Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s editorial board. 

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

LAURA SCHINAGLE

EDITOR IN CHIEF

MELISSA SCHOLKE

EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

DEREK WOLFE

MANAGING EDITOR

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109
 tothedaily@umich.edu

Edited and managed by students at 

the University of Michigan since 1890.

4

Thursday, May 28, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

M

y eight month campaign 
of the ’14-’15 school year is 
over. At times like these, I 

undoubtedly think 
back 
to 
winter 

workouts for my 
high school base-
ball team. Asking our coach why we 
were sweating so hard five months 
before the season began, he respond-
ed confidently: “If you ever want to be 
great, you have to work even harder in 
the off-season.”

I remember thinking that statement 

was so lame, so cliché. However, I’m not 
sure anything has contributed more to 
me trying to become a “person of let-
ters” — carrying a pencil around under 
the sun, reading and writing all day.

I figure you can make some excep-

tions though. I still need friends to 
work with, and we need a spot to 
work, quote unquote, the hangout 
spot. Through the first month of sum-
mer, the spot has been Bandemer Park 
on the river. Why? Because it’s gor-
geous. It’s everything you dreamed of 
throughout all 13 months of February.

Hear me out:
You can drive here, but we don’t. 

My friends pick me up on Division. 
My house is the last stop. They walk 
as a big group — 11 or 12 people — but 
not as a large cluster, more like three 
groups of three or four. I like to mean-
der from one to the other so I can hear 
everyone’s voice at least once. They all 

sound so young. Each group develops its 
own train of thought. One group will be 
amidst a heated debate over which res-
taurant has the best falafel pita: Jerusa-
lem Garden or Pita Kabob. I’m partial 
to the latter. Another might be taking 
collective shots at Teddy Cruz and the 
lunacy of his Tea Party constituents 
while the third might be having the 
more dire panel discussion over what 
the best Spike Jonze movie is. I try to 
drop a one-liner joke before departing 
every verbal hurrah for the next.

“Being John Malkovich? More like 

being Eli Sparkman, am I right or am 
I right?”

We cross the train tracks. I can do 

five steps in a row walking along a rail 
before losing my balance. We walk 
along the Argo trail on the west side of 
the river. It’s the nature zone. Friends 
who are Program in the Environment 
majors point at every tree and tell me 
its name in Latin. I smile and nod and 
confuse the names for one another. 
It’s perfect. I usually see a frog or two. 
There’s this light, muddy clay-colored 
one I see the most. I like to think it’s 
the same frog every time. I named him 
Roger because I’m a little more ironic 
than I should be.

Things are beginning to open up: 

a parking lot to the left, a bench and 
more trail to the center and the dock 
on the right. There are bikers in their 
undeniably lame looking spandex, 
bicycle gear. They sport helmets. They 

I 
 

grew up admiring super-
heroes. My first roller 
coaster was based on The 

Hulk. 
My 

first PG-13 
movie 
was 
Spi-

der-Man 
(played 
by 
Tobey 

Magu-
ire), 
and 

many of my 
mornings 
were spent 
watching 
Batman cartoons. Even today, 
most people who know me well 
know I’m a Batman fanatic. 
Throughout the years, though, 
I could never truly admire the 
female superheroes or villains 
presented to me.

Though there were times 

when I thought the female 
characters were more interest-
ing or more fun to watch, they 
were simply never as visible in 
the cartoons, and later in the 
movies. Every time a female 
character was presented to me, 
I wanted to love them, I really 
did, but I was always put off 
by their skin-tight costumes 
that I could never see myself 
wearing or their stories that 
always revolved around men. 
They always looked like cheap 
knock-offs of their male coun-
terparts. Superman was cooler 
than Wonder Woman. Batman 
was cooler than Catwoman, 
and the Joker was creepier 
than Harley Quinn.

In comics, I found the 

occasional 
female 
Muslim 

superhero, but they were also 
usually 
disappointments. 

Really, a burka-wearing super-

woman named Dust whose 
power is to turn herself into a 
cloud of sand? So in class last 
semester when I was told we 
were going to read Ms. Mar-
vel — a Marvel comic based on 
a Pakistani-American super-
hero — I was a bit skeptical. A 
Muslim girl in a mainstream 
comic book? Come on, what’s 
the catch?

