Chicago Comic Entertainment Expedition

On Sunday, April 26, I had the opportunity to attend the Chicago Comic Entertainment Expedition. It was amazing to be able to meet like minded people who came together to see what they love. The event itself serves as an outlet to show creativity and to be able to fully express one’s ideas. It was my first time attending the event, and I was able to get a distinct view and idea of identity. I have been mainly focusing on identity through the point of race and how it plays in with injustices and justice throughout the country and the world. However, in this case identity comes from those that enjoy reading comics and learning about superheroes. Ever since I was a child, I enjoyed watching superhero related content, and at one point had the desire to be one. However, identity mainly occurred to me when I realized that the people that I had idolized so much were White males. It has never occurred to me that when it came to justice, the only people created were White. It infuriates me a little, due to the fact that as a person of color, I would appreciate having a superhero that looks just like me. However, because of the long existing idea of stereotypes and racism, many of the villains that I’ve managed to stumble upon are African American or Latino. Where films and comics fail to depict a wide range of diversity in terms of superheroes and role models that kids can look up to, the audience succeeds. No matter what race or class you may identity with, everyone manages to get their “nerd” on by dressing up as the heroes they want to be. It was truly a diverse crowd and personally it feels good to unite with everyone and not have to worry about being racially profiled or judged by one’s race. It was amazing to be able to meet some of the actors and entertainers that I have known as a child, and I hope to see bigger strides taken by comic companies such as Marvel and DC in order to diversify their heroes and depict America for how it really is. Before long, statistics show how there will be a point where the majority of people living in the United States will be people of color, such as Asian, African American, Latino, etc. It’s good to know how they’ve taken several steps by making Captain America Black, as well as diversifying in gender by making heroes like Thor and Wolverine female.