comic has a long history of stereotypes and undertones of racism in comics going all the way back to the beginning. Winsor McCay has drawn them Will Eisner has drawn them even Frank Miller has. is this a problem? Of course it is, but it is also a reflection of the times. for example in the time of Little Nemo African Americans were drawn very exaggerated and offensive wearing jungle skirts and having bones in their hair, the faces would have large light colored lips and big noses. Offensive by today's standards but back then it was completely P.C. the stereotypes and racism didn't stop at African American either Asians were drawn cartoonishly ghoulish and so was any other minority. However as the times evolved opinions changed and the racism for the most part subsided, but the stereotypes still played through. Sure African Americans weren't drawn harshly but they were still thugs and gang members and seen as bad people, and other minorities were played that way too.
I suppose that its not always the argument of the time period, and that the writers or artist bias views are consciously or unconsciously placed into their work. I do believe that the stereotypes will always play out in comics because they are easy to put in, no extra thought has to go in to creating new views or scenarios for certain characters to go through. stereotypes are the way people see other people and that can't be changed. no matter how far along we come as a society or in the comics industry, those stereotypes are ingrained into from our experiences and unfortunately the stereotype will always be prevalent in comics and media.
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