A few months ago BlackVoices.com came up with their list of the Top 25 Black Superheroes of All Time. As a life long comic book/superhero fan I was anxious to check out who they considered the best. Some of their choices I cheered and at others I cringed so hard I worried that my face would stick that way. However, cringing in regards to black superheroes is not that unusual.
All too often black heroes are based on harmful and offensive stereotypes cleaned up just enough that the majority of people won’t object. For example: Patriot from the Young Avengers title, the leader of the group and grandson of the original black Captain America. He’s a hero and a great leader until we come to learn that he’s lied about the source of his powers and is actually shooting up a new street drug to gain super-strength. Or to take a hero from the list itself, D.L. Hawkins from the TV show Heroes; the only black hero on the first season and an escaped prisoner. Yes, it does turn out he did not commit the crime he was incarcerated for but he has committed previous crimes. Other black superheroes are simply two dimensional copies of a white hero given a more “street” background, a coat of brown paint and then called something like “Black” Goliath — who’s one of the heroes on the list by the way.
Within the realms of television there’s the ever present creation of animal/non-human superheroes and then having the heroes voiced by African-American actors. This way the claim of diversity can be made and all the while there’s never a hint of brown skin on the television screen. Characters that fit this profile include Autobot Jazz (Transformers), Hong Kong Phooey (Hong Kong Phooey) and Panthro (Thundercats), all of whom make an appearance on the list.
I have numerous problems with this list, the main one is the lack of any women except for Storm (X-Men). Placing her near the top does not make up for the lack of any other female heroes. Despite general perceptions, there are quite a few black women heroes that are pretty well-known: Monica Rambeau, who led the Avengers for a period of time and was recently the leader in the title Nextwave; Misty Knight, a black female detective with a bionic right arm who was created in 1975 and is presently in the revamped Heroes for Hire title; Catwoman played by Halle Berry in the movie of the same name. The absence of these strong female characters especially rankles when the others who are on the list are taken into account, such as characters from low budget cult films like Meteor Man and Blankman. Characters who are barely remembered by popular culture yet they’re the Top Black Superheroes of All Time?
Blankman is more of a buffonery-hero than a true superhero. Another on the list that fits this mold is The Brown Hornet. These characters may be heroes that save the world or people in some fashion, but they also play on the idea of the buffoonish black man. They are there to make people laugh. That’s not inherently bad — I enjoy a comic hero as much as the next man — but these draw on the stereotype of the inept black man to be funny. They stumble, they fumble, and though in the end they win, the question remains: is the audience laughing with them or at them?
I’m also bothered by the lack of deconstruction. As I said, many of these characters have very problematic issues deeply embedded in their creation and portrayal. For a list to come from BlackVoices.com and offer absolutely no critiques about the characters rubs me wrong. Where do we talk about the co-opting of blaxploitation culture in the creation of Luke Cage? Where do we discuss the anger that in at least three of these characters there is no actual blackness; that we’re expected to identify with a robot, an anthropomorphic dog and an anthropomorphic panther? These things have to be discussed in relation to the characters. These are things that make people of color cringe when we read comics — the dichotomy of wanting to see heroes that look like us but knowing that, especially in titles from huge corporate prints, those characters will have aspects that portray us as little more than stereotypes.
All of this does not mean that you can’t love some of the characters I’ve listed above, or that they weren’t groundbreaking in many ways and deserving of respect. But you can love and respect these characters and still critique the way they are written.
I’ve been a fan of Storm for years but that doesn’t mean that I don’t discuss the fact that over the last three decades her facial features have gotten less African and more and more European-looking. Or the fact that her marriage to the Black Panther made very little sense within the canon of comics and seemed to be more of a case of “These two characters should get married ’cause they’re both black! And from Africa! It totally works!” than a substantive history of interaction between the two. Would the list have been somehow worse if there had been a paragraph talking about the way these representations of black people could be problematic?
The list was clearly supposed to be tied to the release of the movie Hancock. The constant tagline as you flip through the list is “Is Hancock No. 1?” I don’t know if this points to a lack of knowledge in regards to black superheroes in other genres besides Film/TV, but the list does give that impression with a total of 18 our of the 25 either being Film/TV created heroes or the pictures used to represent them being from their screen adaptations as opposed to their original comic book form. If the compiler of the list wanted to do a list of Film/TV heroes, that’s great, but then why start out the article by talking about the comic book industry? This perhaps points to a cursory knowledge of comic books, black superheroes, female superheroes and their representation through the years. If this is the case then it seems patently false and misleading to name the heroes as the Top Black Superheroes of All Time because without a more thorough knowledge of comics how can this claim be made?
