Why haven't any of the Black Male X-men caught on other than Bishop?

[Leirus]

Synch is more than just his powers though. Comic book writers are supposed to be creative and able to write fantasy.

So that reactive powers thing is a lame excuse.

His powers were not just reactive. He was able to use his aura to detect and locate other mutants, althought rarely used it that way. That is half of Caliban's powerset.
He was a great character and it is a shame he has been dead for so long.

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Also, and people does not usually point this out, he was the first black african american character in the X-men. Always found it curious that white characters could be the boy next door but black characters had to be like, a time traveler from the future, a brazilian billionaire or an african goddess. Ev was the first "average kid with powers".
And I think that is important. In the first issues of Gen-X the police threatened his family with taking await their (white and asian) adopted children to another "safer" family (the implication being white) over a burglary at their home. Would have done that, too, if not for Emma mindwiping them both. You would be hard pressed to make that point with Bishop resonating in the same way.

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[Marvell2100]

His powers were not just reactive. He was able to use his aura to detect and locate other mutants, althought rarely used it that way. That is half of Caliban's powerset.
He was a great character and it is a shame he has been dead for so long.

Captura de pantalla 2019-12-22 a las 19.55.45.jpg

Also, and people does not usually point this out, he was the first black african american character in the X-men. Always found it curious that white characters could be the boy next door but black characters had to be like, a time traveler from the future, a brazilian billionaire or an african goddess. Ev was the first "average kid with powers".
And I think that is important. In the first issues of Gen-X the police threatened his family with taking await their (white and asian) adopted children to another "safer" family (the implication being white) over a burglary at their home. Would have done that, too, if not for Emma mindwiping them both. You would be hard pressed to make that point with Bishop resonating in the same way.

Captura de pantalla 2019-12-22 a las 19.57.23.jpg
Captura de pantalla 2019-12-22 a las 19.57.35.jpg

I agree, he was a refreshing character that didn't come with the usual stereotypes associated with BMCs.

I thought his trajectory was headed straight up with his powerset and personality.

[Paleo_Rage]

Chris Cord AKA Radian AKA Phaser maybe a heat elemental?

Not a fan of fire characters. They’re a dime a dozen and you’re never going to eclipse Human Torch.

Yeah I have a love and hate relationship with fire characters, I mean Oya is one but she has a twist. I was hoping she could learn to do other stuff and not just be stuck wit heat or cold applciations since she is transferring energy from one state to another.

Also no electric folks.. the running gag that all of the electrical Black heroes male and female in Marvel and DC.. I would not mind a earth, or water character or even someone who controlled gravity or another of the fundamental forces like the strong or weak nuclear force/

[Paleo_Rage]

Would Sun Spot count as an elemental?

To me he is a hybrid between a brick and a energy transducer.. His powers did get wonky post Reignfire era.. He seemed more of heat and light elemental at that time.. Even Reginfire powers gave off more energy manipuation..

Sunspot for me is a powerhouse who utilizes solar energy to boost his strength, while also being able to utilize that for flight and energy blasts.

[Marvell2100]

Yeah I have a love and hate relationship with fire characters, I mean Oya is one but she has a twist. I was hoping she could learn to do other stuff and not just be stuck wit heat or cold applciations since she is transferring energy from one state to another.

Also no electric folks.. the running gag that all of the electrical Black heroes male and female in Marvel and DC.. I would not mind a earth, or water character or even someone who controlled gravity or another of the fundamental forces like the strong or weak nuclear force

Moses Magnum. He should be one of the most powerful people on the planet.

[Sutekh]

Also no electric folks.. the running gag that all of the electrical Black heroes male and female in Marvel and DC.. I would not mind a earth, or water character or even someone who controlled gravity or another of the fundamental forces like the strong or weak nuclear force.

Someone who control the 'weak' force and A) reinforce/strengthen and perhaps even repair matter, B) disintegrate matter by robbing it of the inter-atomic forces that bind it together on a molecular level, could be awesome. On the one hand, they can 'buff' by strengthening people's clothing to be as durable as body armor, on the other, they can 'debuff' by causing your clothing (or skin?) to become rigid and trap you in place, effectively paralyzing you. And if you have any gear at all, it's dust on the wind... Theoretically, they could perhaps repair damaged items as well, being a one-person 'Damage Control,' following up after a super-battle or fire or whatever and causing damaged places to reform, as if the disaster/conflict never happened. (And if they can affect organic matter in this way, they can effectively heal as well, although even if they couldn't, for whatever reason, perhaps even just a psychological block against using their powers this way, it's still an awesome powerset, with tons of potential.)

