Comic Book Stuff: Black Superheroes

After my link to Batman’s political endorsement, my brother Joel asked, “Why aren’t there more African American superheroes?”

And for some reason, today seems like a good day to talk about black superheroes. Probably because yesterday was when new comic books come out. Yeah, that’s it.

I’ll break this down into three categories:
I. The Answer to the Question
II. Important Black Comic Book Creators
III. Important Black Comic Book Characters

I. The Answer to the Question
I think the most likely answer to “why aren’t there more black superheroes” is: there aren’t very many black comic book creators. And there were almost no black comic book creators involved during the most prolific and influential periods of comic book creation.

In the Golden Age of Comics of the 1940s, when millions of comic books sold every month, there is one (1) known African-American artist, Matt Baker. This is the period in which many iconic characters were created and a lot the mythos of comic books became concrete. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Aquaman, secret identities, arch-nemeses, and the rest were created in this period. All of these heroes are white, and all of their supporting cast members and villains were white. (Lucius Fox, the CEO of Bruce Wayne’s family business, played by Morgan Freeman in the movies, first appeared in 1979).

The next big comic-book universe building period (the “Silver Age”) was the 1960s, and again, there were not many black creators at the time. Marvel comics and all their characters started then – Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, the Hulk, X-Men, etc. DC revitalized several of their older characters, like Green Lantern and the Flash. Again, all of these characters were white, and all of their original supporting casts and villains were white. So the two big character-building eras of comics were (mostly) devoid of black creators, heroes, and characters in general.

It really wasn’t until the 1970s that black superheroes started showing up with regularity in Marvel or DC comics, and it wasn’t really until the 1980s that black creators began working on, and especially writing, comic books to any large degree. Since that time comic companies have done a much better job of having their fictional universes reflect the diversity of the real world, featuring black, Hispanic, and more international characters. There have been interesting, exciting, black characters since the 1960s (see below), but they usually didn’t have their own comic books. So, black superheroes have been playing catch-up in a lot of ways with older, more established characters.

II. Important Black Comic Book Creators
The most influential black comic creators are, in my opinion:

Christopher Priest – starting in the 80s, has worked steadily as a writer and editor for both Marvel and DC, working on such titles as Conan the Barbarian, Wonder Woman, and Spider-Man, and many, many more, including a long run on Black Panther

Kyle Baker – a multiple award-winning writer and artist (no relation to Matt)

Reginald Hudlin – A former BET executive and movie director who writes Black Panther for Marvel

Dwayne McDuffie – One of the writers for the cartoon Justice League and then Justice League Unlimited, he has written a LOT of comic books and is currently writing - wait for it - Justice League of America

III. Important Black Comic Book Characters
A. The Replacements –
A persistent trend concerning black superheroes is that a black hero will serve as a replacement to an existing white hero, or take on the role as a sort of legacy to that hero.

This has happened most notably with:
Green Lantern – John Stewart took over for Hal Jordan starting in 1972, and the two have been co-lanterns since. Stewart is obviously the one they picked to be on the Justice League cartoons.

Iron Man – James Rhodes (played by Terrence Howard in the movie) takes over for Tony Stark when Stark was recovering from alcoholism. He later got his own (black and silver) suit with more guns on it and calls himself War Machine.

Steel – When Superman was dead for a while back there in the 90s, John Henry Irons built himself a big flying suit of armor with an “S” on the chest and was the new “Man of Steel.”



This has happened with a bunch more minor DC characters like Firestorm, Dr. Mignight, and Mr. Terrific. Yeah, that’s right. Mr. Terrific.

One of the strangest, coolest, and most important replacement is Nick Fury, head of the secret spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. In his 1960s debut (another Stan Lee and Jack Kirby collaboration), he was white. When Marvel launched a parallel line in 2000 featuring versions of popular characters with origins in the modern day, Fury was re-imagined as black. And every time Bryan Hitch drew him, he looked like this:



Remind you of anyone? A certain Mr. Jackson? Look for him in the movies.

B. The Originals -
Black Lightning – The first black hero to appear in DC comics, he debuted in 1971. He has yet to appear on TV or movies, although a version of him was on the SuperFriends cartoon.



Marvel has a near monopoly on original, cool black characters.
There’s Luke Cage, aka Power Man, who first appeared in 1972.


Dig those crazy threads! Blaxploitation? Maybe a little.
These days he's not really a costume kind of guy, and fights crime in jeans and a black t-shirt.

There’s Blade, the vampire hunter, who showed up in 1973.



There’s Storm of the X-Men, who debuted in 1975.


And there’s the Falcon, who is the first African-American superhero. Created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan in 1969, he started out briefly as a villain before changing sides. He was a longtime crime-fighting partner (not sidekick) of Captain America. He is a cool character.


But the coolest black character, in my mind, is a native African, and also happens to be the first black superhero. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and debuting in Fantastic Four in 1966, it’s the Black Panther.



The concept here is cool – at one time in history, tribes in Africa were forging iron while everyone else was still using stone tools. The Black Panther is the king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, whose people stayed that far ahead of everyone else on the technological curve. They were a strict isolationist nation until the mid-20th century, and are now a minor world power. The Black Panther is the nations’ spiritual symbol, and the king wears the costume as a result.

The current Black Panther’s father was killed by a supervillain trying to steal Wakandan technology, inciting his meeting of the Fantastic Four. He has served in the past as a member and leader of the Avengers (the Justice League of the Marvel universe). A few years back he married Storm.