I know a lot of people out there wonder why it matters. These are, after all, only imaginary superheroes. Why does the way they are created and portrayed matter so much? The answer is because they perpetuate the stereotypes as they play on them, they reinforce these ideas within the minds of fans. We are meant to look upon most superheroes as just that — heroes. We are meant to look up at them as people to emulate and aspire to be. This makes it especially unfortunate that black superheroes and specifically the ones chosen for this list are part of a pattern that continues to portray black people on the basis of opinions and stereotypes formed decades and even centuries ago, a pattern that continues to erase black women from any kind of discourse or agency. For a medium that endeavors to look into other worlds and possibilities, it seems reluctant to release the preconceptions of this one and that’s a true shame. This list doesn’t help dispel any of that at all.
Who do you think are the Top Black Superheroes of All Time? Old or new, from comics, movies, or TV?
1 • Clint Harris said:
October 8th, 2008 at 6:50 pm, permalink
What about Shadowhawk? G.I. Joe’s Stalker or Roadblock? And yeah, what about Bishop! And if they are on the subject of heroes that “sound” black, why not Frylock from Aqua Teen Hunger Force (there is actually a joke about that on the show)? Or Sesame Street’s Elmo for that matter? At least he’s at the forefront of pop culture, unlike the Brown Hornet. Not a great list, but it does say something about the quality of some of these “heroes.”
2 • catrambo said:
October 8th, 2008 at 10:40 pm, permalink
I had forgotten about Misty Knight and Monica Rambeau! The old Heroes for Hire was one of my favorite titles.
I’m also puzzled as to why they wouldn’t make the list, but I’d really like to see some discussion of Luke Cage, and some mention of his problematic partner, Iron Fist, the whitest martial-arts hero around next to Remo the Destroyer.
3 • Naamen said:
October 9th, 2008 at 12:58 pm, permalink
Clint -
Wow, I haven’t thought about Stalker and Roadblock in years. I do wonder why they didn’t make the list especially as the G.I. Joe movie is in production right now so it would seem really topical to include them on the list.
The Brown Hornet was just an overall ridiculous inclusion in the list in my opinion it made no sense and msot folks probably had to wikipedia him to even figure out who he was.
4 • Naamen said:
October 9th, 2008 at 1:02 pm, permalink
catrambo -
I’m not that impressed with the revamped Heroes for Hire title but if you like Monica Rambeau I would say definitely pick up the Nextwave mini-series. I think it was only about 12 issues and the whole thing was about a team of forgettable heroes and throughout the series Monica is extremely snarky and has flashbacks to the sexism and bullshit she was subject to when in the Avengers. It’s a really hilarious comic.
Iron Fist just…oooooohhh it’s like that old series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues where everytime I see David Carradine I cringe.
5 • Moondancer Drake said:
October 9th, 2008 at 4:24 pm, permalink
Thanks for the wonderful post, Naamen. I admit the Storm/Black Panther thing really fell like the whole “well they are black so they should be together right?”, but it’s been awhile since I’ve read Xmen. I laughed when you mentioned Kung Fu…I remember being a little kid and being totally confused why they were calling a white guy “China Man”, and then later when I learned about the Bruce Lee connection it made sence. I did like the show, but I’d have LOVED it with Bruce.
The lack of mention (beside Storm who if they left off would have likely caused a fan girl riot) of black female heroes was frustration, but unfortunatly not surprising. I loved the way Storm looked when I was reading in the 80’s and 90’s but she got weird looking to me last time I picked up an Xmen comic. I didn’t know it was a slow change, just thought it was some weird artist thing.
I feel so out of date…wasn’t there a Ms. Marvel in the Avengers, super strong, or was I thinking about someone else?
6 • Eugene said:
October 9th, 2008 at 4:30 pm, permalink
I can’t believe they forgot M.A.N.T.I.S. Carl Lumbly! http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/MANTIS-The-Complete-Series/10641
7 • Dynamowolf said:
October 9th, 2008 at 4:31 pm, permalink
Hmmm…what about Spawn, or Night Thrasher?
8 • Moondancer Drake said:
October 9th, 2008 at 4:40 pm, permalink
Oh and I know we are still in the realm of inhuman but did they happen to mention Spawn? I loved him!
9 • korshi said:
October 9th, 2008 at 6:36 pm, permalink
I haven’t seen Hancock yet, but you’re completely right, most Black Superheroes are cringe worthy stereotypes. Storm was a big exception, but she was always drawn a bit too European for my liking.
Here are a couple of suggestions: Dhalua Strong from Tom Strong (not 100% a Superhero, but she has her moments), The Anarchist from X-Statix, Ultimate Nick Fury (based on Samuel L). Maybe even throw in Vixen from Wanted (the comic, not the film… in the comic she’s basically a meaner version of Halle Berry’s Catwoman).
