Justice in Color

When you look at the original Justice League, do you notice something? If you're the kind of cynical thinker that I am you'll notice the team is mostly comprised of white, heterosexual men (and one white woman). Sure, we can say Wonder Woman is Greek and Superman is Kryptonian, but we can't ignore what we're looking at. Future incarnations of comic book teams have usually included a more diverse cast, but lets take a look at where it started. Starting with African-American superheroes.

In 1966, writers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby debuted the first African superhero in "Fantastic Four #52". This character was King T'Challa, the ruler of the fictional country of Wakanda. To prove himself worthy of ruling them and taking the ceremonial mantle of Black Panther, T'Challa invited the Fantastic Four to his country, only to attack them. After he neutralized each team member, he formally apologized and joined the team in a fight against the super-villain, Klaw. Black Panther went on to join The Avengers, marry Storm of the X-Men and wage war against Marvel's Atlantis. This character's popularity and relevancy have earned him eternal importance to the industry.

The next forerunner for African-Americans in comics came from Luke Cage. First appearing in 1972 and created by Archie Goodwin, Luke Cage was a Harlem criminal who ran with a gang, but attempted to clean up his act for his family's sake. A friend from Luke's past frames him and gets him sent to Seagate Prison, where Luke is offered a shortened sentence provided he volunteer in an experiment. The results of this experiment gave Luke superpowers he used to break out of prison, return to New York city and become a Hero for Hire, using his powers to help anyone who'd pay the right price. Luke went on to found The Heroes for Hire, join the Avengers and lead his own Mighty Avengers. He also stopped charging citizens, married another hero named Jessica Jones and is now raising a child with her.

Finally, there is John Stewart, the third Green Lantern of Earth. Dennis O'Neil created the character in 1971. The character was introduced as a former U.S. Marine and architect, selected to be GL Hal Jordan's backup recruit. Hal doubted John's abilities as a Green Lantern because of John's attitude against authority, of course at this time Hal was thought to be bigoted. Hal and John were tasked with protecting a racist politician from an assassin. Although John didn't help Hal save the politician from his shooter, he did discover the assassination attempt was set up by the politician to get a political advantage. From then on, John became an official Green Lantern and eventually a member of the Justice League.

I chose to highlight these characters because I feel they provide empowerment to readers of all races. Black Panther represents a sense of tradition and honor, while Luke Cage is a case of redemption and success and John Stewart presents elements of fairness and wisdom. These are the character traits that readers have come to respect and learn from.