The Talia/Damian discourse is back, and it's always a weird one.

My take on it? As someone who always loved her as one of the few notable brown characters in comics, with a degree of prominence, *and* also enjoyed The Bat-Epic, the following are my two-cents:

The Bat-Epic's misogyny, its failures and treatment of Talia and how it doesn't explore that character and her nuances...those criticisms are all incredibly valid, but what I find strange is this weird impulse that's like...idealizing the past prior to that era?

Like, all the people who are happy to point out the fucked errors of the Morrison works also...almost never mentioned the fucked and messy bullshit of O'Neil?

Like, there's this bizarre lionization of O'Neil that is DEEPLY uncritical of the nonsense that he built everything on.

And right up front, I'll link one of my favorite pieces of criticism in general, but also of Grant, and The Bat-Epic, by one of my favorite critics.

It's excellent and a must-read:

http://mindlessones.com/2018/02/13/we-all-devour-down-here/

There's this weird paper-ing over of O'Neil, as if all his stuff was perfect, when like...come on, Mr. Old Man From The '70s wasn't exactly the height of writing about people from the other side of the world.

Let's be real.

(That said, 'Talia bad prior to Grant' is also bs)

Anyway, point being, you CAN and given I love the character, SHOULD, write a story critiquing, addressing, dealing with the misogyny and mistakes of Grant's work, but that doesn't mean idealizing what came before.

It means taking a hard look at all the fucked shit prior.

And then you tell a story that humanizes the character, strips her away from the bullshit...not by saying NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENED OR COUNTED, WE'RE IGNORING.

No. Then your work will be ignored, too. The pattern won't end.

You tell a story confronting it all. You change her.

All of which is to say...pulling Talia from the mud of bullshit she's been in...does not have to mean negating Damian's entire story, journey, and point.

You don't have to burn something to turn back the clock to some idealized, imagined Golden Age of Talia comics by white ppl.

There's a really, really good story to be told about Damian and Talia reconciling or trying to mend things, but that's not an *easy* one. That's not two issues or a back-up or an arc.

That's a long journey, about trauma, abuse, pain, healing, and sacrifice. It can't be easy.

The other thing, too, I'll throw in, because it bugs me:

PoC characters CAN be villainous. They can be antagonists. They can do hurtful, awful, cruel, monstrous things. What matters is how it's written/handled/done.

Diversity doesn't mean 'All PoC are happy/cute/good.'

Acknowledge that we're all people. Tell stories with us that deal with not just the 'easy', the 'cute', or 'soft' or whatever, but also the hard, the harsh, the painful.

We need a whole diverse array of characters, who are written WELL, with authenticity and humanity, above all.

Our stories can be painful, they can be tragic, they can be horrific. They can be nuanced. They can be more than 'villain' and 'hero'.

Treat us not like tokens who're in cute scenes to post to tumblr, but like people.

Write us without stereotypes, and do the due diligence.

Also: Not every PoC character will appeal to or speak to or interest every PoC reader, and that's fine.

True Diversity is having SO MANY that people have tons of options, that they no longer have to cling to a select few, because that's all the crumbs they get.

It's like queer narratives.

Midnighter's a lovely character I adore. But he's not a character that's going to speak to or connect with every queer reader. And that's fine.

We need those diversity of stories and characters. We need variety/loads of options, something for all.

Speaking of variety and queer narratives and PoC in superhero comics:

Go read this lovely book, which is set in the '80s, and hits hard.

https://www.comixology.com/Barbalien/comics-series/150748