The story of Marvel’s first queer Latina superhero | Gabby Rivera

With Marvel's "America Chavez," Gabby Rivera wrote a new kind of superhero — one who can punch portals into other dimensions while also embracing her gentle, goofy, soft side. In a funny, personal talk, Rivera shares how her own childhood as a queer Puerto Rican in the Bronx informed this new narrative — and shows images from the comic book that reveal what happens when a superhero embraces her humanity. As she says: "That myth of having to go it alone and be tough is not serving us."

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49 Comments on The story of Marvel’s first queer Latina superhero | Gabby Rivera

    • +Dack Hacksaw Whilst you do sort of have a point, Stan Lee was also a huge supporter of cramming in more and more LGBT characters. In fact he’s sort of the guy that started it in comics. He was just less “in your face” about it (which is why I said you still have a point).

    • edallencompassingly – I agree. It’s one thing to put in lgbtqwerty characters but they are taking it too far. Part of the cultural Marxist attack on western white males in general.

    • psp785 haha! I love it. It truly is. It has been hijacked, as all social movements eventually are, by intersectional social justice theocrats. It is amazing how true this universal law actually manifests. All institutions are eventually consumed by utopian leftist ideologues because their ideas are on the surface unobjectionable(ie equality) but in reality are nothing but a moral blank check for an endless crusade of power grabs to cram down their own Utopian ideas on everyone else.

  1. Being gay, any gender or latin@ isn’t a personality trait, don’t make your sexuality, gender or ethnic background define who you are as a person.

    • Dack Hacksaw nope, it’s not, and you’re not helping by giving the authoritarian left ammunition to fire at the legitimate criticism they are so utterly deserve yet all in all lack.

    • I agree about the sexuality and race not meaning anything about our character but gender does make a small difference technically

    • I agree, and I didn’t see that in the video, myself. But apparently to a lot of the people in this comments section, being gay, queer and Latina is what defines Gabby as a person, and that’s kind of weird.

      I thought it was a decent video about how the people she grew up with influenced her work. How she felt that being from the Bronx, everyone around her always had to be “hard,” but that she wanted to write the lessons she learned about “soft”-ness and self-care into the character she wrote. She created a grandma character based on her own desire to know about her heritage and back-story. It seems like maybe some people didn’t even watch the video?

    • White Velcro I see both sides of this I think identity is important but her comic failed because she didn’t know her audience. To that extent there’s is an audience for her, but Marvel didn’t do her any justice by placing her notch of authorship in the wrong genera. She need to speak to a certain demographic that would relate to her writing, and I tell you this from a classical reader of hero meths and modern day ones this wasn’t it. She should be writing novels akin to J K Rowling’s. The fan base for marvel first of all was to old for her style and to dedicated to the classic hero format. Just needed to be practical, that’s all I’m saying.

  2. I wonder when society changed to the point where people introduce themselves by sexual proclivity, race, religion or politics before they even manage to get their names out.

  3. It’s obvious now that TED has gone the way of Vox and Vice. SJW platforms devoid of scientific integrity with a far-left agenda to push identity politics and intersectional feminism. Garbage ideas not worth spreading. Science is under attack.

  4. Why is this a ted talk? You can identify with Miles Morales and Black Panther even if you are white, you can identify with Wonder woman and Captain Marvel even if you are a man, you can admire Superman and Captain America even if you are from other continents. Comics help people connect with other people because the main idea is that anyone can be spider man, anyone can be the superman of a friend, anyone can stand for what is right like the heroes that we love.

    • Yep. Kinda has something to do with ‘judging someone on the content of their *character* not the colour of their skin’ (or sexuality) finding things in common with our common humanity…

      Which is the opposite of what is being presented now days…nope we must declaire our skin colour, sexual identity & gender…as our most important features.

      …character development…what’s that??? all the work Martin Luther King Jnr did…is being undone by ppl declaring they are furthering his cause.

  5. Two things:
    1) Why do we have to live in a world where “character work = what set of genitalia your character has and/or enjoys”?
    2) How much longer before this channel pulls a “Looper/IGN” and censors this particular comments section by disabling them entirely?

    • +A. Mortem Oh I know they have. Which is why I was saying how much longer until they do it here. I only mentioned Looper and IGN because they are known to do it even more (well, if I’m going to be specific, Looper are the ones that disable comments they find threatening – they actively defend Disney products from any criticism by shutting down comments sections. IGN meanwhile take advantage of the fact they have so many videos across so many sub-channels that when one gets inundated with comments they find inconvenient they just delete the video to no consequence). I find it amusing how all these people who claim to be massive liberal heroes actively engage in totalitarian censorship of things they disagree with; the very antithesis of liberalism.

  6. This comic suffered from horrible writing, as its author could not develop the character in any meaningful way outside of her sexual preference, race and gender. That got old quick fast and in a hurry. Also more than likely why the comic sold horribly its entire run, as it wasn’t relatable to anyone who wasn’t one of the three things the author based the entire personality of the hero on. Kinda made for a less than entertaining TED talk as well, judging by my take and the down votes…

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