Indigenous Peoples Day: Top 3 Indigenous Superheroes in Marvel Comics and Movies
Many Americans ditch Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day. In Marvel Comics and movies, several Indigenous superheroes have taken the spotlight over the years. Here’s a look at 3 of the most famous Indigenous superheroes in Marvel.
Blu Hunt played the Danielle Moonstar in ‘The New Mutants’
Danielle ‘Dani’ Moonstar remains one of the most famous indigenous superheroes in Marvel Comics. She possesses the power to manifest illusions of people’s fears. However, such a frightening power caused a rift between her and her Cheyenne family.
Her grandfather and the chief then contacted Professor Xavier to help her control her abilities.
Her name flashed briefly in 2003’s X-Men 2, but her first live-action debut came in HBO Max’s New Mutants. Blu Hunt played Dani Moonstar in the lead role as her powers brought her friend’s worst fears to life.
Hunt commented on how playing the New Mutants character helped define her own Indigenous and Queer identity.
“Playing Dani really made me realize who I was in so many ways. That was honestly the best part about getting this role,” Hunt told PEOPLE. “Knowing that I got to be Queer and that I got to represent the Indigenous community.”
A Spider-Man foe went from Indigenous supervillain to superhero
It seems like every major villain has jumped to live-action with three live-action Spider-Mans in the past 20 years. However, a few names remain on the list.
One of those names is the Indigenous superhero Puma. He comes from the fictional Kisani Native American tribe.
He did not always fight on the side of good, though. Puma possesses the ability to transform into a puma-like form to then attain heightened physical abilities.
Fireheart came to blows with Spider-Man after the ‘Kingpin’ Fisk family hired him to take out the webhead. However, he eventually changed his tune. He even bought the Daily Bugle to run stories with the webhead as a hero.
Puma saw a small cameo in Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man. A Daily Bugle story mentioned that Thomas Fireheart donated $2 million after the Lizard’s attack.
Another Indigenous superhero comes from the Cheyenne people
The X-Men ally Forge has a surprising amount of similarities to Danielle Moonstar. While he has proved himself a consistent ally of the mutant team, the Indigenous superhero has yet to appear in live-action officially.
Like Hunt’s Danielle Moonstar, Forge is Cheyenne. He also ‘appeared’ in X-Men 2 as well in the same list as Dani Moonstar.
However, he has yet to receive a proper live-action representation. Forge possesses the mutant ability to build any machine. While it has seen some explanation over the years, the power can prove tough to convey to fans.
Marvel has made strides to diversify their characters more and include more and better representation of indigenous peoples and superheroes. As the West recognizes Indigenous Peoples Day over Columbus Day, this representation only becomes more important.
Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices released in 2020, spotlighting heroes like Echo and Danielle Moonstar.
