Someone really should. Though in all seriousness, I thought of the Teen Titans immediately. Bumblebee and Herald have no electrical powers (Bumblebee can shrink and fly a la the Wasp. Herald has a horn which can warp spacetime.), and while Cyborg depends on electricity, he doesn't store and discharge it or anything; no, he uses sonic attacks, though someone needs to tell Marv Wolfman that decibels are logarithmic.
I feel like the stigma behind this is that many of the popular black heroes in comics and the ones pushed the most seem to have electrical based powers. Static, Storm, Miles Morales & Black Lightning all have it and they’re some of the more popular characters within their comic book companies.
False the industry refused to give black men the ability to create and write characters. Also the same men were too uncreative.....and base ideas of existing characters instead of just create new, they strayed too far.
@@Googleisstupid-sk3hm How does that statement have anything to do with what I said? lol The stigma exists because the more well known black heroes mostly have electricity powers. That’s it. Two things can be true. Doesn’t mean one the other can’t be.
It's this simple. Most people don't know them other people. Before Luke Cage got a series the only famous black faces were Blade and Spawn, who aren't quite the same
Storm Controls all the elemental forces of the sky she doesn’t just have electric abilities storm doesn’t use lightning she uses the entire sky to fight lightning is just part of it and isn’t her strongest ability her strongest ability is too controll all weather in vast areas
Literally this vid only proves the point The fact ONE POWER which isn’t a necessary suplemental power common amongst all heroes like flying, has such a mass amount of specifically black heroes, with most of them being the most popular ones, is insane. Most black heroes are either -electric -black versions of other heroes -extremely unpopular
Also tbh sunspot and bishop are questionable identity wise. Most white superheroes having super strength and speed etc isn’t comparable. That’s a thing we have as people, and then it’s enhanced. It’s the base physical stats of a “super” person. It’s almost a prerequisite when it comes to heroes. Truth of the matter is, black superheroes have a disproportionate amount of electrical heroes, and they’re the most popular ones. Static Black Panther Storm Miles Spawn John Stewart Cyborg Seem to be the most popular black heroes. It’s like black characters in anime with white hair and lightning powers Or black characters who are blind warriors Or Asian characters that are relegated to ninja shit
@@Googleisstupid-sk3hm Mr. Terrific?! His costume is absolutely hideous. A large T shaped mask across the center of his face, and white and black leather...
Not every black hero has electricity based powers but there are quite a few popular ones that do. 😅 Excellent presentation of so many amazing black superheroes!
No one questioning that there are many black superheroes. The questioning is why no top tier black superheros or shown beyond the electric ones, why only tokens,b tier and below...especially males. Most characters shown were b tier, with many c tier, tokens, that appeared briefly or were so forced you cringed. Riri Williams. Icon and static shock were made by a black company. DC got rights too. DC comics tired to screw the widow of the black company out the IP of static shock and icon. But we didn't let them and they had to pay.
Honestly, it’s a Reader vs NonReader issue. If you like super heroes b/c of television and movies, you have literally a droplet of the actual black representation in the comics. I’ve been reading comics since I was 8 (born in 84’) and I never heard this lightning powers trope until recently b/c I’ve seen black people do everything, my friends read comics so we just talked about everyone, there was no hyper fixation on optics, it was just character and powerset. Glad you made the video though, people need to chill out.
@@akira17_samurai Electricity powers are objectively cool. Unlike a bunch of the magical silliness in comics, it's grounded (heh) within the reality of how electricity works and interacts with the world around it. It's harnessing a force of nature humans instinctively know to respectfully fear and be careful around. Powers based around elements of the real world resonate with people easily.
Like a lot of popular tropes, this one is probably based on the representation of black superheroes in TV and movies. As a comic book reader starting in the 80s, my first exposure to black superheroes were: Luke Cage, Storm, Blade, Bishop, and Steel (in that order). Storm was the only one with powers related to electricity, but I always considered it only one ability of her vast weather controlling powers.
