Racial diversity in comics has long since been a rather controversial topic. Apparently since the golden age of comics diversity in main characters has been quite absent from the medium. It wasn't until the silver age that black characters took on main roles. One of the first mainstream characters was the Black Panther in 1966. Latino or Hispanic followed after with the exception a few characters like El Zorro. Now in modern day comics we find a much more diverse characters throughout the larger publishers, which is great. But now as all the large publishers fight to take on as much diversity as possible how does that affect the smaller indie publishers?
Traditionally indie publishers acted as the leaders in pushing the limits. Many publishers were even labeled as "underground" just solely on the topics of genre's they produced. Typically indie publishers has a very wide range of topics to chose from that made them so different from the larger publishers, who were also constrained by their sponsors. This was the upper hand advantage that indie publishers could go to in order to compete. But as the views of society broaden and become more liberal so too has the range in which the larger publishers operate. Hence the issue of diversity which was a few years ago a playground for the smaller publishers and still a field of land mines for the larger companies, now has overrun the world of comics. And even though I'm glad that diversity has gone as far as it has with comics, it also worries me because of the fear that the larger publishers will begin pushing it to extremes. 
How so? Well just look into the latest controversies over the choice of actors playing ethnic roles and the out cries claiming white washing in Hollywood. For those who are not familiar with the term, its when white Anglo actors take on a role associated with a character of a specific culture or race.But that isn't the question that I'm really posting here. It comes down to what do indie publishers do when the larger companies take over their niche'? Now that they are claiming in full force the diversity market what now? The indies proposed the question of diversity in comics and the larger publishers answered it. The smaller comic creators can continue to write diverse comics but eventually Marvel and DC will swallow the market for that niche', leaving many companies searching for a new market. It doesn't mean that smaller publisher will stop writing about diversity in comic, but it will mean that they will need more than that to compete in the highly competitive market of comics.