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[LOLtron]

Do we need to stage an intervention, DC? Do you need some help?

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Source: various, linked below

Earlier this week, we received a tip following up on our Has DC Done Something Stupid Today counter reset for the company publishing the fourth and final issue of their First Contact crossover before the delayed third issue. The tip was about the whitewashing of another character, Kaizen Gamorra, a villain from Wildstorm's The Authority. I'll let the tipster, who asked to remain anonymous, tell you all about it:

Hi Jude,

Frequent reader here. I love The Outhouse. I noticed today that one of your writers covered the First Contact screw up regarding the issues getting published out of order. Well, that crossover’s antagonist is Kaizen Gamorra, originally villain of The Authority. At the time, he looked like this:

However, near the end of Wildstorm’s existence, one panel makes him not look like a racist Yellow Peril caricature. I have attached a screenshot to this e-mail. Trim down the ears and it shows the potential of having an Asian villain without the 1940s paranoia.

But, of course, this is DC we’re talking about. The second screenshot I have attached shows Kaizen Gamorra as he looks in the New 52. Unless DC thinks Asians have red hair, green eyes, and pasty skin, it looks like they completely whitewashed him. So glad to see as the years progress that they are getting increasingly sensitive towards the diversity in their properties.

Look, I’m a Wildstorm fan—especially a The Authority fan—so these last 2 1/2 years have not been kind to me. But I understand how bringing back a yellow peril-esque character can be a concern to DC's editorial. However, as the editor of a site that has in the past repeatedly shown its concerns about DC’s lack of diversity, I think you may be able to see my argument that they have removed the race when they should have just removed the caricature. It’s gone unnoticed by every comic news site, but this step is yet another of DC trying to uphold their little status quo, purposeful or not, of powerful white men with a few spaces ready for black men. Where are their Asian characters? Do they even have any other Asian characters besides Ryan Choi? Gamorra’s minions are still Asian, oddly, but that doesn’t exactly count since they’re just props for the plot.

I hope this story is of interest to you. I look forward to reading your site in the future and cheering at your whistleblowing. 

 

So yeah, that happened. And it's certainly not the first offense, even in recent memory. We reset the counter in February when DC celebrated Black History Month by whitewashing characters, that time both Connor Hawke and Onyx.

Are you noticing a pattern here? There was a rumor in 2013 that Josh Fialkov left Green Lantern during one of DC's "really stupid weeks" because they wanted to kill off Green Lantern John Stewart. And though they ended up not doing that, that doesn't mean they didn't intend to. Whatever the case, it's clear that DC has a problem, and those are only a few examples of it.

Still, we try to keep this job fun, and the last thing we want is for our lives to revolve around waiting for DC to screw up and jumping all over them for it. The reason the counter exists is that DC does stupid things too much, not that they do stupid things (as everyone does once in a while). They had been kind of quiet on the stupid front for a while. We thought that was a good thing. The Onyx issue turned out to be a "coloring error," and hey, people (and corporations) make mistakes.

But then today, DC Women Kicking Ass (images from there too) reported on ANOTHER whitewashing! This time, it's Solstice of the Teen Titans, who we're pretty sure from the storylines, is actually still supposed to be from India. From Wikipedia:

Following the events of Flashpoint, history is rewritten so that the incarnation of the Teen Titans Kiran joined never existed. However, Red Robin is shown watching a new report from India showing Kiran using her powers. In the following issue, Kiran is shown to be incarcerated in the same facility as Kid Flash. Her powers appear to have been altered by N.O.W.H.E.R.E, giving her body a black, smokey appearance with light shining through various cracks and openings. Despite the changes and abuse she suffered however, she seems to retain her good and hopeful nature. She will be joining the new incarnation of Teen Titans.

 

And yet, in Teen Titans #29...

Just to be clear, we go from this:

To this:

Another coloring error? Could be. Then again, it might be on purpose too. This is DC, after all. They are exceptionally stupid. But even if it is a coloring error, isn't that something an editor should catch, especially in light of the bad publicity DC gets for this over and over again?

And so, we have no choice but to reset the counter. Honestly though, we'd rather DC just got it right for once, fer chrissakes. No need to keep being stupid about this on our account. We'll find other ways to make fun of you. So go ahead and, you know, stop doing this.

We're here to help, DC. Let us know what we can do.

In the meantime, it has been 0 days (well, as of tomorrow - we're not gonna let them get away with having the 0 day start at 10PM).

Written or Contributed by Jude Terror

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READ THIS ARTICLE ON THE FRONT PAGE, HUMANS!

[Draco x]

The New 52 Kaizen Gamorra will turn out to be a stoned British actor being manipulated by an evil businessman-who will then be imprisoned and interviewed by some guy working for the real Kaizen Gamorra. Oh wait this was already done over at Marvel, so never mind.

[Zechs]

I hate to be devil's advocate but at the very least it was a color error for Oynx. Same probably could be said for Solstice. But, I'd say the disturbing trend is much longer than just John Stewart. Look at Lady Shiva who right before the New 52 looked like this:



Now she looks like this:



Need I also say that for a character established even in Nightwing as the "most deadly" assassin in the world she was two-shotted cleanly by Jason Todd in a recent issue of RHaTO? Then just discarded completely for the "shounen-like" fight Jason has with Ra's.

I want to say there's another example, but then I'd be crossing into my fandom and it be a broken horse. But I just wanted to point out the Shiva example.

[Evan Meadow]

Solstice was a coloring error. Lobdell tweeted it and showed what she first looked like in TT #14. DCWKA has the statement.

But wasn't Kaizen Gamorra first seen in Team 7? Or is that someone else in that 2nd 4 part arc where he gets Pandora's Box? I thought he looked close to his original Wildstorm look then.

[Supersoldier Washout]

Are Solstice's blue eyes part of the coloring error as well or part of the story in some way?

[S.F. Jude Terror]

Solstice was a coloring error. Lobdell tweeted it and showed what she first looked like in TT #14. DCWKA has the statement.

But wasn't Kaizen Gamorra first seen in Team 7? Or is that someone else in that 2nd 4 part arc where he gets Pandora's Box? I thought he looked close to his original Wildstorm look then.

Since when does continuity matter in the Nu52? And if it is a coloring error (as acknowledged as a possibility in the article), it's still something an editor should be paying attention to.

[Scintillant-H]

Are Solstice's blue eyes part of the coloring error as well or part of the story in some way?

^ this. XD

[Kreniigh]

Whitewashing aside, this is the sort of thing that's made me lose interest in the New 52 almost completely.

Here's an Earth 2 story using a villain who's from the previous continuity (and from an ambiguous side pocket of it) where he was an Authority villain. No previous appearances in the New 52 (presumably), no history to call back to, and then they change his appearance so much that he may as well be a different character. So why isn't he?

In a continuity where everything hasn't been officially wiped out and replaced, it's fun to see some old half-forgotten villain pop up again to fight some new heroes. I remember being amused when Moses Magnum would turn up, and he'd have all this backstory (like being the guy who caused Banshee to lose his powers) but he'd be involved in some fresh scheme.

What is really the point of borrowing just the name of an old character when you've jettisoned everything else about him? New readers aren't going to get it, and old readers are just going to be frustrated.

[avengingtitan]

Solstice was a coloring error. Lobdell tweeted it and showed what she first looked like in TT #14. DCWKA has the statement.

But wasn't Kaizen Gamorra first seen in Team 7? Or is that someone else in that 2nd 4 part arc where he gets Pandora's Box? I thought he looked close to his original Wildstorm look then.

Yea and Lobdell has been so honest and accurate when it comes to his books right? That guy is full of shit and just trying to deflect blame. Fuck him.

[The Old Doctor]

Honkeyfied.

I demand that phrase be used as "white wash" is racist as only albino's are actually white.

[Supersoldier Washout]

What about the eyes, Mr. Lobdell?

[Punchy]

It's a difficult situation this one, because the original version is a pretty dodgy racial stereotype, so why would you want Asians to be represented like that?

Plus, in Batman/Superman when drawn by Jae Lee, Gamorra is still clearly Asian, so this is probably just poor artwork and a colouring mistake.

[S.F. Jude Terror]

It's a difficult situation this one, because the original version is a pretty dodgy racial stereotype, so why would you want Asians to be represented like that?

Plus, in Batman/Superman when drawn by Jae Lee, Gamorra is still clearly Asian, so this is probably just poor artwork and a colouring mistake.

It's just like all the times white DC characters are accidentally portrayed as not white due to coloring errors... oh wait...

[The Old Doctor]

It's a difficult situation this one, because the original version is a pretty dodgy racial stereotype, so why would you want Asians to be represented like that?

Plus, in Batman/Superman when drawn by Jae Lee, Gamorra is still clearly Asian, so this is probably just poor artwork and a colouring mistake.

I thought it was revealed back in the 90s, that Gamorra was really the Kheribum lord that Spartan was based on and the Asian guy was basically his "Mandarin". Shade's of Machiavelli's The Prince.

[The Old Doctor]

It's just like all the times white DC characters are accidentally portrayed as not white due to coloring errors... oh wait...

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