"Orienta"???People today complain that DC is taking teeny tiny little liberties with their maps, but man, Leo Dorfman was straight up inventing entire countries!
Superman, Batman and Robin save the real President Madame Tru, yet let Brainiac escape after he tries to shrink Metropolis, New York, London, Paris and Tokyo in World's Finest #164 (1967)
Oriental is an unfortunate way of describing pretty much anyone of any type of Asian descent, from The Arabian Peninsula to Japan. This nation of "Orienta" represents a massive stereotype in which all people east of Europe are basically the same culture. Its not as nasty as some of the other slurs, but it is definitely not a nice thing to say.
ReplyDeleteand to clarify, I am pointing the finger at comics in general in 1967, not you or even the author of the book it was published in. It was just a sign of the times.
ReplyDelete"teeny tiny little liberties" snell? Are you trying to make me angry?!?!
ReplyDeleteCreating countries is something DC continued doing as well - both Qurac and Vlatava are generic countries, one standing in for the Middle East, the other for Eastern European.
I like this version of Braniac best-- the pink shirt makes him seem more menacing somehow.
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