ABSTRACT
Latinx superheroes and villains have existed in mainstream U.S. comics for decades. However, Latinx characters have only recently taken on the mantle of protagonists. Marvel’s 2017 series America, written by Gabby Rivera and illustrated by Joe Quinones, is a notable example. The series features America Chavez (a.k.a. Miss America), a powerful Latinx lesbian superhero capable of flight, superhuman strength, and interdimensional travel. This chapter will explore how, although Marvel’s America fills deep voids in female, LGBTQ, and Latinx superhero representation in contemporary U.S. media, the Rivera/Quinones series reproduces problematic Latinx stereotypes through its insistence on pan-Latinidad—a cultural representation model in which Latinx identity is generic and contains elements of many Hispanic cultures without overtly linking to any national identities. I argue that panethnic characterizations and cultural referents do not serve the America series well, but the depth and cultural impact of this graphic novel come instead from the intersection of queer and ethnic identities in it. The chapter concludes with a brief examination of McCloud’s closure, the gutter, the hybridity of comics, and their rather conservative use in Marvel’s America—a missed opportunity to emphasize the title character’s hybrid identity through the medium itself.
