Its 2020. We have a global pandemic. Racial unrest at an all time high across the United States. Its been a crazy year.
Anyway…Happy Fathers Day 2020!
Us black fathers get a bad rap in the media but I know that we are involved in our children’s lives. We read bedtime stories, tuck them in at night, drop them off at school, keep them safe, and look mighty fine doing it.
- Luke Cage
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Created by: Archie Goodwin and John Romita Sr
1st appearance: Luke Cage, Hero for hire #1, 1972
Luke Cage, wrongly convicted and unjustly imprisoned, was altered in a failed prison experiment that granted him bulletproof skin and super-human strength. Recently he has been a member of and led Earths Mightiest Heroes; The Avengers as well as the Thunderbolts program for reformed villains. Luke also starred in the Marvel Netflix series before they were cancelled. Luke married Jessica Jones after a one night stand made her pregnant. Luke has been a responsible husband and father ever since…his daughter Daniel was named after his best friend Iron Fist. He is also the grandfather of Boss Cage and grandfather of Commander A.
~DIG DEEPER INTO LUKE CAGE HERE~
- Wise son
Publisher: Milestone Media
First Appearance: Blood Syndicate #1, April 1993
Created by: Dwayne McDuffie, Ivan Velez Jr. and Denys Cowan
Wise son was one of the founders of Nur Al-Allah (Lamp of God), the Islamic contingent of the Paris Bloods. Asa gang member in Dakota he was present at the Big Bang event. When the tear gas hit the gangs he was knocked out cold. When he woke up he heard the sirens and fled instinctively. When he discovered he was indestructible he took it as a sign of a ‘holy mission”. With a new lease on life he decided to stay away from the gang life and returned home to his sister. Holocaust hunted him down and threatening his family forced him to join Wise Son’s new gang. He later clashed with Holocaust over leadership of the team; he defeated him and maintained leadership and later saved Icon from an ambush. He also had a son named Edmund.
~DIG DEEPER INTO WISE SON HERE~
- Burnum Bishop
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Created by: Duane Swierczynski and Larry Stroman
First Appearance: X-men the Life and Times of Lucas Bishop #1, 2009
Burnum was a mutant born to the mutant Gateway and his mutant wife in Australia. He grew up and developed mutant abilities as well and married fellow mutant Kadee. Sometime after Hope Summers killed a million humans Australia was bombed in a nuclear blast so he fled to America with his wife Kadee who was pregnant with their first child Lucas Bishop. Upon arriving in America they were attacked by Sentinels and sent to a mutant concentration Camp. Here his wife gave birth to his son. His relationship with his wife Kadee strained as she integrated with her fellow prisoners while he took care of his son and welcomed daughter Shard. When the summer’s rebellion began he was vaporized while protecting his son.
~DIG DEEPER INTO BURNUM BISHOP HERE~
- Norris
Publisher: Aspen MLT
Created by: Michael Turner and J. T Krul
1st appearance: Soul Fire: Chaos Reigns #1,
Noris was the husband of Delna, Father of Miya and the chief of his village. His son Oshin died while hunting and while it was not customary to teach women to hunt he indulged his daughter, reasoning that predators would not distinguish between men and women when killing them. He lost his wife one night in the first attack by demons. He sought out his wife alongside his daughter and their warriors but was killed once they entered Kaaz’s slave compound
- King Namor
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Created by: Chris Claremont
1st appearance: New Exiles #1, 2008
Born in a world where his father was African American as opposed to Caucasian he has the same past as 616 Namor except he became king of Atlantis at an earlier stage. He rescued Susan Storm from certain death after her spaceship had been bombarded by cosmic rays and battered by asteroids and all her crew mates were killed. This event marked the death of 3 billion people as the asteroids smashed the south Americas into islands, destroyed the Caribbean, destroyed Japan and destroyed England. In the destroyed world he married Susan Storm and was an excellent father to Erin (daughter), Ari (daughter), Johnny (son), Valeria Fen (daughter) and Gambit ( Son).
~DIG DEEPER INTO KING NAMOR HERE~
- Isaiah Bradley
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Created by: Robert Morales (writer), Kyle Baker (artist/inker), Axel Alonso (editor).
