Top Ten Black Superhero Mistakes

Through the years, popular culture from cinema to comic books has struggled to produce well-thought, role-model-worthy, Black characters. In particular, when it comes to creating Black superheroes, many comic book and movie producers have been left seemingly scratching their heads in their attempts to create characters that don't leave fans scratching their heads wondering what those producers were thinking! From Hancock, Will Smith's kind of cool but also kind of drunk-all-the-time-and-pathetic superhero, to a hero who named himself things like "Buck Wild" and "Jim Crow," Black superheroes have struggled to become anything more than shake-your-head-in-disbelief stereotypes. While progress has been made, here's a look at ten Black superheroes who don't quite meet the standards of being hero-worship-worthy.

10. Black Panther (Marvel Comics)

When Marvel Comics relaunched the Black Panther series in February of 2005-yes, during Black History Month, but that's not the "no you didn't" moment-it was a big success for two years. In the rewrite, series writer Reginald Hudlin said he wanted to give the hero "street cred;" believe it or not, this still isn't the "no you didn't" moment. Sales for the series dropped two years later, and Hudlin was pretty much blamed for it. Apparently, a lot of the criticism fell on a scene in which Black Panther beats Captain America in a fight. That's right. Black Panther beats Captain America, nobody believes it's possible, so Black Panther falls out of favor and into a sort of (temporary) obscurity. Fortunately, Black Panther still remains a moderately popular hero, and there are even talks of a possible Black Panther live-action film. So, kudos, Panther ... kudos.

9. Frozone (Disney/Pixar)

Now before I go complaining about this guy, let me just say, Frozone is the man. That said, let's compare his family with the family of Mr. Incredible (from 2004's The Incredibles). When danger comes a-knockin', Robert Parr (aka Mr. Incredible) dons his super suit, and while his wife is a bit frustrated by his inability to let go of the past, she-and their kids-joins him to save the day and prevent the attack of an Omnidroid that is destroying the town. Flash to Lucius Best, aka Frozone, who sees the Omnidroid attack and asks his wife for his super suit. His wife responds, "Uh-uh, don't you go plannin' no daring-do!" Frozone explains that the city is in danger, to which his wife replies, "My evening is in danger!" Frozone screams, "You tell me where my suit is, woman! We are talking about the greater good!" His wife screams back, "Greater good? I am your wife! I'm the greatest good you are ever gonna get!" Again, before I complain, I will not sit here and deny that I laughed out loud along with everybody else at this moment. But come on ... one Black hero in the entire movie, and he's got to have the stereotypical ornery wife?

8. Jazz (Paramount Pictures)

Ah, Jazz... the Transformers autobot better known as "the cool street-talkin' one." (I didn't make that quote up ... that's actually how he was marketed.) In case you forgot-or, like some, tried to scour it completely from your memory-Jazz's first line in the recent film series was "What's crackin' li'l b----es?" Apparently while the other autobots learned perfect English from the Internet (excepting Bumblebee, who still managed to talk fairly well despite only being able to use the radio to speak), Jazz got stuck on Gizoogle.com? His last line was "You wanna piece of me?" before being unceremoniously ripped into, not one, but two pieces by Megatron. And, let's all thank Michael Bay for engaging the age-old movie stereotype where the Black guy is the first to die. Go ahead and guess which autobot was the only one to tank it (pun unapologetically intended).

7. The Black Ranger (Saban Entertainment/Fox)

In the original Power Rangers television series, each ranger was identified by a special color. The Pink Ranger, Kimberly, always wore pink. The Blue Ranger, Billy, always wore blue. The Yellow Ranger, Trini, always wore yellow. The Black Ranger, Zack, always wore black. But ... he was also black. And despite being an examination of Black superhero no-no's, let's not overlook the fact that Trini was Asian. If you don't think this was a mistake, consider that in subsequent series, the writers seemed to do everything imaginable to avoid doing it again (the next Black Power Ranger, Aisha, was the Yellow Ranger). And to add to Zack's fun stereotype, he was a dancer and athlete. Yeah.

