Just A Touch of Blackness In Upcoming Movie

A couple of pics of Black Lightning from the upcoming direct to video animated movie Superman Batman Public Enemies. I'm not too fond of the mask. The character will be voiced by Levar Burton. Oh and I don't want to forget to mention Amanda Waller who will be voiced by CCH Pounder. Neither one of them made the trailer but you can catch a glimpse of them in the First Look video if you look real close:

The Black / Brown Bomber

Back in the 70's, the world almost saw a super powered character called the Black Bomber. He was supposed to be a white racist that, in times of stress, turned into an African-American superhero. This was due to chemical camouflage experiments he participated in as a Vietnam soldier. In some of the scripts for this character, he was actually appalled after having risked his life to save some Black people and even made racial slurs. The whole idea of this character was absurd and thankfully, the character never actually saw print. What we got instead was the DC Comics character called Black Lightning. You can read more about this here.


Just recently, in the pages of the Justice League comic (#26 dated Dec, 08) the earth went through and out of a quick revision. In that new universe that lasted for half of two issues, a new character appeared called the Brown Bomber. He is apparently a Caucasian that upon shouting the phrase "Black Power!" becomes an African-American (hero?) complete with afro, gold chain, and medallion. He makes a couple of racial remarks and explains that his powers last for only an hour which is not unlike the character Hourman. The writer, Dwayne McDuffie, is himself and African-American, and has had a big role in the creation of African-American superheroes including Static. I have to say it was interesting to see this character in print but I hope not to ever see him again.

Black Vulcan

There's a lot to be said about this short-lived hero. His first appearance was on the Super Friends cartoon in the 70's as they expanded their lineup to create diversity. Black Vulcan is among those Black Superheroes that has the word Black in his name for no reason other than the color of his skin. When he showed up in the Super Friends many comic book fans cried foul as he was obviously a take off on Black Lightning who actually did exist in the DC Comics Universe. Apparently there were challenges with the creator of Black Lightning (money issues), so Black Vulcan was invented. Other than the color of his skin or the sound of his voice there was little "Black" or even interesting about him. He was never more than the Black token hero who never even raised the bar to the level of stereotype. Basically he was able to produce lightning and fly. His powers, while always lightning based, seemed to change episode to episode defying all logic and common sense as his lightning bolts would turn into whatever he needed, and even allow him to travel through time. His contribution to the Super Friends was minimal yet as a child I watched week to week waiting in vain for him to do something amazing. He never did. The only thing I can say positively about him is that he as a Black Superhero that appeared on TV while I was growing up.
Multiple action figures were made of the character but he never achieved a fan base and he never crossed over into the comics. Black Vulcan continued his career on the Super Friends cartoon until they revamped the show yet again and replaced him with another Black Superhero, Cyborg. The character disappeared into obscurity until 2004 and 2005 when he showed up years later as a parody of himself in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law show. Here's an episode of the Superfriends Black Vulcan wasn't overly terrible in: