Title pretty much sums it up. Watched a video recently where someone was asked to name a black superhero that didn’t have lightning based powers and while I could name a few it made me realize just how prevalent the trope is.
But why?
Edit: Y’all I’m not asking for examples of black heroes that don’t have lightning powers. I’m asking why it’s a trope to begin with 😮💨
The question may be better phrased as the complimentary of what you asked.
Not why do all these black superfolk have lightning powers, but instead why are so many superfolk with lightning powers black?
I suspect the answer is kin to why so many characters with fire-themed powers have red hair, or why so many superheroes with facial hair are wizards.
I personally think that it started with the fact that the contrast of the yellow lightning worked really well against black skin in the comics.
Then I’m assuming that it became a trope.
Wait till see red heads being turned into black characters pattern.
… Who besides Wally did that happen to?
Iris West, hawkgirl, jimmy olsen, Starfire, batwoman, Jim Gordon, Mary Jane
That is just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Note I don’t mind them at all changing the race of a character. But swapping gingers for another race just doesn’t seem like progress to me. Just shows they are only willing to make superficial changes. Instead of making awesome characters that just happen to be black or any other race or identity. Them writing a black sidekick or supporting character makes them just one dimensional.
I would like characters of all color, shapes, sexual preferences where their trait they don’t have a choice in becomes their whole personality.
That’s why old school star trek got it. Uhura was not on the bridge to tell black stories. She was there to be apart of the team that just happened to be black. It could have been better in terms of screen time but the core idea is still relevant today. A more modern example of them doing this really right was Brooklyn 99 with Captain Holt. That show showed him being a Captain and a father figure first. Him having a husband and being gay was shown as being what it is, Normal.
That guy from Mystery Men who could turn invisible if nobody was watching… he was black, wasn’t he?
Yes, Invisible Boy was black
Now if that isn’t a great metaphor for institutional racism, I don’t know what is
Except that he was only invisible when nobody was looking at him.
I don’t think clear is a skin color.
Storm (not lightening based, just a part of her power set), Bishop, Cecilia Reyes - just off the top of my head.
I’m not asking for examples of black superheroes who don’t have lightning powers. I’m asking why it’s a trope to begin with.
Yeah, I commented before reading the whole post. Apologies.
Because of Usain Bolt
Probably
This article does a pretty good job of explaining the history of black superheroes with electrical powers.
To summarize, the popularity of Black Lightning along with copyright issues lead to the creation of a few copycat heroes (ex: Black Vulcan in Super Friends, Juice from Justice League Unlimited). There’s also the possibility of electricity being a versatile power and the popularity of Storm from X-men and Static.
Someone in the comments section also noted that it could also be an artistic choice since the colors of electricity would contrast better with black characters than lighter skin characters. That seems like a stretch to me but that is another theory.
A pornstar from my country (decades ago) said that she preferred working with black men because of the contrast on screen. Totally unrelated tidbit, but it makes sense to me that the same goes here.
Big Black Contrast.
New bit idea: guy who insists he doesn’t have any internalized racism to confront, since he doesn’t have a sexual preference for interracial scenes, he simply believes they are better from a composition and cinematography perspective
This sounds like how Bill Maher would say it, immediately followed by like, the most blatant racism.
Great article!
I also think the contrast reason is very plausible for the early designs as colors and contrast are a massive part of design in comics.
Black panther Like Cage Miles Morales Green Lantern
Spawn, Shadowhawk, Bishop, Titan, Cyborg, Deathlok, War Machine, Steel, Blade, Cloak, Falcon, and Sunspot
What’s Misty Knight? Chopped liver?
I did not say this was an exhaustive list. Feel free to add to it.
Miles Morales has the Venom Shock.
Green Lantern can have lightning powers. It would just be green because yellow is evil. 🤷♂️
I’m not asking for examples of black superheroes who don’t have lightning powers. I’m asking why it’s a trope to begin with.
Frozone
Started really with Storm in 1975, although, yeah, her powers are weather control, not specifically lightning, but lightning is definitely her power move.
Before Storm, you had Black Panther, Black Goliath, and Luke Cage, not electrical powers.
But AFTER that…
Black Lightning - 1977
Black Lightning is a great character, but Tony Isabella holds the rights to him so it gets complicated doing stuff with the character.
As a result, you get Black Lightning knock offs that can be used without the rights entanglement.
Black Vulcan - 1977 (Super Friends animation)
Static - 1993 (comics), 2000 (animation).
TV Tropes has an article on this that probably does a better job explaining than I could.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ElectricBlackGuy
Holy shit. How can a dot org site enshittify itself so much?
I don’t think the top level domain of the site has much to do with its platform decay, but yeah the ads are beyond obnoxious.
And it won’t function if you have AdBlock active. It forces you to allow the ads unless you subscribe.
Heh? I’ve never had issues on it with an adblocker.
This is on my phone. I actually don’t have an ad blocker extension installed on this browser, so I assume it’s mad either about me having Firefox set to default to private mode or about me using a VPN.
I’m on FF mobile and can access normally.
Are you using private mode and/or using a VPN?
Nice, the first example given was naruto.
Naruto is spiritually black
The first example given is literally called Black Lightning, but yes, the Naruto universe heads the Anime list
Never heard of this trope.
Off the top of my head: War Machine, Black Panther, Blade, Cyborg, Bishop, Storm,
Spiderman (Miles).The only black comics character with lightning super powers I know is Electro from The Amazing Spiderman who also used to be white in old comics.
Is this really a trope? Can someone name 10 black superheroes with lightning powers?
Edit: Yeah, forgot Miles has some sort of electricity/lightning powers.
Can someone name 10 black superheroes with lightning powers?
Miles Morales / Spider-Man Storm (plus other weather, but lightning is there) Static Shock Black Lightning Thunder Black Vulcan
Off the top of my head, I can only get to six. But I don’t think I could come up with that many white heroes with lightning powers.
Found a list with bunch of superheroes with lighning powers. I see that most of top 10 are black-skinned heroes and heroines. But once you go down, most of them if not all are caucasians.
I feel that it is less of a “black heroes mostly have electrical powers” and more of a “heroes with electrical powers are more likely to be black”.
There is a show on Netflix called Supacell with an all black cast that has characters with all sorts of powers other than lightning.
Ink contrast?
It probably also helps that the dense clouds appear black, and dense clouds mean a more severe storm. I wonder if the ink contrast is more of a perk than the primary reason, compared to darkness being a convenient power metaphor for storms.
It’s really not worth that much thought.
Strong disagree. Prevalent literary tropes are always worth dissecting, because they reveal a lot about the cultures that construct them, and provide us with insights into how to be better people.
In this case, the quantity of black lightning heroes may indicate that non-white skin color is / was perceived as such a defining feature of the character, beyond any potential personality facets, that any other power simply wasn’t considered.
If nearly every white comic hero were The Hulk, it would also be shit, and worth raising questions about.
It’s not prevalent and the hulk is green.
Oh yeah. And it rarely leads to “better people” lol
hulk is green.
That’s Hulk’s brother, Culk.
Probably not the worst explanation.
That’s high praise on Lenny
Hey I watched a video on this years ago :3
I think it basically boiled down to they all have lightning powers, because the first black hero did, and then everyone copied it (and also good contrast or something)
