In 2018, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was released, with Miles Morales as the first Afro Latino Spider Man. The film was a huge success, receiving critical acclaim and making more than 690 million dollars at the box office. Morales became what Marvel called their “most recognizable Latinx character.” This seems to have been Marvel’s first big step towards rectifying the glaring underrepresentation of the Latinx community in their superhero films, a problem Marvel has still not completely solved.
The year “Spider-Verse” was released, the significant cast of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was 61 percent white, and only four percent Latinx and Hispanic. These numbers match up closely with Latinx representation in the U.S.’s highest grossing movies. According to a USC Annenberg report on Latinx representation in the 2022 film industry, four percent of leads or co-leads across 1600 films were Hispanic or Latinx.
Recently, Marvel has taken further steps to boost the diversity of the casts and characters of their movies. In 2022, Oscar Isaac played “Moon Knight,” becoming one of the first Latino lead actors in a Marvel live-action TV series, and Xochitl Gomez portrayed America Chavez, the Marvel comics’ first LGBTQIA+ Latina superhero. Most recently, the TV show “Echo” starred Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, or Echo, a half Native American and half Latin American anti-hero. The sequel to Spider-Verse introduced Miguel O’Hara, who was the first Latino Spider Man in the Marvel comics.
One might wonder why it took the MCU so long to introduce these Latinx superheroes. Most of the live-action superheroes mentioned above were only added in the past two years. Some minorities are simply not represented in the comics, and so it is hard for the MCU to include characters from those minority groups unless they change the background of a pre-existing character. There is no such excuse with regards to the Latinx community. Although the percentage of Latinx superheroes in the comics is wildly disproportionate to those of White superheroes, there are still plenty of Latinx superheroes readily available for inclusion in the Marvel movies.
The White Tiger, or Hector Ayala, was Marvel Comics’ first Latinx superhero. Ayala was Puerto Rican and he first appeared in 1975. Ayala also has several descendants who take on the mantle of the White Tiger. Roberto Da Costa, or Sunspot, a mutant with the ability to harness the power of the sun first appeared in 1982. Victor Mancha is Ultron’s child and Vision’s brother. It would seem perfect to incorporate Mancha into the part of the MCU’s main storyline where the Scarlet Witch grieves her husband Vision’s death. Similarly fitting for the storyline of the MCU is Bonita Juarez, or Firebird, who was accidentally given the power to control fire by aliens. She would have been perfect for Marvel’s Secret Invasion, released in 2023, which largely centers around human and alien interaction. All this is to say that Marvel certainly has missed opportunities to add more Latinx characters into their movie franchise.
It is worth noting that more Latinx superheroes are featured in MCU spin-offs than their main storyline. Anya Corazon was in the Spider-Man spin-off Madame Web that was set in a different universe from the main MCU storyline, much like Miles Morales. Other examples are the Latinx superheroes Slingshot, or Yo Yo Rodriguez, and Ghost Rider, or Robbie Reyes, who are characters in the non-canonical TV series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..” While Marvel’s wider range of spin-offs and solo projects may have more Latinx representation, their main MCU storyline certainly does not. But one cannot entirely blame the film franchise for this.
The relationship between the Marvel comics and the movies creates some limitations First of all, a lot of Latinx superheroes in the comics are mutants and fight alongside the X-Men. The MCU has not yet built the mutants’ story into their overarching storyline. Similarly, in the Marvel comics there are many Latinx superheroes who have taken up the mantle of an originally white superhero, such as the great number of Latinx Spider-Men. This is an easy, and perhaps superficial way of diversifying the comics, instead of creating new Latinx superheroes.
Unlike the comics, the MCU can’t infinitely redesign and remake old superheroes, or endlessly add new mutants to their future X-Men team. But perhaps we don’t want that. Just because the Marvel comics have many Latinx reiterations of popular white superheroes and Latinx additions to the X-Men team, doesn’t mean the MCU should overlook the less-known Latinx superheroes from the comics. Marvel should dig deeper and bring to the screen the vibrant and original Latinx superheroes that, conveniently enough, already exist in their own comics.