You know, I was wondering how I was going to do my annual Black History Month list of black heroes I either grew up with or think are better representations than the stereotypes their creators insist was the “first ever black hero”. The problem is finding a hook or something in one of my preferred genres, and I’m the only person who treats the hero support as being important. So then this controversy hits the internet and I have my hook. Even I know when to bank on a trend. On the other hand I actually watched the episode, so let me provide some context.
Hey AJ is one of those shows where kids use their imagination to get through some situation and teach both the characters and kids at home some valuable life lesson. In the second story of the eighth episode, “Don’t Mess With AJ”, our plucky young heroine just wants to watch a marathon of her favorite superhero before the next movie comes, but her mom insists she has to clean her room. Since the hero is a self-proclaimed “grimefighter” instead of a crimefighter, she imagines that he helps Super Duper AJ (she’s like 5) and her loyal sidekick Wonder Hare (her stuffed bunny rabbit Theo, because toys come to life in these fantasies) clean her headquarters and learn the importance of keeping her room clean before fighting one of his arch-enemies, the trash-spewing Dumpster.
Said character is Captain Durag (formerly the worse named Durag Man, so smart move changing it), a character who’s identity is based on a piece of “black folks” clothing (as if they alone invented the head scarf), has been seen by even black critics as a “trash man”, or as I’ve called him “ghetto Captain Planet”, and is more about black stereotypes than black culture. He has no superpowers but he does have a few cleaning up gadgets and a declutter method that wouldn’t even rank among the ones I’ve reviewed over at the declutter site I do on the weekends. He also has some killer dance moves for the animation style but he’s not winning any friends on Black History Month, where he made his debut.
So I thought I’d go through and find better examples of superhero shows for the same age bracket whose identity wasn’t based on a piece of fabric. That means no adult heroes in this one, but some ideas of better hero types than Captain Durag Man up there.
The Falcon (Super Hero Squad version)
The first two are kid redesigns of existing heroes Marvel owns, and thus Disney owns. This take on Sam Wilson comes from a time before there was a Marvel Studios for Bob Iger to drool over. The Super Hero Squad Show was based on a series of figurines, the backstory being that the Marvel heroes teamed up to form the Super Hero Squad to protect Super Hero City from Doctor Doom and his villains, usually fighting over an “infinity” themed mcguffin. (I think it took until season three to be the actual Infinity Gems.) Set on Earth-91119, the Squad is led by Iron Man, who tries to find the perfect combination of heroes based on their powers and skills, with a system that gamblers would only dream of matching. Also, the intro is amazing!
This is probably at the tail end of “young” compared to the rest of the list. Falcon, joined by Redwing, is ready for action, good natured to his teammates, and didn’t need to be a Captain America also-ran to be cool. He had his own identity, his wings, and his friends. For a redesign this works so much better, without being based on his “cultural identity”, or a stereotype version of same.
Spin (Spidey & His Amazing Friends)
Another Disney Junior show, Miles Morales actually breaks out of the Spider-Man name (though he still uses it sometimes) to be his own hero instead of another hand-me-down hero identity. Spin’s design of course comes from Miles’ Spidey suit, designed to not just be Peter’s outfit when his version of Peter died. However, this is Earth-21642, where our favorite heroes are kid versions of Marvel’s finest as well as their villains. He brings his love of spinning (where he got his name) and art, as well as being a really cool and fun-loving kid whose helpful to everyone.
I’d include Ironheart from the semi-spinoff Iron Man & His Awesome Friends but all I know about that version is that they followed Marvel Rising in ignoring her terrible comic personality. There’s also Black Panther, but he never takes his mask off in any of the episodes I’ve seen, an opposite take from the MCU where they can’t seem to leave the masks on for more than five minutes. HIm I expect to be culturally tied because he’s the king of an African nation who gets his powers in part from their god. Plus his outfit is a lot cooler than a mask scarf.
AJ Gadgets (Hero Elementary)
Another kid hero (and another AJ) but this one is learning, a trainee at the title school, riding the same wave as Sky High or My Hero Academia. If I wasn’t limiting the show’s target age group (and I already stretched with The Super Hero Squad Show) I could include a character from Hero High, a show I grew up with. AJ is able to project his thoughts and his ability to make gadgets seems to be tied to his powers as well. He’s also on the autistic scale, being based on one of the co-creators’ brother despite the creator being white. In fact both creators are white women. Explains Benny Bubbles, but that’s another conversation. AJ is a member of Sparks Crew, the group of heroes trained by Mr. Sparks, who may or may not have his own powers or been a superhero. While the crew all have matching outfits, like a school dress code, and no secret identities, this is still a better superhero design.
