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perpetual_motionIn a recent issue of "Teen Titans," Ryan Choi (aka The Atom) was apparently killed off. This happened, I think, a week after Ray Palmer came back into DC canon, thus the DC canon is not so much down a superhero, but has backtracked and used a previous incarnation of one.
This move, coupled with numerous re-introductions of Silver Age characters that then replace their current-day counterparts, has caused a lot of people to write a lot of things. The biggest thing that's been pointed out: The characters being killed off are non-white. The characters coming back are white.
Many, many people have asked DC to explain why the non-white characters, who have a fanbase and are therefore money-makers for DC, are getting killed off. One of the guys at DC said that there are still non-whites in DC books. There are blue people and green people, and that's showcasing non-white people.
Except, of course, that no humans are actually blue or green.
So, knowing that, I pose a question: Why do we get four Green Lanterns (Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, and Guy Gardner) across three separate books (Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, the upcoming Emerald Warriors), but it's impossible to have two Atoms in the same universe? Ryan Choi was in "Teen Titans." It is, to my knowledge, the only book he was in. Ray Palmer is a full-grown adult. He wouldn't need to show up in TT. Throw him in JLA. Yeah, crossovers happen, but Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl get along just fine. Why not Ryan and Ray?
Also, there's a part of me that's glad Ted Kord (Blue Beetle II) hasn't come back, because fuck knows what would have happened to Jaime Reyes (the current BB), with the "kill the new kid" trend going on at DC. But, if Ted happened to come back, it's another example of how it's completely possible to have the same characters sharing a name. Ted's an inventor (smarter than Batman), and Jaime's a kid with alien tech. Their age, locations, and personalities are dissimilar; they can easily have completely different adventures. Or--and this is my personal dream--they could do a team-up for a six or twelve-issue run, wherein Ted decides that he wants to open a new branch of Kord Industries in El Paso, and my Blue Boys run around together beating up the bad guys. Given Jaime's continuing attempts in "Blue Beetle" (vol. 2) to emulate Ted, it'd be AWESOME.
But, back to my point: We have 4 Lanterns--No, wait, we have 5. Alan Scott is a Green Lantern, but his ring is magic as opposed to space-magic. We also have three Flashes (Jay, Barry, and Wally, with Ireys possibly growing into the fourth). There are two Green Arrows (Ollie and Connor), and the Bat Family is a never-ending supply of superheroes in the same town, using the same methods, and beating up the same villains. Why does DC feel its necessary to routinely kill off other characters just because they share a name and want to bring back a legacy character?
This move, coupled with numerous re-introductions of Silver Age characters that then replace their current-day counterparts, has caused a lot of people to write a lot of things. The biggest thing that's been pointed out: The characters being killed off are non-white. The characters coming back are white.
Many, many people have asked DC to explain why the non-white characters, who have a fanbase and are therefore money-makers for DC, are getting killed off. One of the guys at DC said that there are still non-whites in DC books. There are blue people and green people, and that's showcasing non-white people.
Except, of course, that no humans are actually blue or green.
So, knowing that, I pose a question: Why do we get four Green Lanterns (Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, and Guy Gardner) across three separate books (Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, the upcoming Emerald Warriors), but it's impossible to have two Atoms in the same universe? Ryan Choi was in "Teen Titans." It is, to my knowledge, the only book he was in. Ray Palmer is a full-grown adult. He wouldn't need to show up in TT. Throw him in JLA. Yeah, crossovers happen, but Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl get along just fine. Why not Ryan and Ray?
Also, there's a part of me that's glad Ted Kord (Blue Beetle II) hasn't come back, because fuck knows what would have happened to Jaime Reyes (the current BB), with the "kill the new kid" trend going on at DC. But, if Ted happened to come back, it's another example of how it's completely possible to have the same characters sharing a name. Ted's an inventor (smarter than Batman), and Jaime's a kid with alien tech. Their age, locations, and personalities are dissimilar; they can easily have completely different adventures. Or--and this is my personal dream--they could do a team-up for a six or twelve-issue run, wherein Ted decides that he wants to open a new branch of Kord Industries in El Paso, and my Blue Boys run around together beating up the bad guys. Given Jaime's continuing attempts in "Blue Beetle" (vol. 2) to emulate Ted, it'd be AWESOME.
But, back to my point: We have 4 Lanterns--No, wait, we have 5. Alan Scott is a Green Lantern, but his ring is magic as opposed to space-magic. We also have three Flashes (Jay, Barry, and Wally, with Ireys possibly growing into the fourth). There are two Green Arrows (Ollie and Connor), and the Bat Family is a never-ending supply of superheroes in the same town, using the same methods, and beating up the same villains. Why does DC feel its necessary to routinely kill off other characters just because they share a name and want to bring back a legacy character?
