Two weekends ago saw the newest addition to the Marvel franchise, Black Panther, break the box office record when it hit theaters.

A week later, it hit another record for the best pre-summer second weekend in box office history and beats the Marvel Cinematic Universe record for second weeks, previously held by “The Avengers” with $103 million.

It is the first superhero film to date with an all black leading cast; its barrier breaking potential, strong reviews, and the Marvel mystique all proving to be a potent combination.

With such a positive reaction from fans and critics alike, one must ask the question – why the wait?

Hollywood has been notoriously White from the get go.

But if it’s difficult to find Black representation in film, it’s even more of a struggle to find Asian, Indian, Latino, and Native American representation, among others.

It’s as though directors forget such people exist and that is particularly disheartening to realize in a country as diverse as the United States.

Often, what little representation can be found places them as servants or painful to watch stereotypes.

The same can be said of television shows and popular literature.

While many are learning to include well written, diverse characters, when was the last time a story had a person of color or other marginalized identity as the main protagonist?

The CW show Legends of Tomorrow contains a handful of main characters, three of which are black in the first season – two men and one woman.

While this inclusion is important, they still share the stage with six Caucasians.

Rick Riordan’s most recent book series, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, is incredibly diverse with a deaf elf, a genderfluid child of Loki, and a Muslim girl as central characters.

Few writers attain such a level of representation but even here, as the book title suggests, they are not the main protagonist.

“Why so picky?” you might ask.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic to have each one of these diverse characters both on the screen and page.

No doubt children from a variety of ethnicities are thrilled to see people like them save the world, learning that they don’t have to submit to societies stereotypes.

But imagine their reaction to seeing someone like them lead the world saving.

Caucasian men have seen people like themselves lead battles to victory in more films and television than one should think possible, and most don’t think about the impact it has on a young boy’s mind.

They come away from watching a movie like Captain America or Iron Man feeling like they can conquer the world simply because a man in a suit has their general appearance.

Allowing kids of all genders and ethnicities to have that luxury would change the game in their later years as they enter the professional world.

To be honest, I have never particularly been a fan of superhero movies.

I naturally latched onto the Black Widow after watching The Avengers, but for the most part these films are often too concerned with showing off their CGI and explosions instead of character focus for my taste.

That is, until I watched Wonder Woman in theaters. For the first time, I understood why these types of films appealed to people.

Yes, there was dramatic CGI, but there was heart amidst all of it and, most importantly, empowerment.

I’m a fan of many fantastically written female characters in fiction, but there was something about seeing one on the big-screen – an actual superhero – that was truly mesmerizing.

She was fierce, complex, not sexualized in any way, and everything a girl of any age could want in a role-model.

I felt like I could throw a misogynist across the country after watching her in action.

Like it or not, superheroes aren’t just for white boys anymore.

Movies like Wonder Woman and Black Panther are clearly progress, but the DC and Marvel cinematic universes shouldn’t have taken so long to get there.

How many versions of Batman did DC have to make before realizing there were other, much more interesting, diverse heroes in their comics.

Marvel went through three Captain America films, three Thor films, and three Iron Man films before finally deciding to bring Black Panther to the big screen.

While we should be excited that both finally came to their senses, it’s important to remain critical of how slow they and other franchises are when it comes to pulling through with representation.

We need stories about a black woman inventor who is smarter than Tony Stark.

We need stories about a Vietnamese Green Lantern.

It is long past time to have these voices heard.