The PROBLEM with Black DC Heroes 

It’s kinda frustrating when characters are race swapped when there are other notable characters who are people of color and are compelling.

Dwayne McDuffie died way too soon. He is a legend to me for his creation of Static and all these other amazing characters.

Black Characters that don’t have electricity powers 1. Steel 2. Falcon 3.Hardware 4. Black Panther 5. War machine

I’m still confused as to why DC never gave Static the push that Marvel gave Miles.

The funny thing is that killer bee HAS LIGHTNING POWERS.

i also just hate that they make all the black male heroes basically look the same... bald or short crop fro...

Black Lightning is majorly underutilized, he’s one of my favorite DC heroes and I wish him as well as the Outsiders in general got more attention.

Black Lightning is uniquely positioned for a lot of meaningful stories. Being a respected black man that can touch many young teen lives as a principle would be like a playground for a lot of wholesome arcs

"Name 5 black superheroes with no lightning powers" Most people: Black Panther... Green Lantern... Luke Cage... Uuuuhh... My brain on frame 1: F R O Z O N E

My dude Cyborg STILL needs that movie Edit damn y'all thanks for the likes honestly didn't expect this much also if yall wanna know why I want a Cyborg movie honestly it eould be nice to see other characters other than Batman, Harley and Joker as characters like Cyborg, Scarecrow REALLY need the screentime

They gave “Black Adam” and “Blue Beetle” a movie before Static in the height of “Mile Morales’” popularity. Heck they canceled “Batman Beyond” the animated movie during the that time as well.

I'll prefer original black characters over race swapped characters any day.

I have no idea why they don't use Vixen more. Hells, she was even used in the RWBY/DC crossovers. As Eric July has said over and over... there is not a problem with needing more black superheroes. There is a problem with horrendous writers/writing over at DC. (still wondering what the HELL that thing was in creating Starfire's 'daughter')

They showing Steel his respect in the new Superman show tho fr

The DC Black Superhero Trinity; John Stewart Green Lantern Static Shock Cyborg

Seeing Mr.Terrific in Arrowverse felt more like a crossover with The IT-Crowd, than the original character. Such a shame.

And even some of these adaptations where Black characters do show up, get it wrong. Apparently Black Lightning's creator Tony Isabella urged people to not read 2018 Batman and the Outsiders, claiming that it turned Black Lightning into a sidekick to Batman :/ Although to be fair, DC likes to turn EVERYONE into Batman's sidekick

If you can get an interview with Tony Isabella (co-creator of Black Lightning) he will tell you how ass-backward DC was in the 70s with making Black superheroes and how they originally envisioned Black Lightning before Tony took the reigns. Black Lightning really only exists because Marvel was way ahead with Black superheroes (Luke Cage, Black Panther, Storm, Brother Voodoo, etc) and DC didn't want to be seen as lagging behind. Also, the addition of Black Vulcan in the Super Friends cartoon (a carbon copy of Black Lightning) is another screwed-up story.

DC don't want to pay the Milestone creators their cut...that's the secret...that's all their is.

1:36 Killer Bee is literally a lightning user. It’s one of his main fucking things😂

To be fair Static was one of the few Milestone characters that was kid-friendly. It's not like they could have made an animated TV show about Blood Syndicate. Maybe now but definitely not back then.

Icon movie >>>> Black Superman movie

Man I fully forgot Terrific. He was in charge of the Justice League operations in JLU. Sadly he never got any full episodes. He was, however, really awesome every time he was on screen.

Spawn, Blade, Bishop, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Misnari (Storms nephew) Spike, Falcon, Steel, Sunman, Afro samurai, Mace Windo.

They are to lazy to do anything interesting with them. This is why they changing race of populer characters instead. İts easier.

My try at the 5 non-electrical black superheroes: skipping Icon, Rocket, Steel, & Natasha... • Tyroc (Power: can make Sonic Constructs, kinda like from a GL ring, but by screaming) • Invisible Kid II (Jaques Foquart. Took the invisibility serum of Invisible Kid I to save his sister Danielle from the evil A.I. Computo and joined the Legion of Superheroes afterward) • Computo II (Danielle Foquart. After recovering from her possession from the evil A.I. Computo, Danielle discovered that she could now control computers. After the destruction of Earth, she joined the rebanded Legion just before the story was retconned out of existence.) • Kid Quantum I (After the reboot, this Kid Quantum had 'powers' bestowed thru his belt... that failed on his first mission... which led to his death... yeah........) • XS (Jenni Ognats. Bart Allen's cousin. The Speed Force runs through her veins...) • Kid Quantum II (After Kid Quantum I died, his home planet would later send his sister to join the Legion, although this time they made sure that her powers didn't need technological enhancements. She lasted till the universe was rebooted AGAIN) There we go. Six black Superheroes. Three of whom are female. None of which use electricity.

