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Black Representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)
Often Undoing the Source Material in the Comics
I’ve been unwittingly researching this story since my early teens. That’s the length of time I’ve been reading comic books, except for a brief pause in my twenties. From seventh to twelfth grade, I took the city bus to school, transferring downtown on Hennepin Avenue. My trip home had me standing in front of Shinders on Seventh and Hennepin, which was the leading comic chain in Minneapolis. I waited for my bus, perusing comics and buying what I could afford, often choosing comics over my lunch money.
I read a bit of Superman, Batman, and even Archie, but I was always more attracted to Marvel comics. While Superman and Batman roamed the fictional Metropolis and Gotham City, with Archie in the imaginary Riverdale. Marvel characters existed in New York and other real locations, which made them more real.
What it took me a while to notice was that in these real cities, with large minority populations, there were almost no Black or Hispanic people, even in locations where they had to exist. There were few Black Marvel characters when I started reading…
