awhile ago I notice a lot of comic sites talking or at least asking about if there racism in comic book fandom. These talks seemed to have steamed about something Mark Waid (comic writer and editor of Boom) said about fans not reading comics with Black leads.
Well I'd like to put an end to this question about is there racism amoung comic book fans and I would say yes. All one has to do is look many of the comic book forums or blog comments when the subject is say a minority character(s) join a team or a person of color takes the role of a character that before was white.
Yes we will always be fans who say they hate the new verison of characters and want the one they grew-up reading back but in the case legacy characters passing on there title to nonwhite characters talk of dislike isn't just about wanting the old back, it about the race of the new character and often that's stated in negative light.
having a minority on the team usually doesn't bring up as much negative chatter if we are just talking about a token team memember here or there but I remember when McDuffie was righting Justice League and the team had more then a token Black member and on DC's message board there where a number of post about fans that where up set that he was making the team "Black"
Now I don't think these people make up the majority of comic book fans but there is no denying that they are there. The question is how big of a minority this group is. Do they look like a bigger group because they are very vocal or is what we see what we get.
Now back to Mark Waid saying people don't read comics with Black leads I don't think that problem is just do to racist comic fans but fans who may not pick up a book with a minority lead not due to negative veiws of minorities but passing the book by because the assume that the book isn't aimed at them or they wouldn't be able to relate to the characters because they are of a different background then them
I would say comic fans tend to stick with what they know and not try new things a lot but Mark Waid didn't seem to say BOOM had any trouble selling other books (besides license books most would be new stuff)so I don't think that needs to be stated.
