[music playing]
Ah, good whiskey.
Welcome to CP Time, the only show that's full of culture.
Today, we'll be discussing Black superheroes.
Iconic characters like Falcon, War Machine, Cyborg,
and the dude at Church's Chicken who puts onion
rings in your bag of fries.
That brother uses his powers for good.
Black superheroes or not new.
In fact, they've been squeezing into Spandex for decades.
They did it as far back as 1936 when cartoonist Jay
Jackson created Speed Jackson in the Chicago
Defender newspaper.
Speed Jackson was a former track star
at Howard University who was an excellent fist fighter, which
may not sound powerful compared to today's
superheroes with their laser eyes and sticky spider hands.
But you have to think about it like sports.
Today's best athletes at the pinnacle of human physicality,
while the best athletes from the 1930s
were just the ones with the least polio.
Times change.
Jackson used his abilities to fight against fascists
during the war and right the wrongs of a racist society,
which is tough, because superpowers
don't help when you're fighting systemic racism.
Doesn't matter if you have the strength of 10 men
if none of those men can get a mortgage.
In 1947, Black superheroes made the leap from comic strip
to comic book.
With Lion Man, a cat-themed superhero
who protected the world's largest uranium deposit
in Africa's Gold Coast, although a cat may not
have been the best animal to defend a valuable resource.
Sure, cats are fast and agile.
But you're getting there during one of those 22 hours
that they're asleep, that uranium is yours.
Lion Man was created by Orrin Evans, who intended
his comic to counter the racial distortions seen
in other comics.
Although, if he was trying to avoid racial stereotypes,
I think it's fair to say the results were mixed.
Look at Lion Man right there.
Shirtless, with a loincloth, and an arrow through his butt.
Somehow, that is still the least problematic
character on the cover.
Despite how it looks today, Lion Man
was still groundbreaking as an all-Black written
and illustrated comic, even if now
the cover looks like Tucker Carlson tried to draw Africa.
In the 1970s, there was an explosion
of Black superheroes.
Characters like Black Lightning, Black
Vulcan, and Black Goliath.
Basically, if you were trying to create
an African-American hero in the '70s,
you put the word Black in front of whatever was lying
around you in the apartment.
This week, Black Chandelier battles it out
against his arch nemesis Black Candy Wrapper.
But the most popular of these superheroes
was the newest member of the X-Men, Storm,
an African priestess who could control
the weather to keep the rain from messing up her hair.
Storm was a landmark character for both Black and female
representation in comics.
And on top of that, she's definitely the best X-Man.
You know I'm right.
Who's better than Storm?
Rogue?
What's her power?
If I hold my boyfriend's hand too long, he'll die.
Wolverine is indeed strong, except for when
he has to go through TSA.
Professor X can read minds, but that
means he also sees all the kinky sex stuff
his enemies are thinking.
Good luck defeating Magneto when you
know how much he loves feet.
By the 1990s, Black superheroes were
making it to the big screen.
In 1993, Robert Townsend directed The Media Man, a film
about a mild-mannered teacher who
was hit by a radioactive meteor and got superpowers.
I must say, it's bold to name yourself after the worst thing
that's ever happened to you.
My superhero name would be Sheila Left Him
Man, with the power to eat one whole can of tuna
over the sink.
You were right, Sheila.
I can't do better.
In 1998, Marvel bet on Black with the Blade franchise.
Wesley Snipes starred as a vampire hunter
to great box office success.
And Blade was a powerful mama jama.
He managed to be that cool, while wearing the
same sunglasses as Guy Fieri.
It's also why there's no vampires in Flavortown.
Blade became a household name and the first major theatrical
success for Marvel, setting off a wave of Marvel films
to come in the next two decades.
Because Wesley Snipes proved that no one's
powerful enough to defeat Marvel heroes,
except for the IRS.
Please don't punch me, Wesley Snipes.
Big fan.
Now Black superheroes are everywhere,
even taking over the mantle of formerly white heroes.
We have an African-American Green
Lantern, Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man.
No Black Bruce Wayne though.
That requires too much generational wealth.
Well, that's it for CP Time.
And remember, before the co--
What's that?
It's the CP signal.
Someone needs a folksy man to come and tell
them about Black history!
I'm on my way, Florida.
To the CP mobile!
I need some gas money for the CP mobile.
It take leaded.
I can't afford it.