SUPER BLACK!
by
BRADLEY MASON HAMLIN



This week the Mystery Island spotlight shines on the history of the “black” superhero. Black as a tag or label, is far from perfect, and ultimately it’s frustrating that we have such things, but in this case it’s closest to the subject, as I don’t want to limit our scope to “African-Americans.” That would exclude native Africans, such as the Black Panther. Besides, how many black people do you know in America that have a direct tie to Africa or have visited that country? I have been told that I have an Irish and Norwegian heritage, yet my family dates back several generations within the United States. I have never been to Ireland or Norway nor does my family practice any traditions or customs that could be clearly identified as Irish or Norwegian. Therefore, what claim do I have to that heritage? Relatively none at all. I am an American, plain and simple. Many African-American blacks, generationally separated from their origins, carry the same conundrum. They want to identify with a heritage, but often their own history here at home—is too damned unappealing to accept. So they must look farther back to further lands for identification. I think that’s extremely unfortunate, and I truly hope that the 21st century can help put some distance and healing to America’s questionable and often criminal past concerning people born outside of Europe with dark skin.

Well, that brings us to today’s discussion. One of the positive steps popular culture has taken to portray the African-blooded man can be found within the superhero genre. Firstly, however, in order to address this issue properly we need to have a working understanding of who or what is a superhero.

According to Wikipedia, the online dictionary: “A superhero is a fictional character who is noted for feats of courage and nobility, who usually possesses abilities beyond those of normal human beings. Many superheroes have a colorful and distinctive name and costume. By most definitions, characters need not have actual superhuman powers to be deemed superheroes, although sometimes terms such as costumed crimefighters are used to refer to those without such powers who have many other common traits of superheroes.”

At Mystery Island, our superheroes are called: Metaphysical Crimefighters. So, yes, there are a few ways to interpret the bigger than life quality of not just a hero, but a superhero. What follows is a chronological list of notable black comic book heroes:




ALL NEGRO COMICS NO. 1 (June, 1947)

All Negro featured black characters in knock offs of already established white characters: Ace Harlem (a police detective like Dick Tracy), Lion Man (a jungle hero like Tarzan) and Sugarfoot and Snake-Oil (a comedy team like Laurel & Hardy, but in the minstrel tradition), and there were others ...

All Negro never made it to a 2nd issue and none of the characters seem to have survived. The comic book is considered rare, and I've never read it, but I'd like to if we can find a reprint somewhere.





LOBO (1965)

The first comic book with a black hero starring in the title role was the Dell Comics feature Lobo, from 1965. Lobo was basically a western gunslinger: “Branded for life for a crime he did not commit.” Western heroes aren’t exactly what we’re looking for, but they definitely play their part in the superhero genre. Consider the Lone Ranger, the mask and the silver bullet, the vigilante crime-fighting, all earmarks of the superhero’s bigger than life, yet mysterious, aspect. When Lobo would catch a bad guy he would leave a gold coin imprinted with a wolf image and the letter L on their bodies. He must have been rich like Bruce Wayne!




THE BLACK PANTHER (1966)

With the Black Panther from Marvel Comics, the African-influenced hero became fully realized. Created by the legendary team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, T’Challa had everything you could ask for in a hero: cool name, cool costume, with a cool blend of scientific knowledge and physical skill, sort of like a black Batman. Truthfully, I really don’t know if anyone has bested this initial effort at creating a “black” hero.

The Black Panther first appeared in Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four No. 52, (July, 1966).

Then T’Challa got his own series within Jungle Action with a different creative team, but the late 70’s Black Panther series by Jack Kirby really defined the character for me. While generally misunderstood, as many far-out Kirby projects are, the 70’s series was really important as it didn’t just revolve around the fact that T’Challa was African. Kirby injected the series with a super creative energy that would be a lot of fun to revisit. Come on Marvel, an Essential edition of the Black Panther seems like a no-brainer!




BLACK GOLIATH (1966)

That's right, he's not regular Goliath--he's Black Goliath! Stan Lee with Don Heck gave us another black hero, a little less inspired than the Black Panther. Black Goliath, a lab assistant to Henry Pym (Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath) gains the ability, like Pym, to grow giant-size. Black Goliath earned his own, short-lived, series in 1976.




THE FALCON (September, 1969)

Stan Lee partnered this time with Gene Colan to create the Falcon to in turn partner with Captain America in Captain America No. 117. The Falcon provided a much more interesting team-up than the golden age white boy, Bucky Barnes.




THE BLACK RACER (July, 1971)

Jack Kirby, once again, created a really interesting and far out black character, this time in the form of something no one had ever seen (or imagined) previously--a black man flying around on skiis who happens to be the avatar god of death. Even though he did use the black cliche for his name title, I believe this would be my favorite "black" comic book character, for nothing other than its pure creative power. The Black Racer first appeared in The New Gods No. 3.




GREEN LANTERN: JOHN STEWART (1971)

Another hero to carry the “black” title was actually a green titled DC Comics hero named Green Lantern. Yet, as was popular with early black heroes—he was called “Black Lantern” back in the day. I remember at the time, in 1971, that seemed perfectly natural. Now, it just invokes uncomfortable laughter. However, Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams did create a really important member of the Green Lantern family, and John Stewart, although originally a back-up Green Lantern for Hal Jordan, became a starting line-up Green Lantern for the animated Justice League series.




