Originally Posted by
Vampire Savior
I never cared much for Black Panther because I'm usually not into social commentary stories with Black characters in a superhero setting, and I'm not terribly interested in Africa, to tell you the truth. Well, at least not sub-Saharan Africa. I can't think of anything from the culture, history, or mythology that really hooked me, except for maybe the British fighting Zulus, but...that's kind of more from the British perspective, so... :T
I'm not interested in Luke Cage for similar reasons. I'm not all that into his Black neighborhood story or prison background. Maybe this stuff doesn't appeal to me because a lot of it is somehow rooted in something negative. There is at least a shadow of it. In Black Panther, as was mentioned, there is white supremacy and colonialism. In Luke Cage, there is the ghetto and black people's struggles with the American justice system. Black Lightning isn't a whole lot different. Milestone books typically weren't any better, from my point of view, and I thought this was disappointing because they were done largely by black creators. With the white guys, I understood the situation better. They didn't often have much use for black characters unless they were going to make a point about their blackness, but Milestone was treading pretty much the same ground, even though Milestone's fans love to deny this from my experience. For example, the first issue of Hardware, which was a debut title for them, is literally titled "Angry Black Man", and the first superhero team they had is a street gang.
I simply don't find this type of stuff to be escapism or very appealing. It's often based in sad aspects of reality. I don't mean to say that it shouldn't have been made, or the stories have no merit, or that good stories can't be told in that setting. I guess for some people, their escapism is seeing a black man turn all that oppression and whatnot on its head. For me...I guess I would rather see a cool portal fantasy or something. Like... you would NEVER see a black lead in something like a Final Fantasy game. Instead, you would see black characters in...Blood Syndicate, Black Lightning, Luke Cage, et al. If it's about sports, gangs, crime, prison, slaves, or rap you'll see some black people, but I'm the guy who would have more fun seeing a black lead in a Final Fantasy game, which you would NEVER see.
John Stewart was/is a breath of fresh air, because here was a black superhero who wasn't involved in all of that stuff (well, he was, but not so much in the depiction of him I discovered). I would be a bit disappointed if he did get a film and it was the same old commentary all over again. One of the things I really appreciated about him was you could simply have a good time with him without HISTORY CRASHING THROUGH YOUR VEINS: