10 Things From DC Comics That REALLY Haven't Aged Well
4. The Other Missteps That DC Has Had Towards Diversification
Like the initial version of Extrano, DC’s attempt to racially diversify their characters end up as more of a misstep. It would seem, overall, that the intention to diversify can often be outmatched by the actual damage done in creating characters that were effectively old stereotypes.
For example, there is the introduction of the Green Lantern John Stewart, in 1971. John’s character was also vulnerable to stereotyping as a representation of the “angry black man” archetype.
Here, John was conveyed in terms of his dissatisfaction with American racism, and it was this kind of attitude that Hal Jordan questioning whether John should even be a Lantern, despite him meeting the Green Lantern requisite. It later took John saving a racist politician to earn Hal's trust - which was actually John's first mission as a hero.
The idea here, it seems, is that because John was upset about racism in American, he was likely to let this cloud his judgment. Clearly this kind of uneven treatment would need to be corrected, in order to see real improvement for multi-racial representation.