1st appearance: Truth: Red, White & Black #1 (January 2003)
When captain America was presumed dead, and the super soldier formula along with him, the Americas tried to re-create said formula so they could have a super soldier again. To this end many African Americans were subjected to experimentation. Of those to survive was Isaiah Bradley an outstanding black soldier and father of one. Isaiah emerged the only viable and successful subject. He managed to stop the Nazi group who tried to create a German super soldier and was captured and tortured by them for months. When he was finally rescued by his American superiors he was court-martialed and jailed. While he was in jail his genetic son was born to a surrogate mother after 39 other attempts had failed. This son would grow up to become Josiah X. His daughter would have a son who would lead the young avengers as Patriot. Bradley is also an underground legend revered by many in the black superhero community, he was a special guest at the wedding of Storm and the Black Panther.
- Blue Marvel
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Created by: Kevin Grevioux
1st appearance: Legend of the Blue Marvel #1 (2009)
The Blue Marvel is an African-American superhero who was asked to retire by President Kennedy for the sake of not making the Civil Rights movement even more violent. Years later after a life of relative peace Blue Marvel is forced out of retirement to face his greatest foe and former best friend, Anti-Man. Despite being one of the most powerful beings on Earth he has been used rarely since his debut in 2009. Recently he has seen re-invigoration as a member of the Mighty Avengers and later the Ultimates where his family has been introduced and his origins have been streamlined to fit into the modern Marvel Universe. His children are Adrienne Brashear (Daughter), Max Brashear (Son), and Kevin Brashear (Son). Though he has power comparable to Thor and Hulk he’s disappointingly not as recognizable.
~DIG DEEPER INTO BLUE MARVEL HERE~
- Black Lightning
Publisher: DC Comics
Created by: Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden
1st appearance: Black Lightning #1, April 1977
Jefferson Michael Pierce is a teacher and Olympic medal winning decathlete, metahuman able to control and manipulate electricity. He is popularly regarded by his superhuman peers as the first black Superhero. Over the course of his career he’s been a founding member of the outsiders, secretary of education for the United States and also had two daughters who continue his heroic legacy as Thunder and Lightning. During the new 52 reboot he is a college teacher partnered with Blue Devil facing down street level threats with no family in sight. Alongside his daughters he also appeared in a series of short animated cartoons that failed to really get traction or media attention but he found mainstream popularity on the CW’s “Black Lightning” series with his daughters. You can’t say Black Superhero dad without Black Lightning!
~DIG DEEPER INTO BLACK LIGHTNING HERE~
- Malcolm Dragon
Publisher: Image Comics
Created by: Erik Larsen
1st appearance: Savage Dragon #33, 1996
Born to superheroes Savage Dragon and Rapture he entered the world prematurely but thanks to his alien DNA was just as healthy as many full term babies. Abducted and grown in an alternate dimension he returned and took over the mantle of Savage Dragon from his father and impregnated his high school sweetheart Maxine, stepsister Angel and ex-girlfriend Tierra after a routine foursome. Instead of fleeing however he married Maxine and together they took care of all the kids as their own. Malcolm and his family are currently enjoying life as a celebrity superhero couple along where their misadventures have taken them to Canada…oh and they just welcomed a brand new baby girl recently! It’s not easy being a responsible young superhero dad!
~DIG DEEPER INTO MALCOLM DRAGON HERE~
- Black Panther/Tchalla
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
1st appearance: Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966)
T’Challa the Black Panther is the super genius warrior king of the African nation of Wakanda, the most technologically advanced nation on Earth. He is one of the smartest men in comics period. He’s an Avenger, and Storm‘s ex-husband. Black Panther was the first mainstream black Marvel superhero and is currently the “A Box office sensation”. I love his design and without his positive debut back when racism was more blatant writers would never have realized the need for black superheroes in the first place. The Black Panther truly kick-started the revolution! Across time he has fathered many children… T’chana, Panther/T’chaka, T’charra, Twari, T’chaka, unnamed son and Azari (Sons), Sh’ri, Sky Panther, Faida, the Unnamed twins (daughters). All hail the king!
~DIG DEEPER INTO T’CHALLA HERE~
There you have it!
Who is your favorite Black Superhero dad?!
What are your favorite memories with your dad?
Any advice on how to be a better dad?
Sound off below!?
Happy Fathers day!
Much love!