Our culture has made great strides in three things as of recently—diversity, film, and diversity in film. Obviously, the technology necessary to improve modern films is easier to make than to promote diversity worldwide. At the end of the day, it is up to each and every individual person to accept and promote diversity in culture, whereas new innovations in filmmaking do not require the effort of millions of people. These innovations are especially present in action or sci-fi films, such as Marvel or DC films. Certain identities do not get nearly as many representations in film as others; this has come to the attention of many people, and is clearly being worked on.

Marvel is notably working to represent many diverse identities within their technologically innovative films. For example, a Black Panther film featuring an amazing cast of black actors will be coming out in 2018. Also, they accurately portray Tony Stark as a complex character with PTSD. Even Spiderman: Homecoming has a diverse cast!

Children especially like superheroes because it makes them believe that they can do anything. Many teenagers or older people find they can connect to their personalities and struggles. On top of that, DC's sensational depiction of Wonder Woman brought a groundbreaking representation of women to the table. All genders and races have found a place in the superhero genre, and will continue to do so. At this point and popularity, there is no room for regression. As the genre continues to flourish in its epic diversity, I would encourage the consideration of another underrepresented identity whose representation could be beneficial to the world—the disabled.

Marvel has only four well-known disabled characters. Clint Barton, or Hawkeye, is deaf and uses hearing aids in the comics but not in the movies. Matt Murdock, who is the main character in his own Netflix show Daredevil, is blind. Charles Xavier of the X-Men is also a wheelchair user. In Captain America: Civil War, James Rhodes, Tony Stark's best friend, was paralyzed in his legs during in an accident.

Why Hawkeye is not portrayed as deaf in the movies is well beyond me, and also quite disappointing. It's wonderful that there is a powerful wheelchair-using character in the X-Men movies and a blind superhero with his own show, but why have they stopped there? And since War Machine was only paralyzed in the second to latest Marvel movie and is seen walking with assistive technology briefly at the end, we are left wondering what happens next. Don Cheadle, who plays James Rhodes, is not listed as a cast member in the next Avengers movie, Infinity War.

Marvel proved themselves responsive to feedback from fans when they created a superhero based on a partially deaf boy, Anthony Smith, who did not want to wear his hearing aids because he didn't think superheroes wore them. The superhero is called Blue Ear, and his hearing aids give him supersonic hearing. He is seen hanging out with Hawkeye in a few comics. Still, many people prefer the movies to the comics. The movies are much simpler than the comics due to the general time limit that paper does not have; but there is certainly enough room for more diverse characters.

Superheroes were a male-dominated interest before Wonder Woman's reappearance in the film. Girls and boys now have superheroes to look up to whose gender does not define their badassery. As stated earlier, children especially enjoy superheroes because it makes them believe they can do anything. Disabled children often have a more adult understanding of reality, however, as they are not able to do things the same way as able-bodied children. This does not mean they can't enjoy superheroes with their peers, but it pushes the case for a disabled superhero. Not only would disabled children have a superhero to identify with, but we could start ending the common and wrongful notion that disability is sad or pitiful with the younger generation. Superheroes are not sad or pitiful. Disabled people are not sad or pitiful. Disabled people can be superheroes, too. The easiest way to wash away this fallacy is to start with the young people, and to reach them where they like to be: superhero movies.

I like to joke that I'd be the most bogus member of the X-Men. I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which is a mutation in the DNA, same as the mutants among the X-Men. However, it does not give me superpowers. It gives me chronic pain and fatigue. But I'm still a mutant, and with the cool technology that they use, I could fight Magneto. Assistive technology is a real thing that in the real world is not capable of defeating a supervillain but in movies certainly could. Iron Man and Batman aren't superheroes like mutants; they are rich guys with cool technology. Yet, they are still among the most celebrated superheroes. Why can't we normalize disabled people and their assistive technology by making them superheroes in movies?

I want a wheelchair-using superhero with a flying wheelchair that can destroy threats in the air with the touch of a button, who afterwards goes to an accessible shawarma restaurant with the Avengers.

I want Blue Ear or more deaf superheroes to show up in a battle with the Avengers and kick ass.

I want a blind superhero with radar sense like Daredevil (or more Daredevil himself) to track bad guys that can't be seen by anyone else.

I want an amputee who can shoot rockets from their prosthetics.

I want them to have dramatic backstories, funny moments, clever one-liners, romances, friendships, enemies, families. I want to read fan fiction about them on Tumblr and Archive Of Our Own. I want able-bodied people to appreciate them the same way they appreciate able-bodied superheroes, which they will if they are characterized as well as they are. And most of all, I want real disabled actors to play them.

In reality, disabled people can be anything that able-bodied people can, if not with some assistive technology and accommodations. If able-bodied people can be superheroes, so can disabled people. Movies and TV are a great platform to introduce diversity into culture, and millions of people flock to theaters to see superhero movies. Among these watchers are disabled people who would love to see themselves among the superheroes on the screen, and people who need to see them.