Some rough language in here, so if you are at work, you might want to put the earphones on.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWyjgYZvaj4[/youtube]
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
13 Comments
Ok, Diddy, just throwing a few out here that were around when you were a kid:
Falcon, Green Lantern (John Stewart), Vixen, Cyborg, Black Lightning, Black Panther, Blade, Luke Cage, Prowler, Storm, and War Machine, to name a few. I understand how it seems all the “big” superheroes are white, but to say there weren’t any black superheroes is just wrong.
I hear ya Darrin. I’m older than Diddy and even I remember every single one of those comic book heroes. Don’t forget Steel. He was pretty damn big during the Death/Return of Superman era. Diddy also forgot to mention the grand-daddy of all black superheroes: Spawn!
Here’s a blog post I found that has a pretty decent list of the top 25 black superheroes: http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/06/30/top-25-black-superheroes-of-all-time/
Two things I can’t stand: ignorance and stupidity. Diddy is obviously completely out of touch with reality. What a moron! He’s “so proud” to finally have a black superhero when, all this time, there were black superheroes and he didn’t even know it. Stupid idiot!
Wow. Very succinct. While I may not approve of his grammar, you cannot deny Diddy’s enthusiasm for inaccuracy ….
@Darrin
My exact point as well, thanks or saving me the typing.
That’s basically what I was going to say; If Diddy had a tough time coming up with Hulk to add to his list, I guess he wasn’t really going to be able to come up with Cage and Panther, and what not…
And from the looks of this movie (granted, I haven’t seen it yet), I don’t really know if I would want my kids (if I had any) to see it and to ‘look up to’ this kind of character.
Who could forget those great Blade, Vixen, Brother Voodoo, John Stewart-Back Up Green Lantern and James Rhodes-Assistant to Iron Man after school cartoons from the late 70s? Puff Daddy, who is 38, might be out of touch with reality, but nothing posted so far disproves his point that there were no black superhero cartoons when he was a kid. Actually there was one, Black Vulcan, but I don’t think it’s too hard to figure out why he might have forgotten him.
Black superheroes were under represented in comics during the 70s and early 80s (the period he was talking about). There were some exceptions in the actual comics (Storm, Black Panther, Black Lightning, some other blacksplotaion cinema homages/ripoffs and a few other characters whose name started with black), but to state that there were no black superheroes to come home to isn’t much of a stretch. Unless Puff Daddy had acess to a comic book store, there was a pretty good chance that he never saw a black superhero.
Steel and Spawn wouldn’t have been created until Puff Daddy was in his 20s.
I think his point was that he was excited that the perception and status of black Americans has increased since he was a child. I think that is valid and something we can all celebrate. I think we should really give some thought to why we feel the way we do when we feel resentful and defensive about someone elses joy.
Mr. Dou – you do not want to take your kid to see hancock unless they are exposed to bad language on a daily basis. That being said, Hancock does make a turn around from scum to someone you can look up to by the end of the movie.
Great discussion. I think saying Diddy is out of touch is bit unfair (and I don’t even like him that much!) We have to remember that Diddy is not a comics fan, so casual readers would only know Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. I think we can agree that for most people, that’s the Holy Trinity…all white guys. As a proud comics fan and even prouder black man in America I know all too well that too often there aren’t always positve media representations of people who look like me. As a kid my parents were worried that all the super heros I tried to emulate were white. I’ve always said they didn’t need to worry, because in essence I was trying to emulate the qualities that made them heroic. But even I have to admit, that when I’m reading Black Panther, Cage, Falcon, or Storm in a comic book, there is an enormous sense of pride that wells up. So yes, I can agree with Diddy, it is freakin’ cool to see a black super hero brought to life on film.
The problem is that Diddy (ugh) is in the unfairly selected group of people who are allowed to “speak for” black people. Yet that select group is so narrow that it excludes the full range of experiences, in this case, experiences such as Russell and myself. Why not ask black guys who know and love comics about the significance of Hancock? Diddy is not particularly bright, not especially exposed to a whole lot outside of entertainment and faux thuggery, and is certainly not a fanboy. Yet just because he is famous (for so many wrong reasons), his opinions and musings on black superheroes are sought and broadcast. Nobody is asking Linday Lohan about astrophysics because that’s not her expertise. Whose big idea is it to keep asking rappers and athletes to “speak for” a whole race of people that includes a wide variety of knowledge and sentiment? Diddy has proven himself ignorant to the facts on yet another subject, but beyond that, he has hurt the very real arguments about the dearth of A-LIST balck superheroes across all mediums. I gotta live with the blowback/backlash/resentment from folks who answer Diddy’s poorly structured argument with a litany of black superheroes while asking “what are is there to complain about?” C’mon people, though I can’t stand the guy (as do many enlightened blacks above 25), and I hate the misquoting of facts, but you know the spirit of what he said has some truth in it. Don’t act like the superheor game is rife with equality.
I agree with a few of you, and would like to suggest that some of you are missing the point completely.
I grew up with next to nothing. All I had to read at home growing up (in the 80’s and 90’s I might add) were a set of bible books, an encyclopedia set from 1961, and a few Archie comics. Once I was old enough to ride the bus by myself to the public library, it was all Encyclopedia Brown, The Three Investigators, and eventually Doctor Who novelizations. Until high school, Batman was only ever a TV show then a movie. The only access I had to comics was a small spinner at the local grocery store. Since we couldn’t afford them, I never looked at them. I didn’t step into a comic store until my junior or senior year of high school.
It’s VERY easy for me to believe that Puff Homey, or whatever his name is, didn’t know there were black superheroes. A lot of poorer blacks aren’t introduced to comics. Hell, we were lucky if anyone encouraged us to read at all. The important thing is now he knows that there IS a black superhero. At some point, he will either research it on google and find that there we many more, or a friend who happened to see his blog will correct him.
Man, he’s gonna poop himself if the Luke Cage movie ever comes out…
Now i would understand if he would get sorta irritated because the movie is about a superhobo that is coincidental also the first black superhero starring in a movie (This movie generation, remember Steel) but THIS I’m sorry to say is just ignorant, i mean how the heck do you think hard working guys like Powerman and Blade feel like getting ignored this way! Puff Da..Puf..P Did… DUDE come on!
I’m sure Storm is spinning in her…well not in her grave but I’m sure she is spinning. At least i like imagining Halle Berry doing stuff like spinning, jumping…
Now i would go on a rant about the lack of Arabian super heroes but we got the son of Batman so i cant complain… I mean that counts for like at least 15-23 normal guys.
It burns me to say this… it really really does… but Puff has a point. Growing up there WERE black super heroes but to KNOW about them was another thing. I only found out about Black Panther and Cage and Black Lightning MUCH later into my pursuit of comics; they simply weren’t as well advertised or recognizable. Part of the reason it’s so easy for us to say that these comic book characters exist is because they are presently regaining a lot of attention that they simply didn’t have when I was growing up–and I was a constant patron at my comic shop. To say that there was none, is wrong… but to FEEL like there was none? That’s how I felt too.
I gotta agree with Black Reader, Brent and Brother 129. Sure maybe Puffy is kinda out of touch with the comic book world, but hes not 100% wrong. Black superheroes have gone vastly unrepresented, you can state all the black superheores around but they have neither been marketed or publicised as well as any major white superhero. If you want to be historical most black heroes and heroines back then were the arch-type black person who just about agreed with every stereotype out there. SWEET CHRISTMAS!!! Most likely they were probably put onto a team to HAVE a black person. I’m proud to have a black superhero movie out there now too, cause lets face it Spawn sure wasnt one.