LUKE CAGE (1972)

In 1972, Archie Goodwin and John Romita, Sr. brought another of my favorites to the comic book scene: Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, later named Powerman. Here was a character designed to really portray a black man as a black hero, born and raised in Harlem. T’Challa after all is a king and how many people can relate to that elevated status? Cage was a man wrongly imprisoned who later gained superpowers through some mad science, a really great series that luckily is already available through the Marvel Essential series. Check it out.




BLADE (July, 1973)

Created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, Blade was a bad-ass vampire hunter, first appearing in Tomb of Dracula No. 10. Blade has a little vampire blood in him due to his prostitute mother getting bit by a vampire while she was in a labor ... Man, no wonder that dude's got issues.




BROTHER VOODOO (September, 1973)

The next year brought a supernatural superhero into the mix: Brother Voodoo! First appearance: Strange Tales No. 169. Brother Voodoo was/is a really cool character and a very cool series, the first time I can think of where an African form of spirituality was taken, not only seriously, but portrayed in a highly interesting venue. He appeared in five issues of Strange Tales before moving on to the black & white Marvel Comics horror magazine: Tales of the Zombie. He pops up now and then, mysteriously, but Brother Voodoo, I think, was a missed opportunity for an excellent ongoing series.




STORM (1975)

Next up, Len Wein and Dave Cockrum of Marvel Comics gave us a sexy female black superhero in the form of Storm, first appearing in Giant-Size X-Man No. 1 in 1975. The new X-Man characters, including Wolverine, weren’t that popular at first. I remember reluctantly buying the Giant-Size X-Men No. 1 off the spin rack as a kid because it was double the price of a regular 25 cent comic book. However, as everyone knows, that X-Men team became one of the most popular comic book series of all time and Storm was a very important and essential member.




BUMBLEBEE (1976)

In 1976, DC Comics gave us Bumblebee, a black female superhero and member of the Teen Titans (seen recently on the Teen Titans animated show). She hung out with another black hero named Gabriel. He played some kind of a magic horn or something, pretty lame.




BLACK LIGHTNING (1977)

In 1977, DC Comics launched their first title starring a black hero: Black Lightning! Sure, he was cancelled after only 11 issues, but many books were cancelled during that time period, including Jack Kirby’s New Gods (with Black Racer). Black Lightning became the inspiration for Black Vulcan on the Super Friends and the animated character Static Shock.




CYBORG (1980)

When we finally arrived in 1980, Marv Wolfman and George Perez gave DC Comics, arguably, the most popular black superhero that company has published: Cyborg. Half man, half robot--Cyborg first appeared in DC Comics Presents No. 26, (October, 1980). He was a key member of the New Teen Titans and recently gained new popularity by appearing in the animated version of Teen Titans.




VIXEN (1981)

1978 almost saw the debut of the first black female lead role comic book: Vixen No. 1, but it was terminated in the DC Comics big cut back at the time. Vixen appeared in print in Action Comics No. 521, (1981). She later became a member of the Justice League, appeared in the animated series Justice League, and now—you can even buy her action figure!




THE BLACK HORNET (2007)

Created by Bradley Mason Hamlin, the Black Hornet is the first black hero to gain membership inside THE SECRET SOCIETY. He works with a white partner named Sidekick (named for his kung fu skills). The Black Hornet is an old school type of mystery man in the best pulp tradition. He will appear soon in an upcoming issue of Intoxicated Detective or the new Secret Society series coming from Mystery Island. Meanwhile, you can catch up with the Black Hornet at his myspace page: myspace.com/theblackhornet


Well, folks, that’s all I can think of at the moment. As you can witness—there’s certainly room for more black, African, and/or African-American superheroes. We’ve only just scratched the surface with comic book diversity, and I want to thank DC and Marvel Comics for bringing us this far. But I also want to point out one important limitation that has been used in joining the black man to the comic book world. Sometimes, the writers, for whatever reason, seem to think changing the already established role of a white character into a black character is ipso facto an act of diversity. With this I would have to disagree. We need new and interesting black characters, characters born of the same creative zest as Siegel and Shuster’s original Superman.

Some examples of white characters retooled for blackness are: a randomly placed black Ant-Man, the Black Manta, never mentioned as a black man but suddenly appearing as a black man because he carried the word black in his codename, Alicia Masters (the Thing’s blind girlfriend) appearing on film as an African-American, the Kingpin appearing black in the Daredevil movie, a new black version of the Crimson Avenger (pictured above; she actually looks pretty cool in the role), Ultimate Avengers changing a white Nick Fury into a black Nicky Fury, and the list goes on …

Altering the color of long term established characters, I believe, is sort of a weak gesture. Let’s get a little more creative and move forward before the Black Racer himself skiis down here and takes us away from this far too fragile and flawed earthly plane.


Bradley Mason Hamlin


"Super Black!" article by Bradley Mason Hamlin © Copyright 2008 Mystery Island Publications. Published: January 22, 2008. An earlier version of this article (called "Super Soul Brothers") by Bradley Mason Hamlin was published on February 17, 2007 for Black History Month. All rights reserved.





POP CULTURE ARCHIVES :: MYSTERY ISLAND HOME :: CONTACT