(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Comic books have made leaps and bounds in the representation of Black superheroes, but acceptance has been slower for other marginalized groups, industry participants and observers tell Courier Pigeon.
Comics have long been considered a uniquely U.S. art form, "like our American mythology," says Terry Gant, who runs the only Black-owned comic book shop in Illinois, Third Coast Comics, on the campus of Loyola University-Chicago.
But for decades, the heroes in tights were largely white. Setting the template in 1938 was Superman, the brainchild of two Jewish creators from Cleveland, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
“Superman, in particular, came during the height of the Depression and was really seen, frankly, as a social justice warrior. And he was there to solve problems, not just catch bad guys,” says comic book historian and Word Balloon Podcast host John Siuntres.
Lion Man was an early attempt to introduce a person of color as a main comic book character, but this Black hero was no match for racial attitudes of the late-1940s. He appeared in a single issue of All Negro Comics, says history professor Damon L. Fordham.
“Unfortunately, due to the times, All Negro Comics did not last more than one issue because many refused to stock it,” he said.
And so it went until a notable watershed moment in the mid-1960s. This is when the creative forces at Marvel Comics introduced a major Black superhero, Black Panther, in an issue of The Fantastic Four.
“When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Black Panther character in 1966, they played it slick by not putting the fact that he was Black on the cover, and they got away with it,” Fordham says. “Black kids, of course, were astounded by this. It just set a lot of their minds on fire.”
Other significant Marvel characters of color, such as Luke Cage and Blade the vampire killer, emerged in the 1970s. DC had Black Lightning, who debuted in 1977, and, later, a part-man, part-machine known as Cyborg. The character Spawn -- alter ego of a Black government operative who makes a deal with the devil -- was a commercial smash upon his debut in the early 1990s for independent Image Comics.
Fast forward to the 2020s, and several Black heroes, villains and supporting characters have achieved significant presence in comic books and in spinoff products such as TV shows and movies. Not all aspects of this evolution have been accepted. Some fans have pushed back when traditionally white characters have been reimagined as African American (one example: Idris Elba assumed the role of Norse deity Heimdall in the 2011 Marvel movie Thor).
“There’s a segment of frustrated fans that have weaponized their frustration, frankly. There’s a movement called Comicsgate that very much is against any changes to what has come before,” says Siuntres, the comic book podcaster.
"Then there is the other side, that also has its extremists in terms of, 'These books don't represent current society enough and shame on you, I'm never going to read you again,'" he adds. "And then there are people I think in the middle who are like, 'Hey, just tell good stories.'"
The next frontier for the comics industry is wider acceptance of the LGBTQ community, observers say. Greater diversity already is happening in independent comics, says comics creator Turtel Onli, an adjunct professor of art appreciation and drawing at Harold Washington College.
For some fans, this is not enough, he notes.
Says Onli: "They want it to be from the big-time mainstream or not at all."
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