Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Ready for a Black Superman?

Icon vs. the JLAWe may soon have a Black President but is the world ready for a Black Superman? With the Milestone comics universe joining the DC family, the latter will be provided with a major Black transfusion. How will fans react? How will the heroes react? The Black character you see holding his own in the image here is named Icon. On his earth he was the closest thing to Superman but he has had to live the African-American experience over multiple generations including slavery. Like Superman, Icon is also an alien. His powers are similar except for his blasts come from his hands and not from his eyes. This character is supposed to be joining the Justice League in the coming months along with other heroes from the Milestone Comics IconUniverse. Yes they're all heroes but is this going to be an easy transition? Actually I hope not. When these heroes become part of the mainstream, the status quo should change, shouldn't it? Their presence should have an impact. I look eagerly forward to reading these new stories and will, of course, keep you posted.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting how the Milestone characters were portrayed as flawed and very human. One was a pregnant teen and If I remember there was a drug addict and another was HIV positive. Soem topics that DC handled much later with Speedy (girl) and Spoiler. Although the drug addiction was handled by the original Speedy years ago at a time it was a hot topic in the world. But the rest of the DC universe itself doesn't have characters that are this "black" if you will.
Black characters in DC are usually portrayed as dark skinned white guys. Or like guys who are conforming to the status quo at the office, but are only themselves at home. The best example was in a recent Justice League when GL and Black Lightning were having a dialogue amongst themselevs making fun of their old hairdos, it was very candid and funny. it was written by McDuffie, and it was the first time i saw either of these two characters as human and unique.

Anonymous said...

Like the idea, but needs a different more hip uniform. "Cant go wrong with black"