History Main / SuddenlyEthnicity

* ''ComicBook/AdamLegendOfTheBlueMarvel'': This is the entire premise of the series. The Blue Marvel was a SupermanSubstitute active as a hero in the 1960s, until one day his mask was accidentally ripped during a battle, and it was revealed to the world that he was Black. Because this occurred at the height of the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, it predictably exploded and enflamed racial tensions. White people started hating and fearing him for being [[DeliberateValuesDissonance "Colored"]] and having powers, [[UngratefulBastard even when he was saving them]], while Black people began labeling him a [[CategoryTraitor "Race Traitor"]] for not using his powers for their cause, especially those with more extremist views. Eventually, in order to prevent things from becoming chaotic, Blue Marvel was forced to permanently retire from superheroing by the Executive Order of the US President. He then promptly disappeared to live a secret civilian life for the next several decades, until the modern day, when Iron Man and the Avengers asked for his help in dealing with the return of his ArchEnemy [[EvilCounterpart Anti-Man]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ArthursPerfectChristmas'': It's suddenly revealed that several of the characters (who are all presented as animals, so none of them really have a visible ethnicity) are actually from different ethnic backgrounds (The Brain is African-American, Francine and her family are Jewish, etc.). Francine seems to get it the hardest, as during the episode Muffy invites her to a Christmas party and gets really mad when she turns her down, thus giving the episode an excuse to talk about Hanukkah. Another episode has her trying to get through the Yom Kippur fast.

[[quoteright:231:[[ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_manta_unmasked.png]]]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'': Black Manta was revealed to be black in 1977, ''ten years'' after his debut. Notably, he attempts to use his race to trick people into following him by claiming his actions against ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} were in an attempt to make Atlantis a paradise for minorities all along. This is, naturally, a total lie he used to personal gain, which amusingly still leads to the aesop that all races are indeed equal: in that all of them are capable of producing jerks (further reinforced by the revelation that he suffers from a form of autism, which is played as a FreudianExcuse prompting Aquaman to later magically cure him...and the first thing Black Manta does afterwards is stab Aquaman and brag about having murdered his infant son).

* In ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'', Black Manta was revealed to be black in 1977, ''ten years'' after his debut. Notably, he attempts to use his race to trick people into following him by claiming his actions against ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} were in an attempt to make Atlantis a paradise for minorities all along. This is, naturally, a total lie he used to personal gain, which amusingly still leads to the aesop that all races are indeed equal: in that all of them are capable of producing jerks (further reinforced by the revelation that he suffers from a form of autism, which is played as a FreudianExcuse prompting Aquaman to later magically cure him...and the first thing Black Manta does afterwards is stab Aquaman and brag about having murdered his infant son).

** Spider-Man himself, who has an ever-present full facemask and a costume that covers every inch of his skin, is once asked to reveal why he thinks J. Jonah Jameson hates him in a courtroom. His response: "It's because I'm black." Jonah then tries to backpedal, saying something along the lines of "I'm not racist! [[SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX I have a]] TokenBlackFriend!" (which he does, but phrasing it like that doesn't earn him any brownie points) and then is utterly humiliated along with his lawyer when Spidey gleefully declares "just kidding!". HilariousInHindsight now there actually ''is'' a black Spider-Man in the ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' books.

* This is the entire premise of ''ComicBook/BlueMarvel'', a SupermanSubstitute active as a hero in the 1960's, until one day his mask was accidently ripped during a battle, and it was revealed to the world that he was Black. Because this occurred at the height of the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, it predictably exploded and enflamed racial tensions. White people started hating and fearing him for being [[DeliberateValuesDissonance "Colored"]] and having powers, [[UngratefulBastard even when he was saving them]], while Black people began labeling him a [[CategoryTraitor "Race Traitor"]] for not using his powers for their cause, especially those with more extremist views. Eventually, in order to prevent things from becoming chaotic, Blue Marvel was forced to permanently retire from superheroing by the Executive Order of the US President. He then promptly disappeared to live a secret civilian life for the next several decades, until the modern day, when Iron Man and the Avengers asked for his help in dealing with the return of his ArchEnemy [[EvilCounterpart Anti-Man]].

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[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII'' reveals that Anna and Elsa's mother, Queen Iduna, was ethnically Northuldra ([[FantasyCounterpartCulture who are based on the Sámi people]]), but she was light-skinned enough to pass for Arendellian ([[FantasyCounterpartCulture majority white Europeans/Viking Norwegians]]). She concealed her true heritage from everyone except her husband because of her people's associations with magic, which Arendelle greatly fears.

