issues. But maybe I shouldn't be surprised by this. I mean, superhero comics are fantasies.
Thinking that white-driven capitalist organizations like DC Comics will do better when it doesn't behoove them financially or otherwise is a fantasy too.
Sometimes, fantasies are more grounded in reality than we want to believe.