Your a better man than me. I never like that storm a woman, whi in her own right got a spot over a black man. As boy reading and looking in comics. I could not dream or live though Strom or relate. She was love instruct of many. And only got black panther because of token love and backstop. Even now I have yet to truly see a cosmic shaking black male mutant, that really omgea level in marvel who offensive powers, fighting ability, and leadership is considered a threat.
I wouldn’t wager on that, it depends on how to interrupt. Black panther was one of the few heros to face doom when he had all the power. She was after thought....
For the longest time I didnt think that was a thing. I thought people was just getting mad at nothing. Then a friend of mine showed me a ton of examples. Real eye opener 👀
I feel like there is a little bit of merit to this, but overall it is in a complete exaggeration. Plus blatantly ignores all the times that they weren’t ginger, but weren’t replaced by a black person.
@@Hillthugsta sure but my biggest issue with this argument is that it blatantly ignores all the times that they weren’t ginger, but weren’t replaced by a black person or a person of color for that matter.
It's not quite right to count the number of black superheroes without lightning powers and comparing that to the number of black heroes with lightning powers. A more accurate comparison would be to compare the quantity of lightning base heroes compared to quantity of psionic heroes, animal based heroes, technology based heroes etc. Basically how does the percentage of lightning based powersets compare to the overall percentage of other powersets. I do agree though there are plenty of variation in black super powersets and I don't really see a problem in it cause they are flat out cool. As a kid I wanted electric powers simply because it is one of the coolest and most realistic powersets period, especially when you think about the fact that electric eels exist.
Written to full potential lighting characteristics can be op base off physics alone. Now add in "powers" it a game changer. But you know that nor doing that.....unless it's a female never a male
I'm surprised you forgot Cloak, from Cloak & Dagger Edit: You also should have thrown in Lock Rock from MHA since you mentioned keeping it Plus Ultra 👍🏼
A guy did ask why all Black characters have lightning powers and i asked why do all whites have psychic powers? I believe it was on your channel or Comics Explained but yeah you are absolutely right they don’t know every Black character and the ones they know are the ones with Lightning powers. I love the fact that they have Lightning powers and that psychics are weak against it
So you couldn't provide a answer, and sought this. Most blk in DC do have electricity powers. Most b tiers on DC do have a little more variety but not much. Marvel has more variety but the characters barely get shown and rarely heard from again.
Most humans are gonna get folded by a taser let alone a full blown bolt of lightning. Ironically Electric based heroes are sandbagging hard since they should be crippling if not outright killing people.
@@Googleisstupid-sk3hmHonestly I can count the Black characters in dc on a half of a hand 🤚🏾. As far as me not able to provide an answer…I did. This vid came up much later and it reminded me of that very question…but it almost seem like you’re upset that Blk characters even exists.
Some more characters without electricity powers he didn’t mention: Cloak. Bedlam. Curtis Car. Black Goliath. Tom Foster. Abe Brown. The Prowler (616). Rage. 3-D Man (Garret Jr). Midnight’s Fire. Casper Cole. The Revenant. Bronze Tiger. Signal. Marilyn Moonlight. Andromeda. Hawke. Vigilante. Duncan. Doctor Mid-Nite (Elizabeth Chapel). Orpheus. Guardian (Jake Jordan). Guardian II. Hot Spot. FireStorm (Jason Rusch). KEEP IN MIND, that this is what I could pull from the mainstream continuity of Marvel & DC. There is still more.
I've talked with Africans and Egyptians and none of them consider themselves black. A lot of them consider it an insult when even referring to them as black lol, made that mistake a few times and got lectured.
On some other RU-vid Cntent creator (can't recall who), they said that the entire reason Black Vulcan was created for 'Super Friends" was that they wanted to use Black Lightning, but this was one of those rare incidences where the artist who created him actually owned the rights to the character, and he would have to be paid to use him, so they just make a knock off instead.
