Why aren't their any POSITIVE powerful Black superheroes???

All my life i've always wondered why we have yet to see a positive African American superhero who is in the same power-class as Thor, Green Lantern, Hulk and Superman. Marvel made an attempt with Blue Marvel but his origin is filled with cowardace and he is written in a way where his power is vastly underused. John Stewart is DC's attempt at it, but Mr. Stewart is plagued with shame and failure after accidently causing the death of his own baby sister and the planet Xanshi, killing millions in the process. There are plenty of mildly powered Black heroes (most of which suck) but not any powerhouses. (And Icon doesn't count because he sucks) Calvin Ellis (the Superman of Earth-23) is the only one but he's underused and collecting dust even though he was popular enough to get his own action figure. But what're your thoughts?

Oh God

TLDR

Lando was cool though...

what about the blue marvel????

*there

"In the year 2016"

Stopped dead in my tracks here.

Positive as in.... ?

Hmmm don't know.

@kgb725: Positive as in: not a coward like Blue Marvel and not a f*#k up like John Stewart

Lmao

WALL OF TEXT NOOOOO

I tip my hat to you. I couldn't even get that far.

Val Zod.

Y'all lazy as hell.

Earth 2 Aquawoman.

So many people are to lazy to read.

@jucaslucasa: She's black? Seems unspecifically brown to me.

@kar-el: I appreciate your effort for summarizing. As for you question, you're correct almost all of the black heros are trash bags soaked in old kfc grease. This probably comes from 2 facts. DC/Marvel are mostly a bunch of white people and they don't really create new characters that are ethnic. When they do (especially marvel as of the last few years) It's always some stereotyping and pandering which then limits the character quite often, making a good portion of their existence about it. The way to fix this is so simple.....just make a good character and color them some relatively dark shade of brown, done.

@dernman: Seems black to me.

@jucaslucasa: I was hoping you knew something that I missed to give you that impression. Like she's related to Earth 2's Black Manta or something.

@dernman: No, her skin tone is jut what I'd consider black. lol

@kar-el: Hold on i'm not understanding this. SO you think ALL the Black Superheroes in DC and Marvel are Trash because they don't have an "interesting" background and are not as powerful as Superman and others so you deem them Trash Characters?

Cyborg is pretty damn powerful. Look up his respect thread. He's also pretty damn positive.

@stormphoenix: The same Blue Marvel who cowardly bowed out of superheroics for decades because the U.S. government was afriad that a black man with his power-level was a threat and may cause a race war? That's not a hero. I can understand someone like Peter Parker not being a hero until he realized he had a responsibilty but BM adandoned his

@kar-el: Maybe I missed something but why is Blue Marvel a coward?

Brother Voodoo? Luke Cage? Storm? Cyborg?

Blue Marvel--a genius physicist that graduated from Harvard who has Superman like powers.

Black Panther--a genius polymath who's king of the most prosperous and technologically advanced nation in the world.

Cyborg--a tech guru and one of 7 DC characters that are member's of the JL.

Storm--has been leader of the X-Men multiple times. One time she didn't have powers.

Mr. Terrific--a polymath who was a major hero in the PC era.

And list goes on and on.

Superman, Thor and Hulk have been around for decades, and they haven't just been around for decades, but they have been in thousands of books, their own solo books and team books, and frequent cameos elsewhere. I mean we can ask a similar question of where are all the powerful positive female superheroes as well (this is not an invitation for people to list them), because there is like Wonder Woman… and maybe Jean Grey, but thats more Phoenix kinda… and even then, both of them have been around for longer than most. That, and there aren't generally many heroes as powerful as Superman, Thor and Hulk, and the characters that are, aren't as popular, well known, or established. Then as far as positive?

Well its fair and honest if you don't like Blue Marvel or Icon, and view them with certain attributes like cowardice, but people don't universally love Superman, Hulk or Thor either, and many would accuse them of acts of cowardice as well. Kevin Grevioux and Dwayne McDuffie definitely intended them (BM and Icon) to be positive and powerful on the level of Supes, Thor and Hulk, hell, Kevin Grevioux even joked around that Blue Marvel was stronger than Superman.

So it would be nice if there were more, but it won't happen overnight, they may not be to your liking anyway, as in "positive" and their may be bigger priorities for creators and readers. Generally super powerful characters don't get over anyway, and are hard to fit into stories in shared universe. Sentry and Blue Marvel both required retcons to exist. Characters that generally seem to gain popularity faster, more appearances, warrant more usage, popularity, better integrated into teams, tend to be less powerful. Personally I consider Blue Marvel heroic and honorable, and am happy he seems to be carving out his own place in Marvel. Thats just me though. Also underutilized in the past, Monica Rambeau is pretty powerful and positive, well to me at least.

Vixen? Steel? Black Lightning? Static?

John Stewart says hi.