I agree, never thought your content was too negative. You just want DC to be better. And boy, does it need to be better.

Either their entire character is about their race or they're side character's to the white ones.

Dwayne McDuffie’s work was so impactful. Lost way too early.

I paused to name five in my head lol 1.Luke Cage 2.Bishop 3.Falcon 4.Spike 5.Black Panther,War Machine?

Blade, Spawn, Steel, Black Panther, Luke Cage

If I was writing these Black Characters I give them new stories and new villains to battle.

Static Shock is the GOAT. Growing up with him and reruns of Spider-Man were awesome.

As a kid and teen I always thought the Green Lantern was originally black. Never felt like a agenda was being pushed at least for me.

*Static is criminally underutilized. Loved that show*

The misuse and mistreatment of both Ray Fisher and John Boyega characters in their respective cinematic universes needs to be studied

Fun fact, I was actually part of Milestone's Initative for new creators. I was asked to write a prompt for Rocket and Icon that asked me to show their conflicting views, and maybe it was me, but it felt very "OK Boomer." People know I'm not very political, and for me I grew up on the old DC cartoons, with Static Shock being among my all-time favorites. So, I had my work cut out for me. I labored for weeks writing a script, working with a friend. One draft after another, I kept putting out garbage, because I realized I was writing what my pretentious colleagues at DC were putting out. My friend suggested I return to the Saturday morning cartoons, the characters I loved. He told me not to be afraid to inject optimism, fun, and of course characters I knew. While I couldn't swap out Rocket and Icon, they didn't say what villains were off the table. Draft after draft, I actually wrote something entertaining. It featured an obscure Static Shock villain who didn't get much love or exploration and instead of the typical soapboxing about politics, I returned to more broad and uniting themes. By my own admission, it was a bit campy, but it was the loveletter to the DCAU many people wanted. My biggest feedback from the people I workshopped it with was how I nailed the villains. Especially the one I utilized from Static Shock, they loved his motives, his personality, and just how he came off as that person you love to hate. Ultimately, they passed, refusing to give me feedback, which I admit is understandable with how many people there were. However, became disillusioned with comics, having already experienced some of the worst of the industry working with some of aforementioned colleagues who went on to write for DC and Marvel. So, I moved on and found a new outlet as a journalist/writer. Briefly I entertained a notion of returning to comics, with a co-creator of a certain cult classic of the late 90's/early 2000's ready to hand over the keys to their kingdom so I could write the first official continuation since the show ended. However, turns out the rights were in possession of someone else, and unfortunately, they had no plans to do anything with them.

Luke cage, mr terrific, blue marvel*, John Stewart, Falcon - that took way longer than I wanna admit

I'm actually not mad that they cut Martian manhunter. The scenes they showed made me wonder why he was checking up on lois instead of helping the other heroes with the threat he had to have known was there

No lie, Mr. Terrific is so underrated and under used. I hated how they turned him into a jobber on Arrow, and I'm cautious about how James Gunn will be using Edi Gathegi. (WE REMEMBER DARWIN.) Frankly, the Injustice animated movie did more justice in his character than anything outside of the comics. The dude led the JSA! I'm just jaded when it comes to certain live-action adaptations of DC superheroes.

Icon and Static deserve more attention from DC, like static shock had a popular Cartoon that made him popular. Look at Miles Morales, he has basically become The spider man for this new generation due to how many things his in but also by how great his movies, game and comics are. (Edit: Why does everytime I mention Miles as a good example in a comment, it devolves into people that hate Miles trying to justify their opinion that he is a terrible character?)

