Which of DC's Black Characters Has the Most Potential to Achieve Trinity Status?

[Midnight_v]

Hey Mr. Terrific has his own team and he hasn’t been forced to kiss Batman’s boots yet. Also it’s a great book and my hope in humanity lingers on every month I see it hasn’t been cancelled.

I bought that Mr.Terrific new 52 series ... I was... disappointed.

I bought the Terrifics... equally disappointed.

I guess I wanted to believe. . . but "3rd smartest man in the world" never had a good ring to it. I did get amused at the outrage concerning him sleeping with Power girl.

"Trinity status." 80 years and its still batman superman wonder woman. 80 years and I don't think its about the time either ...

I think they have stronger mythologies around them. Just initially stronger stories.

Someone described the avengers as "One scientist, one super-solider, one demi god."

I feel like there has to be code for the trinity as well... don't know what that is.

Green Lantern could be it I saw that in the show.... but Hal and the never ending war for lantern supremacy
Vixen has always missed the mark with me and I agree never really did anything since the 70's when she was created.

Cyborg... no one wants to be cyborg.

Someone needs to go deeper with the myths they represent to even get started. Just musing.

[Badou]

You're probably right, but the question posed is...

"Which of DC's Black Characters Has the Most Potential to Achieve Trinity Status?"

What am I supposed to do, choose Vixen instead? Why would I do that? Just because she's been around doing mostly nothing since 1970-whatever?
What I know is Bendis has created an African American character that has their own successful feature film. He's working on another African American character at DC. No one is doing anything with Vixen. Who am I going to choose based on their potential and the circumstances of right now?

You are right that the options are very limited, especially with black female heroes. So maybe in that narrow window Naomi would be one of the better options since there is more unknown with her than a Vixen who everyone had a general idea of her "level" I suppose. I guess I just feel new characters have it so difficult in current comics unless they are attached to a legacy and Naomi would need that to realistically take the next step.

[Sutekh]

You are right that the options are very limited, especially with black female heroes. So maybe in that narrow window Naomi would be one of the better options since there is more unknown with her than a Vixen who everyone had a general idea of her "level" I suppose. I guess I just feel new characters have it so difficult in current comics unless they are attached to a legacy and Naomi would need that to realistically take the next step.

So true. It's like Vixen, Bumblebee, Rocket, and, uh, Skyrocket? 3/4ths of which haven't appeared for many months, at any given time. So Naomi definitely doesn't have a lot of competition for that niche.

(Ditto Asian or Native American or Latina heroines. An 'Asian Naomi' wouldn't have much to worry about Katana or Dr. (Kimiyo) Light, for instance, since they aren't exactly getting much play at the moment.

[jetengine]

So true. It's like Vixen, Bumblebee, Rocket, and, uh, Skyrocket? 3/4ths of which haven't appeared for many months, at any given time. So Naomi definitely doesn't have a lot of competition for that niche.

(Ditto Asian or Native American or Latina heroines. An 'Asian Naomi' wouldn't have much to worry about Katana or Dr. (Kimiyo) Light, for instance, since they aren't exactly getting much play at the moment.

The only Native American characters in DC I'm aware of is a hideous Firestorm villain and a stereotypical LOSH hero.

[Vampire Savior]

You are right that the options are very limited, especially with black female heroes.

When I chose Naomi I didn't narrow the choice down to black females, because that's not what the topic is about. The black males are in not much better a position than Vixen. They're all essentially either underdeveloped (the great, great majority of them, including John Stewart) or past their prime, dormant and washed up (like Steel and Static).

DC could have done quite a bit with John Stewart 16 years ago, but the company squandered him. Instead it went the completely opposite direction by resurrecting Hal Jordan, attempting to push HIM to trinity status, and positioning John Stewart as a nearly mute, extremely boring and depressing background character who's only development involves moping about how he kills people. DC chose not to strike while the iron was hot from the Justice League cartoon, and now I feel that window of opportunity is shut. Especially now that Hal Jordan has returned. He would literally have to die or be retired again for John to really get a decent shot. And even if Hal did get out the way, somehow I doubt the Lantern that would step up to the plate and fill the void would be John. These days, it would probably be Jessica Cruz or some new character. What's more is the specter of Hal Jordan will forever haunt whoever would take his place, and Hal would undoubtedly return and take it right back. He has too many die hard fans for that NOT to happen. John Stewart simply will never cleanly overcome him, because, like it or not, love him or hate him, Hal Jordan is THE REAL Green Lantern. The others, besides Alan, are offshoot imitators. Their fans would never want to admit this, but that's just the way it is and it's too late to change that. So, as for John Stewart...
I'm not choosing him.

