Skip to main content

dc - Is there a depiction of Superman where he is an African American?


Is there a comic book, animation, or any other media where Superman is depicted as being an African American?


I know that there are alternate universes where he is, for example, a Soviet, but I'm more interested if there's a depiction of a black Superman.


And I'm even more interested if in this universe he lives in the USA.



Answer



There are at least five. (and an unnamed one)




First appeared in Animal Man #23 (1990), as an illusion of sorts (generated by Psycho-Pirate's mask), along with other twisted versions of known characters. Then, his nationality is uncertain.


Sunshine Superman



Featured in Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths (1999).


This one is part of the "Justice Alliance of America". "America" being often used as a (perhaps ambiguous) shortcut for "USA" by writers, I would say there is a chance this Superman was an USA citizen too.


Kal-El of Earth D



Introduced in Final Crisis (2009).


Also known as Calvin Ellis, and plenty from the USA, which he is President of!


Kalel Earth 23



This is indeed a nod to Barack Obama, as revealed in this Daily Record interview of writer Grant Morrison:



Grant created the characters for the last instalment of DC Comics series Final Crisis 7.


He was inspired by a joke Obama made in a speech - in which he denied he was from Superman's home planet Krypton - and a report that Beyonce wants to play a superhero on screen.


Grant told the Record: "I wanted to do something special for the last part of this huge comic book series.


"**As I was writing it, I heard Obama making a joke about being born on the planet Krypton and being sent to Earth by his father Jor-El to save the world.


"I thought it would be a fitting end to all the darkness in America recently.**


"All the comics have been dealing with darkness recently and, having defeated evil, it's now time to celebrate."


The comic, which comes out in the UK today, shows the president in the White House's Oval Office as he prepares to transform into his superhero alter-ego.


Grant, who controversially killed off Batman last year for the comic series, added: "In this issue, we don't see him flying to Scotland - but who knows in future editions?



"I hope to do more things with the Obama character next year."




Who was adopted by the house of El, and took the Superman mantra afterwards. First appeared in Earth 2 #19 (2014).


As for his Earth time, he is first encountered beneath Arkham Base, after having spent a good chunk of his early life in his space capsule. I'm no law expert, but I think that qualifies as USA citizen (or at least resident). As Gaultheria rightly points in a comment though,



I think that Val-Zod, a recent immigrant to Earth whom I believe never took on American citizenship or a secret identity as a human, technically doesn't meet either the "African" or "American" criteria.



He would then belong in the list as "a depiction of a Black Superman", as mentioned in the question's body.


Val-Zod




Yes, you read that right. You learn something every day, I guess! In the Tangent Comics (1997), Harvey Dent was Black, and discovered he had powers. He reached out to help citizens, which in turn named him Superman. He lived in New York.


(NB: Harvey Dent is usually the civilian identity of supervillain Two-Face)


Harvey Dent as Superman




There's an unnamed Black Superman who appeared in Superman/Batman #25 (2006), when Superman and Batman call upon their Multiverses counterparts for help. However, this is literally the only panel this guy appears in, he doesn't have a name, even less a nationality.


Unnamed Black Superman


Also worth noticing that some of the above made an appearance in the Supermen of the Multiverse panel below. Some extra Supermen are a bit too blurry to be sure they're black, but it's a possibility.


Supermen of the Multiverse


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...