So, as far as superheroes go, he’s got it all. A semi-believable motivation for dressing up to fight crime. A heart-breaking back-story. A very cool costume. He is an expert combatant (think ninja), a scientific genius, and king of his own country. Look for a movie about him in the near future.

Except…

The only thing missing from bringing him to Batman-level prestige is: he doesn’t really have very good villains. There’s Ulysses Klaw, the guy who killed his father:


Yikes.

There's the Man-Ape, a guy in a gorilla suit with super-human strength who wants to take over the throne of Wakanda:

Double yikes!!

And there's Killmonger, who wants to – kill things:


(Yawn) They don't exactly seem like epic villains, do they?

Black Panther's best conflicts have been with enemies he’s borrowed from other people, like the Red Skull from Captain America, or Dr. Doom from the Fantastic Four.

Oh, well. He's still awesome. And will always be first.

C. Random! –
1. Aquaman’s arch-enemy, who you may remember from Superfriends, is Black Manta. Underneath that helmet, Black Manta is...black. Crazy.



2. Muhammad Ali called himself the “Black Superman.” I’m not sure if that makes him a superhero or not, but it earned him a shot at the title.



This is one of the best comic book covers ever. Know why? You want to know what happens next, don't you? Well, I can't tell you - cause I don't know. What we can tell from the cover is that "they fight to save the earth from star warriors," both Batman and Jimmy Carter showed up to watch the bout, and Superman is hovering. Float like a butterfly, indeed.

3. Finally, watch out for this guy, as painted by Alex Ross – if he starts flying or develops x-ray vision, he could really go places.

Comic Book Stuff: How Batman Votes

In case you were wondering who Batman endorses in the current presidential race,here's your answer.

My favorite part is his explanation of why the candidates' stance on terrorism doesn't really influence him, because he normally just fights the terrorists himself.

Comic Book Stuff: Don't Judge Me! (or, Why Comic Books Are Cool)

Here’s where I attempt to explain why I, a grown man, continue to purchase and read comic books as a form of entertainment. I have been trying to figure out how to approach this – and there seem to be a couple of ways to go.

I could try to explain comic books (and comic strips) as a unique art form – the combination of words and sequential pictures which combine to form something greater than the sum of their parts. And it is this aspect of comic books that makes them so adaptable to a variety of genres, and not just the sci-fi adventure category we automatically think of. Comic books are and have been used for children’s literature, biography (like Persepolis and the Pulitzer prize-winning Maus), romance, westerns, mystery, horror, and nearly everything else. On my wish list, for example, is a comic book called Action Philosophers! I could talk about all that - but somebody already wrote a book about it. And in comic book form, no less! So if the art and artistic side is what floats your boat, I highly recommend Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. I’ll even loan you my copy if you ask nice.

The truth, though, is that I mostly buy super-hero comics. But even here there is a larger story to tell. I could try to explain super-hero comic books in terms of their cultural impact. Batman, Superman, Spider-Man – these are not only household names, but elements of each of their stories are part of the popular culture. If I were to say that "planning ahead" was my kryptonite, most people would know immediately what I mean. As Hollywood has discovered, the heroes and themes of comic books seem to resonate with people.

To expand on that, I could try to explain super-hero comics in terms of story. The best comic book writers, in my opinion, are those who accept the general conventions of the comic book, and then depart from there to do something radically different. If you pick up almost any comic book by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Will Eisner, Kurt Busiek, Grant Morrison, Brian K. Vaughan, or Mark Waid, you’ll find something to sink your teeth into beyond “Character A punches Character B – Character B then fires his laser eyes at Character A.” All of these writers have done more than traditional super-hero comics, but they have also worked within the super-hero world in unconventional ways.

I’ll let Kurt Busiek explain, from his introduction to “Life In The Big City” the first volume of his Astro City series:

“The complaint, which never fails to charm me, is that superheroes are limited. They’re inherently juvenile, I’m told. They’re simplistic.They’re just an adolescent male power fantasy, a crypto-fascist presentation of status quo values, elevated over anything strange or alien.

And sure, yeah, I can see that. Superman is adolescence personified – Clark Kent the weak child whom nobody takes seriously, turning into the powerful, respected, (and sexually attractive, but nervous around women) Superman as swiftly as a teenager’s voice cracks, and then back again to meek, unimportant Clark....

However, what charms me about that objection to the superhero is the way it points out, in the guise of criticism, what to me is the greatest strength of the superhero genre – the ease with which superheroes can be used a metaphor, as symbol, whether for the psychological transformation of adolescence, the self-image of a nation, or something else.

If a superhero can be such a powerful and effective symbol for male adolescence, than what else can you do with them? Could you build a superhero story around a metaphor for female adolescence? Around mid-life crisis? About the changes adults go through when they become parents? Sure, why not?”

That’s probably as good a summary as any. And there’s my justification for a new blog feature.

I’ll end this one with what I think is one of the more interesting tidbits about the creation of the first comic book superhero – Superman.

In 1938, Nazi Germany was increasing its stranglehold on Europe – overtaking Czechoslovakia, Romania, bullying its way into diplomacy with England, and preparing for an invasion of Poland. Its philosophy was built on racism, especially toward Jews, and the Nietzschian idea of the “ubermensch” – the strong man who accomplishes things by domination and sheer will.

And in June 1938 a character called Superman appears in “Action Comic #1.” He’s the strongest guy around, an alien come to earth but raised as Clark Kent, who accepts earth as his home, and uses his strength to fight for truth, justice, and the American way.

And he was created by two 18-year old Jewish kids from Cleveland.