AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me. Click the 'Full Article' link at the bottom of the page to see the rest of the list, as it was too long to put in this post)
Representation of officially-diagnosed characters in superhero comics is minimal, and the situation isn’t much better in indie comics. There are, however, many characters who, while not officially diagnosed, do display characteristics of autism and that autistic fans have largely embraced. Here’s a list of 11 canonically autistic characters from comics and superhero media, followed by five popular fan theories.
16. BLACK MANTA
Aquaman’s nemesis Black Manta is at the bottom of this list because frankly he’s just embarrassing in terms of autistic representation. Issue #8 of the 2003 Aquaman comics series retconned him as an autistic orphan brought up in Arkham, who is somehow “cured” of his autism and then becomes a supervillain. Autism is not something that can be cured, and many don’t even think it should be cured!
Autism often comes with gifts and harmless differences as well as disabilities, and the more disabling symptoms can be treated individually. Still, whatever your thoughts on the cure issue, using it as a cheap edgy excuse for evil is tasteless. Now which Black Manta origin story is more tasteless: the 2003 autism one or the 1993 child molestation one? That’s for you to decide!
15. LEGION
Legion is a character who’s received a lot of attention recently thanks to his excellent show on FX. What he isn’t is a clear representation of autism. In his first appearance in New Mutants #25, Moira MacTaggert described him as “first catatonic, now autistic.” He’s also been described multiple times as schizophrenic. Both of these descriptions make it seem like there has been some serious ignorance on mental health issues over at Marvel.
What Legion actually has is Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities). It’s possible for DID to overlap with autism (Elliot from Mr. Robot is an example of a character who seems to have both), but there’s just no real evidence that Legion’s autism is anything other than a faulty diagnosis by ignorant writers.
14. A WHOLE BUNCH OF D-LIST X-MEN
These could fill up more space on the list but there’s just not much to write about most of these characters. Some are better than others but they’re all pretty minor. There’s Laura Dean who’s written as having been autistic as a kid but then growing out of it (that’s not how autism works); there’s L’il Bro whose severe autism symptoms are insinuated to be caused by sexual abuse (that’s also not how autism works); there’s Chaos who’s actually a swarm of nanomachines (…OK, then); and then there’s the unfortunately-named Dummy who’s a cloud of sentient gas and dies after four appearances (….comics are weird). Slightly more significant than those four is Claudette St. Croix, who was mostly seen fused with her neurotypical twin Nicole into a single body. She hasn’t been seen in any form since the start of the new millennium.
13. JOHNNY DO
Johnny Do was a severely autistic pyrokinetic child in the comic Psi-Force, one of the eight series in Marvel’s short lived “New Universe” line (Earth-148611) that lasted from 1986 to 1989. Johnny was horribly mistreated as a captive of the Russian Siberian Project, treated like an animal and threatened with a lobotomy. Another inmate, psychic vampire Thomas Boyd, broke out of the Project and rescued him, more or less adopting him as his own.
While still nonverbal and heavily disabled, Johnny began to thrive and open up under Boyd’s loving protection, working alongside him as part of the Medusa Web covert ops organization. Perhaps we’d have seen him grow and develop even more has the “New Universe” not been a colossal failure, destroyed quickly after it was introduced.
12. NEPETA
The officialness of Nepeta’s autism in the popular webcomic Homestuck is a bit more debatable than most of these examples, given that the character who calls her autistic is Karkat, a literal troll who could just as easily been rudely insulting her as much as describing her accurately. Still, she didn’t object at all to being called autistic, so combined with her characterization there’s more than enough evidence to lean on the idea that, yes, Nepeta is canonically autistic.
She stims by biting her hat (stims are the type of repetitive gestures that autistic people find comforting), is socially isolated, has an intense special interest in the form of shipping, and relates more to cats than she does to her peers (this is common among autistic people).
11. ROSA REYES
Rosa Reyes, introduced in issue #5 of Simon Oliver’s comic FBP: The Federal Bureau of Physics (previously titled Collider), is a tough-as-nails special agent investigating quantum abnormalities in a world where violations of the laws of physics have become commonplace. She’s good at her job, driven by a desire to understand the mysteries that tore her family apart, but has zero talent for things like small talk and has been thrown around between departments because of her weak social skills.
She initially didn’t get along with her partner Adam Hardy, who makes “Rain Man” jokes and other ableist comments regarding her Asperger’s, but the two of them have to work together and grow to respect each other over the course of the 24-issue series.
10. BLUE RANGER (2017 FILM VERSION)
The new Power Rangers movie has been divisive, but one thing both fans and critics can generally agree on is the portrayal of Billy Cranston, the new Blue Ranger, as being openly autistic. It was by far one of its stronger points. He’s notable as the first autistic superhero to be acknowledged directly as such on the big screen. He’s also a rare example of a black autistic person represented in the media.
