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Yesterday's Absent Black History post
Feb. 7th, 2010 02:02 amI watched my friend's kids today, and me and the brat got home rather late. Yesterday's BHP will be combined with today's, and I'll post it later.
Feb. 7th, 2010
Black History is not just limited to real-life people and real-life events of blacks in America. There's still fiction characters that were groundbreaking because - sadly - even in fiction we were often stereotyped or stigmatized.
The predecessors of current American comic books came about in the early 20th century, with Superman being the character that really set things off in 1938, followed a year later in 1939 by Batman. In the year 1940, Fawcett Comic's Captain Marvel appeared on the scene, and - at the height of his popularity before Fawcett was forced to shut down due to DC Comic's being upset over his perceived similarities to Superman - had the highest selling book of any comic character.
It would take a few decades before black characters that were not caricatures to show up.
Falcon (Sam "Snap" Wilson) was the first mainstream superhero of African-American descent to be introduced into mainstream comics (Captain America in 1969). While he was not the first black superhero, nor is he the most widely-known, he was one of the first ones that was not a caricature of black people (exaggerated African features, portrayed as dull-witted and like a child, etc.) that took off in comics.
It is the same for Storm - who was not the first black superheroine, but was one of the first mainstream one. Storm was also one of the first superheroes of African descent (Storm is African, whereas Falcon was African-American) to lead a group (the X-men), among many other groundbreaking things her character did.
Also, there was a reason I went out of my way to mention Captain Marvel.
Upon reading some old Captain Marvel comic books, I had the misfortune to come across a black character called "Steamboat Willie". I read a few stories featuring him, and was horrified. Not only was he a caricature, but every single stereotype of blacks seemed to have been hit upon. It's why - although Captain Marvel and his mythos are one of my favorites - that I cannot read a good bulk of his old comics. Even in what should have been escapism, blacks had to deal with that sort of thing.
The predecessors of current American comic books came about in the early 20th century, with Superman being the character that really set things off in 1938, followed a year later in 1939 by Batman. In the year 1940, Fawcett Comic's Captain Marvel appeared on the scene, and - at the height of his popularity before Fawcett was forced to shut down due to DC Comic's being upset over his perceived similarities to Superman - had the highest selling book of any comic character.
It would take a few decades before black characters that were not caricatures to show up.
Falcon (Sam "Snap" Wilson) was the first mainstream superhero of African-American descent to be introduced into mainstream comics (Captain America in 1969). While he was not the first black superhero, nor is he the most widely-known, he was one of the first ones that was not a caricature of black people (exaggerated African features, portrayed as dull-witted and like a child, etc.) that took off in comics.
It is the same for Storm - who was not the first black superheroine, but was one of the first mainstream one. Storm was also one of the first superheroes of African descent (Storm is African, whereas Falcon was African-American) to lead a group (the X-men), among many other groundbreaking things her character did.
Also, there was a reason I went out of my way to mention Captain Marvel.
Upon reading some old Captain Marvel comic books, I had the misfortune to come across a black character called "Steamboat Willie". I read a few stories featuring him, and was horrified. Not only was he a caricature, but every single stereotype of blacks seemed to have been hit upon. It's why - although Captain Marvel and his mythos are one of my favorites - that I cannot read a good bulk of his old comics. Even in what should have been escapism, blacks had to deal with that sort of thing.