Steel maybe had a shot when Shaq was playing the character in that 90s movie, but the movie bombed, and most people think it's godawful. That basically killed Steel's "career". Now he's most notable for being the supporting character boyfriend of Superboy's girlfriend (Lana Lang) from a cancelled comic series from a couple years ago that was rather short lived and not well loved because people were expecting it to star Lois Lane instead of Lana Lang.
I'm not choosing him.

Static is basically a dead IP. Besides, Milestone owns that, not DC.
I'm not choosing him.

What has Mr. Terrific ever really done? Be a part of teams, mostly, and his short lived solo series is not well loved at all.
I'm not choosing him.

Cyborg?
I've written a lot on the problems with this character. He's gone about as far as he's going to go, and that's with DC pushing him in movies, shows, cartoons, games, and comics more or less all at the same time. If he was REALLY going to go somewhere, he would have by now.
I'm not choosing him.

Black Lightning?
I suppose he stands a better chance than most, and I can see why people would choose him. However, I do not. He's got a looooong way to go. Besides, few comic readers want to read about him. At least Naomi has people who want to read her. When you have been around for like 50 years, and you STILL barely have any material to read, and even less that's actually WORTH reading...I don't think that's a good sign.

I don't think any of the other characters on the list are worth consideration.

[iron chimp]

I bought that Mr.Terrific new 52 series ... I was... disappointed.

I bought the Terrifics... equally disappointed.

I guess I wanted to believe. . . but "3rd smartest man in the world" never had a good ring to it. I did get amused at the outrage concerning him sleeping with Power girl.

"Trinity status." 80 years and its still batman superman wonder woman. 80 years and I don't think its about the time either ...

I think they have stronger mythologies around them. Just initially stronger stories.

Someone described the avengers as "One scientist, one super-solider, one demi god."

I feel like there has to be code for the trinity as well... don't know what that is.

Green Lantern could be it I saw that in the show.... but Hal and the never ending war for lantern supremacy
Vixen has always missed the mark with me and I agree never really did anything since the 70's when she was created.

Cyborg... no one wants to be cyborg.

Someone needs to go deeper with the myths they represent to even get started. Just musing.

I.bought terrifics too - i liked agents of shade so i thought some bright and breezy trippy scifi. But i didnt know it was spun out of metal so 1st issue i had no idea what was going on as it all referred back to the event. Lost after 10 pages and just ended up straight in the bin.

[Ascended]

Really? Too bad, Terrifics is a great book. And the ties to Metal didn't really last beyond that first issue or two, besides the overall concept that the team deals with weird and crazy stuff, which includes the dark multiverse. But in that, all you need to know (that its a multiverse where sh*t went wrong and the worlds couldn't latch onto the main multiverse structure) is explained in the book itself.

Ever thought of going back and giving in another shot? It's the FF in the DCU, what's not to love?

[Vordan]

When Yang took over, the book got a lot better. I’d say give it another shot. At the very least the current Bizarro arc is hilarious as long as you can stand Bizarro speak.

[Wandering_Wand]

I loved The Terrifics and I think Mr. Terrific certainly has vast potential… But he needs proper cycles to get his name and brand out there.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

I can't believe this thread is 17 pages long. The answer is obviously "none". And that's the same with white characters too. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman are DC's Trinity and that's not going to change any time soon - and nor should it.

[kurenai24]

I can't believe this thread is 17 pages long. The answer is obviously "none". And that's the same with white characters too. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman are DC's Trinity and that's not going to change any time soon - and nor should it.

I see that someone was so eager to voice their displeasure over this thread existing and making it to 17 pages that they didn't bother to read the title of this thread, it mentions the trinity's status (i.e popularity, standing, ranking etc), it doesn't say anything about replacing DC's trinity.

[BlackClaw]

When I chose Naomi I didn't narrow the choice down to black females, because that's not what the topic is about. The black males are in not much better a position than Vixen. They're all essentially either underdeveloped (the great, great majority of them, including John Stewart) or past their prime, dormant and washed up (like Steel and Static).