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* In Creator/DCComics, ComicBook/BlackManta was revealed to be black in 1977, ''ten years'' after his debut. Notably, he attempts to use his race to trick people into following him by claiming his actions against ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} were in an attempt to make Atlantis a paradise for minorities all along. This is, naturally, a total lie he used to personal gain, which amusingly still leads to the aesop that all races are indeed equal: in that all of them are capable of producing jerks (further reinforced by the revelation that he suffers from a form of autism, which is played as a FreudianExcuse prompting Aquaman to later magically cure him...and the first thing Black Manta does afterwards is stab Aquaman and brag about having murdered his infant son).
* The classic Creator/ECComics story [[http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/54803.html "Judgment Day,"]] in which an examiner comes from Earth to see whether a planet inhabited by sentient robots is ready to join TheFederation. It's revealed that the robots are split into two groups, identical except for the color of their outside casing, and the educational programming given to each color. One group of robots is given less useful programming, forced to live in inferior housing in a segregated part of the cities, relegated to less desirable jobs, etc., all based on the casing color. The examiner is forced to flunk the civilization, and the guide whines that he is "only one robot" who can't change the system. The examiner consoles the guide by mentioning that Earth used to be like this, too, until its people got their act together. Then the examiner gets into his spaceship, takes off his helmet, and is revealed to be black.

--> "When Annie said 'colored boy', for a moment I thought... er... well, right, I guess you know what I mean. But thank God. Want a drink, son?"
* [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]], the first Robin and later Nightwing of DC Comics, was revealed to be of Romani descent decades after his initial introduction. Interestingly, in one interview about ''Film/BatmanForever'' (1995), Chris O'Donnell referred to Grayson as "a gypsy lad"; many readers probably thought he was just being metaphorical.
* Similarly, Franchise/SpiderMan foe and walking Italian mafioso stereotype Hammerhead was revealed decades after his introduction to be the child of Russians who immigrated to Italy: he managed to hide his origins in order to join [[TheMafia the Maggia]] and lost his memory in the same attack that prompted his transformation into Hammerhead.
* ''ComicBook/BatmanEndgame'', a comic that - like so many other stories featuring ComicBook/TheJoker - is wildly speculative, floats the possibility that the Joker, whose early life and background are almost completely unknown, could, under his chemical-bleached skin (which is even suggested to be makeup at one point in the narrative), be fully or part American Indian, or at least [[TheCaptivityNarrative an outsider reared in that culture from birth]] (perhaps a descendant of one of the English/Native "lost colonies" from elsewhere in America). Nothing explicit is ever spoken, but Dr. Paul Dekker, AKA Crazy Quilt, tells Batman that the Joker revealed to him that [[spoiler: he is [[Really700YearsOld actually a 400-year-old being]], rendered semi-immortal by a cell-reconstructing chemical called dionesium that he found in a cave beneath Gotham City centuries ago. Crazy Quilt even shows Batman one of his mad paintings, which depicts the Joker standing on a bluff in colonial dress, already waiting when the first European sailing ship is arriving in Gotham Harbor. Part of the story is true: dionesium is indeed real, and there is a cave beneath Gotham that contains a pool of it. But Batman doubts all the other details from the beginning - and, after questioning Uriah Boone, a resurrected assassin for the Court of Owls society and the only person confirmed to have been alive in Gotham in the 17th century, concludes from Boone's body language that his claim that the whole story is true is a lie.]] Indeed, the comic ultimately suggests that the tale is merely [[MultipleChoicePast one more colorful fabrication on the Joker's part]] - [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane although the last two pages of the comic subtly hint otherwise]]. However, the theory that the Joker has Native ancestry is pretty plausible when you consider that the only other possible interpretation of Dekker's account is that [[HumanoidAbomination he's not human]].

** During the period where [[ComicBook/WarMachine James Rhodes]] filled in for Tony Stark as Iron Man, he gets captured by the Mandarin. The Mandarin is shocked when Rhodey removes his helmet, as he had always assumed there was a white man under the armor[[note]]Well, he was ''technically'' correct there, since Rhodey isn't the same guy he normally fights[[/note]].

* Parodied in a Creator/MarvelComics spoof ''ComicBook/WhatIf...'' story, where ComicBook/TheAvengers of an alternate universe are shocked when their new African member ComicBook/BlackPanther takes off his mask to reveal ... he's a white South African. When the Avengers protest that he joined under false pretenses, he points out that having a name with "Black..." in it doesn't indicate your ethnicity (ComicBook/BlackWidow is white) and declares "You don't care about real diversity! This is nothing but ... but ''tokenism''!"

