Latinos are finding themselves in the animated world of superheroes (and villains), thanks to Darryl “DMC” Daniels. The hip-hop legend’s comic book company, Darryl Makes Comics, recently introduced the latest addition to their animated roster LAK6, a 13-year-old Puerto Rican superheroine. The company’s editor-in-chief Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez describes the youth as “very out-spoken” and “precocious.”
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Set in the 1980s, LAK6 goes undercover as a middle school student named Leticia Lebron, who befriends a journalist interested in understanding her alter ego’s vigilante ways.
“Genuinely we looked at who we already had and we wanted to introduce a new character,” Miranda-Rodriguez told Huffington Post. “We were like, ‘Well we already have these powerful characters in our books.’ Yeah, they’re women, but it’s not because they’re women that we made them into heroes. It just so happened to be that the characters in our series were already strong women.”
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Miranda-Rodriguez also explained the inspiration behind the roots of the new heroine. LAK6 was inspired by graffiti artist Lady Pink, as well as Iris Morales, a member of the Young Lords activist group. Her foster parents are based on Puerto Rican activists Lolita Lebron and Pedro Albizu Campos. The acting EIC also emphasized that, while she might not be the first Puerto Rican superhero, LAK6 is independent and doesn’t need a cohort or sidekick. “It’s something cool for a lot of women, especially of color, especially of Latino descent because she’s not a derivative character,” said Miranda-Rodriguez.
How cool is that?