Nice post. My favorite Cyborg design is the Flashpoint one.

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I like that he the bulk of his armor is variable, and he can still wear clothes over them. I'm torn on the idea of removing or having a non-metallic face plates. I can recognize the concern of dehumanizing DC's highest profile black hero (in the new52), but I like the look visually and I think it's important to the core tensions/themes of the character. Perhaps a similar "variable" solution, where the plate is non-metallic when not in the bulky, armored "battle mode"? I think that would work.

My top five favorite black characters at the moment are:

• Cyborg
• John Stewart
• Frenzy (Age of X really turned me on to the character)
• Luke Cage
• Storm

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Amanda Waller doesn't make my list because of the new 52 changes, although I'm hopeful for her portrayal in Team 7. Voodoo isn't on my list because the book got derailed horribly despite a very promising start. I like Static a lot but man they screwed up his intro in the revamp. Not as badly as Mr. Terrific's, but bad.

Storm is depicted the way she is because she is not supposed to look black. She is supposed to have an amalgam of facial features from different ethnicities. It is not uncommon to find people of African descent with Caucasian or Asian features.

Also people of color does not only refer to black people. Yes there are not a lot of Black heroes/villains but there has been a great improvement in the inclusion of "Colored" people. The real problem is the creation of of non Caucasian heroes/villains that are meaningful and given good character development. As a Black Man myself i don't want to see new black characters being pumped out for the sake of it. I'm sure Asian, Eastern European, Hispanics, or the many people from the different countries of Africa feel the same. Companies should take the characters we already have and improve them.

The real problem lies with the companies , writers, and the consumers. There aren't that many multicultural writers out there. It would be a tall order to ask A middle class white American to be able to relate to a impoverished inner city youth. This is why Simon Baz works so well. Geof can relate to the character he is writing and can take experiences he has had and apply them. Most consumers only want to read about iconic characters. John Stewart doesn't push as much books as Hal Jordan. This brings me to the point that the companies don't make it there business to make these characters more prominent until now with Cyborg.

EDIT: I do feel that the tech in DC is suffient enough for cyborg to be able to go the nano machines like Tony Stark Bleeding Edge armor. There is no reason why he couldn't have a story where he gets an upgrade and the nanites redesign him. It would further blur the lines between man and machine for him. His struggle would go from fitting in visually to a mental struggle of accepting is no longer human. I am pro streamlining him. It would be perfect for his own ongoing.

@LightningTiger2190 said:

EDIT: I do feel that the tech in DC is suffient enough for cyborg to be able to go the nano machines like Tony Stark Bleeding Edge armor. There is no reason why he couldn't have a story where he gets an upgrade and the nanites redesign him. It would further blur the lines between man and machine for him. His struggle would go from fitting in visually to a mental struggle of accepting is no longer human. I am pro streamlining him. It would be perfect for his own ongoing.

I'd like that. Either with nano-tech or just through a general "upgrade" storyline. I like that it would bring in more transhumanist themes. If he's had his current tech cybernetically grafted to him for five years now, would he view its removal as self-mutilation? It's an interesting question to explore.

Funny that you mention tyroc, his outfit was designed that way on purpose. His creators were pigeon holed by DC editorial into making him a racial seperatist which apparently was the only way to have a black legionairre, so they gave him the dumbest costume ever.

Ferro Lad was supposed to be black too, but editoral wouldnt let jim shooter do it, so he made him white and eventually killed him off.

I love the Legion of Superheroes, but my biggest criticism is the lack of diversity. It makes absolutely no sense that a book set 1000 years in the future is so whitewashed, and there arent enough "alien" looking aliens either, but its not so bad, in the reboot levitz added one black legionairre and three asian ones.

I think in terms of diversity, the industry has come a long way, and has a long way to go. I think change, real organic change is being blocked by a mixture or cynicism, nostalgia, and executive meddling.

