Where are the Black Male Leads besides Cyborg?

What happened with the new 52 was that DC was on the verge of bankruptcy so in a desperate attempt to attract new readers they made a last minute change to a mostly finished Flash storyline that made it result in a universe reboot. All the events and continuity from before had been wiped away, and many beloved characters along with it, making it so the advent of superheroes had only started around five years ago (except batman, he got ten years).

What they ended up doing with this was make the DC universe darker and edgier: people no longer trusted each other, the Amazons became a bloodthirsty society of rapists, and they retooled a lot of heroes’ personalities in the same way.

Batman was fantastic but i haven’t read any other stories from this era nor do i want to.

But that’s just me.

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The New 52 was supposed to be a fresh start for the DCU, a place where new readers could jump on without having to worry about decades’ worth of continuity. Except Batman and Green Lantern were both in the middle of huge storylines at the time, so their continuities weren’t reset which made things confusing (for example, Batman was supposed to be about 5 years into his career, but he was on his fourth Robin).

A lot of the bigger heroes suffered with the change – Superman lost his marriage (and his red trunks!), Green Arrow went back to being a young rich jerk, Hawkman’s always convoluted backstory got even more confusing – but the New 52 did produce a few truly great series. Animal Man by Jeff Lemire (who also saved Green Arrow when he took over as writer) was a highlight, but Scott Snyder’s Swamp Thing was pretty great as well. Horror in general was a strength of the relaunch, with Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. and the short lived I, Vampire being other standouts.

The one thing the New 52 did well was try to inject more diversity into the DCU. Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle got another title, as did Static. Mr. Terrific got his first solo series. Batwoman (who had a series announced before the relaunch) and Alan Scott were both openly gay heroes. Wally West/Kid Flash was reintroduced as a black teenager. Admittedly, some of these series didn’t last long because DC was quick to cancel stuff that wasn’t immediately a hit, but I give them credit for trying different things with established characters.

Rebirth is the better relaunch because it kept the best parts of the New 52 but restored the most important things about the characters, but the New 52 wasn’t all bad.

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In the new Wildstorm, John Colt is not the lead but a big part of the wildcats as a black man. Hopefully he will be a bigger part of the new wildcats comic.

There are many “black” males in comic books. Green Lantern (John Stewart) is appearing in Justice League. In the early issues of that series Cyborg was part of the team, until he joined Justice League Oddessey. Black Manta is a major Aquaman villain. Mister Terrific appears in The Terrifics. Black Lightning is a major character in the Outsiders, along with The Signal. Kid Flash appears in Teen Titans. There are more, but those are just the most popular ones.

Cyborg has own comic and the justice league
John Stewart is a leader of the gl corps
Black lightning is on the outsiders
Power girl I haven’t seen since defiance
Static keeps getting his comic cancelled for low sales
Signal is on the outsiders and in Batman’s series
Batwing was in detective comics

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No black leads have had long running comics about them except for Milestone books. I think this is because the biggest comic figures are all the heroes created sixty or more years ago when black audiences weren’t being targeted as readers.

Just naming the black DC comic characters who had their own series, there’s Black Lightning, Steel, Mr. Terrific, John Stewart in Mosaic. Sorta All-Star Batman since Signal costars. That’s all that come to mind.

I guess Steel did actually have a long running series. It just wasn’t very good. I tried to like it.

Oh, also Cyborg has had a couples series.

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Oh, and Blue Beetle’s dad is black and mother is Hispanic, right? I’m remembering that correctly?

Looked up some more.

Batwing. Feel bad for forgetting him. Actually had a long running series though two different characters wore the mantle.

Amanda Waller is in some way the protagonist of Suicide Squad. She’s certainly one of the most important.

Part of Firestorm was black for a long running series.

Connor Hawke is half black half white in a long running series.

Orpheus has a miniseries though the character was unceremoniously killed a short while later. Waste of an interesting character.

Vixen had a miniseries.

I don’t think you’ll find many more than that.

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Agreed. More diversity in the movies and TV series is definitely a welcome idea. There’s some great characters that could be highlighted.

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