@@Googleisstupid-sk3hm Super-Friends just used code names. Which is probably for the best; it ran all the way through the creation of Jason Todd, which would confuse people. Can they say Dick Grayson's name on a kids' show?
Never thought of Storm as “electricity-based”... EDIT: She uses "atmokinesis" (thanks for the word, @jus-7421) which is a mind-power like Livewire (mentioned as a mental, non-electrical hero). Yes lightning is the obvious power, but a conjured hurricane by Storm has the power of dozens of nuclear bombs. Storm is so NOT an electrical hero. Sorry Earnie. Love ya buddy!
Her primary power is atmoskinesis. This is not just limited to Earth but includes extraterrestrial sources, anything with an atmosphere. That means she can manipulate the environment of stars as well. Coming from a bloodline of powerful magic users gives her the potential to wield magic.
It is entirely fine not to think of Storm as electricity-based because you always understood her power is manipulation of weather and atmospheric conditions, but no one should be so shocked others fixate on her lightning. Her most prominent attacks were often bolts of lightning or accompanied by them before people started leaning into the diverse range of atmospheric feats her abilities come with. Lightning heavy rain with high winds is most associated with storm conditions, and to this day her angered or powering up state is signified by sparks from her eyes. It's not that deep; in saying that no one is limiting her to lightning casting.
Storm was supposed to be a werecat shape shifter too. A character called Black Cat but they merged her with another two characters. That's why Storm has large cat eyes in her in ths Giant Sized era.
I always assumed Black Cat was just a Catwoman knockoff. Cat motif, love interest for the protagonist, that's pretty Catwoman-ish to me. And of course Black Cat and Storm have different creators, (Black Cat was created by Marv Wolfman, Storm, of course, was created by Chris Claremont.)
I was literally reading that issue of Irredeemable when it came out and asked myself, "Wait, that's a stereotype?" but I figured it was basically as this video sums up: most people not highly exposed to comics are only aware of the majority of Black characters having electricity/lightning in their power set. Because of their popularity from cartoons like Super Friends through X-Men up to Static Shock, where Black Vulcan, Storm and Static set the stage, if people haven't seen much beyond that it can persist, but like many things there is wilful ignorance aplenty when they watch the same cartoons and don't register Bishop alongside Storm, Green Lantern and Vixen alongside Black Lightning, etc. and not conclude, "Ohhhhh, we haven't seen more than 1% of the Black superheroes in media!"
I disagree. Top tier heros are not usually black males. They are b and c tier. These characters are rarely needed and just to move plot along, be there, or take up page space. Which most of the heros he show were. Worst they are tokens characters forced, reworked, or rehash due to non creativity that make you cringe. Also alot of the characters are old rarely used. They had new DC comic animated movie come out. In the last seen they recruit heros from DC multiverese. There is black hero wearing green name amazing man. But no one truly knew him or paid respect to him due to that. Sometimes I feel its on the culture to know of its hero portrayed, those created, and those to create.
