Karate Kid is about to kill, Kill, KILL! Will the Legion stop him in time?
In the city of Metropolis, in the 30th Century, there exists one of the most amazing clubs of all time! Its members are teen-aged youths, each possessing on special super-powers! The club members have vowed to use their fantastic power to battle crime… This rocket-shaped building is the Legion Clubhouse!
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KARATE KID #6
“Showdown With Commander Blud”
January/February 1977
w: David Michelinie (as Barry Jameson)
a: Ric Estrada
Reinforcements arrive from the future… but Karate Kid isn’t happy about it.
SUPERBOY #227
“War At World’s End”
May 1977
w: Gerry Conway
a: Joe Staton
Brainiac 5 Vs. Pulsar Stargrave: The Final Battle!
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7 Comments
Response to an old episode, but I have to disagree with you about the Tyroc story:
1) They said that “a black race” went to Marzal. I don’t think that was supposed to mean “the black race” in the sense of all black people on the planet. Yes, Mike Grell said that all the black people went to Marzal. Mike Grell misread or misremembered.
2) I always thought the reference to blue, green, and yellow people was meant to refer to Chameleon Boy as yellow, not Karate Kid. It’s true that Karate Kid was standing there with Shadow Lass and Brainiac Five, but he wasn’t colored yellow and referring to Asians as yellow people would have been really odd, even for 1976 (and I’m 1) Asian and 2) read this comic in 1976).
So why didn’t we see any black representation until after this story?
There’s no in-story reason for that, same as there’s no in-story reason why Batman can knock out hundreds of people with none of them dying from brain damage, Comics were just like that. I don’t think that line was trying to explain it away.
Here’s the thing: One can easily make that leap without Grell’s input, as I did LONG before reading any background about the character.
A sequence of:
1) No Black people.
2) An island of isolationist Black people.
3) The appearance of Black faces in crowd scenes for the first time.
doesn’t really require a big logical jump to get there. Mileage, as always, will vary on these matters and I appreciate giving benefit of the doubt, but Grell isn’t alone. Shooter and Bates have also voiced concerns with the series of events, with Shooter outright saying “instead of just incidentally having a character who happens to be black…they made a big fuss about it. He’s a racial separatist….I just found it pathetic and appalling.”
Thanks for listening!
Also, there’s no way Karate Kid’s appearance could have been a reference to Jackie Chan. It’s true that Chan was in Bruce Lee’s movies, but he was a stuntman and you weren’t supposed to see him. He did star in a film in 1973, but the film received limited distribution and there’s no way anyone on staff could have either seen it or thought there was any reason to model a character after him. His next starring role was not until 1976.
And finally, when you object to Validus speaking, I have his first appearance in Adventure 352 in front of me. He clearly speaks in complete sentences. Check page 17.
This is true. I stand corrected.