#exactly. we're getting superficial progress on the bones of a conservative structure

[jesncin]

Since your commentary about how much the more recent dystopic and imperialist versions of Krypton are just basing their worldbuilding in colonialist thinking and views on other cultures, i have been thinking about how much this is true to the larger way the comics have always used orientalist shorthands to build their space stuff and how this just goes unnoticed or not aclnowledged by most writers and fans.

Many of the classic recurring dc alien characters and species, are just awful asian stereotypes, there's the Khunds who have originated in the Legion of Super-Heroes comics and existed for decades only as a sort of generic east foreign menace, like a sci-fi Soviet Union rival potency to the Legion's United Planets sci-fi US/West but ethinically coded as a mongolic warrior race and there are the dominators, also from Legion and later sprawling to the overall dc universe, who have just a disgustingly yellow peril based appearance, they are even literally yellow. Of course there's Superman villain Mongul who's name already says it clearly, and is also literally yellow. Ah, and the absolute cape comics classic of the exotic non-white woman who rapes a white man is also echoed by the character of Stealth from L.E.G.I.O.N. comics (the Legion of Super-Heroes ancestors in our present day), who is again a yellow alien who's race in the text explicitly has a monstruous, murderous, uncontrollable sexuality who compels her to commit sexual assault against Vril Dox II, Brainiac's son, technically green-skined but blonde and clearly thought of as white. That's a lot and most if not all of this has never been properly adressed or changed in dc canon. The dominators are still everywhere with their racial caricature appearances and nobody thinks twice about it. Of so many retcons, reboots and reinventions those stereotypes are truly a constant in canon, the Legion of Super-Heroes is always being made again in a new fresh take but the Khunds and the Dominators are solidly kept the same.

Anyway, sorry for any problems with the english, it's a language i have contact with mostly through media like comics and the internet (your blog being one of the things here on tumblr helping me learn it, i really dig your long texts, that Ma'alefa'ak restrospective was a delight, i hope you go through with continuing it) and sorry for the long text but it's just that i have been reading a lot of Legion and space dc comics in general recently with your criticism in mind and i think the effects of colonialism in the depictions of those fictional cultures and societies just needed to be brought up and called atention, this is my first ask i ever sent to you or anyone else here on tumblr because this is somenthing that i saw i had a real necessity of saiyng and contributing to the debate.

In building depictions of aliens the writers have the opportunity to come up with anything and let their imagination run wild, but they consistently ended up just reproducing very explicit racist tropes and iconography. Like you said before in discussions about Superman, the white american imagination is astoundingly limited and uninsterested in ever truly going beyond its comfort zone, with all the attempts to renew and diversify, it always comes back to roughly the same picture where it matters the most.

In a final note i just want to thank you for your criticism, it peeves some people but it's something we're severely lacking and needing, you do a really great and inspiring work!

Can I just say that this is a fantastic use of taking my metas and criticisms, then applying it to other stories I haven't touched! While also truly understanding how these comics are a reflection of larger systemic biases. Also your english is fantastic and I'm humbled that my blog posts help you out in that regard, haha. Ma'alefa'ak rambles are out here helping people with english, that's wonderful.

While I haven't read the LEGION comics, I am generally familiar with them and am nodding at your assessment. Alien invader characters in the american context largely came from the fear of immigrants but especially the influx of Asian migrants moving into the US. The idea that these foreign people are now wearing american clothes, assimilating into american customs, and marrying into american citizens? It manifests in fiction sometimes subtly through alien invader shapeshifter characters- other times it's just yellow peril aliens that are transparent racial stereotypes. And after a post-911 fear of terrorist world? A world growing more self-aware of the atrocities of colonialism? Alien invasions are sneaking their way back into our fiction, many times uninterrogated. Rebooted and reimagined, but their original racist context remain unchallenged.

There's this excellent quote from an article about Orcs and fantasy racism: "If you find a way to scrub an explicit signifier from a racist expression, but keep the expression intact, you preserve the racist dynamic without the explicit identification."

And that's where stepping back and looking at the culture of American comics as a whole is important. Fandom criticism can't just hyper focus on the many times women of color characters are depicted as perpetrators of assault on white (or white coded) men and deem them despicable villains. Step back, and see the whole xenophobic and racist context with which these women exist in.

Thank you so, so much for bringing this into the discussion! And I will absolutely be continuing the Ma'alefa'ak essay (I had a technical fiasco with my research notes but that's been sorted! Now if only netflix would get the last season of YJa so it's less of a hassle for me to watch lol)! I'm very honored that you sent in your thoughts into this discussion, especially since it's going to be very pertinent talking points once I open up discussions on the latest Superman movie.

Exactly! And when these limited white-imagination depictions of alien worlds go uncriticized, we're just letting these depictions continue to exist, unchallenged. So when it comes to our media criticism space, these biases are necessary to dissect, interrogate, and discuss.

Thank you once more! It's discussions like these that make the occasional annoyed fanboy worth it, lol! Many times I'm having enlightened criticism and analysis from people who are fans of the things I'm criticizing, so I'm truly thankful when people maturely join in on discussion with whatever comic or media they want to bring into the discussion.