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

[Aahz]

Down side: he may as well be a new character as he doesn't have anything of his own: no supporting cast, no rogues gallery, no settings, not much stories to build off of.

Honestly that kind of the same for most of DCs Black Characters.

I mean look at Black Lightning, his only villain is Tobias Whale and his only supporting cast of note (unless they bring Peter Gambi back to live) are his wife and his daugthers.
And the daugthers were retroactively created as characters for Outsiders and JSA and were never part of his solo stories, so doesn't even has much of an established history with them ...

[Sutekh]

I'd love it if some talented creative with clout actually wanted to take a shot on Amazing Man.

Oh yeah. There are a lot of great characters that *could* get some focus, like Amazing Man, Skyrocket or Dr. Mist, but I'd still expect them to put more effort into more established characters like Vixen, Mr. Terrific, Static or Cyborg. Even Rocket, Icon and Bumblebee have a higher profile thanks to (minor) appearances in Young Justice.

The only downside to Amazing Man I can see is that, just as 'Superman-type' powersets tend to be seen as DC's thing, the most notable 'turns into other stuff he touches' character is Marvel's Absorbing Man, seen occasionally on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, so it *could* be dismissed as derivative.

Him not currently having a supporting cast, a family like Jefferson Pierce, or a wife/girlfriend like Clark, or a crusty old butler like Bruce, is actually kind of a plus, since whoever gets a bug to develop this character can invent a supporting cast out of whole cloth and won't be stuck with anyone they don't want to use.

[Vampire Savior]

Black-ish is specifically a commentary on upper middle-class blacks who deal with not fitting old stereotypes. Hence, black-ish. The company's most prominent black character shouldn't be a character limited from the outset to addressing racial issues, any more than (White) Superman or (White) Batman are.

This is 1000% true, and a big reason why I don't care for Black Lightning or his name.

[Anthony Shaw]

I'm a black person, and, yes, the name bothers me. Along with Black Goliath, Black Racer, Black Manta, Black Spider, Vykin the Black... The creators couldn't see the character beyond their race when naming them. Bronze Tiger comes close too. Don't know how Vixen didn't end up as Black Vixen, given the era.

Black Panther gets a pass because that's the name of an actual animal and fits the setting.

Jack King Kirby is the creator, or co-creator of three of the characters listed.

Two of those characters are basically gods, with one being a king.

DC has two black gods (that just need a little updating), but is doing nothing with them.....crazy.

I have nothing but love for King Kirby.

[Vampire Savior]

That's what YOU think, instead of pigeonholing I think it's uplifting. It also makes them easier to find by people looking specifically African-American superheroes. That's why the works of James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou aren't put in the general literature section of bookstores.

Has it ever occurred to you that there are people looking for African American superheroes who aren't interested in the same old tired race relations stories that a character like Black Lightning is pigeonholed into? Has it ever occurred to you that some of the people looking for African America superheroes would like to experience the same type of escapism that fans of other superheroes enjoy (stopping mad scientists, saving the universe, getting pretty girls, and all that jazz, without the 10,000 pound weight of "black issues" around their necks constantly)?

Black superheroes are already empowering simply by being black and superheroes. Incredibly overt black power messages and race focused issues and stories are not something I believe the major black superhero at DC Comics should be mired in...which Black Lightning is mired in. Again, it pigeonholes them. There are plenty of black people I've personally talked to who have told me they're tired of that stuff.

[SecretWarrior]

It's not the same, though. Black Americans were proud to have these characters identified as such back in the '70s, but can that be said of the Confederacy at any time?

Having said that, it doesn't make sense to have all of those Black-this and Black-that from that era today. Still, one of them could be alright with the proper reasoning. Watching Black Lightning on TV, it doesn't feel wrong to me.

I know old Black people who still think Gone With The Wind is great. Doesn't mean it's okay.

[The Darknight Detective]

I know old Black people who still think Gone With The Wind is great. Doesn't mean it's okay.

How many of them thought the characterization of the slaves and their relationship with the white characters in the movie was okay? I bet the percentage was way, way smaller than the percentage of African-Americans who had no problem with the use of "black" in the media during the '70s. I understand your point, but it really isn't the same.

[Riv86672]

Short of literally race-swapping Clark, Bruce, or Diana's percieved ethnicities, there are NO t
Black Lightning, Cyborg, and Vixen are DC's Black Trinity. They are not derivatives of older White characters like GL John Stewart is. Their powers do not overlap too much with the other Leaguers. And they can claim media exposure outside comic books.

Nice! I’m going to have to use that Ty.

[Ascended]

But I'm going to throw in a name that is largely forgotten, but could, in the right hands, be a titanic hit.

Amazing Man.

You beautiful bastard, that's a good call!! I loved Amazing Man back in the day! Yeah, he's definitely due for a return and might have what it takes to have staying power if the right creators got a hold of him. Definitely bring that guy back!

Lightning is a really iconic name choice for a character who wields lightning. Creative.

Hey, you're the one bitching.

Also, the thing about searches was because you dismissed the naming issue as something recognized by 2 or 3 people on this thread when it's been talked about forever.