So… white guy here, for as much as that may matter, BUT… I grew up watching Static Shock, Justice League/Unlimited, and essentially any piece of remotely superhero-like media (Danny Phantom, Ben 10, Samurai Jack, Generator Rex, etc) especially since my dad, who was a teenager in the 80s, had been a comic book fan, and shared all of his interests with me growing up, and now I love them more than he does. Now that I’ve given some back story, let’s get to the meat. Dwayne McDuffie is the GOAT. He had his fingers in all the best pie. Unfortunately, I have been unable to purchase the Milestone compendiums yet, but I will, as soon as I have the money, so that I can read his and the other Milestone writers’ works. Static Shock had a profound effect on me though, and is probably one of the earliest shows I remember watching that made me think, especially with episodes about school shootings, racism, etc. Static should get a show or movie, and it should be top-tier, with a dedication to Dwayne McDuffie. But past that, Icon and Rocket should also, absolutely, get a trilogy of movies, at the least. And yes, some people will say that the Milestone characters should stay in their own universe, but I disagree, because I was 11 or so when Young Justice came out, and I think if done right, having the Milestone characters added to the DC sandbox can lead to greatness, similar to the Charleston characters, Fawcett characters, etc. They can and should all have their place. DC has just mismanaged their characters way too much, and brought on these new writers who only want to create a legacy for themselves by making new characters that check boxes or are self-inserts, rather than using the pre-existing characters to tell great stories. Don’t get me wrong, a new character every once in a while would be awesome, especially if they are unique and fresh… but that never happens. It’s always just a reskinned character. Literally. Now, if we look past the Milestone of it all, like you said, Vixen, John Stewart, Mr. Terrific are all fantastic. But then you’ve got Steel, who I personally find awesome. Yes, some may say he is a Superman rip-off, but for the story he was introduced in, it makes sense, and if you/DC want a “black Superman”, but don’t want Icon, he’s perfect. You did mention Black Lightning, but I want to give him special focus, because I also really like him, mainly for the fact he is a teacher. Always thought it would cool to play his character kind of like Morgan Freeman’s character in Lean On Me (I’m pretty sure that’s the movie), where he’s a teacher turned principal doing everything he can to turn a school around, trying to help the good kids shine and stay out of trouble, but also getting the bad kids out to make it safe for the others, while others move against him. And he’s a leader of The Outsiders. Just remove Batman from the equation, and let Sapphire Stagg fund the team or something. Obviously you talked about Cyborg as well, and while I think Cyborg is great, he’s apparently just incredibly difficult to give new material, because all they can ever do is write him as this “am I man or machine” story, and he desperately needs something new, but I think he is best suited being a Titan, and then helping from the background like the other New Teen Titans as the next generation comes up, and being a member of the League when they need him, but give him something more to do than be transportation and communications PLEASE. I like Batwing/Luke Fox as opposed to Jace, the other Batman, but hate the name Batwing. I think he should be called Gargoyle personally, and have him, Tim Drake, and Barbara team up to lead Wayne Tech and develop new technology for all kinds of uses, but mainly to help people, while also doing superhero stuff on the side. I don’t know enough about Naomi, but I have heard good things about her in the past, so… maybe? And I know he’s a villain, but Bronze Tiger in the Suicide Squad could be very compelling if done right. Past them… I’m sure there are other characters that just aren’t coming to mind right now, but they waste so many of their characters as it is, of any race, gender, etc, we’ll probably never see the greatness I always imagine. We can always hope though, especially with what Gunn and Safran have been cooking.

Still upset that most people think Static’s name is “Static Shock” just because the show was titled that.

“Acknowledges characters who aren’t Batman” Bro. Don’t get me started 😭

Your content isn't even negative. You're just spitting up straight up facts dog, don't let the haters get to you man. Keep up the good content, I'll always watch.

James Gunn bringing Mr Terrific into the first Dcu movie is amazing to see because he’s honestly one of my favorite black superheroes. Hopefully static shock comes in at some point too

Sir. This entire video was nothing less than 💯. Especially the CW’s treatment of Black Lightning and Mr. Terrific. And the Tobias Whale/Uncle Ruckus comparison was spot on.

finally some one said it (besides me for YEARS) "does DC acknowledge any character besides Batman"......

Black Lightning and Nubia should be more popular, as DCs first black hero and first black female hero they arguably should DCs first picks when needing a black character in something.

I need more Static and Black Lightning in DC media, James Gunn heat our prayers

I still say the greatest portrayal of cyborg was definitely by doom patrol.

