Spitfire Jenkins is a true daughter of the West. Riding and roping with the best of them. Her powers have been an asset to her skills not the definition of them.

It is thought that, on some Texas trails, about a quarter of cowboys were black.
In the real Old West, as opposed to the film depiction, black cowboys were a common sight.
"Black cowboys often had the job of breaking horses that hadn't been ridden much," says Mike Searles, a retired professor of history at Augusta State University. His students knew him as Cowboy Mike because he gave lectures dressed in spurs, chaps and a ten-gallon hat.
"Black cowboys were also chuck wagon cooks, and they were known for being songsters - helping the cattle stay calm," he says.
Searles says his research, which included poring over interviews with ex-slaves in the 1930s, suggested black cowboys benefited from what he calls "range equality".
"As a cowboy you had to have a degree of independence," he says. "You could not have an overseer, they had to go on horseback and they may be gone for days."
Life was, nevertheless, harder for black cowboys than for their white counterparts.
Vincent Jacobs, 80, a former rodeo rider who lives near Houston, Texas, recalls the racism he faced when he was starting out.
"There would be separate rodeos for blacks and whites," he says. "It was hard, real hard - they would only let me perform after all the white people had been led out of the arena."
"Being a black cowboy was hard work," agrees 88-year-old Cleveland Walters, who lives just outside the town of Liberty, Texas.
"I hate to think of the racism I went through. When it was branding time, they'd put 20 cows in the pen and I was the one who had to catch them and hold them down. The brander was white - so in other words all the hard, dirty work was done by the black cowboys."
Both Jacobs and Walters grew up in the 1940s, watching Westerns but never seeing any black actors in major roles.
Not only did Hollywood ignore black cowboys, it plundered their real stories as material for some of its films.
The Lone Ranger, for example, is believed to have been inspired by Bass Reeves, a black lawman who used disguises, had a Native American sidekick and went through his whole career without being shot.
The 1956 John Ford film The Searchers, based on Alan Le May's novel, was partly inspired by the exploits of Brit Johnson, a black cowboy whose wife and children were captured by the Comanches in 1865. In the film, John Wayne plays as a Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his niece who has been abducted by Indians.
Spitfire Jenkins is a true daughter of the West. Riding and roping with the best of them. Her powers have been an asset to her skills not the definition of them.
It is thought that, on some Texas trails, about a quarter of cowboys were black.
In the real Old West, as opposed to the film depiction, black cowboys were a common sight.
"Black cowboys often had the job of breaking horses that hadn't been ridden much," says Mike Searles, a retired professor of history at Augusta State University. His students knew him as Cowboy Mike because he gave lectures dressed in spurs, chaps and a ten-gallon hat.
"Black cowboys were also chuck wagon cooks, and they were known for being songsters - helping the cattle stay calm," he says.
Searles says his research, which included poring over interviews with ex-slaves in the 1930s, suggested black cowboys benefited from what he calls "range equality".
"As a cowboy you had to have a degree of independence," he says. "You could not have an overseer, they had to go on horseback and they may be gone for days."
Life was, nevertheless, harder for black cowboys than for their white counterparts.
Vincent Jacobs, 80, a former rodeo rider who lives near Houston, Texas, recalls the racism he faced when he was starting out.
"There would be separate rodeos for blacks and whites," he says. "It was hard, real hard - they would only let me perform after all the white people had been led out of the arena."
"Being a black cowboy was hard work," agrees 88-year-old Cleveland Walters, who lives just outside the town of Liberty, Texas.
"I hate to think of the racism I went through. When it was branding time, they'd put 20 cows in the pen and I was the one who had to catch them and hold them down. The brander was white - so in other words all the hard, dirty work was done by the black cowboys."
Both Jacobs and Walters grew up in the 1940s, watching Westerns but never seeing any black actors in major roles.
Not only did Hollywood ignore black cowboys, it plundered their real stories as material for some of its films.
The Lone Ranger, for example, is believed to have been inspired by Bass Reeves, a black lawman who used disguises, had a Native American sidekick and went through his whole career without being shot.
The 1956 John Ford film The Searchers, based on Alan Le May's novel, was partly inspired by the exploits of Brit Johnson, a black cowboy whose wife and children were captured by the Comanches in 1865. In the film, John Wayne plays as a Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his niece who has been abducted by Indians.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21768669
Contrary to popular belief, it was the bowler and not the cowboy hat that was the most popular in the American West, prompting Lucius Beebe to call it "the hat that won the West"
https://news.google.com/newspapers…

Superman is not White --

This was a research paper written in 1998.