Interestingly, although Bishop is almost always drawn and considered Black (African) he is at least partly Australian Aboriginal(check out the Wikipedia page on him).
10 • John Kim said:
October 9th, 2008 at 6:54 pm, permalink
I’m not much of a superhero comics reader, but my son reads comics and I have some familiarity.
Here’s the top list we came up with: Static, Green Lantern (John Stewart), Vixen (DC superhero featured in the Justice League TV series), Storm, Cyborg, and Sunspot (of the New Mutants – a dark-skinned Brazilian, we weren’t sure about his race).
11 • Brian Dolton said:
October 10th, 2008 at 6:37 am, permalink
Static, though a successful cartoon series (I’ve only seen a couple of episodes) came from the wonderful, much-lamented-but-they-might-be-coming-back, Milestone Comics. I loved much of their output, and still fondly recall Icon, Hardware, and (my favourites) Blood Syndicate – “They’re not a team, they’re a gang”. They also had an Asian-American superhero (of sorts – Xombi – on which John Rozum did some brilliantly underrated work), something far rarer than black superheroes.
My main comics-buying period was late 70s through early 90s and Cyborg from Teen Titans is probably the most memorable “new” hero in the mainstream comics of that era (other attempted creations, like Monica Rambeau, were just so badly handled that I’ve tried desperately to forget them).
12 • korshi said:
October 10th, 2008 at 6:41 am, permalink
Monica Rambeau was a lot better handled in Nextwave, all the heroes were B-Listers but she was the team leader. Speaking of team leaders, Jackson King from Stormwatch was pretty cool.
13 • David Moisan said:
October 10th, 2008 at 12:02 pm, permalink
I thought the Frozone character in “The Incredibles” was stereotypically played, in an otherwise excellent film.
14 • AHJennings said:
October 10th, 2008 at 5:19 pm, permalink
I was partial to Firestorm II while he still had his own comic. He was one of the few black mainstream superheroes that I considered to be written with an actual black sensibility. There’s also Mr. Bones, who often appears in the current Manhunter Series as director of the D.E.O., the organization Manhunter works for. Through some accident, his skin has become transparent and lethally transparent to the touch, but it was revealed early in the series that he is a black man, and the issue has been handled intelligently. There’s also Amanda Waller of the Suicide Squad who, while not a superhero in her own right, is a force of nature unto herself and is often seen bossing around supervillains or heroes fallen on hard times.
15 • Mindy C said:
October 10th, 2008 at 7:50 pm, permalink
I was a big fan of “Generation X” (the “New Mutants” X-Men spin-off back in the early 90s) and one of the characters was Synch (aka Everett Thomas). He ended up in a relationship with Jubilee…but was eventually killed off. As was the series. :\
“Agent 355″ from “Y: The Last Man” was a kick ass black woman assigned to protect Yorick Brown through all his cross-continental mis-adventures. She suffered a similar fate as our friend above.
There’s also “Cloak” from the “Cloak and Dagger” team up, unfortunately the couple never made it into their own series, but they’ll resurface every now and again. Especially in big Marvel Universe cross-overs.
I guess there is an Ultimate Marvel Universe with a Nick Fury based on Samuel L. Jackson. People dug it so much, Jackson will now play the role in the Avengers film (as seen by his appearance in Iron Man).
And James Rupert Rhodes was portrayed by Terrence Howard in Iron Man – who will inevitably become War Machine. Not sure if this was a black man in the comic book, I’ve never really read Iron Man comics. But Terrence Howard was sorely under-used in the film, and I can’t wait for a sequel.
Oh – let’s not forget Blade, Cecelia Reyes and Shard (Bishop’s sister). Shard even managed to make it into the X-Men Animated Cartoon!
Much Love, Mindy C
16 • JSJ said:
October 11th, 2008 at 2:46 am, permalink
wow. when I read discussions of black superheroes like this I feel like a chunk of my life was spent in the phantom zone.
Post #9&10 mentioned Static and to a degree Milestone Media. To be brief Milestone was a comic company that 1st published in 1993 with four monthly titles which were distributed by DC Comics.
The creators and the main characters of those 1st four titles were black/African-American.
The books and lead characters of three of those books were:
“Hardware” a genius inventor who creates a DIY exoskeleton with weapons, later he made a more polished version.
“Icon” and “Rocket” A duo made up of a being from another planet who was raised as a black man in the american south of the 1800’s who in the present has powers rivaling and surpassing Superman as well as his partner a teenaged girl from the projects who aspires to create an inspiration for others.
and the aforementioned Static, a middle class teen who wields electricity and withstands highschool presures.
In the case of the book “Blood Syndicate” they were a team and the team was made up of Blacks, Latinos, and Asians and a white guy who called himself Boogieman.