I binge watched Static Shock like a month ago, and i am not gonna lie it was fire. It's social criticism done right. If written well, a Static Animated/Live Action movie has the potential to go toe to toe with spider verse

If you want to add to the tropes of stereotypical black characters: Black characters who's typical premise is fighting(Patriot/Luke/BP/Bronze Tiger/Blade/War Machine/Spawn/etc).

DC has so many interesting black characters but choose to ignore them is really frustrating. Especially with the ones they do use like John Stewart and Cyborg are often used more like tokens with teams that have mostly white characters.

Tombstone, Misty Knight, Power Man, Black Goliath, Spider Punk, Falcon, Blade, Black Panther, Puff Adder, Brother Voodo

The only problem with trying to make Icon work is he needs Rocket and god forbid studios give a black woman a staring role.

I’m a white man I would be super interested in seeing DC/WB bringing milestones to big screen or small screen and have them become iconic like Batman and Superman.

Actual static and black lightning wasn’t originally apart of DC comics, they got brought by DC to be added to their rooster of characters

Marvel has always ran circles around DC when it came to non-white heroes. From Storm, BP, Blade and Cage to Miles, Kamala and Shang Chi.

3:04 🙄You know there's a HUGE PROBLEM when people keep calling Virgil _Statick Shock_ STATICK SHOCK IS THE NAME OF THE SHOW, THE CHARCATER'S NAME IS *STATIC* That's like if someone UNIRONICALLY called Spider-Man *THE SPECTACULAR MAN* or called Iron Man *Armored Adventurer Man* or Superman the *SMALLVILLE MAN*

Nah, what's up with black heroes with electric powers, tho? Also, why is Black Power Ranger never black!? They give him every other color!! This video has me questioning alot!😂 More serious note: As a black nerd, I really want to see more black heroes in the spotlight. DC has tried to spotlight Black Characters but really failed in the attempts. Also black characters in media aren't taken too well, especially in other countries. One example is black panther poster art being changed for the world wide release hiding chadwicks face with the cowl of the black panther.

A static shock film in the spider verse style would go crazy, I wish the Batman beyond movie didn't get canned😭

9:06 chocolate covered incredible is insane😂😂😂😂 I loved him in the show

8:06 Young Justice barely even has any Young Justice characters in it, let alone a focus on young heroes in general.

10:24: I too never cared for the decision to have Cyborg on the Justice League, especially as J’onn J’onnz replacement in the big 7. Just make Martian Manhunter’s human form, John Jones, black. He was obscure and only became known in pop culture in the 2000s. There wouldn’t be any real pushback against that. In fact, almost every piece of DC extended media already does that. Just put that in the comics.

As much as i liked John Stewart in JL and JLU, he was honestly the most boring member of the team to me. Most of his stories were taken from Kyle Reiner or Hal Jordan.

Mr. Terrific Steel Vixen Cyborg Batwing

Blade, Bat Wing, Spawn, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Wolverine.

Iris West is traditionally a ginger

John Stewart, Steel, Blade, War Machine and Spawn. DAMN I'm good!!!

7:03 Rocket is interesting because she’s actually the main character, while being Icon’s sidekick. Its a creative perspective on how they wrote those stories

They’re all so painfully underrated. Static barely shows up, Black Lightning probably has the best interpretations because of Young Justice and his own show but he barely shows up still, Vixen is horribly underused, Duke Thomas I think people usually forget exists, John Stewart hanging byA thread by the DCAU, Kaldur is underused, and I don’t know what the actual hell Icon, Mr. Terrific, Cyborg, Bumblebee, Herald, , or Rocket by doing. When someone mentioned the idea of raceswapping Clark Kent or Hal Jordan it actually pissed me off simply because we already have black supermen (Steel and another one) and Green Lantern (hell we have a black female GL) And honestly, as much as I don’t mind them having lightning abilities….its kinda become a trope in of itself. I’ll kinda like to see them get different abilities other than lightning more. (Also I’m so goddamn irritated by how YJ did Static. They had a damn go to right there with Black Lightning being his mentor….but nope he’s wasted on constant jokes about his lack of a girlfriend…..)