Superman is not White. White as a race means persons indigenous to Europe. Superman just looks White. However, because he appears White, he is treated as White, and as someone, others of his adopted race can admire. Superman is a comic book character, the first superhero, and an emblem of American ideals. But he is not White or an American. Superman is an alien, born on the planet Krypton. He is not a citizen by birth or naturalization. He is an illegal alien of the lowest order, sneaking into the United States, hiding among the populace, burdening our natural resources. Yet because Superman appears White, he is attributed with traditional American values and qualities. Blacks, in America, are so far removed from their roots that they should be considered indigenous. They can profess no specific country nor do they have ancestral lands to reclaim. Yet, Blacks, because of their appearance are viewed as aliens in the United States with undesirable values, qualities, and cultures. Children's entertainment is the genesis of many of the ideals and self-images that are first introduced to the child. Ideals, the concepts of right and wrong, moral values; and self-images, the images that determine how a child sees themselves and their position in society, form early in a child's emotional development. The United States garners much of its culture from Western European sources. This culture embraces a color psychology that assigns positive attributes to the color White and negative attributes to the color Black.

Entertainment media when dealing with Black characters give them negative emotional content. Comic books are modern mythology. They once occupied the position of simple morality plays, with clearly defined good guys and bad guys. However, they have become more sophisticated, introducing elements of fine literature. Yet in their sophistication, there is still a significant amount of puerile handling of issues and characters. Most Black Superheroes are tokens, emotionally under developed, hollow stereotypes with no individual personalities beyond their Blackness, created to show their parent companies social awareness. Most Black Superheroes are tokens whose purpose is to increase sales through their inclusion. More to the point, many of the Black Superheroes possess inferior morals, values, and qualities. The Black Experience in comic books reflects the fears, prejudices, and stereotypes of the White publishers, writers, and artists.

Black Superheroes leapt into mainstream US comics in 1966, when Marvel Comics introduced the Black Panther in Fantastic Four Vol. 1, Issue Number 52(Lee/Kirby).

 

 Comic book companies give pretense to reflecting Black cultures and Black characters, but continue denigrating Blacks in an insidious way. Rather than the outright denigration of Blacks, they have created Black "heroes" with negative characteristics. The largest US publishers of comic books are the Marvel Comics Group and DC Comics, a subdivision of Warner Bros. Marvel Comics is the company that publishes Spiderman and the Xmen. DC Comics is the company that publishes Superman and Batman. These companies are the mainstream publishers of comic books, and thus the measuring stick of Black inclusion and representation in the medium of comic books. Most of the early Black Superheroes were created to show the increased social awareness of their publishers on racial issues. 

Most early Black Superheroes fought the Klan, the symbol of racism. The Black Superheroes have had their bodies tied to burning crosses or have been whipped or beaten by red-necked racists. Comic books dramatize and denounce overt acts of racism. Yet the companies practice veiled racism. "I sent in pages of art for Swamp Thing [a book detailing the adventures of a muck monster in the swamps of Louisiana] and the editor called me back to say the pages needed corrections. I had drawn Black characters. I figured since the action was taking place in Louisiana that there should be Black characters in the book, but he told me unless specifically requested all characters should be White." The editors are the persons who determine the direction of a comic book. If they have a bigoted attitude toward characters in their books, then the books will reflect these attitudes. At the Wonder Con Comic book Convention 1992 in Oakland California, an editor expressed his admiration for one of the writers working for his company, "That wop [Tony Isabella, a freelance comic book writer] sure can write Black!". Isabella, at the time, was writing the new Black Lightning series. With this type of enlightened leadership, is there any wonder that Black Superheroes at best have been ill conceived and at worst are an illustration of racial antipathy? The original Captain America was created in 1941 Captain America #1(Simon/Kirby); 

 later he gained a teenage partner named Bucky. When Marvel comics recreated the character for the Eighties they decided to update his partner as well. So instead of the boy partner named Bucky, they decided that he should have a Black man partner named Bucky. The writer could not understand why the Black readership would be insulted. The white writer did not realize that calling a Black man a buck alludes to the time when Blacks were Human chattel, and buck was a term used to refer to the males.   

