Tag: Black superheroes

Comics, Marvel

Marvel Celebrates Miles Morales’ 10th Anniversary with Variant Covers

Adonis Gonzalez

Like most folk, I’m not too keen on reminders of my ever-increasing age. But this one, well, it’s not too bad of a milestone reminder.

Miles Morales, Marvel’s best Spider-Man, debuted nearly 10 years ago! You read that right, it’s been almost a decade since Miles inherited the Spidey title from Peter Parker and immediately one upped the kid from Queens.

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Marvel, Movies, Streaming1 Comment

UPDATED: Cap is Back! ‘Captain America 4’ in the Works with Malcolm Spellman

Mike Manalo

It’s not a spoiler alert to say A LOT happens in six episodes of the epic The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series. So it would make sense for the story to continue in some way, shape, or form to explore everything it sets up. As such, it’s not surprising that today via The Hollywood Reporter it was announced that showrunner Malcolm Spellman is teaming up with staff writer Dalan Musson to write the fourth installment in the Captain America franchise.

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Animation, DC Comics, Music1 Comment

Teen Titans Soul: De La Go!

Shawn Taylor

One of the the greatest cultural tragedies of the digital era is that De La Soul’s early music isn’t streaming. An early victim of the sample-clearance wars (over 70 on their masterful debut, 3 Feet High and Rising), De La’s cultural impact — and promise — has never been allowed to be fully realized. Not only has the streaming era proved to stifle De La’s early output, their contracts only covered physical media releases as no one anticipated that streaming would become the primary way we’d all experience media.

With new modes of delivery, new contracts have to be made for those previous albums. And De La has tried to do this in good faith, but Tommy Boy Records, the label De La was originally signed to, has refused to give them a mutually equitable deal. Tommy Boy would take the lion’s share of the profits, even though all of De La’s albums have recouped (made back initial production/investment costs).

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Marvel, Video Games

Why ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ for PS5 Brings Me So Much Black Boy Joy

Jamal Michel

My first real experience as the famous web-slinger, in a purely polygonal sense, came in the year 2000, when my dad surprised me with a copy of Spider-Man for the original PlayStation. I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing, and the elation that came from donning original and secret costumes as our one and only friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man was something my little heart could hardly contain at the time.

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Conventions, DC Comics, Streaming, Television

DC FanDome: How ‘Watchmen’ Explores the Issues of Corrupt Power and Systemic Racism

Mike Manalo

“When the police masked [in the events of the show], it raised the question of accountability, because at some point, [it becomes a question of] who’s the good guy/who’s the bad guy” — Christal Henry, Supervising Producer of Watchmen (2019)

This quote, which kicked off the most fascinating panel/segment in the DC FanDome for Watchmen: Unmasked, embodies more than just what was going on in the narrative of the show. It’s a quote that fully embodies what we’re seeing in our society today. When you replace the metaphor of a mask with a badge, we understand that Watchmen is, as the graphic novel was too, an absolute reflection of the sins of society told through the lenses of both the empowered and the powerless. And therein is why Watchmen is perhaps one of the best television events in the past decade.

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Gone Too Soon, Marvel2 Comments

Chadwick Boseman Was a Source of Light in My Understanding of a Black Hero

Jamal Michel

In the Bantu language Xhosa, Ulwimi olunye alwanelanga tu means “One language is never enough.” In the wake of Chadwick Boseman’s passing, there is an inconceivable grief rippling across language barriers and cascading through communities and countries. The letters on my keyboard look like a jumbled mess — trying to use language to communicate this loss is an act I am unfamiliar with.

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DC Comics, Interview, Streaming, Television

Boo-Ya! An Interview with ‘Doom Patrol’ Star Joivan Wade

Mike Manalo

I’ve written at length about how wonderfully weird HBO Max’s Doom Patrol is. It’s truly a one-of-a-kind superhero show, slyly breathing fresh life into the superhero genre without folks ever noticing it. And while, for many, the characters Robotman, Elasti-Woman, Crazy Jane, or Negative Man may not necessarily be household names yet, the show successfully added a very popular hero to its lineup in its debut — Teen Titan and Justice League member Cyborg!

We’ve seen various iterations of the character before, but in my opinion, Joivan Wade represents the definitive live-action interpretation of the character. And now, recently, The Nerds of Color was very fortunate enough to sit down with Joivan to talk about the show, current events, and Cyborg’s impact as a Black mainstream superhero on fans of color today. Here’s what he had to say:

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Fashion

Celebrate Black History Month with These ‘Black Panther’ T-Shirts

The Nerds of Color

We’ve partnered with our friends at TeePublic to create a special t-shirt giveaway celebrating both Black History Month as well as the one-year anniversary (and Academy Award Season run) of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther. See below for the rules to win three t-shirts from TeePublic!

