3) LUKE CAGE, HERO FOR HIRE (1972)
Okay, we’ll get this out of the way right up front: SWEET CHRISTMAS!
Now that that’s taken care of, we can talk about Luke “Power Man” Cage, the first black superhero to headline his own title. Though he has a lot of the elements of a typical Blaxplotation hero (he’s hyper-masculine, an ex-con, speaks the jiviest of 70’s jive talk and isn’t always the most sensitive portrayal of the African-American male), Luke stands out among peers like Black Lightning or Black Goliath. Forty-some years after his portrayal, he has made it to the upper echelon of Marvel Comics’ heroes, and rightfully so. (I still miss the yellow silk shirt, though.)
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I’d like to put an honorable mention for Nubia, the black Wonder Woman, who appeared in Wonder Woman comics in the early 1970s.
While Nubia may not be the first black female superhero, she was the first to have a Mego doll made of her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NmsbnVvWuM
“Gotchya Majyer!”
Mal Duncan (1970), aka Hornblower, aka Guardian, aka Herald, aka Vox, of the Teen Titans deserves an honorable mention.