A Word On Black Heroes

[90scartoonman]

I probably should've done this for black history month, but I was too mad at Reggie Hudlin. Mad at him for what exactly? Not living up to Christopher Priest's great run on Black Panther? Writing the worst parts of the Spider-Man Other crossover? Pushing this Storm/Black Panther relationship? All of the above? I dunno.

Comments

What do you all think of Black Superheroes having the word "Black" in their names?

[style92]

Like Black Lightning, Black Panther, or Black Vulcan?

This is an issue that I've been struggling with lately. You see, I don't want to give too much away, but I'm kind of working on my own Superhero project, which I want to write in as a book. And I have this issue with one of my characters.

You see, the greatest Superhero in my personal universe is African American, and he's right around 55 years old, but still hella-powerful. I can't reveal his name, but, for these purposes, we'll call him Mr. (Blank) (Blank being the substitued portion of his name. He's not really going to be called, Mr. (Blank)

Anyway, in my character history for him, he's currently referring to himself as Mr. (Blank), but years ago, when he was young, in his 20's and 30s, he called himself Black (Blank). According to his reasoning, he was first opperating during the civil rights era, so it was a point of pride of his to have the word "Black" in his name, and to be well known. But, he dropped the "Black" and changed it to Mr. (Blank) because younger people thought the name sounded racist, something he always found ironic.

Is this appropriate, or is this racist?

Again, his real character name isn't "Mr. (Blank)" I'm using (Blank) as a substitue word, because I don't want the info out on the net yet for a story I'm hoping to one-day publish.

Re: What do you all think of Black Superheroes having the word "Black" in their names?

[90scartoonman]

Not to mention Black Goliath, Black Manta, and Black Marvel. Speaking of Black Marvel, did you ever watch the Fox Spider-Man series? Black Marvel was part of a group of superheroes from World War II. His identity (and his race) was secret, but he chose to call himself Black Marvel as a point of pride (he was in the comics too, but I don't know if there was a similar explanation). So yeah, I like your idea. It may not make much sense for heroes today, but it certainly would fifty years ago.

Sounds like the makings of a good story!