Ethnic Heroes

I have been thinking about ethnic superheroes and how they are represented in comics. I have never come across any latin heroes that were not a caricature of their race. Case in point would be heroes like Vibe, El Diablo, and Wildcat II. They are all streetwise, young punks from the hood with humongous chips on their shoulders. They spend their time fighting drug dealers and blaming "the man" for the ills of society. There isn't one of them that I would call a role model to anyone but the most jaded people in the latin community. And don't get me started on black heroes either. Black Lightning, Power Man, Iron Man II, and Falcon. All these guys are strictly one dimensional in their portrayals and the stories that they are featured in.

There are some exceptions to the one dimensional portrayals. The Black Panther is not from the "hood", he is the sovereign of an advanced technocratic society, that ventures into the world under the guise of Black Panther to protect his kingdom from the ills of the primitive outside world. Green Lanter III also known as John Stuart, is an architect that was chosen as Green Lantern due to his remarkable lack of fear and his intelligence to guard sector 2814 alongside Hal Jordan. Both of these examples are positive portrayals of educated powerful black men that I would be proud to share with anyone that wants a good role model.

Unfortunately, there are no current latin equivalents for positive role models in comics. I guess the closest to a latin hero that is a good role model is found in the pages of "Gotham Knights" which is a book that deals with the police force in Gotham City and how they interact with all of the crazies that seemed to be drawn there by the existence of Batman. There is one lead character named Rene Montoya and she is an honest cop with a family and she is portrayed as a strong leader without the "hood-speak" that seems to dog ethnic characters. If I had a daughter, this would be the comic character that I would want her to admire and identify with.