Gravity could be another fun one. The only two 'gravity' characters I can remember at Marvel are Gravity (who seems mostly abandoned), Graviton, and that Power Pack kid (also seemingly forgotten, mostly), all pretty white (and male). Someone with a more limited powerset than Graviton (at first), more like 'Jumpin Jack' (who only seemed to affect gravity's interaction on himself) first starting out, only developing over time into more of a 'Gravity' tier (flying around and making people 'fall' in all directions), could be interesting.

[9th.]

Moses Magnum. He should be one of the most powerful people on the planet.

They DO NOT use him enough, he could be very capable villain if they let him.

[Paleo_Rage]

They DO NOT use him enough, he could be very capable villain if they let him.

He could make a great MCU villain for Black Panther and/or Storm.. I know folks have the rumors of the MCU powers that be making Magneto Black.. I would rather they use this guy for that role and then use Magneto for something else.

[WallStreeter]

He could make a great MCU villain for Black Panther and/or Storm.. I know folks have the rumors of the MCU powers that be making Magneto Black.. I would rather they use this guy for that role and then use Magneto for something else.

Not rumours, Feige has said either Magneto or Xavier may be made a person of color for MCU. Moses Magnum could still appear as an opponent to Storm and BP.

[Agent Z]

Chris Cord AKA Radian AKA Phaser maybe a heat elemental?

Not a fan of fire characters. They’re a dime a dozen and you’re never going to eclipse Human Torch.

Who says they need to eclipse Human Torch? It's not like he's a major priority these days anyway.

[Killerbee911]

I think there is room to do stuff with Fire and Electric characters. For example I like for small part of story when the Inhuman Inferno looks like this



The more coal/Volcanic look isn't one that most fire type users look like so there is still space for creativity with fire users. And other example is Inferno can regen from injuries when in his fire form which I think is pretty unique basically he could be used as a flaming Wolverine. A close combat berserker fire type that could raise the heat in hands so they can cut through things I think that is pretty different from Human Torch.

As for the electric thing and black characters that is just matter of the right creator never taking over or making those characters. It is pretty annoying because most black electric characters never operate at the full potential. For example Static is Magneto and Black lighting combine on steroids anything you can imagine those two characters doing Static can do it and unlike most electrical characters he has a healing factor. Basically Static is "Electric Superman" and no I don't mean superman when he had electric powers I mean static is what Superman, Flash,Storm or Hulk to everyone else who has those powers a Clearly OP character who make everyone else look trivial but when you are trap in universe that only wants give a 3 trio characters respect then your powers get played down.

Once they consistently show one of these electrical characters at their full potential I guarantee they will stop making Black characters with those powers because they will not want a bunch of characters around that can show up the "main characters." I am fine with the trope of electric and tech characters because one of these days the trope will get owned.

[Triniking1234]

They DO NOT use him enough, he could be very capable villain if they let him.

They used Moses in Shuri and it was horrible.

[CRaymond]

Who says they need to eclipse Human Torch? It's not like he's a major priority these days anyway.

A truly successful character will have hir own niche. Wonder Woman is confused with Superman in some minds specifically because their powers are so similar. For example, the X-Men’s Iceman is the prototype for all ice-powered characters like Frozone, Killer Frost, Elsa, and Sub-Zero. Black Lightning is similarly the centerpoint for iterations on “electricity-powered”. Sunfire, for all his potential as an Asian male, Japanese nationalist, and potential LGBT+ is still just another fire-blasting flyer in a world that already has a very, very popular one.

KB is right about coal/volcano/ember/ground-based” niche of “fire”. What is the status of the old Thunderbolts character Charcoal? GAH https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charcoal_(comics) Effing hell. Dead, and in legal limbo.

Ugh Charcoal would've been perfect. Young, powerful, and a powerset that could require mentoring from a variety of strong X-Men personalities. Transformation with Colossus and White Queen, Thermal powers with Iceman and Sunfire, Energy with Gambit or Cyclops, elemental powers with Rictor and Storm... Disney pay the poor people.

[Michael Watkins]

Synch is more than just his powers though. Comic book writers are supposed to be creative and able to write fantasy.

So that reactive powers thing is a lame excuse.

hmmm. well sure. he's also the black male character on the team. but there's no longer a team. Everett's strengths are what make him hard to use. he comes without drama, for the most part. he's just a good dude who happens to be black and able to duplicate/optimally use the powers of other mutants in his vicinity. now if he were able to retain those powers is some kind of mental archive, i could see a writer wanting to play with that. but don't kid yourself. with mutants, they very much are their power set. the rarer the power or visual, the more likely they are to get page time. Ev's problem is that his power is the very opposite of rare. by design, he's copying whomever is already in the story.

[Michael Watkins]

i saw someone mention black telepaths. there are actually a few that no one ever mentions. remember that black military dude (Agent Smith) who freed Professor X from Operation Zero Tolerance? remember Noah Dubois?