We need more minority creators, and more minority-lead books. I know it sounds some sort of way to say "it's as simple as that" but it really is that simple. The big companies really have to take risks (something I applaud DC for taking last September), and put minority characters in people's faces. Why would anyone care if they are not shoved in our faces along with the same 3 DC characters, and the same few Marvel heroes? People have no reason. And sometimes, it might be better to debut someone in a solo book, rather than have just another team black character. And though I tried to defend characters like John Stewart, and Steel, I am beginning to understand what people are saying about "Black versions of characters are offensive to black people". When you see the Green Lantern symbol, the person you immediately think of is Hal Jordan. When you see the S shield, the only person that comes to mind is Superman. Same with the Bat symbol. We need more Black characters that aren't someone else.

And if all else fails, we need another Milestone movement. Not a "By us, for us" but something that can genuinely, and accurately paint a picture of the American population, and of the world.

@joshmightbe: I was just about to mention this guy,he's one of my favorites, yet you don't really see him in marvel that often,because he's 2 damn powerful.

@eiderglast: Great point outs, excellent topic !

@evilvegeta74: Thanks! And I never heard of Blue Marvel... is he like the Sentry? A recent character retrofitted into continuity? Reading his power levels on the comicvine database says his powers are either as strong as Sentry's or even better.

my favorite top 5 black superheroes

1. black panther

2. luke cage

3. cloak

4.spider-man (miles morales)

5. vixen

@fodigg: I second that, flash point cyborg was a great redesign. I am still salty with how bad the mister terrific series was as far as stories go, Eric Wallace did such a good job on brightest day , smh.

i like the Ivan Reis design shown on the cover for JL 16

that TYROC costume is sweet. I would wear it.

There's a good bit of characters of color or minority that are awesome. Like the ones fodigg mentioned along with a few other ideas I've felt are good; Black Lightning, Jason Rusch, Triathlon/3D Man, Steel, Black Panther, Falcon, etc.

But Milestone's diversity of characters are what really sell me for minority characters. They really need to have a few more these days, but it also isn't easy to be representive of the world at large when there's quite a bit of racism, even if not as bad as in the past. But it still is this belief of majority rules over minority rules and crap like that. Of course, I may just be overthinking it, but Eiderglast has some good points in this article, and in the long run, times have changed a lot to make minority characters more representive in the long run and more realistic. It still is not very easy to work with in this day and age, but I hope that we can get to the point where minority characters will all be more recognized and better than in the past. =)

@BigBDawg said:

There's a good bit of characters of color or minority that are awesome. Like the ones fodigg mentioned along with a few other ideas I've felt are good; Black Lightning, Jason Rusch, Triathlon/3D Man, Steel, Black Panther, Falcon, etc.

But Milestone's diversity of characters are what really sell me for minority characters. They really need to have a few more these days, but it also isn't easy to be representive of the world at large when there's quite a bit of racism, even if not as bad as in the past. But it still is this belief of majority rules over minority rules and crap like that. Of course, I may just be overthinking it, but Eiderglast has some good points in this article, and in the long run, times have changed a lot to make minority characters more representive in the long run and more realistic. It still is not very easy to work with in this day and age, but I hope that we can get to the point where minority characters will all be more recognized and better than in the past. =)

Well Black Panther, John Stewart, and Spawn are very well known. If these minority characters can be very recognizable then I'm sure DC can do the same with a character like Static, and they proven it before with John Stewart.

my top 5 black superheroes

1 Icon

2 Green Lantern(John Stewart)/Black Panther(tie)

3 Bishop/Black Lightning(tie)

4 Static Shock

5 Darwin/ Storm(tie)

You can add Helena Bertinelli, Ghost Rider (the youngest one), Ms. Marvel, Goldballs, Hijack, Triage and a few more others to the list. It's getting better. (I've given up linking characters to their pages on this site, it's way too complicated and confusing.)

When I saw the Static Shock tv series for the first time I thought "I want to be like him!". Static is AMAZING, his origins are cool, his costume is cool, his power is cool and his story is cool. Have you ever play "Infamous" is basically the Static's game (but with a white dude -_-). Static was very important for ma childhood because for the first time I wanted to be an afroamerican character. I'm not a racist, but it's clear that my favourite superheroes were all whites (Batman, Superman, Spiderman etc etc) because are the most famous. Now I think the BEST black character in the comics is definitely Black Panther, but I like also Blade, Cyborg and obviously Static (and I think he's too much underused and underrated).

whats going on here