In this diary, I listed & described 25 Black Superheroes in comics in advance of the Black Panther movie. Now that the film has already broken tons of box office records for this past 4-day weekend (final domestic tally: $242 million!), I feel compelled to respond to all the articles that mistakenly claim that this is the first black superhero to headline a standalone film. That’s false. Black Panther, created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and 1st appearing in Fantastic Four #52 was the first black superhero in mainstream comics. The film is amazing and should be celebrated for many reasons, including having a great black director, writers, and a nearly all-black cast as well as the quality of the film and its uplifting message. But although FAR outnumbered by white male heroes (just as in every other genre), there is a history of (varying quality) black representation in superhero films and TV shows. I will rehearse that history (highs and lows) here.
Superman: The Movie (1978) ushered in the modern superhero films, as opposed to the old black and white serials of pulp and Golden Aged comic book heroes that ran weekly in Depression Era cinema before the feature film. It’s unexpected success led to one good and some bad sequels. But it didn’t unleash a flood of superhero films, starring white guys or anyone else. Neither did Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman and its sequels. If you were a reader of superhero comics, you knew that Hollywood didn’t take your interest seriously—for any character of any race, ethnicity, gender, language group, etc. They were all mostly dismissed and when a character did get a film, it was usually bad. But African and African American characters were simply absent until the early 1990s. [I have been corrected in the comments.]
The first superhero film with a black lead I can find is 1993’s Meteor Man written, directed, and starring Robert Townsend. It’s a comedic, lighthearted, take on the genre. Even more of a spoof is 1994’s Blank Man highlighting the talents of Damon Wayans. I don’t disrespect comedy. There is a place for satire and for spoofing just about anything. It does rub nerds like me the wrong way when the comedic take is all that is offered. Apparently, whites were especially concerned to make sure that black folk with powers are seen comically, so that they appear less threatening. Both of these films are fun, but was this all the ‘90s could give us?
Unfortunately, no. In 1997, writer and director Kenneth Johnson and producer Quincy Jones unleashed the terrible film, Steel, “starring” basketball legend and NON-actor Shaquille O’Neal in the titular role, with terrible costumes, terrible plot, terrible acting, and terrible special effects. Ugh. This would have been bad enough if the character of Steel had been made up by Hollywood like Meteor Man or Blank Man. But the character of Steel is actually based on a DC character who is fascinating and was very much in the forefront of comic readers of that time—he had a fan base. DC Comics had done their great and then-groundbreaking story arc on “The Death of Superman” in which Superman dies saving the Earth (again) from Doomsday. In the wake of his death, 4 different “supermen” step forward to try to fill the void left by this champion and symbol of hope. One of those was an African-American engineer named John Henry Irons, who created an “Iron Man” like suit of armor, complete with a Superman-style “S” on the chest plate and who wielded a “John Henry” style sledge hammer as his jet boots flew him into battle. All of this is lost in the Shaq debacle.
However, 1997 DID give comic lovers a better film with a black superhero, Spawn starring Michael Jai White and directed by Mark A.Z. Dippe. This film is a long way from cinematic gold, mind you, but there is at least an attempt to treat comic book writer/artist Todd McFarlane’s creation with respect and seriousness. (Spawn comics are published by the company McFarlane co-founded, Dark Horse Comics which mostly features creator-owned titles along with licensed properties.) An ex-Marine turned mercenary is betrayed and murdered. Because he has killed lots of innocents during his career as a mercenary, he ends up in hell. But he agrees to become a hellspawn (hence the name) and spirit of vengeance on Earth in order to also protect his family. The CGI effects are very dated, the script has problems and the demonic clown is a collection of fart jokes, but Spawn was the best depiction on the big screen of a black superhero to that point. (HBO’s Spawn: The Animated Series was light years superior to the film, however, and fans still want to see a live-action Spawn film of that quality. Black Panther’s success may make that possible.)
In 1998, things got much better. Blade, starring Wesley Snipes, who was then at the height of his fame as an action movie superstar, took a very obscure character from Marvel Comics and gave us an R-rated action/horror film that was a big enough hit to birth two sequels (one excellent and the other not so much). Created in 1973 as a supporting character by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, “Blade, the Vampire Hunter” was introduced in Tomb of Dracula #10. In the comics, “Blade” is a nickname for Eric Brooks, a British black man born in London to a woman already bitten by a vampire before she gives birth. He is born with most of the powers and strengths of a vampire, but lacks most of their weaknesses such as being unable to stand sunlight. (He does have to fight a craving for human blood.) Because Wesley Snipes can’t do a British accent, the movie makes him a native New Yorker, but otherwise keeps much of the comic mythology intact. It was Blade’s success at the box office which allowed the modern superhero film era that most date to Bryan SInger’s X-Men (2000) and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002). Why don’t most people realize that this era really began with Blade? I suspect it was because the average moviegoer didn’t realize that Blade was a superhero and the film and its’ sequels, Blade II (2002) and Blade Trinity (2004) were based on comic book characters and plotlines.