Ok um I think I see what your getting at. However just because Blue Marvel didn't want to start a race war doesn't mean he isn't a hero. Blue Marvel fought Anti-Man a villain who decimated the Avengers that Sentry was apart of. And to my understanding Blue Marvel Knocked Sentry out. The problem is that Marvel/DC isn't utilizing them at all until NOW.(Most of them) You can't say they are ALL trash because they are not as strong as you want them to be. Some of these Black Heroes are very well known and have a HUGE Fanbase. We do have powerful Black Superheroes a good handful of them. To call them "Trash?" NO you had the correct word "Underused"

They need better writers is all. ;-)

The same cowardly Thor who has smacked around woman and once enslaved the Earth so he might reign as King? The same coward Hulk who has destroyed cities, caused countless deaths*, in temper tantrums, had entire New York evacuated because of personal drama, the same coward Superman that gave up being Superman to go walkabout around American country?

*Super maths retcon aside.

With Blue Marvel, he gave up being a superhero because he thought it would be a detriment and causing a race war isn't a good thing. He also went in to apply his considerable intelligence in education and science, and if we want to get critical about actions, morality, ethics, he probably saved more lives and made bigger positive changes that way, than the more flashy, spandex way. People can accuse it or interpret his actions as cowardice, but its not an objective fact, and definitely wasn't the intent of the creator. I mean, if I wanted, I could claim all fictional characters are cowards and none are positive. Its why I only read the news, cause I'm real like that.

They already addressed this in OP with

OP already knows a few powerful, popular black powerhouse characters, just doesn't like them or consider them positive for various reasons. Which is a fair thing, just something that can applied to any and or characters, Superman, Hulk, and Thor included.

@stormphoenix: I'm not saying that Blue Marvel is trash but his origin is. This man stepped down from superheroics when the Civil Rights movement was in full swing where many African Americans died, were beaten or arrested, he sat by while the Vietnam War killed thousands of troops of all colors, he sat by and did nothing when Galactus came, durng Onslaught, Civil War and the coutless other menaces he could've stopped or helped out with. Now if he was depowered during that time i'd understand, but he wasn't. Hell, even King Hyperion threw his cowardliness in his face during their battle in Age of Heroes. I usually hate retcons but i hope they eventually retcon BM to do away with that "40 year recess" he took.

@thepreface: Lol. Are u serious??!! Cyborg is trash and only was made a part of the JL to be a token Black character. Anyone else on his team would whup his ass, easily

@kar-el: He could solo the League by teleporting them to a black hole. lol

Yeah, I realized after I posted.

To which I will say:

So you don't like him because he's flawed? Most good characters are flawed; it's better to be flawed than to just have a powerful character for the sake of it. Would you rather John just be a powerful black superhero with no personality? Even Hal, who is generally considered bland, is haunted by what he did as Parallax, and later hated by the rest of the Corps.

Let's compare Black Lightning and Static: both are black with electrical powers. Difference? Static has personality that makes him appealing.

What about Storm? She is considered one of the most powerful X-Men. Crispus Allen is the most flawed host of the Spectre; guess what? He's the most interesting host of the Spectre.

lol

OH ok now I see what your trying to say. Well someone in this thread has explained it A LOT BETTER. You should read @sc post. This Mod pretty much hit the Nail on the Head. When you say BM left the people to not start a race war well it's as User SC said. He and many other heroes where retconned. Not only that Superman did the exact same thing we can all call Superman a coward for that.

@jucaslucasa: No, i could care less. Cyborg maybe has like 11 fans including u. 9 of them just like him from nostalgia from his 80s Teen Titans days (he was trash then too) and the other 2 from Teen Titans Go. He's an embarrassing character to me because he makes both black characters and other cyborgs look bad

I'd wager there should (not needs!) to be more black writers to take pride. Also, "black" people statisticall are not as vested in comics so it's played to a demographic. The truth is, corporate big names don't give 2 shits about the race of a fictional character, they care about the bottom line. If more women are reading comics you'll see a boost in heroine feats and characters. It's a game of numbers not race. Period.

@s1ckb0y: None of those people that u named besides Blue Marvel are anywhere close to Superman, Thor or Hulk's power-level. Next time read the whole intro before u comment, thank u

@kar-el: There's Icon

But there is truth: There aren't any heavy hitters or Cosmic Threats in comicbooks that are Black or Coded Black

@jedixman: Being flawed is fine, i have no problem with that. But destroying a whole planet of millions of people and having to live with that guilt is a bit much. But of course u don't see many white heroes with such a burden. Hal Jordan went insane over one city he failed to save and vowed to fix it by any means possible. And if u go by Geoff Johns' dumb retcon, Hal was brainwashed anyway. Point is: they'd NEVER make Superman, Captain America, Ironman or Batman go through what John did

Cyborg is positive and powerful

@supermanwithatan01: Exactly, u kinda just proved my point...why would hordes of Black folks read comics when most Black heroes either suck or are a White superhero's sidekick?

@kar-el: Do you even read comics or are just here to troll? Like I said Cyborg is very powerful. He can kill everyone on the Justice League including Superman if he channels his white noise to the right frequency of their brains. Won't tell you again, check his Respect Thread.

As far as positive... he's as postive as a young, high middle class, black, nerd/jock hybrid with superpowers can be. He struggles with his perceived gradual loss of humanity and his relationship with Silas, but he pushes on despite it all.