* Creator/JuddWinick, the writer who established Ice's Romani heritage, previously declared that [[Franchise/GreenLantern Kyle Rayner's]] father was a Mexican-American named Gabriel Vasquez rather than an Irish-American named Aaron Rayner, with Aaron retconned into being an alias he used while undercover. This was further solidified after the ''ComicBook/New52'' reboot, which established that Kyle was aware of his Latino ancestry from the very beginning, with ''ComicBook/OmegaMen'' even depicting him as a fluent Spanish speaker. This is a far cry from Kyle's early appearances, which instead placed a great deal of emphasis on his Irish heritage, with him and his mother Maura sometimes speaking in Gaelic to each other.
* Mister Bones, a former DC villain turned government operative (head of the Department of Extranormal Operations), has among his powers transparent skin and organs, leaving him looking to all the world like a skeleton. Eventually, it turns out that he's ethnically black, and can appear so through use of make-up. At one point, ComicBook/{{Manhunter}} (Kate Spencer) tries to guilt-trip him into getting involved in a border dispute by claiming he has "forgotten what his skin color is". Bones predictably chews her out and ends the conversation.
* Ben Grimm, a/k/a "Thing" of the ComicBook/FantasticFour, was revealed to be Jewish, and the Yancy Street Gang he ran with as a kid was really a Jewish street gang. One supervillain said, "Funny, you don't look Jewish." Interestingly, a short story from a Marvel ChristmasSpecial comic book a few years prior to this reveal has Ben Grimm discussing the difference between Christmas and Hanukkah with a little Jewish girl. [[RetCon This story implies that Ben is not Jewish himself]] - though given that Ben was in many ways an AuthorAvatar for Creator/JackKirby, he was [[AscendedFanon considered to be implicitly Jewish for years.]]
* Jim Valentino's ''ComicBook/{{Shadowhawk}}'' remained masked during his first arc. Midway through his second arc, he encountered a white-supremacist named Hawk's Shadow, [[EvilCounterpart who modeled himself after Shadowhawk]]. When Shadowhawk encountered Hawk's Shadow, who bragged that he viciously killed black people, the infuriated Shadowhawk removed his mask and shouted, "You mean like ME?"
* Spider-Man, who has an everpresent full facemask and a costume that covers every inch of his skin, was once asked to reveal why he thought J. Jonah Jameson hated him in a courtroom. His response "it's because I'm black." Jonah then tried to backpedal, saying something along the lines of "I'm not racist! I have a TokenBlackFriend!" (which he does, but phrasing it like that didn't earn him any brownie points) and then is utterly humiliated along with his lawyer when Spidey gleefully declares "just kidding!". HilariousInHindsight now there actually IS a black Spider-Man in the ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan books.
* Done deliberately in an issue of Creator/MarkWaid's ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}''. The hero finds out that the NYPD has been infiltrated by members of the white supremacist group the Sons of Serpent, and thus realizes [[ParanoiaFuel that any of the cops in the courthouse with him could be one of them]]. One of the officers is a young woman in a pair of CoolShades, who eventually removes them [[TheReveal to reveal]] that she's Asian-American. This then assures the reader that there's no way she could be one of the Serpents.
* {{Averted|Trope}} by Ferro Lad in the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes. The writer's original intention was that after a few issues Ferro Lad would remove his helmet, revealing himself to be black - and that no one would bat an eye, since it was the future and no one cared about that sort of thing anymore. Unfortunately, [[ExecutiveMeddling the editor nixed it]], saying they'd lose sales in [[DeepSouth the South]], and the writer [[HeroicSacrifice killed Ferro Lad off]] as a form of protest.

* In ''[[ComicBook/XMen X-Treme X-Men]]'', Bishop, who had previously been assumed to be African American, is revealed to be a descendant of the Aboriginal Australian Gateway.
* This is the entire premise of ''ComicBook/BlueMarvel'', a [[SupermanSubstitute Superman expy]] active as a hero in the 1960's, until one day his mask was accidently ripped during a battle, and it was revealed to the world that he was Black. Because this occurred at the height of the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, it predictably exploded and enflamed racial tensions. White people started hating and fearing him for being [[DeliberatevaluesDissonance "Colored"]] and having powers, [[UngratefulBastard even when he was saving them]], while Black people began labeling him a [[CategoryTraitor "Race Traitor"]] for not using his powers for their cause, especially those with more extremist views. Eventually, in order to prevent things from becoming chaotic, Blue Marvel was forced to permanently retire from superheroing by the Executive Order of the US President. He then promptly disappeared to live a secret civilian life for the next several decades, until the modern day, when Iron Man and the Avengers asked for his help in dealing with the return of his ArchEnemy [[EvilCounterpart Anti-Man]].
* Early in ''ComicBook/LegionOfX'' [=ForgetMeNot=] is introduced with the first name "Xabi." While it hasn't been gone into with any detail, this means that he might be the first mutant of Basque descent.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Lars' ethnicity was unspecified for most of the show, and the only detail any of the crew gave was that he wasn't white. Lars was eventually implied by various details[[labelnote:note]]"The New Lars" shows his father is tanned-skinned and named "Dante", while his mother is lighter-skinned and where he got his orange hair. In "The Good Lars", he has a family recipe for [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ube_halaya ube]]. "Dewey Wins" reveals his surname is "Barriga".[[/labelnote]] to be mixed raced and of Filipino heritage on his father's side.