By the way, don’t compare Hero Elementary to Kartoon Channel’s Superhero Kindergarten, one of the Cartoon Network wanna-be’s shows that clearly put more budget into the celebrity voice (Arnold Schwarzenegger in this case, who hopefully wasn’t aware what he had signed up for) than good writing or animation. Stan Lee luckily never got to see what was done to this forgotten creation of his. Hero Elementary is from PBS Kids, and one of the few good things out of PBS these days.
The Brown Hornet (Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids)
Stretching the age range a bit more, but the Brown Hornet was for the junkyard kids, based on Bill Cosby’s old street gang and comedy routines, what Captain Durag is for AJ, a way to learn life lessons. Also, he actually had super powers since he could fly and transform into things (not exactly shapeshifting depending on how you use the term). The concept is that the adventures of The Brown Hornet, his comedic sidekick Stinger, and the robot Tweeterbell (I didn’t know his name went beyond Tweeter but I’ll take the fan wiki’s word for it) would somehow tie into whatever situation the gang was into, only occasionally breaking that formula. The show would end on a cliffhanger that was never resolved for the audience because that would require continuity, but “last week’s” cliffhanger would be resolved at the start of the show as “using the Brown Hornet’s superpowers they naturally escaped unharmed”.
Despite the show’s setting based on inner city youths of the time (when Bill was a kid or when the show came out I couldn’t tell you…Connecticut white boy from a small town here) there were no insulting stereotypes. Each character was unique but you could believe they were friends even when they got on each other’s nerves. The show within a show was just a sci-fi superhero series about a cosmic superhero and his team writing wrongs and getting caught in traps. While the message from the Hey AJ show is being lost in the stereotype the Brown Hornet actually helped the message that Fat Albert was trying to teach that episode. Shame they replaced it with “Legal Eagle” in the syndicated continuation The New Adventures Of Fat Albert so often.
Ice Cub (PJ Masks)
Loosely based on a series of French children’s books, the PJ Masks have superpowered pyjamas and also wear masks. Each one has unique abilities tied to animals. Sadly, Ivan doesn’t get the use of his legs when he transforms, replacing his crutches with long “front legs”, which is unfortunate. However, we’re looking at design, not odd views on repre…oh wait, we’re doing both. Why wouldn’t a handicapped kid want a hero who could walk normally in his hero form at least. Captain Marvel Junior was also lame of leg as Freddy Freeman but he could stand and walk like anyone else when he transformed. Some people really don’t understand how fantasy works.
Ice Cub has freezing powers and uses the polar bear as his animal totem. His outfit reflects this in “hero mode”. If the same clip is still active, you might see another black kid hero, Neutron Star. He doesn’t have animal powers (rare among the heroes) but they come from space. No stereotypes. Nothing that only works because he’s black or leans into being handicapped beyond just not being able to walk without crutches or using his huge arms as replacements for crutches. They’re just like everyone else while still being unique individuals. You know, like all black kids instead of “representing” all black kids. In fact none of the characters in this list are themselves tied to their culture, Black Panther being only mentioned but with good reason to have cultural markings while Brown Hornet only came from a show set in the inner city while his adventures were in space. You can’t even call Captain Durag “black” culture. Inner city hip-hop culture maybe, but watch the episode if it’s still available.
It’s the second story of the episode, with the first being the family and AJ’s friend trying to help fix her mom’s food truck. They don’t live in the inner city. The dad (voiced by the creator of the books the show is based on, former football player Martellus Bennett) is hip and all, but they live in the suburbs, which is not only rare for black characters these days to live somewhere other than “the hood” or “possibly Africa” but not the home of hip-hop culture. I’m not saying AJ couldn’t be a fan of Captain Durag. He seems cool enough. It’s the design that has people upset because it looks like the same black stereotype we get. Any black person not part of the “approved” black culture is not seeing themselves represented but is seeing themselves being stereotyped again, as if all black people have the same culture and same experience. That’s why even black commenters are upset that we got a character like ghetto Captain Planet during Black History Month. AJ’s dad gets a better superhero outfit in the intro, so it’s not like they couldn’t figure it out.
To paraphrase someone on this list, you have to do better, kids show creators.
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