The comics were published from 93 – 97 and soon they will be absorbed into the DC Universe.
google them and make your own opinions.
(full disclosure, I used to work for Milestone)
-jasonscottjones
17 • Samuel Tinianow said:
October 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am, permalink
What, no mention of Prodigy from New X-Men? I missed a few issues of the series, but I always liked him. Not only is he not stereotypically portrayed (to my recollection, anyway), he’s more interested in learning than fighting.
Which means, of course, they killed him off.
18 • Alan Kellogg said:
October 12th, 2008 at 10:22 pm, permalink
Going back a ways, does anyone here remember who played the black Catwoman in the Batman TV series?
19 • Marcus said:
October 13th, 2008 at 1:33 am, permalink
^^It was Eartha Kitt.
20 • Liz Henry said:
October 13th, 2008 at 11:23 pm, permalink
How about Armand from Zapt! I think he counts as a superhero as part of the Pan-Galactic Order Of Police!
21 • Luis Contes said:
October 16th, 2008 at 1:19 am, permalink
Someone mentioned Cecilia Reyes, But she’s Puerto Rican not black. Anywho, Mr.Terrific from JSA is pretty cool.
22 • Bill said:
October 16th, 2008 at 11:07 pm, permalink
What about Falcon? Christopher Priest wrote a brilliant run of Captain America and the Falcon a few years ago and it was absolutely top-notch. If you haven’t read it, it’s worth hunting down. Priest’s stuff is always very layered–a surface that fits the genre but also a running commentary on other issues, society, politics, etc.
23 • Carole McDonnell said:
October 17th, 2008 at 1:59 pm, permalink
What about Verb from Schoolhouse Rock? -C
24 • Bankuei said:
October 17th, 2008 at 7:28 pm, permalink
It’s pretty telling how many names people are pulling up here, and the way in which so many of these superheroes are left as supporting characters, not carried over, explored, or brought back.
It’s both a sign of how the writers of the big two aren’t clued in (or just don’t care) about COC of their own universes and how much “Oh, I’ll just make a NEW token. There, happy now?”
25 • James Taylor said:
October 29th, 2008 at 2:15 pm, permalink
I had always liked comics, and I think there are some, though not a representative number, of non-white super heroes.
Of course, the complaint about “them” not looking “pure” enough makes me concerned since we are all “mixing.” Now, how are those who are the offspring of white and black, hispanic and black, hispanic and asian, asian and white, etc. supposed to feel because someone,not me, is now saying they don’t look….pure.
I don’t know the word that should be used, but I am not sure “pure” is it…
Hero? Go read Black Gun, Silver Star. Real life–Nothing like that kind of hero
26 • wallruss said:
November 15th, 2008 at 6:31 pm, permalink
Are any of you old enough to remember Superstretch and Microwoman? They were a Black married couple on Saturday morning cartoons. Oh and what about the Schoolhouse Rock episode about Verbs? That was another Black superhero moment on TV.
27 • Marta said:
November 24th, 2008 at 6:04 pm, permalink
My granddaughter wants to be a superhero; I’d like to find her a female black superhero statute or action figure for Christmas. Monica Rambeau appeals to me, but I don’t see anything available other than a ‘heroclix’ game figure (my granddaughter is 3!). Please don’t suggest Storm — she’s become so white recently, Hale Berry notwithstanding. Thanks very much, grandma
28 • Link Dump: Wristfail and Racefail Edition | Rebecca Allen: A Nerd at Peace said:
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:31 pm, permalink
[...] Crossing Lines: Deconstructing Black Superheroes I know a lot of people out there wonder why it matters. These are, after all, only imaginary superheroes. Why does the way they are created and portrayed matter so much? The answer is because they perpetuate the stereotypes as they play on them, they reinforce these ideas within the minds of fans. We are meant to look upon most superheroes as just that — heroes. We are meant to look up at them as people to emulate and aspire to be. This makes it especially unfortunate that black superheroes and specifically the ones chosen for this list are part of a pattern that continues to portray black people on the basis of opinions and stereotypes formed decades and even centuries ago, a pattern that continues to erase black women from any kind of discourse or agency. For a medium that endeavors to look into other worlds and possibilities, it seems reluctant to release the preconceptions of this one and that’s a true shame. This list doesn’t help dispel any of that at all. [...]
29 • Martha Washington = Rosario Dawson? | afrobella said:
August 18th, 2009 at 6:24 pm, permalink
[...] DarkFantasy’s article about Deconstructing Black Superheroes. [...]
30 • DANGERMAN Urban Superhero said:
March 6th, 2010 at 12:11 am, permalink
All I can say is this is very interesting stuff. See I’m not the Man of Steel but I’m keep’in it real I’m not a hater or the Caped Crusader.