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DC Comics, Television4 Comments

‘Black Lightning’ is the Best Superhero Show on TV

Keith Chow

We are truly living in a golden age of comic book-based television. From broadcast to cable to streaming, shows featuring an array of superheroes are everywhere. The CW alone could field a superhero show each night of the week now that Black Lightning, the network’s fifth DC Comics-based show from super producer Greg Berlanti, is finally ready for prime time. Starring Cress Williams as the titular hero, and created by the husband-and-wife producing team of Salim and Mara Brock Akil, Black Lightning — debuting tonight at 9pm — has already emerged as the best show on The CW, and is possibly the best superhero show of the genre.

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Marvel, Movies

DMV Nerds: Win Tickets to a Screening of ‘Black Panther’

The Nerds of Color

Did your browser crash when trying to buy early tickets for Black Panther? Is the movie sold out opening day at your local cinema? Well, if you’re in the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia), we’re teaming up with Fantom Comics to offer a lucky NOC follower two first class tickets to Wakanda!

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Comics, Marvel8 Comments

The Cause of Black Panther & The Crew’s Cancellation

Dennis R. Upkins

This weekend news broke that after two issues, Marvel’s Black Panther & the Crew has been canceled.

The series revolved around Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight, and Manifold who band together to take on a dangerous wave of street-level threats in this new ongoing series by co-writers Ta-Nehisi Coates (New York Times best-selling author of Between the World and Me and Marvel’s Black Panther) and Yona Harvey (Black Panther: World of Wakanda) and legendary artist Butch Guice!

The death of a Harlem activist kicks off a mystery that will reveal surprising new secrets about the Marvel Universe’s past and set the stage for a big story in the Marvel Universe’s near future. Fear, hate and violence loom, but don’t worry, The Crew’s got this: “We are the streets.”

Anyone who thinks the cancellation has to do with “poor sales” and not the comics’ themes of racial justice and unapologetic blackness can line up and purchase some beachfront property I own in Wyoming.

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Comics4 Comments

Black Power: The Superhero Anthology

Dennis R. Upkins

Continuing the celebration of #BlackExcellence in February, I’m proud to announce that yours truly has been putting in that work and my latest short story, Where Monsters Roam, is featured in the new BLACK POWER: THE SUPERHERO ANTHOLOGY which is available now.

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Guest Post, Marvel8 Comments

Who is Marvel’s Blaxploitation Luke Cage Comic Even For, Exactly?

Guest N.O.C.

by Charles Pulliam-Moore | Originally posted on Medium

Recently, Marvel sent out a press release teasing Cage –  an upcoming Luke Cage solo comic to be written and illustrated by Genndy Tartakovsky with inks by Stephen DeStefano.

The series, Marvel explains, takes places in late ’70s New York City where the “shoes are big, bottoms are belled and crime is rampant!”

Apparently Tartakovsky’s Cage is meant to be a send-up(?) of the era’s wave of Blaxploitation, which wouldn’t be so much of a problem were it not for the decidedly problematic art style the book it set to have:

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Comics, Marvel2 Comments

Heavy is the Panther’s Cowl

Shawn Taylor

2016 marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most iconic characters in comics, The Black Panther.

Springing to life in the pages of Fantastic Four #52, the Panther’s comic journey has been one fraught with fits and starts. Some people look at Christopher Priest’s run as the definitive arc. Other’s look at Reginald Hudlin’s take as the best representation of the character. One guy at Dr. Comics and Mr. Games comic shop in Oakland felt Jonathan Hickman’s version in Secret Wars was, “The best look for the Panther. No one else got it right.” I’m going to have to refute that and argue that Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreeze, and Laura Martin’s Black Panther relaunch will be the definitive version of T’Challa, King of the Wakanda, for a long while to come. Instead of gold, the Panther received the gift of a fantastic creative team.

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Comics, DC Comics2 Comments

Just Imagine Stan Lee Wrote the Worst Batman Story Ever Published

William B West

Originally posted at WilliamBruceWest.com

With all the talk about Batman v Superman over the past few days, it reminded me that it’s nowhere near the worst story told featuring the Caped Crusader. No, that honor belongs to Just Imagine Stan Lee’s Batman, published in September 2001 — making it the second worst thing to happen to America that month. If you’re unfamiliar with the book, let’s take a step back in time, shall we?

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