 

The reason that most Black Superheroes are ill conceived is that they are created solely to boost sales in the culturally diverse marketplace. The characters are politically correct window dressing. The real problem with this type of tokenism is that the effort, sometimes, is so obvious. It is the square peg, round hole, and hammer method of integration. Every team is composed of various White members: Blond hair, Black hair, Red hair, male, female, different cultures, different countries, and then there is the Black character. The Black character is a shallow stereotype. The company guiltiest of this formulaic creationism is DC Comics. Surprisingly, considering their positive record of addressing social issues, the beginning of tokenism in comics can be traced to Marvel Comics. Although it was not their intent to start this trend, it was the outcome. Less enlightened creators and money hungry publishers saw this tokenism as a way to increase their market share.

In 1975, Marvel Comics created The New Xmen; this was the first use of tokenism in creating a team of characters. The New Xmen appeared in Giant size Xmen Summer 1975. They became the regular team in Uncanny Xmen #94, August 1975. The team was an international group of superheroes: an American Indian, a Russian, a German, a Canadian, an Irishman, and an African. Four White guys, an Indian guy and a Black chick. The new Xmen were a sales success. After the success the new Xmen had using tokenism--DC Comics followed suit. The argument here is that DC added Black Superheroes to their rosters, but on close examination, the creation of the new characters was frivolous and opportunistic. The characters were created with no respect for the culture that they represented. In other words, the characters were politically correct fixtures, and DC Comics was adding Black Superheroes for cosmetic effect only. For instance, in November 1976 DC Comics added Malcolm Duncan, a non-powered teenager, to the roster of the Teen Titans. The Teen Titans were composed of Robin, Batman's ward and junior partner. Aqualad, the friend and junior partner of Aquaman, was a member of the team. Speedy, Green Arrow's long-suffering assistant, was a member of the team as well. Wondergirl, a young orphan adopted and given powers by Wonder Woman and her "sisters" on Paradise Island joined the team. Kid Flash, the nephew of the Flash with similar powers, rounded out the original membership. The irony of adding a Black Superhero to the Teen Titans was that the team was composed of the junior partners of the major heroes. However, since there were no major Black heroes it was an overt act of colorization to add Mal, as he was known, to the team (Who's Who).  

 

DC Comics continued their ill-conceived creations with the introduction of Tempest in September 1977. Tempest, Joshua Clay, was a member of the new Doom Patrol. Most Black Superheroes have a touch of criminality; Joshua Clay was no exception he, "gave in to the lure of the streets at an early age"(Who's who). The character committed enough criminal acts to be forced into military service in Viet Nam. During his tour of duty, he had repeated "disciplinary problems" that resulted in his being demoted from medic to foot soldier. After his in born super powers manifested, the ability to generate energy blasts, he deserted the Army. To my knowledge, he is the only military deserter in comics. After this auspicious origin, he slithered back to the United States, assumed a false identity, and practiced medicine illegally. 

 

The most heavy-handed act of tokenism occurred in April 1976 when DC comics added a Black Superhero to the Legion of Superheroes (Bates).   

 The Legion of Superheroes is a team of super powered teenagers from many worlds one thousand years in the future. The story detailing how Tyroc first met and joined the Legion of Superheroes was to show that racism no longer existed in the future. The Legion of Superheroes had, at the time, a twenty-one member roster, seventeen of who were white-bread from the stars. Besides having super powers, they were indistinguishable from regular White teenagers. The alien looking members of the Legion of Superheroes included Braniac 5 a green-skinned blond boy. Shadow Lass, a blue-skinned brunette. Timber Wolf, with vulpine looking points added to his hair and blank eyes (who, coincidentally, had begun to be drawn and act like Wolverine). Chameleon Boy had orange skin; large pointed ears and small fleshy antennae. 

 

 Many of the defenders of DC Comics actions make a number of arguments. There are several arguments surrounding the addition of Tyroc to the Legion of Superheroes. The first is that they added a Black Superhero. However, the Legion of Superheroes had been around since 1958 the first Black character didn't appear in the comic book until 1976. The timeliness of the addition of the character is thus suspect. DC Comics was conservative, not wanting to risk offending its readership. Marvel Comics introduced the first Black Superhero in 1966, so DC Comics wouldn't have been breaking new ground by introducing a Black Superhero in the Legion of Superheroes. In answer to my detractors, I also want to point out that Star Trek first aired on September 8,1966. It was written as 400 hundred years in the future with a culturally diverse crew, so there were examples of future cultural diversity that occurred in other media.