@@Googleisstupid-sk3hm Some of your points are correct, but the problem with summing up anything as an absolute is that it ignores the reason why this all is. Underrepresented groups did not have the resources, financial backing and industry recognition early enough to get into the the zeitgeist before the market got fairly saturated. Outside of a relatively small percentage of non-white, non-male or non-straight characters by the time there was a push for more diverse characters nearly every power under the sun was pretty much wielded in some way by a white, straight, male already; and there were already derivative white, straight, male characters around them wasting space, rarely needed and just there to move the plot along, appeal to a younger group, rehash an origin that played out with their predecessor, and sometimes, not always, make tweaks to either be edgy, contemporary or just make us cringe. All of that is a matter of the signs of the time, but contrary to your denouncement of them as just B and C tier, derivative characters can become just as relevant as their original templates, or even more so if written well enough, promoted, and designed in a way that appeals to a newer set of eyes; and often there is an element of luck because the market is way too saturated to guarantee anyone is going to be a breakout in any community. Let's take an example, Barry Allen is derivative of Jay Garrick, but because most are too young to have come up reading Jay, Barry had room to shine, and that was helped by the less saturated market and the absence of Jay for a while. Then Barry got objectively bigger than Jay ever was because he crossed into mainstream media and out of just the comics. Then along came Wally West (an unneeded character that was taking up page space, but represented wish fulfillment for kids alongside their hero); eventually shuffled off to the Teen Titans, but then was allowed to grow up as the assortment of teen heroes drew interest. Allowed to grow and replace the predecessor, he is now argued by a newer generation as even greater than Barry. Now that he has that prominence, existing alongside Barry doesn't diminish him (unless the powers-that-be feel Barry needs to be more prominent and start to marginalize Wally). The difference though, is that doing a similar thing by letting John Stewart have the solo Lantern spotlight during Hal's absence didn't quite happen. Whereas Wally was the true, sole titular Flash for over a decade, John was among other Lanterns, and not too far from Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner having the spotlight. Still, he got prominence from mainstream animation promotion and became A-list. Something that doesn't hold up the same way when Barry was brought back because, as stated, his "spot" was divided up by the Kyle and Guy fans as well as those who couldn't let Hal go. So with Hal around it is hard to see John as still an A-lister even though Kyle and Guy don't eclipse him: as opposed to with Barry around there is still a massive clamoring for Wally to be featured. That's not simply on the community of John's demographic, that's a symptom of him not being allowed to remain in sole focus AND a symptom of the outrage that simmered when it appeared Hal would have been kept second fiddle to John after his return and redemption. Basically, those with the power want to maintain their representation, and those selling the titles that are the big properties (your Batman through Flash to Green Lantern properties) want to keep being able to sell, so won't upset the apple cart as much. Which brings us to non-derivative characters. They naturally had a harder time catching on because if one follows the money, for the large portion of history in the US population, the demographic with the vastly larger percentage of disposable income were (or presented as) white, male and straight, with interest in having white, male, straight heroes to identify with. One cannot ensure a comic character persists in the mainstream if there aren't dollars behind them to guarantee a long run. And a character rarely breaks out if the writing and art aren't up to snuff or uniquely appealing. Put the interests of the 71% White population up against those of the 14% Black, and probably the 90% wealth of the former behind it and how does one think a lot of Black characters would break through? Usually by having forward thinking established White writers put their weight behind them until someone of the Black community makes their way into the medium and is allowed to cook. There we get the likes of Storm shining under Chris Claremont and now under Al Ewing, and propped by mainstream animation and live action depictions, a spot on lunch boxes, etc. Similar situations with Black Panther, and both of theres are in the A-list of Marvel characters. Amazing Man (the character in green you're probably referring to over at DC) has not had that level of promotion, long suffering presence, acclaimed writer connections, etc. and was not lucky enough to have made the break when the medium was less saturated. So while there is a nugget of truth to what you said about Black characters, it's the same nugget that applies to White or any other character, with the added challenge of where the power, money and promotion lies. The landscape isn't the same anymore, so a lot of others are flush with the cash to throw behind more diverse characters, but we can't forget the big name characters had a headstart AND the benefit of continuity of backing by the White majority. It is not as simple as just saying: "Let's go out there and put all our backing behind Night Thrasher" not without something that will cause a ground swell like Luke Cage being featured in live action, added to Spidey cartoons, etc.; and not without an established person in the spotlight like Spawn rising under the auspices of Todd MacFarlane when he made headlines as part of the Image wave; or Malcom Dragon allowed to shine in the absence of his established father; and none of them are truly A-list yet, but they have a better chance of being cemented as such with more exposure.
I still get giddy when I see Battalion. I bought all of that Waller Vs Wildstorm book because he was in it. He was my first favorite character when I started seriously getting into comics. Thanks for mentioning him!
I think a bigger issue is that we never the prominent black male heroes raising black sons who are also gifted. Seeing them learning from their fathers would be awesome. They always show black fathers and their daughters (who often take on the angry black woman sterotype) but hardly ever see them Raising sons.