Before looking at other black representation in superhero films of the early 2000s, we need to look at ‘90s television. [Folks in the comments have included entries back to the ‘80s. I tried for completeness and failed. Read the comments for more entries.] Way back in 1994, Sam Raimi and Sam Hamm created M.A.N.T.I.S. which starred Carl Lumbly as a scientist who had been paralyzed by a stray police bullet in the L.A. riots in the wake of the Rodney King verdict. He builds a suit that acts as an exoskeleton to not only walk again, but fight street level crime. The special effects were bad, and the series got only 1 season (22 episodes), but it was better than anything similar on the small screen at the time. It was an original character, Carl Lumbly is a very capable actor, and it had potential that was never realized.
Animated TV was a whole different ball game. Most fans of superhero comics and their adaptations consider the 1990s-early 2000s to be a “golden era” for animated superhero series—series that took the characters seriously and presented complex plots adapted closely from story arcs in the comic book source material. Successor series, even when starring the same characters, has been more comedic, aimed at younger kids (continuing a long trend overestimating children) and focused on selling toys. There was considerable racial/ethnic and gender diversity on many of these shows (although sexual orientation was never touched upon—and was barely being broached in the comics of the time). X-Men ran on Fox TV from 1992-1997. In addition to guest appearances, viewers watched 2 main black characters on this excellent series: Storm, a mutant daughter of an African-American father and a Kenyan mother with the power to control the weather (voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith) and Bishop, a time-travelling mutant from a very dystopian future with the power to absorb energy and either redirect it back as concussion waves or use it to increase his own strength (voiced by Philip Akin). One reason the versions of Storm played by Halle Berry & Alexandra Shipp in the live action X-Men films have not gone over well with fans of the comics and/or the ‘90s TV series, is that the live-action Storm has not been the leader and powerhouse that the comics and animated series portrayed. (Another reason, one that I, as a white male, am not qualified to delve into, is the “colorism” of the X-films. In the comics, despite her shock of white hair, Storm is a very dark black woman. Both Halle Berry and Alexandra Shipp are very light skinned. Fan complaints, particularly from darker black women, have fallen on deaf ears.)
Over at Warner-Bros. (parent company of DC Comics), the late ‘90s and early 2000s saw some of their best animated TV shows: The DC Animated Universe (DCAU) or the “Timmverse,” so-called because showrunner Bruce Timm was involved in all of the shows. The series included Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995); Superman: The Animated Series (1996-1997); The New Batman/Superman Adventures (1997-2000); Batman: Beyond (1999-2001); Justice League (2001-2004); Justice League Unlimited (2004-2006). In Justice League (2001-2004), show runner Bruce Timm decided to combine the classic seven (7) members of the League with some modern variations. In the comics, the initial team is Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter. In this TV series, Aquaman only joins later and his slot is initially filled by Hawkgirl, so that Wonder Woman is not the only female member of the team. Further, this League’s Green Lantern is not the legacy (white dude) Green Lantern of test pilot Hal Jordan, but a later GL, African-American engineer and former U.S. Marine, John Stewart (voiced by Phil Lamarr). Stewart is presented as a man with a strong code of honor, who dispenses with mask and secret identity, and takes his job seriously: a Green Lantern is a space cop. This carried over into Justice League Unlimited which added far more characters including the African-American heroine Vixen (voiced by Gina Torres). This is the GL that a whole generation grew up with, including my daughters, and is the version that should be included on film.
Outside the “Timmverse,” DC animation also gave viewers The Teen Titans (2003-2006) based loosely on the New Teen Titans comic of the late ‘70s and ‘80s created by Marv Wolfmann and George Perez. A fan favorite of this series is Cyborg an African-American teen former athlete who had to be turned into a half-human/half-machine frightening figure in order to save his life. Voiced by Khary Payton, the animated version shows a very intelligent Victor Stone not only as a vital member of the Titans, but dealing with his horrible condition with humor and grace.
