White Tiger

White Tiger (Hector Ayala) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He was created by Bill Mantlo and George Pérez. A Puerto Rican, White Tiger was the first Latin American main character in the history of American comics and Marvel's first Hispanic superhero. The first member of his family to hold the mantle, Hector is the uncle of Angela del Toro and the brother of Ava Ayala. Design and creation When the decision to make the White Tiger the main character of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, with the Sons of the Tigers as supporting characters, Bill Mantlo intended to adequately depict the “gritty/city slums” of New York City. Believing that, due to being Puerto Rican, George Pérez had “intimate knowledge” of the daily life in the South Bronx during the 1970s, he approached the artist with a proposal to create a “character that reflects that grim reality”. Due to the monochromatic style of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, the initial concept for White Tiger’s costume was simply Spider-Man’s suit “without any detail”. With this idea, Pérez designed the visual aspect of the character, to the satisfaction of both as it was considered elegant and worked well within the constraints of the palette. The artist stated that the socially-conscious Mantlo “was probably more aware of the significance of creating the first Latino Super Hero” headliner and described the process of creating White Tiger as “organic” due to his background. Pérez named that character after some of his “neighborhood friends”, gave it a face reminiscent of his brother David and a mother based on his own. The artist illustrated the character’s surroundings based on his own experiences in the inner city. The “streamlined” look was meant to emphasize the word “white” and accommodate it to the format, but Pérez later grew to regret not adding stripes to the design. The move set in his illustrations was composed by “exaggerated” martial arts. Upon revisiting Ayala in 2021, Daniel José Older noted that he would not italicize words “when [slipping] back and forth [between Spanish and English] seamlessly”. The author based his story on an essay that he had written for The New York Times titled “Garbage Fires for Freedom: When Puerto Rican Activists Took Over New York’s Streets”. Publication history White Tiger first appeared in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #19 (December 1975).