 Later writers viewed Tyroc as a token; this was never more obvious than in the tabloid-sized All New Collectors' Edition C-55 1978, Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes, "The Millennium Massacre". The cover read, "Featuring all 23 Legionnaires in a new epic-length novel". Throughout the epic-length novel, one character was singled out to guard the clubhouse Tyroc. Wildfire, then team leader ordered, "Okay. Element Lad--you take Dream girl, Star boy and Tyroc, and guard head quarters!" (19)   

Later in the issue the computer randomly chose a Legionnaire to stay behind on guard, "Tyroc!! Seems like you came all the way from Marzal just to sit this one out, pal!" Wildfire announced surprisingly (53).

Throughout the whole issue, Tyroc neither spoke nor did anything significant.(Levitz) Although Tyroc's creator Cary Bates had intended for Tyroc to be an active well-used character, later writers turned him into politically correct window dressing. Paul Levitz, at the time vice president of operations and freelance writer, objected to the character. In the letter to the editor column, Legion Outpost Paul Levitz answered an angry reader about his mishandling of the lone Black character in a 22-character book. The reader wrote "...I read an interview with Paul Levitz where he confessed his hatred for the Tyroc character, supposedly because of the origin...Paul Levitz said that racial problems were a "thing of the past"...[He] went on to say that he might use Tyroc "only to kill him"(Goodwin). However, Paul Levitz did not defend his dismissal and misuse of the character Tyroc.

Later writers, Tom and Mary Bierbaum, brought the character back and he eventually became President of the Earth.

 

However, the most racially antipathetic character was published by Marvel comics. The character was part of a duo of superheroes called Cloak and Dagger (Mantlo). Cloak was a Black male teenage runaway "recruited to be a guinea pig for the mob's experiment...using new synthetic drugs"(Marvel Universe). The drug cursed the teen with a portal that connected him to a dimension of Blackness. His billowing cloak defined the boundaries of this portal. The portal allowed him to teleport himself, others, objects, and to swallow people. However, his Blackness caused a hungering inside. His Blackness hungered for the light that existed within all living creatures. Clearly stated Cloak could not live without stealing the light from others. 

Dagger his counterpart was a blond White female teenage runaway in the same experiment as Cloak. While Cloak was filled with a Blackness that sought to suck the life from others, Dagger was given life affirming light powers. She was given the grace of a ballerina, and increased inner light that she formed into daggers of light. The ramifications of their characteristics and relationship were problematic. First, there is the reflection of some of White societies' views of Blacks as being frightening and a burden. Cloak survived only through stealing the light from others and was a burden and a threat to Dagger. Cloak was dependent on Dagger to supply a large portion of the light (whiteness) he needed to survive; his Blackness constantly threatened to swallow her. Secondly, Dagger reflected some of White societies' views of themselves. Dagger had messianic tendencies--her whiteness purified junkies of drug addictions, healed illnesses, and showed people the potential they could have achieved.

 

Lastly, there was a suggestive sexual subtext to Cloak and Dagger's relationship. Cloak's hungering Blackness could only be truly satisfied by Dagger's pure White light. The dialogue in most of the books always spoke of Cloak's hunger for Dagger, and there was always a White male character wanting to "break the hold" that Cloak had on Dagger. For example Father Francis Xavier Delgado, "Oh Dagger, my child--did it never occur to you that perhaps Cloak saved you in order to feed off you?! Cloak you monster! Can't you see that you're killing her?!!" (Mantlo). The subtext boils down to a Black man's unquenchable lust for a White woman and how the White male must protect her.

 

Black Superheroes are always shown as morally, intellectually, or heroically inferior. One of the repetitive stereotypes that most Black Superheroes have is criminality. They have participated in criminal or violent acts. Most Black Superheroes have at their core a moral astigmatism; they are willing to act in their own interest without regard to others. Storm, Ororo Monroe, of the Xmen was a thief in Cairo, before setting herself up as a fertility goddess on the plains of Africa. After being approached by Professor X, she leaves Africa to return to America to join the Xmen, abandoning her worshipers to the elements that she used to control for their benefit. (Encyclopedia of Superheroes)

 

Tempest, Joshua Clay, of the Doom Patrol was a deserter from the military, former gang member, and began practicing medicine under an assumed name. He never sought to rectify his military status or to clarify his medical license. The original Doom Patrol was a team composed of super powered misfits that had all been helped by the scientific and surgical genius of Dr. Niles Caulder. The original team had a racecar driver who had to have his brain placed in a robotic body after a horrible accident (Who's who). A jet pilot whom after a radiation accident while flying, developed transparent skin and was able to release an energy being (Who's who). An actress who had inhaled "strange volcanic gases" that caused her to grow and shrink uncontrollably. (Who's who). Super powered outcasts that sought to protect a society that rejects them. The original team was noble, with high aspirations.

