Over the years, DC Comics has done a wonderful job of increasing the diversity of its heroes. However, the company has a lot of room for growth still, considering how much of a travesty the Hispanic Heritage Month covers are this year. While comics have made significant strides in respectful representation, these variant covers are a step backwards - especially compared to recent work DC has done.
DC Comics and Marvel Comics have both shown efforts to spotlight their characters who are part of the Hispanic community for Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15). Marvel has done so with the Marvel Voices line, which is returning this year. DC will mark the occasion by releasing variant covers starring its Hispanic heroes, drawn by Hispanic artists. However, DC's work this year is an absolute disappointment that shows a lack of creativity and respect for the community.
While giving Hispanic artists the opportunity to produce variant covers to commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month is wonderful, this year's execution - and disrespect to artists - is staggering. The majority of the covers showcase a single hero with an item of food. Apart from this, very few of them have any markers of heritage and cultural appreciation. This is particularly astonishing considering how well DC has been representing other communities recently with the 2022 DC Pride special and covers, as well as the variant covers (and gorgeous red letter packaging) for AAPI Heritage Month. In comparison, these feel ridiculously reductive. The Titans United: Blood Pact #1 cover featuring Green Lantern Kyle Rayner stands out as especially egregious, though Hawkgirl's baffling appearance as a waitress, of all things, is a close second.
This is in no way an attack on the artists who illustrated the covers, but a critique of DC's poor handling of Hispanic heritage. This becomes particularly true when considering the Kyle Rayner cover was initially supposed to be unusable due to copyright, before DC advertised it in its incomplete form - in solicitations for the month. The cover, originally a beautiful and meaningful artistic homage to a famous Mexican muralist, was later changed and the original artist (Jorge Molina) no longer has his signature on it – likely due to the horrendous alterations and DC's mishandling of his original work. The final product is a cheap attempt to showcase Mexican pride that doesn't even take into account proper Spanish punctuation ("Viva Mexico!" should be ¡Viva Mexico!) or the way tamales are actually packaged.
As much as food is an important part of culture, this line of variant covers doesn't do anything to show the heroism or community of these heroes. It simply shows a bunch of food from a variety of cultures, with DC providing no context or sense of true pride. Culture and heritage is about far more than food. Though it is one of the most effective ways to bring people together and to begin building bridges, it shouldn't be the sole focus of covers that aim to celebrate so many different cultures.
DC has numerous Hispanic characters - both heroes and villains - with very different backgrounds and cultures. After all, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Central Americans, South Americans, and Spaniards are all grouped under this banner. Each country and group of people is distinct from the others, but DC problematically decided to treat them as a homogenized group of foodies, instead of heroes and villains with special abilities and distinct personalities. Though a few of the AAPI covers did feature food, these also focused on meals shared with teammates and friends - beautifully showing community, connection, respect, and belonging - as well as other activities apart from eating. These Hispanic Heritage Month covers only show these heroes in isolation, with barely any creative effort to showcase the richness of Hispanic history with its varied traditions. Despite the artists' best efforts, it's clear DC Comics didn't put much consideration into the endeavor this year and chose to stick to a bland, reductive theme.