First: Lucien spends most of the first issue naked. Not as in having sex. As in "oh G-d my clothes keep burning off, I gotta hold a guitar in front of my junk". I admit - it's nice to have some fan service thrown my way every once in awhile considering the overwhelming amount of female character designs who seem to be geared towards the teenage male. See I'm all for adult humor in comics aimed at adults. I just get tired of so rarely seeing the shoe on the other foot when it comes to how the genders are drawn and costumed. Panels after the jump that are not *entirely* work safe though all bits are covered.
So, beyond Lucien's very nicely drawn figure, there is the fact that he is a minority superhero who isn't a revamp of an already known hero. There have been other heroes who used the name Ray, although in the first few pages it is made clear that Lucien didn't choose this name. The newspapers gave it to him - what is with DC newspaper folks and naming heroes? *cough-Miss Lane-cough*
Anyway, what I'm driving at is that he isn't a minority replacement or different flavor of a big name hero. He isn't the Korean Superman, he isn't another branch of the Bat family, he isn't some guy who saw a big name go down and then put the mask on. *cough-Marvel-cough-Ultimate Spider-Man-cough*
I do sympathize a bit with the older comic book companies here. With a lot of their big name characters being created in times where this sort of thing was ok...
they face a very real challenge: How to diversify and create new characters who won't be ignored as the token female, Jew, minority, gay, etc character. Ideally, these characters should round out their superhero cast and make them money. Probably the easiest way to do this is to create minority character who is in some way inspired by an already popular character. The best example that I am familiar with is Man of Steel, John Henry Irons. I, personally, like John Henry from what I have read of him. Which admittedly isn't much - from what I can see he doesn't appear in the new 52s though I am hoping that I am either wrong or that a new title will be created with him.
Perhaps my affection for the character is that I see him as a tribute character done well. He doesn't attempt to be Superman, but simply live "a life worth living" and do what he can to both repay Superman and to make up for the damage he caused building advanced weapons in his early years. The S he wears is simply a tribute to the then deceased man who saved his life and guided him on a new path. When Lois Lane questions him, during the Return of Superman, about if he is the real Superman John Irons' response is that he never claimed to be Superman. Speaking of Return of Superman, there is a bit of internal dialogue where Lucien wonders if he is going to be slapped with a lawsuit that reminds of me of the court battle over the Superman symbol in that arc.
I'm less thrilled with DC's current Blue Beetle - which I strongly believe is an attempt to diversify their cast by introducing either a Mexican or Spanish hero. I don't believe the character's family's ethnic background was explicitly stated in the issues I read. Still, not so bad. I could be reading them wrong.
There is always the tactic of revealing that - surprise - a character was always diverse all along, a la the Rawhide Kid being homosexual in, from most accounts, a badly done mini-series that I need to get my hands on. Depending on how it's done, this can work well. If done badly, it seems to earn more spite than anything else.
That is also the risk of creating a new character solely to diversify. And that is something I'm a little concerned with The Ray, to get back to the character at hand. In our first issue we have a Korean boy, raised by consummate California hippies, and dating a Hindu girl and who has a black friend. All we need is him attending a GBTLA march and we've got a diversity sundae with all the toppings.
Still... I like it, so far anyway. lt will be interesting to see if family or friends of the former Rays question Lucien about his bestowed title though! It would be nice if DC had given him a unique title of his own although the 'borrowing' of monikers bothers me much less when the characters are lesser known. It was also fun to see how nonchalantly his parents and friends handle him acquiring super powers.
I'm less thrilled with how he defeats the baddies in the beginning of issue two, which just came out this past week. It felt very cheesy and too simple to me. Reminded me a bit of the Dazzler in a bad way, with him gathering light and doing a bit of a light show to get them to follow him to their doom.
That aside, it was funny to watch this young man with his newly acquired light bending powers bumble around when meeting his girlfriend's parents for the first time. Like many a young man he came up with a plan and proceeded with it, convinced it would make her traditional Indian parents love him without thinking it through, and may have utterly ruined things in the process. Hint: Guys, if you ever acquire light powers that allow you to change your appearance, don't fake a different ethnicity. Your girlfriend already prepared her parents for the fact that you are or aren't X, Y, and Z. She is also gonna be really angry when she comes downstairs...
He may get to patch things up though - the issue ends with a rather predictable but still enjoyable damsel in distress setup.
It is an enjoyable read, particularly for the novelty of seeing someone and their family more or less taking their new powers in stride without much issue. Plus... His parents are hippies. Shameless hippies. My in-laws are hippies. It just made me giggle from the moment I saw them. Mom and Dad (2), I could totally see you offering any of your children yoga lessons upon learning that we had acquired superpowers. :-)
Credits - I found some of the above non-Ray pics at
http://thedorkreview.blogspot.com/2011/11/dc-loves-spanking.html
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/08/29/superhero-comics-women-sexism/
http://practicallyharmless.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
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