Continuing our look at the representation of Minorities in Comics; People of Color and their portrayal in Comics.

Maybe they are all classic superheroes?

Maybe they would end up on any list of best superheroes of all time?

But there is something else about this group.

Ok. Well give you the answer.

This isnt some random trivia fact: its a product and tradition of racism.

These comics were written by white people for white people.

So of course they depict white heroes.

People of color were not given heroic roles.

If they were given roles at all they were stereotyped and racist.

Other People of Color were defined only as racial stereotypes.

We are currently still in a time of what can be termed tokenization.

This is especially true for women of Asian descent.

They are likely to be portrayed as exotic and sexy and not much more.

When Jubilation Lee joined the X-Men she managed to defy many of these stereotypes.

Jubilee is NOT exotic.

Shes a teenage girl who loves the mall.

Jubilee is an orphan looking to find her place in the world.

She has street smarts and is able to find her way out of any situation.

Jubilation Lee is Chinese-American with an emphasis on the American.

Shes not terribly sexualized (given her age) and is more seen as the kid of the X-Men.

Especially with Tom Hardys delicious accent.

But believe it or not, the comic book version of Bane was born on a fictional CARIBBEAN island.

Meaning that Bane should probably be considered Latino.

We know some people out there probably just fainted so well wait for you to recover.

We love the Batman trilogy, but we cant give them a pass on this one.

Its obviously white washing and we were disappointed.

But those issues aside, Bane is an amazing character in the comic.

He is someone whos incredibly intelligent and incredibly strong.

After all, Bane is the guy who breaks (both literally and figuratively) the Batman!

We hope that future Batman films will ensure to keep Bane the Latino man that he is.

Nick Fury wasnt always African American.

Nick Fury was reintroduced as an African American character in The Ultimates and was based on Samuel L. Jackson.

And no, Iron Man (2008) had not come out yet.

There really is justice in the world.

African Americans have often been portrayed as sidekicks to white characters or as stereotypes (such as Blaxploitation).

Nick Fury doesnt fall into these stereotypes.

He is a leader.

And when he is written as an African American man, he doesnt become any less of a leader.

And the fact that hes based on Samuel L. Jackson just makes him that much better.

It is an even more rare gem to find a mixed race superhero in comics.

And thats one of the reasons we love Risque.

She is a trailblazing character who appeared in X-Force in the late 90s.

Her mother is Seminole and her father is Cuban, making Risque Native American and Latina.

The author has to admit he had never heard of Solstice before researching this article.

But now he is enlightened.

This is one really cool girl and we hope that DC continues to use Solstice in their lineup.

Solstice is just a bright ray of sunshine who is a member of the Teen Titans.

She wears a very bright yellow costume and is known for her distinctive sunshiney personality.

Solstice brings light and joy wherever she goes.

She also happens to physically emit bright golden light, so that cant hurt can it?

Solstice is a newcomer to the Teen Titans and we hope to see much, much more of her.

Forge is an awesome character for multiple reasons.

And though some of his magic connected to his Cheyenne heritage is problematic, we like Forge.

Loa is one of the very few comic book characters of Polynesian descent that we were able to find.

But that doesnt mean Loa isnt awesome.

A great deal has been written about Black Panther.

He is incredibly notable as he was the first mainstream Black superhero.

There are still some problematic features of Black Panther (mostly dealing with tribalism, etc.)

but at the time he was an incredibly progressive.

For the first time, we had Black hero to look up to.

One who fought against racism (notably an epic battle with the KKK and criticism against Apartheid).

One of the things we love about Spider-Man is that he is a lot like us.

Hes nerdy, sometimes awkward, has girl troubles, etc.

He fights crime in memory of his uncle.

So when controversy erupted in 2011 and it had to do with Spider-Man we thought what did they do?

They just decided that Spider-Man didnt really reflect the average kid in New York City in 2011.

So they did something totally wacky and decided to make him biracial.

And not even in the main line of Spider-Man.

In the Ultimate Universe!

And people freaked out.

We dont really understand, but then again, this is why race matters in comics.

The average kid in New York City doesnt really look very much like Peter Parker anymore.

In fact, we think Peter Parker would probably love Miles Morales.

You didnt think wed forget one of the best X-Men of all time did you?

But we suppose the wait was worth it because we got a character as incredible as Storm.

We adore Ms. Munroe and we wouldnt take our weather-bending goddess any other way.