To my surprise, this story 

was in no way a disappoint-
ment. While reading the comic, 
I sat next to my mother, and I 
pointed out to her all the simi-
larities: “Look, her parents are 
speaking in Urdu to her.” The 
comic book was well written, 
not just as a representation of 
a Pakistani-American Muslim, 
but also as a relatable superher-
oine. Kamala Khan, with her 
secret identity as a comic book 
fangirl, struggles with her real 
identity as a Muslim and a teen-
age girl. She 
is similar to 
the teenage 
superhero 
Spiderman, 
as she is a 
little geeky 
and doesn’t 
quite fit in 
with 
the 

popular 
crowd. 
As 

a female superhero, she makes 
the choice to wear a less reveal-
ing costume, as it fits with her 
personal identity better.

Though her character is a 

female and a minority whose 
story does not revolve around 
a man, it doesn’t put a dent in 
her popularity. In fact, it com-
pliments it. Ms. Marvel is one 
of Marvel’s best-selling comic 

books and is sitting well with 
fans as people relate to the 
familiarity of her struggles 
with her identity.

As Marvel and DC “experi-

ment” with diverse characters, 
one thing seems clear: charac-
ters from diverse backgrounds 
are as marketable as any other 
character when they’re well 
written. As readers and writers 
question whether diversifying 
characters will detract from 
their stories, the real question 
is why not have superheroes 
living with others in a world 
as diverse as the world around 
us? The rebooted Ms. Marvel 
as a woman of color attracts an 
audience without needing to 
be objectified in any way, and 
more power to her.

Despite the popularity of 

this version of Ms. Marvel, 
whether a character as “wildly” 
diverse as her would ever make 

it to the big 
screen 
is 

something 
I 
highly 

doubt will 
happen 
in 

the 
near 

future. 
When 
it 

comes 
to 

minority 
represen-

tation in movies, I’m usually 
disappointed. But maybe I’m 
just 
pessimistic. 
On-screen, 

the original secret identities, 
or personas, of the superhe-
roes are usually used, and most 
of the original or mainstream 
characters are white and male. 
Much of the problem is that 
instead of bringing characters 
that are already diverse to the 

An homage to the Huron

Their own heroes

forefront, or creating new superheroes, 
the characters in the comics are just 
temporarily rebooted.

Then, every time the movies are 

rebooted, these companies are faced 
with a choice between choosing 
between the character’s more main-
stream persona and the newer, diver-
sified persona, and they tend to stick 
with the original. Yet, if a comic book 
heroine that’s already diverse has 
become popular, why not make a movie 
about her? Why are these companies 
able to trust their readers with diver-
sity, but not their movie audience?

My hope is that these movies, as 

well every other superhero movie, 
has dynamic female characters so 
that young girls and boys can grow 
up without constantly finding weak 
female characters. No more Mary 
Jane, damsels in distress. No more 
finding Sue Storm naked in public 
two movies in a row. No more making 
superhero movies with hyper-sexual-
ized female characters meant only to 
appeal to men.

We know when you add a token 

female or a token minority into your 
story just to say you tried, but the 

truth is we also can see when you do 
not. That is why female superhero 
movies have flopped in the past. We 
want more real superheroes from 
diverse backgrounds, but that means 
putting real thought into their stories.

For anyone looking for strong 

female characters in superhero mov-
ies, we might be getting what we 
wanted. DC plans on releasing a 
Wonder Woman movie in 2017, and 
Marvel is planning on releasing a Cap-
tain Marvel movie in 2018. However, 
Kamala Khan will not be the persona 
because they are using the identity of 
Carol Danvers, who is white. This may 
be a logical choice considering that 
she’s an older and possibly more estab-
lished identity, but maybe if Kamala 
Khan was given a separate identity 
instead of living in the shadows of a 
past identity, she could one day make 
it to theaters or be featured in a 
 

television series.

Maybe one day, diverse heroes 

will be good enough to truly be their 
 

own heroes.

— Rabab Jafri can be reached 

at rjafri@umich.edu

ELIJAH 
SPARKMAN

RABAB 
JAFRI

Why not have 

superheroes living 

with others in a world 
as diverse as the world 

around us?

