A few fans have asked for quite awhile why some characters are more successful than others,
is it the origin?
The stories?
or perhaps the creators themselves?
I’m curious to know what you think since yesterday one fan so eloquently asked:
Why do you think super heroes that are black but created by a white person
get’s more readers and fans
yet
a super hero who is black and
created by a black person doesn’t achieve the same level of success?
Sound off below or on our faithful facebook page we want to know what you think!!
July 11th, 2012 at 2:04 am
Exposure! Those characters are from the 2 mainstream comic companies and they get much more exposure!
July 11th, 2012 at 3:39 am
I’m gonna be honest here. I don’t think our characters are as successful because 1. We refuse to take the time to refine our craft to levels that will compete with or surpass the mainstream. 2. Our characters are black dopelgangers of popular white characters. 3. We refuse to digg deeper into our cultural heritage to come up with characters other than those the come from Egypt. 4. We forgo strong and compelling story which, even though based on our experiences are universal, for flashy images.
July 11th, 2012 at 3:46 am
I’ll piggyback on what Christian said, exposure is the key. Most black characters from black creators come from small startups companies. It’s much harder to get the word out there. Plus going against two powerhouses in DC and Marvel, with their long history and premiere lineup of heroes.
July 11th, 2012 at 9:21 am
Couldn’t agree more with Mark Dudley. Black artiest/writers/creators need to make sure that they are coming with their “A” games if they want to have any chance against the mainstream. The black doppelgangers of white characters is one of the things that bug me the most about most black comic characters. I love how the internet has sorta leveled the playing field and has made it easier for independent to get there stuff out there with web comics and websites like deviantart.com, but it’s downright ridiculous how many indie black characters on that site all have the cliche “Superman power package”: Super strength and/or speed, flight, invulnerability, etc.. I’ve also seen a fair share of Egyptian related heroes on that site too, I know we can do better than this. I love flashy images as much as the next guy especially when I was younger, but as I got older and started to really read comics I realized that the story plays a much bigger role than the images. I’ve read comics with art that I just flat-out didn’t like but the story was so good I kept coming back, and I’ve also read comics that had amazing art but the story was boring.
We need to be in it to win it.
July 12th, 2012 at 1:09 am
I agree with all of the above. I believe we need to be more story driven. And no disrespect to anyone’s craft, but broaden our horizons beyond the over sexed super strong, black superheroes. I don’t mind our hip-hop cultured mentality, but remember the old school intellectuals from the late 80′s/early 90′s hip-hop culture wasn’t about their craft and their message first. Tone down the over developed sisters that look well pornish for lack of better term. Why not a compelling story of intelligent equals with superpowers, as opposed to sexploitation and blaxploition.
July 12th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
Dont marvel and DC have the low level super powered black heroes down packed. that’s probably why black creators want to create their version of Superman do u tell the white creators stop creating white supermen like superman. No we just except them so why not just except the black ones as well
as well.
July 13th, 2012 at 2:43 am
You make a very good point but we as black folks need to stop doing stuff simply cause we are reacting to what whites do. We need to just do our own thing.
July 14th, 2012 at 2:14 am
The truth has been stated. The big two have the market covered. Especially now since the Disney deal bankrolling Marvel makes them a media Juggernaut! -pun intended-) It is said that there’s nothing new under the sun. It boggles the mind that the notion of very Human things belong only to one culture or another. Superman is an idea that belongs to all Humanity. Yes,he is a fictional alien being with a Caucasian appearance (J’onnJ’onnz was always more my favorite alien (MartianManhunter) However,Supes IS the granddaddy of ALL superheroes! The wheel can’t be reinvented. Spinning rims 22″s or otherwise.
Whether a character’s powers come from science or mythical Egyptian, Aztek, Asian, Roman, Greek or other gods the meta-abilities of the
genre are set. All heroes of all colors are dopelgangers in tights. Rich talent is
out there. Like in hip-hop other art forms some of the best skill is in the
underground. That does not guarantee mainstream success.
I loved Milestone:
Icon&Rocket,Static..characters that I could identify with.
When it failed I was
heartbroken. What happened? The stories were great! Dc is sitting on great
properties they own. The industry has blackpower heroes that just sit wasting!
We can only succeed @this together.!
July 31st, 2012 at 4:18 pm
I agree with many of the items posted on here but I want to add that this is not a question that can be answered with a single solution or thought.
Because of the age of comics and the dreams of super human characters the desire for fantastic heroes with relatable characteristics and humbleness will never end. It merely comes down to how their story is told.
There will always be a Superman, as much as there will always be another ‘superman’ created with slightly different qualities. This is okay. The challenge always comes down to storytelling. I struggle with this as a writer/artist/creator every day. What I have learned is what we call, ‘The
Rule of Two’ when dealing with Black/Minority superheroes.
To increase the odds of mainstream success for a Black/Minority character, you cannot have more than two of the following components occur in your story without a heavy White presence to balance it out (even them, that does not guarantee success):
1.Black Character (Power-Man/Cage, Black Panther, ‘Black’ Falcon)
2.Black World (Any Ghetto, USA, Wakanda, Harlem)
3.Black Events (Drug Dealing, Cultural Separation, Racial Consciousness)
4.Black Issues (Getting Paid, Serving the White Man, Being a sidekick)
Each one of these can be studied and analyzed until we are green in the face, but their challenges as comic book characters simply as to how they were overcome. When Power-Man comic began to crumble and he eventually vanished only to return as Cage in a couple more of Marvel ‘experiments’ to revive him as a product they struggled with how to position him as the next viable Black (in this case, African-American) hero.
They did a few solo comic series which all seem to flicker and fumble because they continually slipped on the rules posted above. When they pulled him out of a Black World and Black Events by throwing him into the Avengers with a White girl and a mixed child, his numbers instantly increased. They brought along his ignorant slang talk, took away the costume and increased his power level to fit more into the big leagues.
Once this happened, Marvel sat down and felt that they successfully delivered the African-American community their first Black Superman.
This technique was used with the Black Panther and the ‘Black’ Falcon. Both solo comics struggled, but they became icons when thrown into the mainstream White worlds which forced them to visit and/or abandon their Black ones.
Could you imagine the President of the United States (any of them other than Obama) telling his cabinet that he wanted to live amongst an African tribe for years in order to understand what is going on in their world?? T’Challa did it and no one had a problem with that.
Could you imagine Captain America hanging up his shield for years to secretly join German forces just to keep an eye on them? Nope? Amazing… neither could the White community, but this is accepted and needed for the Black Panther to sell and to become an icon.
As for the ‘Black’ Falcon… I don’t want to go into that.
The morale of this story is that there is no ONE reason that White-Black heroes are more successful than Black-Black heroes, there are multiple reasons and all of them need to be considered when ‘WE’ creators are working to make the next major icon.
April 4th, 2013 at 3:17 am
I ain’t gotta say a thing, you brothas said it all