The Other History

[queenslayerbee]

Just finished The Other History of the DC Universe! It’s a five-issues long mini-series that explores the timeline of the ‘verse (circa late 80s-00s, aka my favouite continuity) from the perspectives of non-white characters, each narrated by a different one. My favourites are #1 and #5, centered on Jefferson Pierce and Anissa Pierce, respectively. I didn’t think the three middle issues were as good as those two, but they’re more than worth the read regardless; these just happen to be really good LOL. I love how they’re in dialogue with each other, from father to daughter.

I love it even how it doesn’t pull punches with white fan-favourites LOL. I’m sure many would see the way some of these characters talk about them (some of whom I love as well!) and complain that oh, it’s not the whole picture, oh, the situation is more nuanced than that. Nuance isn’t bestowed upon equally in the hearts of readers. And in this issues, said nuance is only wholly afforded to the narrators, the characters of colour, who are presented in such a stark way and… god, is there a good word properly encapsulates “descarnada” in English… laid bare, I suppose. Unafraid to show their darks, their flaws, their short-comings, in a way that feels refreshing and wholly removed from model minority narratives.

From how often it’s the white characters that can be whole people, warts and all, and characters of colour the ones that have to reach for the sky in sainthood to receive a crumb of the attention and admiration the first group gets.

And by being written this way, I doubt these characters got that kind of reaction from the audience. If I had to guess, based on the little I’ve seen around [ETA: I read through the comments some of these issues got on scans-daily, and oh boy, was I right lmfao], I’d say a lot of readers would get defensive; sometimes of the white fan-favourites mentioned in passing, often negatively, but even of the characters of colour and how the way they’re portrayed here could make them targets for criticism. But I admire the series all the more for doing it this way.

Comments

[senmut]

Oh I need to acquire. And yeah, white fandom tends to go on the defensive so hard.

[queenslayerbee]

Not just with white characters -I've seen some of that but it's... Well, lately white fandom is just self-aware *enough* to know how they'd sound if they straight up accused a comic focused on characters of colour of being TOO harsh on the white favourites lol, so they sort of dress it up/are very careful about the language and tone they use, iykwim. Way milder, at least in more outwardly progressive spaces (I kinda want to look the comic up in Reddit to see what's there LOL). A tad more aggressive when defending Batman though xD

The most defensive comments I've seen so far are actually about Jefferson, however. Both his issue and Anissa showcase some real, ugly flaws in him. I personally loved how they did it. I think it fit. I think it paints a well-rounded person. But they're hard pills to swallow if you came in wanting to like the man without caveats. And as I said, some people have trouble accepting this kind of nuance portrayal in a non-white character, because the standards for them are always higher.