100% worst black male heros are not shown to be in top tier, alone others. They are usually under. The only one I can think of is Mr Tefferic. He is considered DC comics 2nd smartness behind or on par with lex Luther. He is tech company billionaire, to me he what Tony stark wishes to be. But never written to his full potential unlike Tony stark. Also you see plenty of powerful blk female characters in comics, especially in marvel, with no equally powerful males. Just look at what current storm is doing.
I'm not sure why? (IMA GIANT COMIC NERD, but like the classic OG's Justice league 7, magic charcters, SUPERFAM and Batfamily, ETC. But seeing all these Black Character and Superheroes made this Black Boy very happy.
Not all black superheroes have lightning powers... but the ones that don't have lightning powers are actually shape shifting aliens who choose to look like black folks when they come to earth and need to fit in.
Why do people keep referring to Duke Thomas as "(insert) Batman?" I don't hear Nightwing referred to as "capeless Batman." Does anybody call Azrael "assassin Batman?" Or Ghost Maker "Batman with swords?"
I don't comment a lot on here, but wanted to let you know that I really enjoy your content. Great job doing what you do. Also, "Debunking The Electrical Negro" just became my favorite caption of all time!
I didn't really see this a debunked. Most know those boring electric type. Most could even name 20 blk heros from each comic books, much less tell you the names if you were shown. This was top b and c tier heros who nobody knows or cares about, who mat berecorded, reworked of current heros.
Thank you SO MUCH for this video. I get that a lot of folks are using the "difficulty" of naming non-electricity based heroes/villains for views (and more power to em), but watching so many people who bash non-blerds not be able to name a handful of them has been irking me to NO END!!! LOL... Hopefully, this informs and sparks interest in more black comic book characters!!!
given the choice of elemental power, as a hispanic i'd also take electricity. it's a two-fer power, you also get to control magnetism, the force is electro-magnetism, one includes the other.
Want to know where its belief seems stems from. The superhero Black Lighting has a rare thing in comics in that his creator gets royalties if he appears in other media. Which is why Black Vulcan exist in Superfriemds. Then in other superhero cartoons that had DC character they were worried Hannah Barbara owned Black Vulcan and made their own stand in for Black Lighting. Kind of shows how terrible comic companies are to their talents.
I never knew there were so many Black versions of Superman 😳. And thank you for introducing me to Jakeem Thunder! He looks interesting and now I'm going down a rabbit hole learning about him lol. 15:20 This! Electric powers are my second favorite powerset so whenever people complain about "all the electrical negroes" I'm always like, "...so?". It would only be a problem like you said if it was pretty much everybody, and even me as a kinda casual comics reader knows that's not the case.
I noticed Black super heroes were either elemental based or animal based. And then watching this video I realized Black versions of white heroes should be added to the list. Let's see a video about that.
Great video, Blerd! And timely (being Black History Month, and all)! I've been reading and buying comics since the mid to late 70s, and there are some characters you named that I've never heard of! Sunshine Superman?! That Marvel Spawn ripoff?! Glad I stayed away from that one lol. The main Black trope I knew about (and believed) was that most Black characters were just Black versions of white characters. You almost never see it the other way around. But thank you for dispelling that myth with examples. Superman, Batman and Green Lantern are probably the most commonly copied, but it's nice to know that there were actually white "copies" of these characters before the Black counterparts came along, just for argument's sake, of course. Lastly, I always love seeing mentions of Blue Marvel, Mister Terrific and Doctor Voodoo. I was surprised to notice that Cloak, Triathlon, Apocalypse, Genesis, and Moses Magnum were missing from the list, but hey this isn't a Who's Who in Black comic characters, after all. Thanks again! Very informative and educational video!
Love the breakdown. I understand how it got started as a trope meme but some folks have taken it way too seriously when it was meant as a silly meme to begin with.
I don’t really care about that because not all electrical based characters use their powers the same way. They also don’t have the same personality. I make my own characters and some of them have electrical power but I differentiate them by personality and approach.
