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| Bow down before the Queen of superhero comics! |
Now that I’m back writing blog content, it was really no question that I would bring back my annual celebration of Black History Month with my Black Superheroes Month series, a tradition so prestigious that even Rob Bricken of io9.com has used it as research material for an article at least once (…..well, I think it’s cool).
It’s been quite a few years since I’ve done this, so for those who have forgotten or newcomers who have wandered in by mistake, here is the gist: there is a very common misconception that there are hardly any black superheroes in comic books, but the truth is that there are actually tons. It’s just that they often are created then forgotten about, both by readers and by creators. So every year (…except for the last few; whoops) I spotlight both the popular and the not-so-popular black heroes, explaining who they are, any interesting information I think is relevant, and my own thoughts about what could or should be done with them.
Click this link to see a list of characters covered so far, but keep in mind I’ve been doing this since 2011 and at this point it’s fair to say many of the profiles are wildly out of date by 2023. This year, assuming nothing goes wrong, the plan is to spotlight three characters starting with the next post. However, before we get into it I have two points I’d like to make:
1) The original theme this year was going to be Black
Women, but the lynchpin of this year’s crop was supposed to be a character by
the name of Monet St. Croix aka M. However, after much checking and double checking
in preparation for this year’s blog I have come to the conclusion that M is
simply not black. From what I can tell she was originally meant to be considered
black by her creators, but apparently they didn’t realize the area where she is
from didn’t lend itself to that ethnic background. Monet’s ethnicity has since
been retconned to better reflect her background. Of course, seeing as she is a
mx of several different races it is likely that she is at least a little
black, but frankly she’s such a complicated character (her origin is nuts) that it might be easier
on me to not worry about it. If someone wants to show some specific and recent evidence that
proves I’m wrong I’ll be happy to write on her in the future, but for now I
frankly don’t need the headache of a bunch of folks leaving comments here FOR YEARS about
how stupid I am for including her in this project. Speaking of which...
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| Sorry Beta from 6 years ago, but it ain't happening... |
2) Fun fact: due to the sheer amount of spam and bots I get in the comments, I set it up so that I have to approve anything before it actually posts. Now, knowing that I stepped away from the blog for several years, imagine my surprise when I finally started preparing to come back late in 2022 and discovered a comment box filled with anger (and some defenders, to be fair) regarding my post about Exiles leader Blink being black. Look guys, writer Saladin Ahmed made this pretty clear during his run on Exiles from 2018. Was this a retcon? Yeah, I don’t think they were planning on that when she was originally created. Does it match-up with her many years established background as being from the Caribbean region? Yeah, it does. Sure, she has been (incorrectly) played by East Asian actresses in live action and yeah, she could be retconned again tomorrow, but I still stand by the post. If it bothers you, please complain to Marvel for giving it a thumbs up; I didn't make it up, I promise.
Okay, that’s enough pent-up frustration. Next time we’re
start off Black Superhero Month with a new character who, while sparking controversy
in the comic community, is being primed to be a major player in the Marvel Cinematic
Universe going forward.
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