 

 Joshua Clay was created as a criminal, then continued his criminal activities by practicing medicine under an assumed name. Although he had studied enough medicine to pass the bar "easily", he continued to be a character that seeks the easy way out rather than deal with the responsibility for his actions. 

Luke Cage, was a former gang member, who escaped from prison. When he gained super powers, he sought to profit from them. Spiderman and Batman suffered the loss of loved ones to crime and sought to prevent others from suffering the same. Superman had a well-established sense of right and wrong from his traditional Middle American upbringing, Luke Cage's reason d'art was to make his super strength profitable. "On one of his first nights in New York, he foiled a robbery at a diner. When the owner gave him a cash reward. Cage became inspired to use his superhuman strength for profit" (Marvel Universe). Further, he is referred to as "streetwise and one of the angrier heroes" (Encyclopedia of Superheroes). Mal Duncan, the non-powered Black teenager added to the roster of the Teen Titans, met the Teen Titans when they helped him defeat a street gang (Who's who).

 

Dagger was emotionally the stronger character always admonishing Cloak to fight his self-righteous self-centered ways. In New Mutants # 24 without his powers, Cloak is a stammering stuttering malcontent. He only does the noble thing, reclaiming his powers from one of the Professor's students, under pressure from Dagger and Professor Xavier (Claremont).

  

Most Black Superheroes are heroically inferior. The truest example of Black Superheroes being written as inferiors heroically are the Black versions of White heroes. The Black versions of White heroes are never as competent as the counterpart White hero. In April 1975, DC Comics published Richard Dragon, Kung fu fighter. The White lead character had a Black partner, Ben Turner, who brainwashed became the Bronze Tiger. Richard Dragon was a thief that broke into a private residence outside Kyoto Japan to steal. O-Sensei, the resident, saw within the thief "a possible destiny of greatness." and invited him to study Martial arts under his tutelage (Who's who). The Black character was a student whose family had sent him to train from childhood with the teacher O-Sensei. Richard Dragon studied fewer years, but achieved an equal level of proficiency as the Bronze Tiger. Further, the Bronze Tiger had a less contrived origin than the sense of possible greatness (Who's who). It is doubtful that a martial arts teacher would take in a thief as a student, Eastern cultures are less tolerant of thieves than Western cultures.

 

In 1971, DC Comics created John Stewart, Green Lantern; he was created at a time when the Green Lantern book was exploring social issues under the authorship of Denny O' Neill. He became a replacement Green Lantern in case Hal Jordan, the current Green Lantern, was unavailable. He was mostly forgotten for over a decade before he became an active Green Lantern (Who's who). 

 

John Stewart should have remained forgotten. In the miniseries Cosmic Odyssey (Starlin), a dupe was needed to add suspense to the series. Therefore, John Stewart was added to the group of Superheroes trying to prevent the destruction of the universe. In issue two of the miniseries, his over confidence and arrogance caused the death of a Star and the destruction of two inhabited planets. From beginning to end J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter flies around out of character. The Martian Manhunter was a member of several incarnations of the Justice League of America; he was quite familiar with the operations of a Green Lantern's power ring. Yet throughout the issue, he played straight man and admirer to the power of the ring.

 

The Martian Manhunter was a member of several incarnations of the Justice League of America; he was quite familiar with the operations of a Green Lantern's power ring. Yet throughout the issue, he played straight man and admirer to the power of the ring. On page 6, John Stewart creates an "elixir" to cure an epidemic. Quote the Martian Manhunter, "This is truly a marvelous device your ring." When they ascertain the source of the threat, the Martian Manhunter wants to confront it immediately, then it is John Stewart that advises caution (7).

 

 

 The pair survives a severe storm created by their foe; but their weapon, the anti-life catcher, is destroyed. John Stewart shows foresight in having previously analyzed the weapon and uses his ring to make a duplicate. Martian Manhunter finds the working of the ring "Astounding"(21). Later the Martian Manhunter and John Stewart switch roles, John Stewart becomes combative, and the Martian Manhunter advises caution (28). Again, John Stewart shows foresight by previously ordering his ring automatically to protect the Martian Manhunter (30). Throughout the issue, he is insightful and cautious.

