DC Africana Appreciation: Vol. 2

[skyvolt2000]

@Robanker Why is it unlikely that DC isn’t getting good pitches for black characters? I know it’s cool to hate on anything DC these days. But them not getting good pitches for black characters isn’t as far-fetched as you may think.

Depending on who you talk to-it's editors not bothering to hear pitches or writers can't get a shot to PITCH or what the editor wants is something NO ONE wants to do.

1) Brandon Thomas & Brandon Eaton had stories of almost every black artist and writer having issues at Marvel with a certain editor. Who didn't want to hear anything they wanted to pitch.

2) Leah Williams and Vita Ayala have been FIGHTING for green lighting of books in the X-Office. Leah had to fight to get Prodigy in X-Factor.

3) Editor wants to kill off John Stewart. No writer wants to do it. Editor puts character in books by writers who don't care for them or limit what can be done with a person. See John Stewart in the 2000s. See Jason Rusch in Legends of Tomorrow-Gene Conway (Ronnie's creator) thought Jason was from the 90s. Doomsday Clock forgot Jason Rusch existed. Gail Simone wanted to use Rocket in Birds of Prey-got told NO.
Tom King wanted to focus on Batman by himself-editors tossed in Duke Thomas. Duke Thomas did one page cameos before vanishing from the book in 2018. Duke Thomas with Outsiders and the Detective Comics run crapped on that character.

He may have a few comic runs, but nothing anyone talks about, like Perez or Rucka's Wonder Woman, Waid's Flash, Johns' Green Lantern, Morrison's Superman and Justice League, Ostrander's Suicide Squad and so on.

Unlike those guys-Black Lighting did no have a TON of stuff that made trades.
Black Lighting vol 1 came out in the 70s. The FIRST trades for this came out in 2016.
Black Lighting vol 2 (with many OFFENSIVE stories) came out in the 70s-80. The trade came out 2018.
Black Lighting vol 3 (the ill fated 1995 series) came out in trade in 2019.

So from 1977-2016 39 YEARS before a trade starring him as the lead came out.

Also unlike the above-they don't face stores that won't stock of sale the books. Another issue many black (let alone most POC) books seem to have.

IF you get a trade. I don't see Steel with a complete trade run. In fact Naomi, Luke Fox, Duke, Wallace, Michael Lane, Aqualad & soon Jo (Far Sector) are the only black characters with every appearance in a trade.

Everyone is at the mercy of whatever book they are in and once again they are at the mercy of what a store is willing to STOCK.

So if you stock Tom King's Batman and Detective Comics Outsider arc-don't cry about why no one cares about Duke Thomas.
If you only stock Flash where Wallace is an offensive racist stereotype-don't cry why he can't win fans overs.
If all you stock is Kyles through Hal Jordan to Hal Jordan & TGLC-don't wonder why no one cares for John Stewart.
Don't expect folks to care about Cyborg after EVERYTHING the cartoon and Doom Patrol have done for him. While the comics crap on him. Which is another kick to the nads since a certain movie went out of its way to EDIT a ton of footage of him and he'll be the only Leaguer to NOT have a movie once Flash gets made. So the message is already sent to NOT care for him.

Dc had to go get Miles Morales's DADDY to invest in a black female (from scratch) at the expense (according to some) of Superman.

What does that say about Vixen??? Who is on two tv shows and her OWN show? Especially when you got the writer of her mini at DC-the same woman who was expected to FAIL with someone named Ms Marvel.
Or Bumblebee?

What does it say that Miles Morales has done MORE in his 9 years of existence than every single black heron and heroine OWNED by DC?
Oscar winning movie
Surpassed the 54 solo issue mark of Steel (who is DC's black longest solo issue runner) and had it been NOT for this virus was on pace to hit 100 in 2021.
Had a tie in to an event in the form of a mini
Played a key part in more than one event unlike NONE for any DC OWNED one.
Has way more merchandise.
A New York Times Best Seller.
Do I even need to rundown Black Panther, Shhuri, Riri, Luke Cage, Spawn & Blade's resumes?

What yo are seeing is the result of pandering and entitlement antics of the past coming to roost.

[MoneySpider]

Given its being reported Nigeria just appointed a dead man to a senior government position then an out of continuity / elseworlds shaft in africa style aged up Duke Thomas who investigates African political crimes / arms / big business / war criminals / euro.mercanaries / migrants / sharia etc etc. Wouldnt sell many but you just need say 18k to keep it ticking over.

However, i cant see anyone touching that idea.

That sounds more up David Zavimbe's alley...

[Raijin]

Black Lightning's chief antagonist is Tobias Whale who is a mob boss. This is no more stereotypical than Kingpin being Daredevil's arch enemy. Black lightning also deals with metahuman criminals, hired assassins (many of whom aren't black or gang members) and global terrorists.

It is inaccurate to say that Black Lightning just fights "gangbangers in the hood".


As for his name, we already have evidence that such a name isn't going to be a turn off towards most audiences. The people complaining about it are a minority on the internet that gets offended by anything that even implies a reference to race.

