Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I'm doing research on superheroes and racial minorities (in the US). Who are the most famous non-white superheroes today in the US?

If you are non-white yourself, do you like white superheroes as much as those of your own skin colour?

The first question:

Nonwhite superheroes I can think of that are reasonably well known include:

Storm (X-Men)
Static (Static/"Static Shock")
Black Lightning (DC Comics; also known as "Black Vulcan" on the Superfriends)
Steel (Superman comics)

Sure there's plenty more listed elsewhere online (maybe on Wikipedia?)

Second question:

I'm African-American, but like heroes of all ethnicities (as I'd imagine would be the case for a Superman fan ;-) ). Do enjoy seeing minority heroes used, though (enjoyed "Milestone Comics" in the 90's before it folded---the people who published Static, among other characters)...

Green Lantern John Stewart has become quite famous through the Justice League cartoon.

Static of Static Shock

From the Superfriends cartoon:
Apache Chief-Native American
Samurai-Japanese
El Dorado-Mexican
Black Vulcan-Black

You should check out this site:

http://www.blacksuperhero.com

Not the best examples as they were little more than tokens religated to the back part of the story or even worse given some of the most idiotic storylines Superfriends ever had. Does El Dorado who has teleportation some form of telepathy, and illusion power fight an interesting villian? No. He gets stuck fighting some pathetic loser called Doll Maker who stole his gimics from DC's Toyman and Marvel's Puppet Master.

Apache Chief main foil for the Challage era was Giaganta who was in the comics was an genetically altered ape. If this was not bad enough his next major story had him fighting this cosmic giant who has added Earth to his marble collection.

Samurai didn't last long past the Challange season and was pathetic compared to such DC comic heroes as Rising Sun and Dr. Light (the asian one not that white guy who got his mind messed up).

Black Vulcan didn't do anything for mos tof the stories he was in. Now Cyborg actaully got some good stories but by that time the Superfriends cartoons were coming  to an end.

DC had Amazing Man, Mal Duncan (aka Hornblower and Guardian), and Bumblebee.

Marvel had Luke Cage (aka Power Man) and Falcon.

I always thought it was a bit silly that those non-DC Super Friends characters had names that were so blatantly ethnic. For instance, why "Apache Chief" instead of "Tall Man" or "Mr. Big". Can you imagine Barry Allen choosing the name "White Lightning" or Ray Palmer calling himself "Caucasian Mite"? I'm glad the comics usually weren't so blatant (Black Lightning is the obvious exception).

And at the height of the 60s (right on!) Stan & Jack had the Black Panther aka T'Challa a very erudite and wealthy african chieftan!  AS opposed to Styokely Carmicahel & compnay who were espousing a violent alternative to MLK's non violence tyhru civil disobedience.

 Black Panther?!! Right on!

Well, your question was who's most famous today?  Assuming he passes all the tests for a super-hero (he does have enhanced abilities and started life in a comic book) I'd have to say "Blade," who's carried a successful film franchise with three installments to date.  After that, I'd have to say Green Lantern John Stewart as portrayed in the Justice League cartoons.  Kids love him, and thanks to that show he may now be the most heavily merchandised black hero in comics history.

I'm caucasian, so I won't technically qualify as a "minority" for another decade or so  :lol: , but I can answer your second question from the other side: I seldom took to minority heroes in comics because, at least in the era I grew up in, they were usually jive-talkin' hipsters engineered to fill a quota and/or save face at companies with otherwise all-white line-ups.  There are few things more embarassing than reading dialog assigned to an "angry young black man" by a middle-aged white male writer.  :oops:

A notable exeption was the Black Panther, who was handled well more often than not (maybe because he's a foreigner and thus under no compunction to display "street smarts").  I also have to confess to a fondness for the Falcon and Black Lightning, who had two of the most eye-catching costumes in the biz.  And as a kid I was really intrigued by a 1970s JLA story that had John Stewart filling in as Green Lantern when Hal Jordan slipped and hit his head in the bathtub. (!!!)  I remember thinking it wouldn't be such a bad thing if he took over full time. (Looking back, John's biggest appeal is that he was chosen for his abilities regardless of his race, whereas with most other black characters race was the biggest issue in their lives, 24/7...always a dull read).

True, the Superfriends are not the best example of non-white heroes, but they are famous.  Or infamous in this case.  :)


Moivng to another black superhero who had a comic book, appeared on the Superman cartoon, and even had a movie:

Steel

A black super-hero from a cartoon is Kid Comet from the Teen Force

Kelly recently introduced to the JLA Manitou Raven, a shaman in the true sense (not in the 'X-Man' sense). Don't know much about him, other than he has the mandatory (for all superheroes, at least) hot wife.

Does J'onn Jonzz count? After all, he is a minority of one  :D

Did Blade ever mention something about him being black? I have the impression (just saw the first movie, never read any of the comics) that racial issues are never dealt with here.

No they weren't, good thing too! Race shouldn't matter, and he didn't play a stereotype in that film. But, he was always black in the comics. So it's not like they just made him black for no reason like they do with many other comic characters when films of made of them. AKA the characters are white in the comics but are not in the movie.

Classic Blade comic covers [click on the links to view them]

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1940/400/1940_4_24.jpg
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2063/400/2063_4_28.jpg

Most famous? Non-white? Superman.
"Lois, you can't be serious! My skin's not even human skin! It's alien!"

Oh, you're serious. OK.
Spawn.
 Mr McFarlane once wrote, when he was doing Spiderman, "You don't know what colour I am under this mask!"  It's true if we'd all forgotten that Spawn's human form, Col. Al Simmons

  I think that's what attracts people of all colours to superheroes even when they are so white they disappear in a snowstorm.  The hero is, in a lot of ways, anonymous.  He could care less that his foe is Zulu, or Islamic, or Jewish.  All of his bad guys are bad cuz they did bad things, by themselves, in their own lifetime.  If you even mention that the hero is a gay Eskimo, instantly the non-gay, non-Eskimo crowd is excluded.

  My son collects Static comics, if that's any help (he's 8)

It may not be a big issue that Blade is black now, but at the time he was introduced it was a deliberate attempt to cash in on the "blaxploitation" craze of the early 70s.  The cool clothes, the attitude and even the monosyllabic (phallic?) name were an obvious tip of the hat to "Shaft."

Does being black really affect his ability to fight vampires, or even come up in conversation?  No.  But would the character even have existed if Marv Wolfman hadn't wanted to cash in on the popularity of black movie heroes?  I seriously doubt it.

So in a very real sense, Blade couldn't exist if he weren't a minority.

Very true, however the same can be said with Green Lantern. More important for Marvel at that time was Power Man. That text on the title is a swipe at DC's Green Lantern, BTW.  

(http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1570/400/1570_4_00123.jpg)(http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/2186/400/2186_4_17.jpg)

I recently found a '92 story where Mr. Castle decided to lie low by becoming black [unfunny Michael Jackson joke]text[/unfunny Michael Jackson joke] and teamed up with Luke Cage for a little while, but quit because Cage was a jackass. Seeing as how both he and Psylocke aren't actually ethnic minorities, but have been turned into African-American and Asian British Heritage respectively, do they count?

I can remember  Black Vulcan, he was into lightning like me, but didn't resemble anything like Star Trek's Mr. Tuvok. There was Black Falcon, (yes, I am dating myself, but I do go back that far) let's see

Others who were not white,  

WonderDog, Dynomutt,  I remember Apache Chief.  There is John Henry Irons (Steel) One of the Green Lanterns, and speaking of green, there was this guy called the "Hulk" once.