I recently read Keah Brown’s Superhero Issue which can be found here. It’s not a bad article, but I do have problems with it. As a long time, comic reader, it is not the first time I have had an issue with an article. I should start with my dog in this race first. I am a disabled, both mentally and physically, mixed race, mostly a mix of European and Native American, polyamorous lesbian born with an intersexed condition that caused them to be raised male despite being a woman and thus is the reason I consider myself trans. Everyone here on Daily Kos who knows me also knows how crap my life tends to be.
First, I want to talk about the claim that disabled people do not get to be super-heroes and that is a claim that could not be further from the truth. A majority of super-heroes especially in popular media are disabled. Ranging from some of the most popular of them all.
Within the X-Men there is Professor X who for the longest time was disabled from the waist down, and only recently isn't. Cyclops who even today cannot see the world without his ruby visors or glasses. Storm who suffers from a mental disorder in crippling claustrophobia. Rogue who can't touch anyone without her powers draining their life force would also count as disabled, as well as Beast, Nightcrawler, and many of the other X-Men for physical deformities. Not to mention Wolverine who is disabled due to his long-running memory problems. And those are just some of the X-Men commonly seen in popular, as it not the comics media. If you go into it further you could classify so many more of the comics only X-Men as disabled from Blindfold, Anole, Graymalkin, Legion, Maggot, Marrow, the list is extensive.
Sticking with Marvel comics characters for a while you have Daredevil, who is blind, Jessica Jones, who has crippling anxiety, Echo, who is deaf, Hawkeye, who is partially deaf, & the ever-loving blue-eyed Thing who viewed his form as a physical deformity for a long time.
Moving over to DC Comics most of the Doom Patrol are heroes who are disabled. Not to mention several of the Teen Titans like Raven and Jericho who are emotionally stunted and mute, respectively. Or Barbara Gordon who while paraplegic was Oracle? And what about Batman? DC has never been shy about the fact that Bruce Wayne suffers emotional trauma and mild psychosis from the death of his parents. He has emotional and psychological disabilities and Batman is the second most popular hero worldwide behind Spider-Man. And he is disabled.
In fact, the number of heroes who are disabled far outnumber the number of supervillains who are disabled in popular media, and it shows with the articles writer counting a non-superhero media character as one of their examples of disabled equaling villain in said media.
One of their first examples is Voldemort from Harry Potter. Harry Potter is not super-hero media and yet it is one of the first examples the article writer gives alongside the Dark Knight’s Joker & Two-Face, MODOK, The Flash TV Show Thinker, DCEU Dr. Poison and Mr. Glass. Alongside two other non-superhero media characters Dr. Evil and Mini-Me from Austin Powers, a Spy-Media parody. Of those listed characters I will discuss my views later, but the articles writer seems to be confusing the terms popular media with Superhero Popular Media.
In fact Super-Hero media is the one place where the disabled are more likely to be the hero than the villain, which makes the article a strawman approach without doing any research and just finding a few examples to prove their point of view, which is regressive.
First let’s talk about the three non-superhero media characters the brought up, Voldemort, Dr Evil, and Mini-Me. First, Dr. Evil and Mini-Me turn good in the final film which just leaves Voldemort. Which just I don't want to talk about, but he isn't a super-villain.
Next let’s move onto MODOK whom they hold up as their prime example. The thing is MODOK was not and is not disabled, in fact when someone called him as such once, MODOK responded by saying that he is far beyond any pitiful human and compared to him they are disabled. MODOK was turned into that by a science experiment done by AIM to make him into a living Quantum Computer and he immediately took over AIM in the aftermath, some iterations of him have him choosing to be turned into the being known as MODOK. So, he's a bad example.
Next up Dr. Poison. Dr. Poison was a supervillain long before their disfigurement and in fact even in the movie its stated that she was working with the Central Powers before her chemical disfigurement, so also not a good example. That is 0 for 5. Not a good start.
Their next two examples were the Joker and Two-Face, and I will start with Two-Face, yes, he does become evil after getting disfigured but I'm pretty sure it is more the fact that Rachel, the love of his life died when he told them to save her not him, yet Batman saved him. Over to the Joker, yes, he has facial scars but there is no definitive answer on how he got them and could have done it to himself to intimidate others, also the writer of the article claims he shows signs of psychosis, he does not, and their reasoning is messed up. The article writer's reasoning is that the Joker's crossdressing to get into the hospital and his being frustrated that the bomb that was part of their meticulous planning not going off when he pressed the button is signs of psychosis. That is not what psychosis looks like. Those are signs of someone who has planned every part of their criminal endeavor and is frustrated that something did not go to plan. That is a sign of Sociopathy not psychosis. I am saying this as someone with mental disorders & who has friends with other mental disorders.
Finally of the villains they brought up, the only good example in their list, DC's Thinker. The only problem with it is he is usually not portrayed as disabled and was only done so in the Flash TV show to try to make him more unique than usual. Still, that's one. Of 8.
The fact that I was able to break down all their examples ignores that in popular media we have been shown more heroes with disabilities than villains and to state that Superhero media portrays villains as disabled more is disingenuous at best a downright lie at worst.
Every character I mentioned was someone that has been in a Movie, TV Show, Animated Series, or Game released in the last 10 years except for Echo who I mentioned because she is going to be joining the MCU. They are easily recognizable and forefront.
Despite this the writer of the article states that you would have to do a google search to find disabled heroes. Which you wouldn't. You would if you want to find disabled villains as even the article writer was not able to find that many in superhero media and pulled from others. If the writer believes this to be the case it is either because they have not watched a lot of superhero media and in the few that they have seen this has been the case though their usage of MODOK says otherwise. MODOK is their prime example yet is not a forefront character.
It belies their claim if you put any thought into it. In fact, they purposefully choose not to mention Daredevil but mention Daredevil supporting character Echo. This makes it appear as if their motive is giving a strawman argument rather than an actual researched opinion. Yet that is not what I choose to believe. I believe they were well intentioned, yet confused Mass Popular Media with Mass Super-Hero Media, because when you look at Mass Popular Media, they are right. Many villains in Mass Popular Media are disabled.
But Mass Super-Hero Media.
That is the one place were the disabled are the heroes. From Doctor Strange, Batman, Oracle, Echo, Daredevil, many of the X-Men, the Doom Patrol, several Titans, to the ever-loving blue-eyed Thing. Superheroes are where the disabled are heroes.
And that is because the writers wanted heroes to come from all walks of life. And within the comics that is always growing, comics are political and always have been, because comics have always been about showing the disenfranchised being able to become powerful.
Whether it be Superman representing immigrants.
Batman representing those with childhood trauma.
Spiderman and the bullied nerds of the US.
The X-Men and its representation of minority groups.
And the many, many, disabled heroes.
Even now more disenfranchised are represented all the time.
Even groups rarely represented before are getting more representation now, from the LGBT to more beautifully written minority characters, to yes even more disabled characters.
Just remember even Captain America was disabled and he became one of the best heroes ever.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this, I just wanted to write an article on something I’m passionate about due to all the life crap I’ve been dealing with.