Snow-Elysium

Justice for Agostina. Instead of asking what the hell a 35-year-old adult man was doing with a 14-year-old girl, and what the hell an adult man was doing having sexual relations with a 14-year-old child, they go and blame the girl, her mother, and any other woman in Agostina's life—ANYONE EXCEPT THE MURDERER.

Justice for Agostina. The Minister of Security is out there congratulating the security forces and the dog that found her dead, yet his police chiefs refused to take the mother's report because the River-Belgrano match was playing. They failed to immediately trigger the Sofia Alert—a protocol that is crucial to launch the exact moment a minor's disappearance is reported—all because of a soccer game.

Justice for Agostina, whose life is treated as worth less than a soccer match, and worth less than the life of a murderer and rapist.

Hippolyta:

And perhaps we should interrogate who that narrative is for.

Damian has literally been sent to hell. Tara has been treated like...Tara by basically every narrative she has ever been in. To this day, people still refuse to acknowledge their growth, their nuance, or the lack of agency baked into their circumstances.

But then you get a willing, spiteful mass murderer who spends five dubious minutes posing as less of an asshole, and suddenly he is the freshest, hottest concept in comics. We simply must root for him. We must celebrate his growth. We must ignore the continuity of his crimes. And if you point out that he has, in fact, done horrific things on purpose, suddenly you’re “taking comics too seriously.”

Interesting.

Redemption arcs are not the problem. Growth is not the problem. Characters with blood on their hands becoming better is not the problem.

The problem is how quickly some fans recognize humanity, nuance, pain, and potential in a violent white male power fantasy, while treating characters like Damian, Talia, Tara, and plenty of others as permanently defined by their worst context, their worst writing, or their least charitable interpretation. Even Diana suffers from this and she didn't even really do anything wrong--

What could possibly cause people to project so hard into that archetype?

In this political climate?

E for violence, 14.6k, 1/2 chapters.

“We will be climbing down and then up,” Damian decides, given the evidence. “No, Damian,” she says, and starts off walking, forcing him to come after her as the rope tugs taut. He chews on his lip behind his gator, cringing and trapped by his mistake. Survivalist exercise? Or maybe navigation? Some sort of test? He can’t afford to be wrong again. “There shouldn’t be any crevasses,” Ommi says into the silence, “but if I start to fall, cut your rope immediately. Understood?” “Then I can’t stop your fall,” he argues. She gives him a look, just the briefest glance over her shoulder. “Understood.” They crunch on for a minute. “I could rescue you, Ommi.” “No.” The word clouds the air, just briefly. “You will preserve your own life only. You should think of saving your breath, it’s a long way down.” That’s not an order, however, so he’s free to push. “We are leaving the compound.” She doesn’t reply. Damian squirms for a moment, trying to find a way to ask that requires no question at all. “We have a destination already in mind.” “Yes,” Ommi says, finally. “Gotham.” Talia, Damian, and leaving the devil you know, the hell you've built, the life you've made your own.

As you may know, there was recently a DC Comics boycott as a part of the DCSoWhite movement since DC has not had a mainline ongoing solo with a Black lead for over 1200 days. You can read more about this here, here, here, and here. The boycott has been cancelled (link), but that doesn't mean we can't still show support for Black comic creators!

One of the things the movement called for fans to do was to "[Support] Black creators through independent and creator-owned projects." So this post is meant to provide tips on how to do this.

Check out other works of Black creators you're already familiar with

The Black comic creators you're already a fan of who have made comics for DC or Marvel have likely also made comics for other publishers too. You can usually find out about other comics they've worked on through their Wikipedia page, social media pages, and their own website if they have one. And it's a good idea to follow their social media to learn about any of their projects in the future!

Look through indie publisher websites

A great way to find out about indie comics is to check out indie publishers' websites. There will almost always be a page on their websites with all their comics so you can easily look through them and the creators will be listed so you can look into the creators too. This is one way to find out about Black comic creators who you might not already be familiar with.

The publishers that are listed as examples in the webpages linked above are Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, Vault Comics, Ignition Press, and Stranger Comics.

Check out existing lists

There are already lists online that specifically recommend Black creators to check out and comics by Black creators. You can also find recommendations and lists on social media. This is another great way to find out about Black comic creators you're not yet familiar with.

Speaking of lists, I would like to point you to this post by @bimboopo which includes a list of many Black webtoon creators which you can go check out!