NO.

[odditycollector]

So then I was going through some old issues to see if there's anything fit for Fuck Yeah Amanda Waller, and then I found this page, and then I became SO UNHAPPY.


(Hawk & Dove v4 #5)

I HAD THOUGHT AMANDA WALLER WAS IMMUNE TO THIS SORT OF BULLSHITTERY WHAT THE HELL.

Comments

[caiusmajor]

WHAT THE SHIT INDEED, DC. HAVE YOU NO EDITORS?! DDDDD:

[red_eft]

Oh HELL NO. Seriously. No.

[liviapenn]

........ WHAT

[seeking-avalon.blogspot.com]

...

As I put in my ETA - if this shit is because they've whitewashed casting for the damn DC movies, the fail is even worse.

[odditycollector]

No, it's not that at least, it's just stupid, unthinking, everyday type colourist whitewashing. It's from a 90's miniseries, and in the *previous* issue she's coloured as a black woman. But it pisses me OFF because I STILL DON'T GET how that shit keeps happening. All the white folk have, like, the right hair colours. The costumes appear to not be randomly rehued. So it is unthinkingness in the face of research and character guides and. ????

Edit: Angela Bassett is playing Waller in the Green Lantern movie, so they've thinified her like whoa, but at least she's not a white lady.

Random person fly-by

[maschalismos]

OMG YES, to your edit.

Not that Angela Bassett's not awesome, but when I look at her? I don't think "...OSHI-, IT'S THE WALL!"

[gailsimone]

It's definitely not white-washing for the movie, if this is from the Hawk and Dove series that I think it's from. That series came out over thirteen years ago, and it's extremely unlikely anyone was thinking Waller would ever end up in a movie back then. So, unless this isn't from that series, there's not a movie connection at all.

Looking at it, and man, does it make me queasy to see this, my first thought was, "colorist mistake." It happens all the time. Part of the reason is where coloring happens on the assembly line of comics...it's one of the very last steps before an issue goes to print, so if the issue is hot on the schedule, if the writer got late, so the penciller got late, so the inker got late, it's the colorist who has to stay up all night and jam the issue out to get it done in time for print. That means two things, less time for editors to get reference to colorists, and less time for the color work to be checked by all involved. I rarely get to check color before an issue goes to print even when a book is on time. And not all colorists are careful to read the script. Great colorists do, as a rule.

But looking at that page, I strongly suspect the artist is partially to blame here. Drawing the hair like that, so completely unlike Waller's traditional looks...I suspect that the colorist simply didn't get that that was supposed to be Waller. That looks like white people hair, and the colorist probably just made an assumption. It could be a lot of people sharing culpability, the writer could have been late, the editor could have been irresponsible...it's really hard to lay blame on one person without knowing for sure.

But the one thing that I feel fairly confident in saying is that unless the book came in SO hot that it couldn't be fixed in time, the editor definitely should have caught that glaring error. Comics are produces by numerous hands under constant deadline pressure, but this is a pretty painful example of what can happen when there isn't someone checking over every final page before print.

And of course, there's a whole other discussion that needs to keep taking place that somehow these things always always seem to default towards a Caucasian state, rather than any other ethnicity.

[gailsimone]

Added to say I missed the attribution at the bottom of the scan. Since this is from a series from 1997, there's simply no way it has anything to do with hopeful film portrayals of Waller.

There's something really awful about seeing Waller like that, though. Wow. It's downright depressing.

[brownbetty]

WTF? Seriously, her skin tone aside, which is, idek, not Amanda Waller, that is white soccer mom hair. I can't even.

[odditycollector]

that is white soccer mom hair. I can't even.
Yeah, it looks WEIRD in the previous issue to this, but at least she's not coloured like a white soccer mom.

[gailsimone]

Jesus.

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

*gathers up the crowd with the pitchforks and torches*

Ok so what moron was the colorist on this little gem...

[droolfangrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm looking and the only Hawk & Dove I see her in are these two.

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Hawk_and_Dove_Vol_4_4
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Hawk_and_Dove_Vol_4_5

Roberta Tewes (and the editors) would seem to be the ball droppers here.

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

I'd blame the editors primarily; they are meant to catch that shit. Although the colourist did fail at research.

Tho' 12 years after the page was published, I'm not sure pitchforks would do much. Maybe if they are aimed at dc comics in general... this is a pretty solid example of Doing It Wrong.

[tartary-lamb.livejournal.com]

...

I think the word I'm looking for is "D:".

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

Needs more bold. Like. D: