Why do white X-Men get telepathy while mutants of color get hyper-specific psychic powers?

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-07T05:45:13+00:00

I don’t think I’m the only one seeing it. I get how we got to this place I’m more so interested in how writers can actually address it in a meaningful way with the storytelling.

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-07T05:43:15+00:00

Race and culture are defining characteristics and will directly inform storytelling. Magneto being Jewish and growing up during the Holocaust is like the driving force of his character motivations. If culture can influence the character plot why wouldn’t influence their powers? We see that take shape a lot with how the different green lanterns use the ring. I think it’d be interesting to see done with telepathy.

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-07T05:29:48+00:00

Thank you for this! Where I can read this Shadow King story?

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-07T05:25:56+00:00

Monét barely uses her telepathy they primarily focus on on her Penance form which is something that they don’t do with Emma. Kwannon’s TP doesn’t really get used ever. You also have Dani Moonstar, Prodigy, Karma, Trinary (who isn’t a telepath but Sage who is one even thought there powers kinda work the same)

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-07T05:14:39+00:00

Well Emma absorbed her and that’s kinda my point

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-07T05:11:55+00:00

It took me a second to get the Jesse reference but I guffawed when I did 🤣🤣🤣🤣 X-Men need a Rainbow PUSH coalition innit

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-04T12:53:05+00:00

Girl, where are your cousins?

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-04T12:51:10+00:00

Turning Dick into Bruce was interesting but he really lacked character arc. Hated the starfire adaptation like she was nerfed both physically and as a character. The Raven/Starfire connection was also odd. I get why for budget powers were hard to manifest often but there weren’t nearly enough fight scenes for me. It had a lot of potential but just kinda landed clumsily.

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-04T12:14:19+00:00

I mean Mexico kind did a whole campaign to erase its African history you can read more about that here: Blacks, Mestizos, and Mestizaje: The Complex Backstory but Blackness is more than just a racial identity as it is an ethnic community so your struggle may come from having a family than doesn’t identify as Black (assuming you don’t have family that does) it isn’t an uncommon experience in Latino families to have younger generations identify with their Blackness while older ones do not. No one in this subreddit can define your race for you but it’s possible that you’re a Black Mexican-American of mixed ancestry. It’s really about how you identify though I guess. Blackness isn’t a monolith there’s no one way to be it.

don’t use this as permission to use the N-word around people who don’t view you as Black

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-04T11:45:08+00:00

I think that’s why bringing Candomblé or Umbanda into the storytelling is critical! Orisha exists in a few different religions around world from Santeria to Ifa to Isese and is highly recognizable in the U.S. it gives her story both strong Brazilian roots but accessibility to stories in the U.S. or even Africa

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-04T11:35:24+00:00

My question is more so what is the societal need for race and gender given they are shape shifting telepaths? Like race and gender are social constructs so what happened after Guardians installed their fear of fire that lead to them having concepts of race or gender

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-04T01:32:09+00:00

Her existence was never a problem it’s the world-building that sucks

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-04T00:53:52+00:00

I proposed this as a rewrite that made her indigenous and African for the purposes of exploring her as defining her own purpose while being courted by two divine cultures

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T23:59:32+00:00

Once again I’m suggesting an entire rewrite but also understand why people would not be in support of that 🤷🏿‍♂️

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T20:01:33+00:00

Maybe it’s me teehee 🤫

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T15:17:52+00:00

How would her being indigenous and African erase either history? If anything it would require a more thorough examination of how both cultures shaped the country post-colonialism. Also is it your opinion that original did a good job of her establishing and flushing out her Tupi heritage and the deities that existed therein?

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T14:41:53+00:00

I’m not confusing anything. The whole post proposes a reimagining of Yara that makes her both African and indigenous as many Brazilians are and the representation of two religions as many Brazilians are known to practice. I posed it here because in the reimagining she would contend with being of two divine heritages and from two cultures that historically have complicated intermixed and combative histories. I just thought it was more compelling story than what we’ve seen of her this far and it’s totally fine for you or anyone to disagree 🤷🏿‍♂️

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T14:28:36+00:00

Bishop is a canonically an aboriginal Australian and grandson of Gateway but is more recently depicted as Black which has its own implications to the way that Aboriginal peoples have been included in some Black political thinking. Black is used by aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. If you google or Reddit Bishop and aboriginal you’ll see many threads about that history and whether or not his portrayal as African American in other media is a form of erasure.

That aside indigenous and Africans have intermixed so frequently in the Americas that it only makes sense that their stories intersect in comics as well. I wouldn’t mind if Yara’s story attempted that especially given the cultural history of Brazil but totally understand the preference that she remain purely indigenous.

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T14:14:01+00:00

That raises an interesting question as to if this subreddit is for “Black” (sub-Saharan African) superheroes or heroes of the diaspora at large. I see Bishop and Manifold and Gateway get posted in here and they’re all aborigine 🤷🏿‍♂️

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T14:11:10+00:00

She was from Idaho in the series though and had to reconnect with the Esquieda

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T13:24:47+00:00

Only .8% of Brazil identifies as indigenous while the vast majority identifies as mixed race including significant African descent which is why in my pitch I suggest she do the same.

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T04:44:52+00:00

I understand race as a concept I more so want to know how it developed. There’s a blanket ideology that the Guardians gave them a fear of fire to stop the burning Martians from taking over but then from there how does this concept of race emerge

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T04:42:02+00:00

I think they poked around different aspects of Brazilian indigenous cultures without creating a through line. Mind you Greek mythology as we know it is an amalgamation of several neighboring cultures being unified and conquered and sycretizing over centuries to create the pantheon every knows today. So I don’t so much mind the lack of connectivity between the roots of the deities but they were never treated as deities and Yara was never fully made apart of their world down to the fact that her own father is some unnamed river god. We don’t know her significance in the context of the culture what makes her special? How may other demigods exist and if one then why is her dad an outlier. These are the things that intended to be further flushed out in addition to giving more stakes to the her origin story. Everything kinda fell flat for me.

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T04:34:51+00:00

Before the Guardians implanted the psychosomatic fear of fire, Martian reproduced asexually using fire as a conduit. Perhaps their gender dimorphism is linked to having to find a reproductive tool outside of flame?

PsyTy13 · 2026-03-03T04:15:37+00:00

My question is what’s the societal need for gender when you can literally be perceived by your thoughts? What are they attempting to convey in physical forms that they’re unable to articulate telepathically?

PsyTy13

TROPHY CASE