Can you make a video about Superman and Batman being best friends and how making them fight all the time is getting old

The problem is, and this goes for anything, not just racial or gender rep: Quotas. Too many writers consider these characters as a simple box to tick before they can start production which leads to them artificially taking roles and titles that typically belong to other characters. They’re not striving to utilise the original characters because they’d need to put effort into their inclusion. They will proceed to call you the problem when you ask for anything more. It was a lot more progressive when they would throw ideas at the wall and eventually land on successful characters rather than making 10,000 variations of the ones that work.

that Imdonatai clip caught me off guard, has bro never seen the show😭

as much as i am a die-hard batman fan, GOD does DC need to step it up with the development of their cast in general. JL and JLU are two of the coolest shows I've watched and I LOVED vixen in it sm I am so sad she isn't pushed. The appeal of JL and JLU is the interactions between a lot of the cast of the JLA and I got attatched to so many of them and I feel like DC just planted a seed and forgot to give it water. I was first exposed to static shock, icon, and rocket through young justice and I thought they was pretty cool and I dunno much about them and milestone, but they are definitely characters that deserve attention and proper development.

Been waiting to see Icon and Static on the big screen but it’s like DC forgets they have actual black characters. Lol

Recently I've been wanting to see a push for Jace Fox, even though some people find him irrelevant if Bruce is still around. But really he doesn't have to be *Batman* - he can just be Batwing.

Can we normalize calling Static by his name? It's just Static

They were better off giving static another cartoon than putting him in young justice. He was there to be a joke charecter.

Im pretty sure the static movie is still technically happening but its gonna be reworked to fit in the dcu

You forget my boy Kaulderam from young justice.He's aqualad and the orginal aqualad still exists,even in the show.And Bumblebee. Bumblebee barely appears, I've only seen her do an appearance on Teen titans and be a main character in dc super hero girls. I hope that Rocket,aqualad,and more get cameos.

Icon, Mr. Terrific, Hardware, Rocket. There are three black Supermen who aren't Clark Kent or Kal El and Aqualad.

At this point, why even bother with the DCEU in its entirety? At all? At all? They excel in f**king up every picture announced. Why bother?

Rest in Peace, Comichistorian

hell nah tobias was wilding 🤣🤣🤣

Mothers milk, green Lantern, miles morles spawn, blade

This video is definitely resonant! An Icon movie with a re-engineered version of Jayden's Icon as the theme would feed families for generations 😂

I feel like some of the people in WB are just stupid as hell like, I truly do not get it, we the fans tell you exactlly what we want, but then they decide to just do their own thing but when they do it they don't get the results they wanted.

The problem with black DC heroes is the same problem with female Marvel heroes. They're stereotypes.

The representation of a black DC character is Steel in my opinion, with him being done well in Superman and Lois, My Adventures with Superman, and his recent miniseries Steelworks, which are all worth checking out.

An ICON movie would be genuinely great, it’s the perfect black Superman movie and he’s literally a character begging to become an ICONIC (pun intended) on-screen character. We should be on our third ICON actor by now and he should be bigger and more recognizable than Black Panther.

People who say you're negative are straight trippin given the fact that you praise major and sidelined characters consistently in your vids while also providing cool info about them 🤧!!! This vid was so cathartic to watch btw, I wholeheartedly agree, especially as Static, John stewart GL, Vixen, and Black Lightning are some of my fav DC heroes :/ and exposing lesser known black heroes, like Icon, could really inspire a generation or create new fans of the character !!! They're sitting on a gold mine fr

Another thing is that, they GOTTA stop tossing Michael B. Jordan’s name so casually on all of these random projects. It really feels like they just say it to get some studio execs off their necks for a year or two. Like bro can’t be tied to EVERY black character project cmon…

I would kill for an Icon and Rocket movie or series.

1:20 I can: 1. Blade 2. Black Panther 3. Mr Terrific 4. Vixen 5. Cloak Bonus: John Stewart

I grew up with John Stewart as Green Lantern and he was awesome, I want more of him.

I always found it funny that corporate that DC has all these Black characters but hardly do anything significant but overuse characters like the Trinity and other characters revolved around them. I hate the narrative that Woke means women or minorities when that's not what it means. Woke is a slang term used by black people to be aware of your surroundings and what's really going on. I view it as studios pander while also deminishing/shitting on others expense. Remember when diversity felt natural, authentic and didn't beat you over the head. There are tons of shows that handled it really good even in some of the new shows that didn't feel forced or a narrative being pushed. They can be diverse without being diverse Also 6 black super heroes Rocket Nubia Mr. Terrific Naomi Val-zod superman Signal

Cyborg, Icon, Hardwire, Steel, John Stewart, Vixen and Static Shock deserves a Solo Movies!

You forgot about Steel in Superman and Lois.