But the crown jewel of African-American animated superhero representation on the small screen during this period was Static Shock (2000-2004), also part of the “Timmverse.” Based on the comic Static, the series gives viewers a great teenaged hero in one Virgil Hawkins, who gains electric powers and becomes the hero, Static. Set in the fictional town of Dakota (which is to Detroit as Gotham is to NYC), Virgil’s family are Middle-Class African-Americans, but because Dakota is overall economically distressed, they are in close contact to much poorer neighborhoods, the more so because Virgil’s father, Robert Hawkins, is a social worker and community organizer. (The mother is deceased prior to the series start.) Virgil is a bright high school student (especially in science) and his best friend, Richie, a white kid, becomes Static’s sidekick, Gear. This series was amazing—it even had a family trip to Africa in which, in a call back to Richie Stateside, Virgil tries and fails to explain to Richie what it is like to see black people in charge of everything. There is a ton of social commentary without any feeling of “too preachy.” I’m the wrong generation to have appreciated the hip-hop vibe of the series, but my daughters enjoyed that aspect.
Returning to films, apart from the 3 Blade films, the only superhero with a solo black lead in the 21st C. pre-Black Panther, was Hancock (2008), starring Will Smith. Hancock was not a spoof like Meteor Man or Blank Man, but it was another comedic take. It presented an alcoholic superhero who was usually drunk and whose actions caused as much damage and trouble as help for non-super bystanders. He turns out to be an immortal alien with memory loss. I didn’t like Hancock, personally.
But, while that was the only post-Blade, pre-Black Panther solo offering of Black superheroes, the last 2 decades have seen an explosion of superhero movies and while straight white men have dominated the scene, diversity has been slowly broadening the representation, including more representation of African and African-American heroes. It has been slow. Diversity in comics has been up and down and never achieved without struggle, but Hollywood is worse.
Beginning with Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000), 20th C. Fox, which owns the movie rights to Marvel Comics’ mutant characters, has given us a series of X-Men related films of varying quality. As mentioned above, Halle Berry played the weather-controlling mutant, Storm in X-Men, X-2: X-Men United (2003), and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). The 1st 2 films are generally well liked by comic fans, but the 3rd is hated. Halle Berry is an Oscar winning actress for a reason, but her performance in these films is hampered by scripts which focus on Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and by directors Singer and Ratner equal clumsiness at dealing with strong female characters. Those who knew Storm from the comics or the ‘90s cartoon are left disappointed.
Singer gives Alexandra Shipp’s version of Storm far more to do in X-Men: Apocalypse, but fans are still less than satisfied. We can only hope for better with this year’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
In 2006, Marvel created its own movie studio (though many of its characters’ movie rights were still held by Fox, Sony, or Universal) and, under the guidance of studio head and producer Kevin Feige, decided to launch a “shared universe” with the characters whose movie rights they still owned. First out of the gate for this Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was 2008’s Iron Man and, yes, this is about a rich white dude (Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey, Jr.), but the foundation was laid right away for his best friend Rhodey (Air Force Lt. Col. James Rhodes, who is African-American) to become the armored hero, War Machine. (Rhodey is played by Terence Howard in this first film, but played much better by Don Cheadle in the sequels.) Even more importantly, in many respects, is the post-credit cameo in Iron Man by Marvel’s superspy, Nick Fury, announcing the Avengers Initiative, the creation in an upcoming film of a team of superheroes. Fury is played by the great Samuel L. Jackson. This is a bit of an inside joke: In the comics, originally “Nick Fury,” was a white dude. But in the alternative “Ultimate Universe,” Fury is not only black but directly modeled on Samuel L. Jackson’s features. The character of Fury has played a “connective tissue” for most of the 18 films in the 10 years of the MCU. (Yes, even more than Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Jackson’s Nick Fury is LONG overdue for a solo film of his own. But I digress.)
As part of that MCU, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) not only gave us the most complex development for Jackson’s Nick Fury, but introduced Captain America’s longtime partner Sam Wilson, aka, The Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie. In the current comics, Sam Wilson laid aside his Falcon persona to take up Captain America’s title and shield when Steve Rogers could no longer fill that role. Will this happen in the MCU? Who knows. It should.
I don’t know whether Gamorra, the most dangerous woman in the universe, of The Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2 (2017)should count. She is played by the great Zoe Saldana (whose father is from the Dominican Republic and whose mother is Puerto Rican), certainly a woman of the African diaspora. But the character is an alien and green, so Saldana doesn’t get to show her own skin color on screen. It is perfectly valid for actors of all ethnicities to play fictional space beings of all colors, but whether that counts as representation seems “iffy” to me.
Last year’s Thor: Ragnarok gave us Tessa Thompson as a race-bent version of Brunhilda, The Valkyrie, a character who is blonde and blue-eyed in both Norse mythology and the comics. As with Gamorra, above, the Valkyrie is not human, but Asgardian, an alien goddess. But, unlike Saldana’s Gamorra, Tessa Thompson did get to show her own skin color on screen. Ms. Thompson did a great job with the role and will be returning this May (along with nearly every other MCU character) in this May’s Avengers: Infinity War.
