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 😮💨
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.
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.
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).
Frozone
Edit: There’s a 2-year-old thread on that other site that asked the same question and received lots of examples. I get that tropes and stereotypes exist, but I’m not sure black superheroes and lightning fits the bill.
https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/1gpxcn2/black_superheroes_without_electric_powers/
Ink contrast?
Probably not the worst explanation.
That’s high praise on Lenny
Because of Usain Bolt
Probably
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.
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Nice, the first example given was naruto.
The first example given is literally called Black Lightning, but yes, the Naruto universe heads the Anime list
Naruto is spiritually black
Holy shit. How can a dot org site enshittify itself so much?
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And it won’t function if you have AdBlock active. It forces you to allow the ads unless you subscribe.
uBlock Origin, my guy.
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.
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.
about your edit: Posting anything on social media is an invitation to contradict your premise, regardless of how emphatically you say what the real point of your post is.
Wait till you see the red heads being turned into black characters pattern.
The fact that you’re getting so many replies about other characters should be a sign the premise of the question is faulty. You’re asking people to stop giving you examples that contradict your confirmation bias.
It’s not confirmation bias but rather slight functional illiteracy from commenters. The original question is basically asking what’s the connection between black superheroes and having electrical powers; or in other words why is it a trope.
Nowhere in the title or the short note did OP ask people to name black superheroes without electrical powers. He only says that he saw a video that asked people to do that.
Even if you ignore the note, the title itself isn’t asking for examples of exceptions but rather for an explanation. It’s kind of like if someone asked why so many members of Congress are old and white, and the responses were just listing non-white and/or younger representatives.
Except I stated that I know other black characters exist that don’t have lightning powers. I know not all black superheroes have lightning powers but there’s enough of them that I’ve noticed it’s a trope.
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Blade
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.
I think there’s only a handful and can’t really be called a trope when you’ve had just as many examples of black superheroes without lightning powers.
There’s a few white ones too. Thor for example. Shazam. Flash. Wonder Woman
