CW: domestic violence
innovating our (super) heroes by Jonah Van Driesum When we feel lost, we look for a hero to save us. For many people, it's a fictional hero. As a nerdy six-year-old, that hero for me was Superman. It was fun as a kid who got picked on to imagine an invincible hero who was a nerdy guy himself in his other life. The most common failing of comic book fans is resistance to change. However, if you look at the context of the greatest comic book stories of all time, they're great because they did something fundamentally new. The resurgence of comic book popularity from the early 2000s was largely driven by new ideas being explored. That dynamic has not fundamentally changed when we look at the characters most beloved by young fans. Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther, Shameik Moore’s Spider Man, Jason Mamao's Aquaman, and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. While the superhero industry and many superhero fans are now fully embracing their responsibility to create and promote content with a diversity of heroes, this battle for change has been a long time coming. Let's take the example of my favorite hero. Superman debuted in 1938 and instantly became the most successful superhero of that era. The first major black superhero, Black Panther, did not appear for 28 years and it wasn't even in his own comic book. The first major superhero movie was also Superman in 1978. The first major black actor-led superhero movie was Blade in 1999 and after the second sequel in 2003, there wasn't another major black actor-led superhero film until 2018’s Black Panther.
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It isn't just an issue of representation for superheroes of colour. Comic books have also been criticized for the many ways they have let down women. For example, the “Girlfriend in the Fridge complex” —a reference to Green Lantern’s girlfriend being raped, murdered, and stuffed into a fridge. Female characters and heroes are fre-
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