The first black superheroes on TV were also married. Take that, modern comics!

Not counting Super Stretch and Micro Woman, whom I’ve discussed before. In fact, I went over black superheroes I thought deserved another chance. Just check that list for six good ones, but since that came out I’ve been wanting to list more, like I’ve done with the superheroines I grew up with. However, every time a new black character comes out, whether a race swap of a white character or just a “modern audiences” stereotype of black people it’s treated like this big event. The truth is they want the praise of being first, so they’re purposefully ignorant of their history.

For Black History Month I thought I’d look at five character of the not-white persuasion that I enjoyed long before 2020. They totally existed and despite being a dirty honky cracker boy I really liked these characters. I can relate to anyone despite skin color or even species if the story is written well. Barring that I might enjoy them for other reasons. They could be really cool, or as a supporter of…supporters, the hero needs them for back-up or advice.

Enough padding the intro. Here’s five black characters I’d like to see get more attention.

Action Jackson

When Carl Weathers passed away earlier this year, they brought up the roles you’d expect. Al Dillon in Predator got some nods but it was mostly Apollo Creed in the Rocky franchise and his most recent role in The Mandalorian. The first time I saw him was as Jericho “Action” Jackson. Man, I haven’t watch this movie in years but now I really want to.

Jackson got his unwanted nickname after a bust gone bad, with lots of explosions. Like “Dirty” Harry Callahan he didn’t really like getting some nickname for doing his job. In this movie, he has to protect singer Sydney Ash, played by Vanity, who is being pursued by the bad guys. I think it’s also the first time I saw a topless woman on television thanks to HBO…long before their shows featured it so often you’d think they filmed at nudist colonies. Of course I was entering puberty…but I was still a gentleman.

Low on plot, high on action. There are days you need that. I wonder if I should start a Finally RE-Watched series if I ever get back to Finally Watched? It’s on Tubi so I should get on that–with all the rest of my huge backlog on YouTube and DVR.

Leroy Green

I could spoil the final fight and you’d STILL watch this movie. The Last Dragon is just that good. Talmak plays Leroy, an inner city youth obsessed with martial arts movies, and especially Bruce Lee. He has to protect singer Laura Charles, played by Vanity, from bad guys and why does that sound familiar. Did she play anything else?

Leroy may watch those movies, but his character arc is stop acting like Bruce Lee and start acting like Bruce Lee…if that makes any sense, to look past what’s on screen and understand what Lee was actually trying to teach. Leroy is searching for “the glow”, a signature of being a martial arts master, but the glow doesn’t make you the master, it’s the master that earns the glow. You don’t even have to be a good person. Leroy’s enemy is Sho Nuff (Julius Carry), who is…the Maaaster. I like how Sho’s glow is an evil red but when Leroy finally achieves it…like there was a doubt he would…it has a more heroic shade of yellow. It’s really a fun movie, and the soundtrack kicks more butt than Leroy…and that’s a lot of butts getting kicked in this movie.

Okay, that should satisfy the action movie fans. This next one is a bit closer to my heart.

Black Vulcan

Yes, I know it’s a PSA bit but DO YOU KNOW HOW #@#$%#$% HARD IT WAS TO GET ANYTHING THAT WASN’T A PARODY OR NEGATIVE REVIEW AND HARVEY BIRDMAN CAN MOLT OFF!

Look, I know that the “diversity” Superfriends aren’t exactly celebrated. The only non-mockery tribute they ever got was their alt name counterparts in Justice League Unlimited. However, child me does not care! Apache Chief is the only one that didn’t age well and someone should get El Durado a shirt. On the other hand, Apache Chief once wrestled a space giant to get Earth out of his collector bottle and El Durado had a cool power set. Your argument is invalid!

Samurai and Black Vulcan are two of my favorite non-comic Superfriends, but we’re focused on one race here. I’ll defend Samurai another time. Remember, I’m not making the “usual suspects” happy (just by acknowledging they weren’t first at jack), I’m telling them that as a white kid I connected for one reason or another with these characters. The various versions of Superfriends were bound by Saturday morning rules force on networks by alleged parents who listened to psychiatrists who spent more time around books than around actual kids.

He only existed because they didn’t want to pay Tony Isabella to use Black Lightning (or that’s how he tells it), so they created Black Vulcan, who was actually a bit more powerful than his predecessor. Vulcan could actually turn into a lighting bolt or partial lighting bolt in order to fly. He wasn’t all “street, yo”, but had a great personality (not much else because, again, Saturday morning) and was a hero I could easily root for against the bad guys. I wish he had gotten better treatment but there will always be a place for him in my heart and my viewing time. And this is my list so I’m calling it.

James “Rhodey” Rhodes

Terrance Howard > Don Cheadle and Secret Invasion did the character dirty. Moving on.

Rhodey isn’t debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. My first Iron Man comic featured Rhodey as Iron Man, worried about being in Tony’s shadow before becoming War Machine. I only thought he was white because the Secret Wars action figure used Tony’s face instead of Rhodey’s in his “magic” shield, though I did figure out he replaced Tony after Tony’s cameo in Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends.

His recent treatment in the comics and the aforementioned Disney+ disaster is terrible. He deserves better. He was my Iron Man for quite a while.

First name’s Mr, middle name’s the period, last name’s T!

We had Mr. T. ALL your arguments are invalid.

From Clubber Lang to B.A. Baracus, you know this man. He’s been a dinosaur, a self-help guru, and a pro wrestler. He’s helped gymnasts solve mysteries, been a bodyguard on both Diff’rent Strokes and Silver Spoons, taught Alvin and the Chipmunks to stop a bunch of thieves, and worked with everyone from Jonny Bravo to Black Dynamite–okay, that was an impersonator but you want to see it anyway. Not bad for a guy whose first public appearance was a movie directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Adam Baldwin.

T can stand for tough, or tender, but he doesn’t stand for fools. If you think you have the first black hero debuting in the 21s century, you’re definitely a fool. Now he does advertisements and charity work (the latter is why he stopped wearing the gold necklace pile), but he is still Mr. T!

I could list a few more but I pulled out my white boy childhood favorites. I enjoyed all these characters and none of them “looked like me”. They were just that awesome! That’s what a good character is, whether they’re black or white, human or robot, canine or feline. Make good characters and celebrate the achievements that have been made while striving to make more. You don’t have to be first, you just have to not suck. That’s how you “win”.