Superhero comics are all about ridiculousness anyway. Down to their code names, their costumes, their origins. That “gangbangers in the hood” remark is very, very telling. Are you expecting him to go up against Despero or Anti-Monitor? I don’t read a Punisher book expecting him to go up against Ultron. I don’t read Daredevil expecting him to fight Apocalypse. This is why I’m confused by his “criticism”

[Vampire Savior]

Superhero comics are all about ridiculousness anyway. Down to their code names, their costumes, their origins. That “gangbangers in the hood” remark is very, very telling. Are you expecting him to go up against Despero or Anti-Monitor? I don’t read a Punisher book expecting him to go up against Ultron. I don’t read Daredevil expecting him to fight Apocalypse. This is why I’m confused by his “criticism”

Oh? You know what I find "confusing"? Some of you are willing to accept that these characters aren't particularly popular with DC fans, yet when someone comes along and tells you reasons why, you absolutely do not want to accept them, or even want to entertain the possibility of truth behind them.

[Raijin]

Oh? You know what I find "confusing"? Some of you are willing to accept that these characters aren't particularly popular with DC fans, yet when someone comes along and tells you reasons why, you absolutely do not want to accept them, or even want to entertain the possibility of truth behind them.

You act like what you’re saying is a fact. A character that doesn’t mean anything to YOU, could mean the world to the next person. No one needs your validation. (thank god) Maybe try to find out why some of us actually like these characters first?

[Vampire Savior]

You act like what you’re saying is a fact. A character that doesn’t mean anything to YOU, could mean the world to the next person. No one needs your validation. (thank god) Maybe try to find out why some of us actually like these characters first?

Okay, we're talking about people who either don't like the characters or just don't care about them, and reasons why. Of course they aren't going to be sharing your opinions about the characters. That's not the topic of what I'm discussing.

[9th.]

I’ve stopped posting here but this post drew me out. I just wanted to say that this is an all-time great post. I differ in that I do blame DC for the lack of genuine love and care for such characters but great post nonetheless.

I definitely put some blame on DC, it's hard not to.

[9th.]

Superhero comics are all about ridiculousness anyway. Down to their code names, their costumes, their origins. That “gangbangers in the hood” remark is very, very telling. Are you expecting him to go up against Despero or Anti-Monitor? I don’t read a Punisher book expecting him to go up against Ultron. I don’t read Daredevil expecting him to fight Apocalypse. This is why I’m confused by his “criticism”

This is a great point but Jefferson is a little different than Frank and Matt, his powers put him above that. Not saying he can't deal with bangers and Whale but he can go levels beyond due to his powerset. Let him also fight guys like Doctor Polaris.

[Raijin]

This is a great point but Jefferson is a little different than Frank and Matt, his powers put him above that. Not saying he can't deal with bangers and Whale but he can go levels beyond due to his powerset. Let him also fight guys like Doctor Polaris.

That’s completely fair. He should be able to mix it up with bigger threats every once in a while. I agree there.

[iron chimp]

That sounds more up David Zavimbe's alley...

It does - but i think you need usa involvement / character to keep the book going but maybe the original david zavimbe concept just needs retooling.

Constantine was never huge seller but it was the Brits corner of DC and it was the book all brits wanted to write - it was the prestige book for brits. Personally black writers need a similar vehicle - a queue of people banging on the door with a brief case full of scripts saying i need to do this for a character outside main universe where you have more creative freedom.

[lemonpeace]

what are some of your favorite covers featuring DC's black characters? Here are a couple of mine:

[HandofPrometheus]

Some covers that come to mind.

[MoneySpider]

what are some of your favorite covers featuring DC's black characters?

[Midnight_v]

Ok let's have some fun with pitches. you get two pitches, at least 1 character from the list, take your top choice and last choice and give us 4 things:

1. [a title name]
Mr. Terrific
The Great Unknown
2. [featured character]
Mr. Terrific
3. [creative team*]
Warren Ellis, Alex Ross

4. [1-2 sentence hook**]
Kind of a pulp graphic novel via Mr.Terrific by way of Doc Savage.
Starts off with him fighting in underground tunnels against a cult that have harvested and duplicated the Creche' symbionts from Menagerie. The leader is a Body Horror, hivemind, messianic horror guy/girl.
This starts him to building something so a pretty badass series of "Collect" missions in an to attempt to cut earthspace off from alien/Extradimensional/paranormal power sources. Much to the hostility of basically everyone.

[iron chimp]

Another pitch i'd have is human vs animal war across africa - giraffes with missle launchers, hippos with mortars- the whole 9 yards of crazy visuals. Different arcs by different authors from different bits of the war using different characters from the bottom of DCs draw with a loose narrative between them so people can jump in easily to a new arc.

Use a different art style - black and white / water colours / marker pens / whatever - just as long as it looks different to DC house style and see if the visuals are enough to draw people in for the writer to keep them reading.

They wanted to showcase their artists in NAOH but everyone ended up drawing ultra polished versions of DC house style. Really let them off the leash with whatever styles theyve been experimenting with in their spare time that they cant use in main DC books. Make that the book where an artist can establish themself or showcase skills they cant use elsewhere.