Christopher Explains It All

Because I know you don't visit his site, more words of wisdom, this time from The Last Time Priest Discussed The Viability of Black Heroes:

2. white-bashing

Most people want to read comics or see movies or listen to music they can immediately identify with, and I'm guessing a great majority of people who have never even tried PANTHER have an instinctive notion that they will not be able to identify with the character. But people universally identify with Michael Jordan or Michael Jackson or Muhammad Ali.

The problem with race and popular media is this in most every "black" movie or "black street" music CD you'll see or hear, there is some hostility directed towards whites. Now, were I a white male, I certainly wouldn't want to spend eight bucks to go see a film where white males are portrayed as stupid and the butt of every joke, or where I am made to feel guilty about things I had nothing to do with, and prejudices I don't actually have.

That is my pet peeve with a lot of black film and black comedians it's all White People Bashing, and it limits our opportunities. In addition to the assumption that PANTHER may be about dusty hungry kids in the desert, or that the lead character may not be someone the reader can identify with, it is possible we are also burdened with the reflexive instinct that PANTHER— by virtue of its being a "black" book— is somehow hostile to whites.

Yes, well, if I promise to take that to heart, will you consider the following?

4. stupidity

During the "blaxploitation" craze of the 1970's, Marvel and later DC rushed to put out numerous books starring black characters. The problem was not that these books were conceived and written by whites, but that they were, in large measure, written and conceived by whites who apparently had never actually met a black person, but had learned about our culture from, say, the TV show Good Times. 

Most of this stuff was horribly offensive and completely inaccurate. As excited as I was, at 12 or 13, to see black heroes appearing on the stands, I could not for the life of me understand why Luke Cage wanted to wear a chain around his waist and say, "Christmas" all the time.

Dwayne McDuffie has posted the script for Icon #13, which guest-stars Buck Wild, Mercenary Man. Any similarity between Buck and Luke Cage is purely satirical, and not grounds for legal action by Marvel Comics. So nyaaah.