(CNN)Marvel is changing the name and design of a character who debuted in a recent installment of the King Conan comic miniseries after being criticized for her portrayal of an Indigenous woman.
The third installment of King Conan, released on February 16th, finds its protagonist stranded on an island with a scantily clad princess named Matoaka. As it turns out, the princess has a dark past: she hails from “a country far to the west” and once fell in love with a man who was trying to colonize her people. When the man ransacked her home, she killed him, but her father banished her to the island anyway, where she is now doomed to luring other would-be colonizers away from her homeland.
For the people of the Indian country, Matoaka’s name and backstory were a clear reference to the real Pocahontas who privately went by the same name.
For centuries, Pocahantas has been romanticized and mythologized as a woman who defied her father to save English colonist John Smith from execution. In reality, she was around 11 or 12 when she first met Smith, and historians have disputed Smith’s claims that she saved him in the first place. She was later kidnapped by the English and raped in captivity, according to the oral tradition of the Mattaponi tribe.
Given that history, some Indigenous comic artists and fans found the character in King Conan — and the hyper-sexualized way she was portrayed — demeaning and disrespectful.
“The real Matoaka was a teenage girl who suffered at the hands of her English captors,” wrote Arigon Starr, a comic artist who is a chartered member of Oklahoma’s Kickapoo tribe, in an email to CNN. “Even more shocking is that most of this information is online; a quick search would have informed the author, artist, editor, and publisher that naming this character after a famous victim of violence was a poor choice.”
Kayla Shaggy, a Two Spirit comics artist who is Diné and Anishinabe, said she felt the character reduced Indigenous women to an offensive stereotype.
“The fact that they portray an Indigenous woman as this lofty prize that non-natives can win in stereotypical, fetish-like clothing contributes to the current, ongoing harm and ignorance of missing and murdered Indigenous women,” she wrote to CNN.
In the face of criticism, writer Jason Aaron apologized for the character and called his decision to use the Matoaka name “imprudent.”
“This new character is a supernatural thousand-year-old princess of a cursed island in a world of mimicry and dark fantasy and should never be based on anyone from history,” he said in a statement shared by Marvel. “I should have better understood the true meaning and resonance of the name and realized that it was not appropriate to use it. I understand the outrage of those who uphold the legacy of the true Matoaka and I apologize for all of this and the distress it has caused.”
Aaron added that he donated the money he made from the issue to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. A spokesman for Marvel said that Matoaka’s name and appearance would be changed in future prints, upcoming issues and digital editions, although details are still being finalized.
Still, Shaggy was disappointed that the company hadn’t taken the issue off the stands and stopped distribution altogether.
“The character is still an indigenous stereotype, her story is a rehash of racist narratives, and overall the continuation of the story still puts money in the company’s pocket at the expense of the indigenous people,” she said.
Native Americans have long been marginalized and misrepresented in comics, “from the bloodthirsty barbarians and noble savages of the dime novels to the formulaic side characters and henchmen,” as Michael Sheyahshe writes in his book Native Americans in Comic Books: A Critical Study”.
“To paraphrase Michael’s work, native people have been relegated to sidekicks, shamans, overly sexualized or super tracker characters,” Starr said. “We’re rarely the main character or the hero.”
In recent years, however, projects led by local artists and writers have brought a more authentic representation to the comic book world. Starr and Shaggy said they hoped the “King Conan” controversy would lead to more opportunities for Indigenous creators in the industry.
“The support for authentic native characters and comics is out there,” Starr added. “Maybe Marvel and DC will catch up with us one day.”
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