And I still dismiss it. I get why it bothers some people (that part I don't dismiss). It doesn't seem to bother most people though. So as far as I'm concerned Jeff can remain the proud black man he is and plaster his race in his name as much as he wants. I'm sure that, while some are offended, others are inspired by a guy like Jeff who's proud enough of his heritage to make sure no one misses it.

Ratings isn't a justification btw.

Nope. Its a metric. Not a great metric, at all, but more reliable than some random articles people wrote online.

[SecretWarrior]

From a publishing and storytelling perspective, every Green Lantern besides Alan Scott is a legacy since Lanterns were operating before humans were around. Didn't affect John at all in the DCAU.

[SecretWarrior]

You beautiful bastard, that's a good call!! I loved Amazing Man back in the day! Yeah, he's definitely due for a return and might have what it takes to have staying power if the right creators got a hold of him. Definitely bring that guy back!



Hey, you're the one bitching.



And I still dismiss it. I get why it bothers some people (that part I don't dismiss). It doesn't seem to bother most people though. So as far as I'm concerned Jeff can remain the proud black man he is and plaster his race in his name as much as he wants. I'm sure that, while some are offended, others are inspired by a guy like Jeff who's proud enough of his heritage to make sure no one misses it.



Nope. Its a metric. Not a great metric, at all, but more reliable than some random articles people wrote online.

Yeah, pigeonhole him.

[Vampire Savior]

My thing is...you can have a loud and proud Black power superhero. But I don't recommend making that your "main black guy" if you're going to have a main black guy. Not when his contemporaries, like Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman are NOTHING like that. That role is too pigeonholing. What's more is it's pigeonholing on very sensitive and heavy subject matter.

[Ascended]

My thing is...you can have a loud and proud Black power superhero. But I don't recommend making that your "main black guy" if you're going to have a main black guy. Not when his contemporaries, like Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman are NOTHING like that. That role is too pigeonholing. What's more is it's pigeonholing on very sensitive and heavy subject matter.

And that's a good point (one I brought up myself a page or two back). In group shots, it stands out in a bad way. But on his own, I don't think it's *that* much of a problem. Just looking at Jeff as a solo IP and not at the wider DCU the name is a tad contentious, but far from a deal breaker for most. But I've agreed the optics look bad when he's next to Clark and Bruce and the others.

The question (one, anyway) then becomes whether you build Jeff with an eye towards how he fits the DCU, or if you build him as a stand-alone IP that happens to exist with other franchises. Personally, given the stuff Jeff needs in order to be a major player, I think it's a smarter choice to not worry about what the other guys are doing, and focus on fleshing out what Jeff's got into a fully formed and rich setting that stands on its own. That's how the other big names did it, and while the market is different now I don't think this has necessarily changed (not the only route but still viable). You can build Jeff around a DCU that is always changing, or you can build him to be a pillar other IP's can anchor around (in the same way that the DCU anchors itself to whatever Bruce and Clark are doing).

If I considered how Lightning works within the larger DCU as being the most important thing in building him up, then I'd likely agree that he needs a name change. But I figure he's gotta stand on his own two feet, so the bad JLA optics aren't a big enough problem to worry about. Jeff's got far bigger problems than this.

Plus.....how many name changes actually stick? Nightwing. Red Hood.....Stargirl......oh, there's Tempest too. And.......there's more I'm sure but I can't think of them. Change a character's name and odds are it'll only end up changed back later. There's far more important things to worry about.

[Koriand'r]

Has it ever occurred to you that there are people looking for African American superheroes who aren't interested in the same old tired race relations stories that a character like Black Lightning is pigeonholed into? Has it ever occurred to you that some of the people looking for African America superheroes would like to experience the same type of escapism that fans of other superheroes enjoy (stopping mad scientists, saving the universe, getting pretty girls, and all that jazz, without the 10,000 pound weight of "black issues" around their necks constantly)?

Black superheroes are already empowering simply by being black and superheroes. Incredibly overt black power messages and race focused issues and stories are not something I believe the major black superhero at DC Comics should be mired in...which Black Lightning is mired in. Again, it pigeonholes them. There are plenty of black people I've personally talked to who have told me they're tired of that stuff.

Who told you that Kanye and his KTT kids? There are all kinds of black superheroes and not all African-American readers are as quick to run from reality and their culture as these "black people you've personally talked to".

[Vampire Savior]

Plus.....how many name changes actually stick? Nightwing. Red Hood.....Stargirl......oh, there's Tempest too. And.......there's more I'm sure but I can't think of them. Change a character's name and odds are it'll only end up changed back later. There's far more important things to worry about.

*shrug*
Well, I'm not advocating a name change for the character. I don't really care what's done with him because I don't even like him. I never really thought about how I would handle the character if it somehow became my responsibility, though I doubt I would change his name. I would probably use the character for the types of stories he's been used in for the people who want that type of stuff, which is being in a ghetto, fighting gangs, cleaning up streets. That setting and those stories don't really do anything for me, unless I'm playing a Double Dragon or Streets of Rage video game, but I guess some people like them. However, I would not try to promote him to trinity status, which is what the current discussion is about.