6. Icon (DC Comics)

Picture, if you will, a space ship carrying the last son of an alien civilization. The ship lands in a field in rural America, where the young alien is adopted by loving rural stepparents. Sound familiar? Yes, it's the story of Superman. But it's also the story of Icon, and that's just kind of sad; dude can't even get his own story. What's even sadder is that, unlike Superman-who managed to not only happen to look just like an Anglo-Saxon human male but also get adopted by wonderful Midwestern farmer parents-Icon was an alien that adapted itself to look like the first life-form it encountered ... which just happened to be a slave woman. Womp-womp. (The comic doesn't bother to explain why the alien didn't become a woman, but sexism is an issue for another time.) And what's even sadder is that Icon, despite his slave upbringing in the 1830's, still manages to become considered something of a "white-washed sell out" (yes, someone actually calls him that in the comic) ... because, according to the comic, he's an upper-class lawyer who speaks "properly."

5. Luke Cage (Marvel Comics)

Cage was originally Carl Lucas, a street thug who got set up by his best friend and was sent to prison. He made a deal to be paroled by agreeing to be experimented on. After the experimentation granted him super powers, Lucas escaped from prison and began using his powers as a "Hero for Hire" under the alias Powerman. Despite the great achievement of being Marvel's first serial Black hero, Cage gets a bit undone as a hero when it's taken into consideration that his pre-superhero character is characterized as a street fighting athlete, and in true Blaxploitation style, sports ultra-tight blue jeans, a funky chest-revealing yellow disco shirt, and a headband. Yep. They went there.

4. The Falcon (Marvel Comics)

The Falcon, a counter to and friend of Captain America, was alright. He was a social worker named Samuel Wilson before becoming a superhero. After becoming stranded on Exile Island, Steve Rogers-aka, Captain America-helps him create the Falcon persona; together they defeat the Exiles and the Red Skull, who had stranded Captain America on the island in the first place. Not bad for the first official Black Marvel superhero. But suddenly, years after his inception, the writers took away Samuel Wilson's nice past and replaced it with the "true" story; Samuel Wilson was actually "Snap" Wilson, a hoodlum who spent his days with such job titles as professional criminal, gang member, and pimp ... a far cry from the wonderful role model of a social worker he was first presented as to audiences. Having traded in his three-piece suit for a pimp suit, one question comes to mind for the writers: Why would you do that?!

3. Tyroc (DC Comics)

Tyroc was DC Comics' chance to break the color line of the segregated Legion of Super-Heroes, a group of super-powered teenagers that came together as a sort of adolescents' Justice League. The group managed to include humans and aliens, even blue-, red-, and orange-skinned superheroes. Unfortunately, DC forgot to include any brown-skinned folk, human or alien. Their attempt to fix the oversight came in the form of Tyroc. Unfortunately, Tyroc was a racial separatist who came from an island off the coast of Africa where all the Black people of the world-that's all the Black people-lived... oh, and every once in a while disappeared from this plane of existence. That's right. An isolated island. With all the Black people in the world. That disappeared. Tyroc might have been redeemed by his choice to return to the general Earth community-to integrate, as it were, into society as large-if not for the fact that he didn't really have a choice ... because the island of Black people (wait for it) was destroyed. Way to go, DC.

2. Whitewash (Marvel Comics)

You can read the name and already begin to sense that this guy was a problem. Marvel's first Black "superhero," Whitewash was drawn in full blackface fashion and appeared in 1940's war comic "Young Allies." Whitewash was pretty much a comic relief character ... in fact, that's all he was; his only purpose was to serve as a helpless buffoon who fell into a continuous string of dire situations from which he required rescuing. While negative Black comic characters were fairly commonplace during the 1940's, the fact that Whitewash even earned the title of "superhero," with all the stereotypes that accompanied his character, is a big, fat, glaring historical fail.

1. Lion Man (All-Negro Comics)

In what might be called a "what were they thinking" move, the creators of All-Negro Comics (the first comic book created exclusively by African-Americans) created the character of Lion man, an American born, college educated scientist. (Great so far.) He is sent by the United Nations to guard the "fearsome Magic Mountain of the African Gold Coast." (Er, okay ...) His side kick and adoptive son's name is Bubba. (Uh-oh.) On his very first mission, to guard the uranium housed in the crater of Magic Mountain that was "enough to make an atom bomb that could destroy the world," Lion Man decides to take a nap. (Faltering.) The villains who try to take the uranium are Dr. Blut Sangro and his guide, Brosser ... and they're both White. In fact, all the villains are White. (Mayday! Mayday!) In an attempt to save Lion Man, Bubba grabs a machine gun, and his "murderous fire riddles Brosser" with bullets, an act that Lion Man responds to by saying, "That li'l devil will be the death of me!" It only gets worse from there.