 

Suddenly on page 31 John Stewart changes totally, he leaves the Martian Manhunter in a protective bubble and journeys the rest of the distance by himself to confront their foe.

 

 The Green Lantern's power ring has one weakness it is ineffective against anything yellow. The enemy is standing there with the doomsday bomb painted yellow. I must digress for a moment, a benevolent race of blue-skinned immortal aliens, the Guardians of the Galaxy, assigns sectors of space to be patrolled by their emissaries, the Green Lantern Corps. A Green Lantern is trained in the use of their ring before being given a power battery and accredited to patrol their sector of space. The ring converts the bearer's thoughts into reality, yet is ineffective against anything yellow. Every Green Lantern is trained for such emergencies; the ring is capable of initiating "some very unusual chemical reactions" (6)as John Stewart stated earlier. There are virtually hundreds of ways around that limitation, the fun of the character was seeing how a Green Lantern would resolve that limitation.
 


 However, John Stewart just stood there stunned. Hal Jordan, the original cosmic Green Lantern, would have figured a way around the limitation against anything yellow, but cautious, foresighted, creative John Stewart was suddenly too stupid to act.

 In the summer of 1982, the Legion of Superheroes added their second Black character in their twenty-four year history, the new Invisible Kid. The new Invisible Kid joined the Legion of Superheroes as the only member to speak Interlac, the language of the future, with an accent. "Jacques is the only black, French speaking superhero extant" (Encyclopedia of Superheroes, p.151).

 

His predecessor was a teenage genius named Lyle Norg, who developed a serum that turned him invisible. Lyle led the team as leader for a number of adventures, the team has a democratic leadership, and was a member of the Legion Espionage Squad. 

 
The new Invisible Kid was inconsistent, fearful, and unconfident. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time. In seeking a cure for his sister, he brought her to The Legion and Brainiac 5. He was given Lyle Norg's serum to help Brainiac defeat Computo. Thereafter he joined the Legion, he was never shown to have any skills or other contributions he could make to the team. Lyle was brave, an excellent fighter, and a smart tactical leader. The only thing the new Invisible Kid added was color.

 

 In the letters to the editor column A. Goodwin informed Paul Levitz "...When Black models are used in department store catalogues, they like for them to present themselves as foreign because they are more exotic and less offensive than us American Blacks." (Goodwin) Paul Levitz went on to defend his creation of a French speaking Black character as the only Legionnaire with an accent. "Jacques Foccart was introduced not for the sake of his skin color [note: coincidentally The new Invisible Kid was introduced in 1982 after Tyroc was written out of the book], but as a hopefully interesting character, with a French accent because of his origin on the Ivory Coast of Africa, where the French have taken great pains to help their language live on. An "American Black" would speak Interlac exactly as the other Legionnaires do, so the accent was added for an extra touch..."(Goodwin)

The Black Superhero had arrived but he was not welcome in the neighborhood. I only scratched the tip of the iceberg with this paper. There is more material that I will only touch on in brief. Cyborg, the Black member of the New Teen Titans, published November 1980, had an IQ of 300, upper middle classed university research scientists for parents, but still talked as if he was from the hood. My response was the same as the Changeling's in Tales of the new Teen Titans #1, "You were a genius? What happened, Vic? Take too many stupid pills?" (Wolfman) A Black female character named Vixen; you know how those black women are (Who's who). Black characters that had a reference to color or darkness in their names Sunspot, Black Lightning, Black Goliath, the Black Racer, Black Panther, Vykin the Black, Night Thrasher, Cloak, Bronze Tiger. Black characters that had names representative of anger or violence: Tempest, Storm, Rage, Night Thrasher, War Machine. Black characters with either a criminal record or criminal history or criminal connections are too long a list. It is easier to name the ones without: Black Panther, Vykin the Black, the Black Racer, and John Stewart, although John Stewart could be charged with criminal negligence for the death of two planets. The 1990's have seen a change in the market place; smaller companies began publishing more culturally diverse titles. These companies had successful runs with their titles, and are helping to change the image of the Black superhero. Superman is not White, which is the reason we need more and better black Superheroes in comic books. Whites have relatives in the stars, bright wondrous futures, and the blood of nobility. Even the best Black Superheroes are denizens of the ghetto, and all the Black Kryptonians died, "Vathlo the island populated with Blacks" (Who's Who). Black children should look at the stars and see themselves. Look at the future and see their part in it. Look at their blood and see it as something valuable and magical. Look at comic books and see someone much like themselves doing good because it is the right thing to do.