Like all media, comic books aren't free of prejudice and discrimination. While there has been social progress in comic books, you can't ignore its history. Over the years there have been offensive comics and racist comic book characters that would make modern audiences cringe.
Even today, there are still comic book characters that are stereotypes, but many have since been edged away from their racist, homophobic, or politically incorrect roots. Take a look and wince at this list of politically incorrect heroes, bad comic stereotypes, and just plain offensive comic book characters.
While Luke Cage was retconned, redesigned, and rewritten to be a better, three-dimensional character, you can't ignore his roots. Cage was originally a jive-talking product of blaxploitation. Wearing a tiara, donning chains, and calling women "foxes," Luke Cage was certainly a product of the '70s that wouldn't fly in current times.
In 2003, Marvel decided to reboot an older cowboy character from the 1950s into a homosexual hero. While the intentions were good, the follow-through failed. The Rawhide Kid played up all the gay stereotype tropes in insulting everyone's fashion sense, speaking in hacky double entendres, and being an effeminate goof despite his heroic ideals and quick-draw shooting skills. The comic was even a part of Marvel's adults only MAX line despite not having any salty language or nudity. The Rawhide Kid was considered too raw for children simply because he was gay.
Debuting in Tales of Suspense #50, the Mandarin is essentially every Asian stereotype wrapped up into a single character. Skilled martial artist? Check. Trained Asian mystic? Check. Genius scientist? Check. Having a name that just focuses on his race? Double check.
The Mandarin was arguably Iron Man's most recognizable villain, which made him last longer than he probably should have. While his character evolved to be more than the sum of his stereotypes over the years, it's still hard to justify having any character named "The Mandarin" in today's modern landscape.
Yep, that's a hermaphrodite supervillain, but not just in terms of genitalia. He-She was a villain of the Crimebuster in Lev Gleason's Boy Comics and used his/her... er, ability (?) to be a man and a woman to commit crimes. He-She would use the woman half of his/her body to lure in unsuspecting men with his/her feminine wiles. Afterward, He-She's male half would be used to kill and rob the victims.
So, aside from being an offensive characterization of actual hermaphrodites, gender fluid individuals, and transsexuals, He-She makes no logical sense to begin with. In order for any of He-She's schemes to work, He-She would have to make sure only one side of his/her body could be seen. Kind of awkward for a woman to strike up a conversation with a guy when she's looking and talking out of one side of her face. Thankfully for He-She, comic books take place in a 2-D environment.
Tyroc Is A Black Separatist Created To Justify The Absence Of Black Folks In DC Comics
The Legion of Super-Heroes has had white heroes, blue heroes, green heroes, but no Black heroes until 1976. That's when Tyroc hit the scene as DC's first Black superhero, a full year before Black Lightning made his debut. But, once again, good intentions went awry.
Instead of being a hero that stands alongside the Legion, Tyroc was a Black separatist. The character believed in segregation between his race and others. That was because, in the Legion's universe, all the Black people lived on a single island away from other races and cultures. This was to explain why there were no Black people in the Legion comic beforehand. Yikes.
DC Comics legend Jim Shooter was outright embarrassed at the character, especially since he had been trying to get an African-American hero into the Legion since the 1960s, but had been shot down by editors. Even Tyroc's co-creator, Mike Grell, hated the character and intentionally drew a ridiculous costume for Tyroc out of protest. If a character's co-creator hates the character and what he stands for, why even bother?
Wonder Woman is a super-strong Amazon warrior. Writers at DC needed to create a proper, equally strong villain for her to fight. So, in 1965, in Wonder Woman #157, Wonder Woman faced her greatest challenge yet: a giant egg with a face. Granted, it was a giant egg that was a top-ranked Chinese Communist agent, but it's still just an egg waiting to get cracked.
Egg Fu was just the "sneaky Asian" stereotype literally plastered onto a giant egg. From the sinister eyebrows, Fu Manchu mustache, and Charlie Chan broken English, this character had every Asian stereotype scrambled into a single character. In later years, Egg Fu would lose all the chop-socky nonsense because DC, for some reason, still thought that a giant egg was a salvageable villain.