@christopherbennett5858 really? Bishop is half aboriginal? Didn't know that but then again I don't really keep up to date with marvel or dc comics much these days
@@metalmonkey0026 It’s one of those things that got confused so much over the years that I think a compromise was made. E.g Bishop referring to Gateway as Grandfather. That could be biological or it could be in the sense of the wider aboriginal traditional communal sense.
I mean yeah there’s more black characters who don’t have electricity powers but proportionally to the amount of total black characters it happens more often than with white characters or characters of any other race
There are more white characters with electricity, powers than black characters. You can easily type in electrokinesis Marvel database, that alone has tons of them.
Definitely agree that the perception that this is a trope, especially if considered a problematic one, is overblown. Sure, SOME of even the most prominent Black characters in the most popular comics have eletricity-based powers but it's definetly not the majority. Not really related, but it made me think of it, I wonder if the perception that Black main characters in animation don't spend a lot of their screentime being Black humans but instead animals or other inhuman figures is valid or overblown as well
Excellent point, Vixen in DC comics I portrayed as sumomimg animals power. In Conan cartoon the black man could control,communicate with animals, falcons from.mavel used to talk to command birds(pigeons 😂). Most black characters are not shown superpowers. Heck when Jon steward green latern came out they went nuts. He's the only show with Justice league, besides cyborg who's was your typical blk make football player that got messed up, and made part machine. That's it, he's literally a man/robot part......
This video just reminded me of the topic how Native American characters tend to have Spiritual/Shaman powers paired with Hunter tracking abilities. But to be honest I have no problem with it, those kinds of powers are always dope. My favorite is Nightwolf.
Honestly, they’re cool. Although, the only one who isn’t to my knowledge is Forge and his whole deal is that he’s secretly mystic and doesn’t want to delve into that.
Thank you for this video. I appreciate you debunking the trope in a way that didn’t make me feel stupid. ALSO: the representation is astounding! The fact that you provided a list with images of Black superheroes I never heard of was dope!
First of all, thank you for dispelling this. Gives me way more ammo than I had before for this argument. Also shout out for the intentional/unintentional shine you just have to nearly 100 Black superheroes. Well done sir.
Not every Black villain or Hero uses lightning Aqua lad is magic,Black Hulk , Spawn, Deadshot,Black Spider,Luke Cage is a Super soldier, Firestorm,Falcon,Nick Fury's brother,Batwing,Black Manta,Mr.Terrifc,Steel,Amanda Waller,Cyborg,Bronze Tiget, Battalion, Kill monger,Kang,and other's no one mentioned
Sure, but the argument can easily go the other way with white characters. There are more white characters with electricity powers than black characters.
@@mizushogun but it is prevalent because there are far fewer black characters and many of them, the most notable, do have the electric powers. Bringing up white characters doesn’t change that lol. Last I’ll say on this cause your being deliberately obtuse now. Thanks.
I'm glad you mad this video frfr. My daughter came across a clip that challenged someone at a con to name 6 Black comic characters without lightning powers and my daughter couldn't( I could but didn't). Anyway I'll be showing this one to her.
Good video! I love how you bring light to black superheroes. It is definitely something that is needed. I was curious what black comics would be best to collect?
My favourite black superheroes growing up in the 70’s was in the cartoon Super 7, They had a black hero with plastic man powers and a black heroine who could shrink.
Now you have to a video about the trope that most black characters involve guns in some way. Like either they use guns or have guns in their background.
😅 Before I watch this I'm commenting that I only know of 2 Static and Black lightning, and I found out abouts Black Lightning when his CW show dropped.
As far as non electric heroes we got is Blade(marvel), Black Panther, Green Lantern(John Stewart), Cap America(Falcon) and Cyborg?? That’s all I can think of atm
The issue is while the power set expanded we did have Black Panther, Luke Cage, and Falcon in Marvel, DC was famous for having Black Lightning and Black Vulcan ....