DC could have done quite a bit with John Stewart 16 years ago, but the company squandered him. Instead it went the completely opposite direction by resurrecting Hal Jordan, attempting to push HIM to trinity status, and positioning John Stewart as a nearly mute, extremely boring and depressing background character who's only development involves moping about how he kills people. DC chose not to strike while the iron was hot from the Justice League cartoon, and now I feel that window of opportunity is shut. Especially now that Hal Jordan has returned. He would literally have to die or be retired again for John to really get a decent shot. And even if Hal did get out the way, somehow I doubt the Lantern that would step up to the plate and fill the void would be John. These days, it would probably be Jessica Cruz or some new character. What's more is the specter of Hal Jordan will forever haunt whoever would take his place, and Hal would undoubtedly return and take it right back. He has too many die hard fans for that NOT to happen. John Stewart simply will never cleanly overcome him, because, like it or not, love him or hate him, Hal Jordan is THE REAL Green Lantern. The others, besides Alan, are offshoot imitators. Their fans would never want to admit this, but that's just the way it is and it's too late to change that. So, as for John Stewart...
I'm not choosing him.

Steel maybe had a shot when Shaq was playing the character in that 90s movie, but the movie bombed, and most people think it's godawful. That basically killed Steel's "career". Now he's most notable for being the supporting character boyfriend of Superboy's girlfriend (Lana Lang) from a cancelled comic series from a couple years ago that was rather short lived and not well loved because people were expecting it to star Lois Lane instead of Lana Lang.
I'm not choosing him.

Static is basically a dead IP. Besides, Milestone owns that, not DC.
I'm not choosing him.

What has Mr. Terrific ever really done? Be a part of teams, mostly, and his short lived solo series is not well loved at all.
I'm not choosing him.

Cyborg?
I've written a lot on the problems with this character. He's gone about as far as he's going to go, and that's with DC pushing him in movies, shows, cartoons, games, and comics more or less all at the same time. If he was REALLY going to go somewhere, he would have by now.
I'm not choosing him.

Black Lightning?
I suppose he stands a better chance than most, and I can see why people would choose him. However, I do not. He's got a looooong way to go. Besides, few comic readers want to read about him. At least Naomi has people who want to read her. When you have been around for like 50 years, and you STILL barely have any material to read, and even less that's actually WORTH reading...I don't think that's a good sign.

I don't think any of the other characters on the list are worth consideration.

It’s really depressing how DC has fumbled the handling of their black characters. Especially Static and John Stewart.

[Midnight_v]

I can't believe this thread is 17 pages long. The answer is obviously "none". And that's the same with white characters too. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman are DC's Trinity and that's not going to change any time soon - and nor should it.

I see that someone was so eager to voice their displeasure over this thread existing and making it to 17 pages that they didn't bother to read the title of this thread, it mentions the trinity's status (i.e popularity, standing, ranking etc), it doesn't say anything about replacing DC's trinity.

Well... regardless of what you may think of his disposition. He's not entirely incorrect.

The answer is obviously "none".

because the other characters haven't been invested in at that level and that goes for many, many white characters as well


and the question of potential....

What has Mr. Terrific ever really done? Be a part of teams, mostly, and his short lived solo series is not well loved at all.
I'm not choosing him.

Its not about what Mr. Terrific has ever really done, but about what a writer could tell a story about him doing.

The problem isn't whats been don't but what hasn't.

[Ascended]

It’s really depressing how DC has fumbled the handling of their black characters. Especially Static and John Stewart.

DC doesn't own the Milestone characters. They can't use Icon or Static or the Blood Syndicate whenever they like, the Milestone guys have to approve it. And I *think* there's licensing fees as well, which means DC has to pay for the appearances too. It *is* a gods damn shame that Milestone got caught up in all that legal hassle (whatever precisely it was, I never heard details) and that the relaunch has apparently stalled out. I think its a shame that Milestone is still working with DC too, given how poorly that partnership has gone for Milestone. But DC can't fumble with Static because they don't own him. They've fumbled their relationship with Milestone as a company though.

Well... regardless of what you may think of his disposition. He's not entirely incorrect.

He isn't. No one else is the Trinity and no one else is going to achieve that level of recognition. At least not within our lifetimes, and likely not the lifetimes of our kids. If Iron Man isn't going to pull that off, no one else is.

Its not about what Mr. Terrific has ever really done, but about what a writer could tell a story about him doing.

The problem isn't whats been don't but what hasn't.

Nicely said. You're right. But even then, Holt's done some pretty cool things, just not as a solo character. He's got some pretty crazy science feats but they're all in team books.

[krazijoe]

I don't see anyone getting that close to the Trinity.