Why Black Female Superheroes Still Matter
Diversity is the key to imagination, and representation is the key to acceptance. Here’s why black female superheroes still matter today.
In a world of reigning black queens, such as Meghan, Serena, and Lupita, one would think that our little beige, brown, and black girls have embraced their beauty, but after a few conversations with some of my readers, I’ve learned that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Twenty years ago, Marvel Entertainment Group released the first X-Men movie. The X-Men franchise would be the start of the next-generation of super-hero films that introduced non-comic book fans to the likes of the Wolverine, Jean Grey, Professor X, and Rogue. However, for fans of color, perhaps the most notable of the mutant alliance would be Storm. Her ability to clear a cloudy sky, incite a thunderstorm, or generate the fiercest of tornadoes, makes her one of the most formidable mutants in the Marvel Universe. In fact, devout comic book fans say that the movies did not even begin to tap into her powers, but that did not matter to viewers like me. It only mattered that she was a black woman. And that she could fly.
Whether you take issue with the casting of Halle Berry, or not, you cannot ignore the impact that her character had on little beige, brown and black girls everywhere. For the first time, perhaps in our lives, we saw a super-hero that looked like us. Culturally, the inclusion of Storm barely made a ripple. However, in the minds and hearts of little beige, brown, and black girls, the inclusion of Storm, would deepen our appreciation for our brown skin, and by extension everything else that reflected our African heritage.
Fast forward years later, the release of Black Panther, would have an even greater impact on little beige, brown, and black girls everywhere. Curly hair, deep brown skin, round plump noses, and unapologetic representation of African culture would dominate every single second of the critically acclaimed box office hit. Finally, in every home of little children of color everywhere, our beauty, intelligence, and strength, was accepted and embraced. Loved.
However, as an author, who interacts daily with my readers on Instagram, I am discovering that these cultural moments in our history did not have the globally- lasting impact as I had hoped. One reader of my comic strip series, Moon of Mahru, that features a brown-skin, naturally curly hair, and plump-nosed Queen, with superpowers, admitted, that she is still “learning to embrace” her natural hair because all of her “life [she] wanted it to be in a certain way” and she “never saw how beautiful it was.” Now, one can argue that one comment does not mean that the inclusion of black super-heroes in popular films missed the mark. However, one can argue that, despite these beautiful images we have been given, there are still little girls of color who do not value what they have been born with.
It is comments like these, as an author, that fuel my desire to continue to tell stories that feature black female super-heroes. Take one look at my comic strip and you can clearly see I am not an artist. However, I think our culture has taught us to never judge a book by its cover. Through simplistic 1D animated posts, my readers are taken on a journey of love, with incredible superpowers, that will inspire them to love the color of their skin while becoming better versions of themselves.
Little girls of color, beige, brown, and black, need to constantly have a reminder of how special they are and how much they mean to the Universe. And that, if they wanted to, can fly.
Karla Medrano is the founder and CEO of Short Gaze Media LLC, a global multi-media company, whose mission is to share and amplify the voices of the overlooked and undiscovered through uplifting stories. Her comic book series, “Luna the Queen of Mahru” will be available, through Konkret Comics, in February 2023. You can follow her on TikTok at @moon_the_storyteller
