Doug: Today is known as "Black Friday" here in the States, so in honor of that, let's discuss some more of our favorite longjohn types! And as a sidenote, it took me years to fully grasp the concept of "black" in "Black Friday". As a history guy, I was always stuck on "Black Tuesday", that day in 1929 when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. Ironically, the "black" in "Black Friday" also has to do with money, but in the opposite way -- Black Friday signifies the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, a time when retailers should see their balance sheets shift over from the "red" to the "black". Whoo... don't know if anyone else needed that lesson, but I'm glad I finally figured it out! Now, on to the comics!!
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ReplyDeleteDefinitely the Black Panther. Black Cat, Black Canary, Black Goliath and Black Lightning are all good characters but they can't hold a candle to T'Challa. Second on my list would be the noble leader of the Inhumans - Black Bolt, followed by Black Widow. Haven't researched this much, but I'm guessing this list isn't too long.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I'm assuming the criteria is simply characters with the word "black" in their names as opposed to "black" superheroes - that's an entirely different discussion!
- Mike 'yellow dynamite' from Trinidad & Tobago.
I'm gonna be pretty unoriginal here and just say Black Panther. He's a really cool character, and he's been featured in a ton of good stories (especially in McGregor's run on Jungle Action).
ReplyDeleteA few runners-up or honorable mentions, mainly because they look cool, are Black Manta and Black Adam.
Also, I love the fact that there is a Golden Age hero called the Black Terror, complete with a skull and crossbones on his chest.
I'm going with Black Panther, Widow and Black Cat as my 1,2 & 3.
ReplyDeleteOK, I have no idea what best means in this context. Most interesting? Most powerful? Blackest? In reverse order, here’s my top ten, ranked in order of how much I care about them.
ReplyDelete10. Blackwing. Rubbish villain, great name
9. The Black Lama - I seriously need to read the War of The Super Villains.
8. Black Tom Cassidy. Begorah.
7. Black Goliath. There was a phase of creating black superheroes simply by having a black version of an existing hero. Much like they did with the girls. Dodgy. But I like Bill Foster.
6. Black Jack Tarr. Someone needs to float his name here.
5. The Black Queen. Sneaky one, eh ?
4. The Black Knight – I mean Dane, of course.
3. The Black Panther – who was strangely, the Black Leopard for a while I seem to recall, due to, y’know, terrorists.
2. Black Bolt. Every letterer’s favourite character.
1. The Black Widow. Obviously.
Richard
Like most people, Black Panther is probably my pick for #1. I like him because he's a cool character with a long and storied career as a Marvel hero and Avenger, and because a Black Panther is a real animal, so they didn't just add the word "Black" to another word to create the character's name, like they did with so many other black heros and villains like Black Lightning, Black Goliath, Black Vulcan, etc. (I've always been amazed that The Falcon wasn't called The Black Falcon).
ReplyDeleteBlack Widow is my #2 for many of the same reasons listed above, and because she is one of the few characters with "Black" in her name who isn't actually a black person.
I've also always liked the Spider-Man villain the Black Tarantula as well. However, they didn't do very much with him. I thought he had a lot of potential of becoming a major Spidey villain.
I'll go with Black Widow and Black Jack Tarr. I want to see a story with them together now.
ReplyDeleteEdo, nice one with Black Terror. He seems unusual amongst the colorful Golden Age heroes.
Black Panther is just a smart, cool character. Always solving problems with his wits rather than his fists. I like that.
ReplyDeleteI really dig Blackbolt, his powers, his curse, so to speak, the whole hidden race mythology of the Inhumans. But what numbskull at Marvel decided at some point that Blackbolt's real name should be Blackagar Boltagon? Jiminy Christmas, is that painfully stupid. That'd be like having Superman's Kryptonian name be Superion Manius or some other crap.
On a side note, I managed to stay in pajamas all day yesterday! Woo hoo! But sadly must get dressed today.
Black Dynamite anyone..? Not the cable show but the original fun movie homage.
ReplyDeleteIn comics...? Natasha.
Loved T'challa but I sure spent a lot of quarters on Widow covers.
I remember picking up the tpb that collected the reboot of the Justice League. One of the members was Black Canary. I really liked her look, it was immediately appealing to me, the comic book geek. As I read more of the JL's adventures, I started to look for more of Dinah Lance's appearances. And the more I actually found out about her back story and character development, I still really liked her look.
ReplyDeleteThat was definitely a "book" I'd buy for the "cover"!!!!
"Always solving problems with his wits rather than his fists"!!! Karen, I thought you were beginning to write his theme song. I was ready to chime in with "Ooo oooo Black Panther! T'Challa"!!!
Personal confession time: When I read Doug's "Who's The Best" teaser yesterday, I thought today we were going to have to declare who we thought was the best, Doug or Karen!?! All night, I was trying to decide, do I speak honestly from the heart, straight shooting, letting the chips fall where they may? Or do I cushion the blow so Doug gets let down easy? That was a tough decision, maybe someday I'll let you guys know who I picked......
The Prowler (Cause I'm back Yes I'm back well I'm back Yes I'm back Well I'm back back Well I'm back in black Yes I'm back in black).
Ohh let's not forget the bane of the X-men, specifically Juggernaut's sidekick and Banshee's cousin - Black Tom Cassidy!
ReplyDelete- Mike 'shopping offline in local grocery behind an old lady' from Trinidad & Tobago.
I recently read a bunch of his stories and did some posts on him, so the one which leaps to mind is Black Knight. He's probably my favorite Avenger at present and the character in the MU who has the most untapped potential...still after all these years.
ReplyDeleteRip Off
Black Lightning.
ReplyDeleteMmmmmmm. . . Blacula-?
ReplyDelete(Agh! Sorry! Sorry!! Stop throwing drumstick bones at me-!)
I too am one of those who, even as a child, did not at all care for a character being called "Black" anything if it was clearly referring to his/her skin color. Is there a White Lightning? A White Goliath? But there actually weren't a huge amount of those. (I've also wondered about Washington's football team since I was about 12 years old-) Black Panther works, though, 'cause he started out that way, and the character/identity itself has a loooong history. . . one which predates T'Challa. And I'm quite glad that Ororo was never introduced as "Black Storm" or "Black Tempest" or something awful like that.
But, do I have a favorite? I dunno-- probably Black Knight, kind of by default. I like the Widow, the Panther, the Cat, and the Bolt well enough-- but they've never been characters that I bought a comic to follow, y'know? And that might simply be because color-oriented superhero names have always rung a bit forced or contrived to my ears-- even when they were young 'uns. They're just too easy. . .too obvious. . .
HB (the jaded)
The Black Racer! Having avoided as much of the post-Kirby Fourth World as I could, I can't say I've read many stories featuring the character, but New Gods issue 3 is enough.
ReplyDelete-sean
The Black Canary, of course! Longevity counts. She intrigued me back when I read a slew of old JLAs owned by an older sibling, and she was the only female member of the JSA without a male counterpart or an Earth One version (an oversight that would have helped immensely had one been created). The character name caused me to read up on cola mining and to love the Police.
ReplyDeleteI was confused by Black Lighting. I thought his lightning would be black, sort of like Negative Man's appearance.
ReplyDeleteAh, the innocence of youth.
Black Canary is my pick.
HTH fighter
Sonic Powers
Earth 2 immigrant. How did she get papers? Hmmm.
(Let us ignore the later JLA tale of her retconned origin. *brrr* creepy.)