In your opinion, what are the best and your favorite minority superheroes?

[LuvOrlando]

For me it is Blade from 1998, watching right now, and Alice in Resident Evil from 2002, watched the other day.

 

[BrianL]

For me it is Blade from 1998, watching right now, and Alice in Resident Evil from 2002, watched the other day.

Well, I like superheroes. It's interesting to see how inclusion has been handled by comic books, going way back. Originally, almost all non-white characters were relegated to sidekick status, and the depictions were...well, let's just say questionable. Female representation was stronger, starting with Wonder Woman - though again, some of her early adventures are cringey by today's standards. In the 60's you started to see some real change. Black Panter was notable for not being a charicature, though other characters still fell into stereotypical roles and personalities. Falcon for example when he first appeared was not the MCU squared-away solider version that you see today - he actually didn't even have wings!

Going as far back as Superfirends, studios noticed that the entire Justice League was white, so they invented some characters to fill the ranks. These characters definitely leaned into their ethnic origins, with Samurai, Apache Chief, and El Dorado all being very themed to their cultures. One might call it stereotypical, but it was an attempt. Samurai was one of my favorite guys on the show! They also used Black Vulcan, though there was actually a comic character, Black Lightning, who was supposed to be used, but the creator has an ownership stake, so he's complicated. Note the problematic trope that all of the blakc superheroes had to have "Black" in their names! Vulcan and Lightning ended up being quite different, however, that's my pick though - Black Lightning! This dude rules!



That's him in his classic look. It's pretty 70's, but it works. He's a boss and was on my all-time favorite comic book team and series - Batman and the Outsiders! Best of all, he's a teacher in his day job so, you know, still a superhero! He's had a few different modern looks, though they are all monstly pretty similar and still evocative of the classic look.



He isn't used more due to rights issues, but he did have a short-lived CW TV series. I am always happy to see him pop up whenever he does.