Outside the MCU, 20th C. Fox also owned the movie rights to Marvel’s Fantastic Four characters. In their third attempt to make a good film from these great characters (failing miserably), Fantastic Four (2015), director Josh Trank race bent the character of Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, and cast Michael B. Jordan in the role. Jordan is a great actor, but the film stank. Fortunately it didn’t hurt his career. (Jordan was excellent both in other films and playing the complex villain, Erik Killmonger, in the current Black Panther. )
Warner Bros.’ Justice League (2017) last year introduced us to Ray Fisher in the role of Cyborg. Yes, for most of DC Comics, Cyborg has been a member of the Teen Titans (as detailed above), not the Justice League, but this film seems to draw from the continuity known as the “New 52” in which Cyborg was a founding member of the JL. Unfortunately, Fisher’s Cyborg got little screen time or character development. Hopefully, he gets his own stand alone film very soon, but with the constant shake ups over at WB’s DC films, who knows?
We have now caught up to Black Panther, but I can’t finish this account without another look at television. While Marvel has dominated on the big screen, DC has dominated in TV, especially on the CW’s world of interconnected series known variously as the “Arrowverse,” (since it began with 2012’s show, Arrow), or the “Berlantiverse,” since producer Greg Berlanti has been the showrunner in charge of all these series. In Arrow season 5, Echo Kellum plays “Mr. Terrific,” a gay African-American hero who is a brilliant inventor. In The Flash (2014-), not only is orphaned white dude Barry Allen/The Flash (Grant Gustin), raised in an African American family, he falls in love with the daughter, Iris West (Candice Patton) and eventually, Iris’ half-brother Wally West (Keynian Lonsdale) becomes Kid Flash. In Supergirl (2015-) James “Jimmy” Olsen is race bent as black and portrayed by Mehcad Brooks and becomes the hero, Guardian. As well, David Harewood portrays the alien J’onn J’onzz, The Martian Manhunter, whose secret identity on Earth is Hank Henshaw, an African American.
Legends of Tomorrow (2016-) gives us the African-American (it’s complicated) hero Firestorm (Franz Drameh), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Ciera Renee), and Amaya Jiwe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), the African heroine Vixen (grandmother to the current Vixen, Mari McCabe, who got an animated web series on CW Seed, the streaming service).
Finally, this January on the CW saw the premiere of Black Lightning (2018-), starring Cress Williams as Jefferson Franklin Pierce, a.k.a., Black Lightning, a hero forced to come out of retirement. This is a mostly black cast and, so far, is a very fine series. Nafessa Williams plays Anissa Pierce, Jefferson’s oldest daughter, who is an out lesbian and who is discovering her super strength and becoming the heroine, Thunder. China Anne McClain is Jennifer Pierce, Jefferson’s younger daughter, who also has powers and will eventually become Lightning. As Thunder and Lightning, his daughters will take up the legacy of Black Lightning.
Additionally on the small screen are the Marvel Netflix universe of connected series. It includes Luke Cage played by Mike Colter, a series set in Harlem with a mostly black cast and which addressed police profiling and much else. The character of Luke Cage had been introduced in Jessica Jones and was also one of the four Defenders. A powerful black female supporting character has been Misty Knight played by Simone Missick. Knight is an NYC detective who, in the comics loses her arm heroically, gets a robotic arm (designed by Tony Stark/Iron Man, no less) and becomes part of the duo known as the Daughters of the Dragon. At the end of Defenders, Misty lost her arm and set photos show her with the robotic arm in the upcoming Luke Cage season 2. Since her partner, the modern samurai Colleen Wing, has been introduced in Iron Fist and met Misty in Defenders, comic fans (and those who want to see more female-led series) can only hope that a Daughters of the Dragon spin-off series is just around the corner.
Marvel TV will also air Cloak and Dagger this June on Freeform (formerly known as ABC Family) cable. Tyrone Johnson/Cloak (Aubrey Joseph) is an African American teen hero with the ability to cloak others in darkness—and also to teleport. His powers are tied to a blonde girl named Tandy Bowen/Dagger (Olivia Holt) who emits daggers of light from her body.
One can only hope that not only black superhero representation, but heroic representation of all racial/ethnic groups and ever more diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or lack thereof, etc. becomes the norm and not the exception. The comics are much farther along in this regard than either TV or movies.
Update: In addition to entries by readers in the comments section, I can’t neglect to mention this December’s upcoming animated movie by Sony: Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. It will star not the Peter Parker Spider-Man which most non-comic reading folk know, but the Afro-Puerto Rican Spider-Man, Miles Morales. And as he travels the multi-verse, he’ll encounter many versions of Spider-Man, including Peter. I hope it won’t be too long before we see a life-action version Miles Morales/Spider-Man because he is very much the Spider-Man for this generation, IMHO.