Q.Why are there NO( or very few) Marvel heroes who are albinos?

[Fantasyartist]

Question: what do Nekra, Tombstone, Omega Red , Blackout and Seraph( Defenders ally) all have in common?Answer: all are marvel characters- and all but the last clearly villains as well as being albinos.

This post was inspired by protests by an albino rights support group over the film "The Da Vinci Code" which featured a murderous albino monk(played by Paul Bettany) and the statement from it that there were very few if any positive role models for albinos in popular culture).
I find it odd to say the least that Marvel that has pioneered heroes /heroines of every ethnicity and nationality, African American, Latino, native American, Jewish, Russian and German (and even some of gay sexuality such as Northstar of Alpha Flight) can treat a minority group like albinos so poorly. All right I'm not an albino myself but if I were, i would be very unhappy at the media portrayal( even in comic books) of people with my trait.
Do any other people share my view? About the only Marvel character who both an albino and unambiguously a heroine is the aforementioned Seraph( who hasn't been heard of since New Defenders# 151)

Okay so there aren't THAT many albinos around but since when does numbers determine how a group is to be treated?

Terry

 

[Harlekin]

They don't really classify as albinos, actually. They're simply really really white. There's a lot more that comes to albinos than just having white skin.

 

[SuperFerret]

Tombstone is actually an albino. The rest, I'm not too sure of.

 

[ampersand]

Albinos are evil.

 

[Joker]

albinos have red eyes, and look scary...therefore, they make better villains...if an albino saved me, I'd be all "get away, spawn of satan!" and kick him right in the junk

 

[Elijya]

Hey, you guys have got Powder

 

[Doc Destruction]

I was thinking the very same thing, E.

 

[Elijya]

according to wikipedia, 1 in 17,000 people are affected with some type of albinism, so they make up about 0.006% of society. The fact that 5 Albino characters exist in the Marvel Universe, even if 4 are villains, is astonishing from a percentage point of view.

Groups with no representation should be given priorty, shouldn't they? Where are the Zoroastrian characters? Where are the Orthodox Jews, and those afflicted with Usher Syndrome?

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

bishop has usher syndrome...

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

as for the thread starter, it's simply not enough demand unfortunately.

personally i wanna see more aboriginal characters out there

 

[Elijya]

well, there are at least two aboriginal characters, and according to wikipedia, there's less than 500,000 of them today, which makes them 0.00007 percent, so that's even more out there

 

[logan_weapon_x]

Its just one of those cases, where nodoby seems to think of a character like that. Its not like someone sits down and says 'hey, an albino character would be really cool'

 

[Darthphere]

bishop has usher syndrome...

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

well, there are at least two aboriginal characters, and according to wikipedia, there's less than 500,000 of them today, which makes them 0.00007 percent, so that's even more out there

which two might that be...

i think i may have a comic with one of them but i can't recall which exact one and why he was there. he seemed fairly powerful though.

 

[Elijya]

well, one is Gateway (I'm sure you know him?) and he was recently revealed to be Bishop's great grandfather, so that makes Bishop Aborigine too

 

[Phaedrus45]

Domino, is she an albino?

 

[Elijya]

yeah, I think she qualifies

so would copycat, I guess

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

well, one is Gateway (I'm sure you know him?) and he was recently revealed to be Bishop's great grandfather, so that makes Bishop Aborigine too

got any pics of this gateway character

having aboriginal blood doesn't necessarily make one aboriginal fully.

consider a single generation passing for any mixed raced family, let alone 3 generations passing.

i'd say enough polution has been done to bishop's stream to keep him black or away from his aboriginal features

what about shard, is she like half cast or something? i never understood that they were bro and sis, or is one of them adopted?

 

[Elijya]

got any pics of this gateway character

He was an unofficial X-Man when they were based in Australia, and later a supporting character in Generation X
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_(comics)

 

[Elijya]

what about shard, is she like half cast or something? i never understood that they were bro and sis, or is one of them adopted?

Shard was Bishops sister, but she was killed in the future before he came back. He kept a holographic program to remind him or her, and it gained sentience and for all intents and purpose became his sister. She joined X-Factor and hooked up with Wildchild. Not sure what happened to her after X-Factor (I'm sure she probably popped up in X-Treme or District X, I'll check wikipedia.)

 

[Elijya]

she appearently died in Bishop's ill-fated ongoing series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shard_(comics)

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I thought Shard was cool because they referred to her as a "photon-based life form." No other reason, really. I'm very simple.

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

indeed it is

and its this exact pic i can remember although ic an't remember exactly wehre it is from


did he have any involvement with wolverine when he went into a beast form just before the onslaught saga.

i have a memory of that pic being from an issue of when wolverine fights elektra for his humanity and he manages to sheath her sword.

and there's some awesome quote in it as well although i can't recall it, something about mountains.

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

she appearently died in Bishop's ill-fated ongoing series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shard_(comics)

that i swear is the darkest i've ever seen her...

*gasp*

she looked fairly light in the cartoons
and onslaught comics i have with her in.

 

[Elijya]

indeed it is

and its this exact pic i can remember although ic an't remember exactly wehre it is from


did he have any involvement with wolverine when he went into a beast form just before the onslaught saga.

i have a memory of that pic being from an issue of when wolverine fights elektra for his humanity and he manages to sheath her sword.

and there's some awesome quote in it as well although i can't recall it, something about mountains.

pretty sure that pic is from his time with Gen X. And yes, I also recall him appearing in Wolverine at some point when he had bone claws.

He's mute and has only spoken a number of times. In the Age of Apocalypse, he was extremely chatty