when everyone’s super: representation in comics

It’s a disaster! Thor’s botched a job and can no longer carry his Uru hammer, Mjölnir. Earth’s in danger and there’s no thunderous demi-god to save us mere mortals. Lucky anyone who’s worthy can take up Thor’s mantle. In the upcoming Marvel comic Thor, an unknown woman will take the place our golden locked God of Thunder, while he takes some time off as his human alter ego, Donald Blake.

This isn’t a surprising move, as Marvel has been changing up its leading heroes for a few a years now through Ultimate Marvel and Marvel NOW! Incredibly popular heroes such as Spider-Man and Captain America have undergone transformations recently. In Marvel’s Ultimate universe, Spider-Man is now Miles Morales, a half-Latino, half-African-American teenager, and our female Thor is going to be joined in the Avengers by an African American Captain America, when Sam Wilson, better known as The Falcon, takes over for Steve Rogers. These characters were created in the ’60s and ’70s, and Marvel is recognising that as the real world changes, so should their comic worlds.

Thor won’t be the first Marvel title to feature a female lead. She’ll be following well-known supers like Storm, Black Widow, and Elektra, who have made it to the big screen in recent years. In the last twelve months, Marvel has also launched Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel. Like Thor, Captain Marvel has traditionally been a male, but the previous Ms. Marvel took over for him leaving her mantle ready to be taken up by Muslim-American teenager, Kamala Khan. Marvel’s been making sure Thor’s going to have some good friends to hang out with in the Marvelverse.

This representation thing isn’t just a gimmick to attract a larger readership. Comics with leading ladies are selling just as well as their male-starring counterparts. Ms. Marvel, with a brand new character Kamala Khan sold out of its first run with 50,000 copies sold in its first month, and the latest issue of DC Comics’ Harley Quinn sold over 90,000 copies making it the fourth-highest selling comic of last month. We’re already reading the comics, watching the cartoons, consuming the media. Little girls have always dressed up as their favourite superhero, but for too long white men have dominated the superhero business. It’s time girls and people of colour got to see people like themselves save the world. The comics industry is looking at their readers, ALL of their readers, and making sure we can look back and see ourselves.

It’s 2014 and only 15% of leading characters in major films are female. Even less are people of colour. With every second Marvel hero getting their own film right now, it’s just a matter of time before they start making a dent in those statistics. The comics industry is leading the way for representation in the media, and it’s about time that everyone else followed suit.