The math of the characters of the new 52

All the 52 comics have now been published, From Animal to Voodoo. There was some really great books, Batwoman, Batman and Wonder Woman stand out for me, some books that hold promise and some real crap.

Same as it ever was, I guess.

Over on Comics Should Be Good, Greg Burgas has reviewed all 52. I agree with most of his reviews but even if you don’t, it is a good read. But the really interested thing is that he didn’t just review the books, he looked at the breakdown of male vs. female characters.

I think I knew just from the covers and the descriptions that the new 52 was going to be light on the ladies. But I didn’t think it would be this bad. Here are the numbers:

So we have 1865 people in the 52 comics. Obviously, this is wrong, because I’m counting minority women twice, but that’s just how I roll, man! Of those 1865 people, 1105 are white men, or 59%. 491 are women, or 26%. Here’s the breakdown:

White men: 1105 – 59.2%
Women: 491 – 26.3%
Black men/women: 154 – 8.3%
Hispanic men/women: 49 – 2.6%
Other minorities: 61 – 3.3%
Gay or lesbian people: 5 – 0.3%

He also breaks down speaking roles:

Meanwhile, here’s the breakdown of the speaking roles – there are 713 speaking roles in the 52 comics:

White men: 394 – 55.3%
Women: 193 – 27.1%
Black men/women: 76 – 10.7%
Hispanic men/women: 20 – 2.8%
Other minorities: 25 – 3.5%
Gay or lesbian people: 5 – 0.7%

I don’t know what it was before the relaunch. But that doesn’t really matter, does it? Whether it got better or worse, you still can’t get around the fact that in this new world white dudes are the default and the majority.

Same as it ever was.

I suppose somone will come along and ask, “WHAT DO THOSE NUMBERS MEAN TO YOU. WHAT DO THEY MEAN TO YOU?”

(Sorry I couldn’t resist).

What do they mean? Honestly, they say to me, “why bother anymore?” But more on that point later.

So what do you think? Are these numbers surprising? Are they what you thought they’d be. And, seriously, what do the numbers mean to you?