First up: Comics characters with Disabilities.

Comic books have long reflected a great deal about societal values.

And what is villainous?

For far too long heroism has been synonymous with able-bodied, male, white, Christian and heterosexual.

Anyone else, everyone else, was either relegated to the role of side-kick or villain.

Or they simply did not appear at all.

And quite frankly, how fun is that?

A whole community of people were left out of comics.

People with Disabilities simply did not get to be heroes.

Mr. Glass is the quintessential bitter cripple out to hurt the world that hurt him.

And a lot of the time in comics, people with Disabilities didnt even get to be villains.

But what is the relevance of Disability in the context of comics?

For more information about this upcoming event check outwww.crippingthecon.com.

The author wants to thank all of his cool friends with Disabilities for inspiring him to write this article.

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Batman often has a very simplistic and problematic manner of depicting people with disabilities.

Most notably, mental illness.

Two-Face goes from mild mannered District Attorney to crazed killer.

All due to a horrible acid scalding (are guns banned in Gotham City?

Why does everyone get scalded with acid?).

People have speculated that Two-Face must have schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder or bipolar disorder.

But one thing is for sure; becoming physically disability turned Two-Face into a criminal.

Iron Man, her fellow superhero with a disability (and well get to him!

), makes Misty Knight a bionic arm.

Now do you think she just goes back to being a police officer?

Misty Knight becomes a Kung-Fu master and fights crime.

And she is portrayed as smart, sexy, talented and tough.

Misty Knight is a well rounded character with friends, lovers,and a complex back story.

All of this while sporting a pretty awesome bionic arm.

You make us so happy.

Echo appears in Daredevil as a woman torn between her love for Matt Murdock and her hatred of Daredevil.

She believes Daredevil is responsible for the death of her father and seeks revenge against him.

Echos visual senses are heightened allowing her to mimic movements and read lips.

Her ability to communicate is, however, sometimes limited by her Deafness.

We know some of you just went, wait, what?

Iron Man is Disabled?

Of course Iron Man is Disabled!

but he is also an innovator for other superheroes with Disabilities (see Misty Knight above).

Did we already talk about how much we love Marvels fairly positive portrayals of characters with Disabilities?

But here it is again.

Iron Man relies on this medical gear to keep him alive.

But Iron Man is also, in his own words, A genius billionaire playboy philanthropist.

Superheroes with Disabilities are fairly rare in the comic book universe.

And some people may question why it even matters to have characters with Disabilities.

But we beg to differ.

We think media matters.

And media affects how we feel about ourselves and people who are different from us.

Hawkeye is a perfect example of a superhero with a Disability and why it matters.

In 2012, a 4 year old boy began to refuse to wear his hearing aid.

He argued with his mother that superheroes dont wear hearing aids.

Well, his mother wrote to Marve,l desperate about what to do.

Just like this 4 year old boy.

But even better, Marvel pointed out that Hawkeye is Deaf and uses a hearing aid.

We hope that this little boy became a Hawkeye fan that day.

Hawkeye is very capable marksman, fighter and archer.

And perhaps for a little Deaf boy, Hawkeye is someone to look up to.

Professor X is likely one of the most prominent comic book characters to use a wheelchair.

Professor Xs chair is nearly iconic in the Marvel Universe.

He is one of the strongest mutants in the X-Universe and the founder of the X-Men.

Professor X has almost always been portrayed as being Disabled.

And Professor Xs Disability is very much normalized, even a given.

Professor X is an incredible powerful telepath.

We will be interested to see how the new X-Men trilogy tackles a young Professor X using a wheelchair.

Now here is a controversial item on the list.

She most certainly is.

After being shot in the spine, Batgirl begins to use a wheelchair.

She is transformed from Batgirl to Oracle.

And that is where the controversy begins.

Batgirl/Oracle uses her sharp intelligence and ability as an information specialist (go superhero librarians) to fight crime.

Oracle leads Birds of Prey and is a kickass representation of a crime fighter who uses a wheelchair.

And in 2011 Oracle is magically cured, gets up from her wheelchair and becomes Batgirl once more.

And that is the controversy.

Is it acceptable to magically cure a superhero with a Disability?

And why cant Batgirl use a wheelchair?

Daredevil was blinded at a young age by a passing truck that spilled radioactive material on him (seriously?

where do these trucks come from?).

The material leaves Daredevil blind but enhances his other senses.

Daredevil; becomes one of the very few (and perhaps the only major) superhero who is blind.

Daredevil uses his walking cane as a weapon and is incredibly skilled when it comes to hand-to-hand combat.

Daredevil engages with the Disabled community and at one point is in a serious relationship with Echo.

Furthermore, Daredevil is taught to fight by a blind mentor named Stick.

Again, a unique representation of a superhero with Disabilities.

His task was very easy.

All Moore had to do was show what superheroes would be like in real life.

Unfortunately, translated into the real world, Rorschach is mentally unstable.

He shows sociopathic tendencies, especially in his very black and white view of the world.

Things are either good or evil; righteous or corrupt; pure or filthy.

There is no middle ground and Rorshachs inability to see a middle ground makes him quite scary.

Were torn because Rorshach often does do what is right, but for the wrong reasons.

It is clear that Rorshach has mental illness, but hes a hero.

This ambiguity is what draws so many people to Rorshachs character.

Yes, Rorshach is completely mad, but he truly believes he is on the side of righteousness.

Rorshach clearly suffers from some distorted thinking.

Its an interesting perspective on sociopathy and not one we often see in media.

Most of the time sociopathy is characterized by evil.

But in this case, Rorschach may just be a mentally ill antihero.

A group of people discriminated against, hated and pushed to the margins of society because of physical differences.

Hmmm…we dont see a metaphor for Disability here at all!

But seriously, many Geeks in the Disabled community have felt an affinity for the X-Universe.

The X-Universe contains the perfect metaphor for Disability.

In many ways the X-Universe reflects the great diversity and reality of the Disabled community.

Because of this, many people with Disabilities have found a whole universe of people not unlike them.

And, as weve seen, media matters.

It matters that people can see themselves in our cultural heroes and icons.

The X-Universe not only stands for people living with Disabilities but for all those who have been subjected oppression.