Autistic people of color frequently go undiagnosed and don’t receive the same level of services as white autistic people, so media representation is extra important. Of the officially confirmed examples on this list, Billy is probably the most high profile. Well, except for the next one, who you might not have known is autistic, but you’ve certainly heard of him…
Full Article: On The Spectrum: 11 Characters Living With Autism (And 5 More Who Might Be)
Representation of officially-diagnosed characters in superhero comics is minimal, and the situation isn’t much better in indie comics. There are, however, many characters who, while not officially diagnosed, do display characteristics of autism and that autistic fans have largely embraced. Here’s a list of 11 canonically autistic characters from comics and superhero media, followed by five popular fan theories.
16. BLACK MANTA
Aquaman’s nemesis Black Manta is at the bottom of this list because frankly he’s just embarrassing in terms of autistic representation. Issue #8 of the 2003 Aquaman comics series retconned him as an autistic orphan brought up in Arkham, who is somehow “cured” of his autism and then becomes a supervillain. Autism is not something that can be cured, and many don’t even think it should be cured!
Autism often comes with gifts and harmless differences as well as disabilities, and the more disabling symptoms can be treated individually. Still, whatever your thoughts on the cure issue, using it as a cheap edgy excuse for evil is tasteless. Now which Black Manta origin story is more tasteless: the 2003 autism one or the 1993 child molestation one? That’s for you to decide!
15. LEGION
Legion is a character who’s received a lot of attention recently thanks to his excellent show on FX. What he isn’t is a clear representation of autism. In his first appearance in New Mutants #25, Moira MacTaggert described him as “first catatonic, now autistic.” He’s also been described multiple times as schizophrenic. Both of these descriptions make it seem like there has been some serious ignorance on mental health issues over at Marvel.
What Legion actually has is Dissociative Identity Disorder (multiple personalities). It’s possible for DID to overlap with autism (Elliot from Mr. Robot is an example of a character who seems to have both), but there’s just no real evidence that Legion’s autism is anything other than a faulty diagnosis by ignorant writers.
14. A WHOLE BUNCH OF D-LIST X-MEN
These could fill up more space on the list but there’s just not much to write about most of these characters. Some are better than others but they’re all pretty minor. There’s Laura Dean who’s written as having been autistic as a kid but then growing out of it (that’s not how autism works); there’s L’il Bro whose severe autism symptoms are insinuated to be caused by sexual abuse (that’s also not how autism works); there’s Chaos who’s actually a swarm of nanomachines (…OK, then); and then there’s the unfortunately-named Dummy who’s a cloud of sentient gas and dies after four appearances (….comics are weird). Slightly more significant than those four is Claudette St. Croix, who was mostly seen fused with her neurotypical twin Nicole into a single body. She hasn’t been seen in any form since the start of the new millennium.
13. JOHNNY DO
Johnny Do was a severely autistic pyrokinetic child in the comic Psi-Force, one of the eight series in Marvel’s short lived “New Universe” line (Earth-148611) that lasted from 1986 to 1989. Johnny was horribly mistreated as a captive of the Russian Siberian Project, treated like an animal and threatened with a lobotomy. Another inmate, psychic vampire Thomas Boyd, broke out of the Project and rescued him, more or less adopting him as his own.
While still nonverbal and heavily disabled, Johnny began to thrive and open up under Boyd’s loving protection, working alongside him as part of the Medusa Web covert ops organization. Perhaps we’d have seen him grow and develop even more has the “New Universe” not been a colossal failure, destroyed quickly after it was introduced.
12. NEPETA
The officialness of Nepeta’s autism in the popular webcomic Homestuck is a bit more debatable than most of these examples, given that the character who calls her autistic is Karkat, a literal troll who could just as easily been rudely insulting her as much as describing her accurately. Still, she didn’t object at all to being called autistic, so combined with her characterization there’s more than enough evidence to lean on the idea that, yes, Nepeta is canonically autistic.
She stims by biting her hat (stims are the type of repetitive gestures that autistic people find comforting), is socially isolated, has an intense special interest in the form of shipping, and relates more to cats than she does to her peers (this is common among autistic people).
11. ROSA REYES
Rosa Reyes, introduced in issue #5 of Simon Oliver’s comic FBP: The Federal Bureau of Physics (previously titled Collider), is a tough-as-nails special agent investigating quantum abnormalities in a world where violations of the laws of physics have become commonplace. She’s good at her job, driven by a desire to understand the mysteries that tore her family apart, but has zero talent for things like small talk and has been thrown around between departments because of her weak social skills.
She initially didn’t get along with her partner Adam Hardy, who makes “Rain Man” jokes and other ableist comments regarding her Asperger’s, but the two of them have to work together and grow to respect each other over the course of the 24-issue series.
10. BLUE RANGER (2017 FILM VERSION)
The new Power Rangers movie has been divisive, but one thing both fans and critics can generally agree on is the portrayal of Billy Cranston, the new Blue Ranger, as being openly autistic. It was by far one of its stronger points. He’s notable as the first autistic superhero to be acknowledged directly as such on the big screen. He’s also a rare example of a black autistic person represented in the media.
Autistic people of color frequently go undiagnosed and don’t receive the same level of services as white autistic people, so media representation is extra important. Of the officially confirmed examples on this list, Billy is probably the most high profile. Well, except for the next one, who you might not have known is autistic, but you’ve certainly heard of him…
Full Article: On The Spectrum: 11 Characters Living With Autism (And 5 More Who Might Be)
