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You're listening to Comedy Central, good

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whisky. Welcome

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to see pe Time, the only show

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that's fuller culture. Today, we'll

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be discussing black superheroes,

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iconic characters like Falcon, war

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Machine, Cyborg, and

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the dude at Churches Chicken who puts onion rings

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in your bag of fries. That

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brother uses his powers for good. Black

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superheroes are not new. In

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fact, they've been squeezing into spandex

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for decades. They didn't as far back

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as nineteen thirty six, when

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cartoonist j Jackson created Speed

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Jackson and the Chicago Defended

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newspaper. Speed Jackson

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was a former track star at Howard University

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who was an excellent fistfighter, which

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may not sound powerful compared

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to today's superhero with their laser

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eyes and sticky spider hands,

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but you have to think about it. Like sports, today's

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best athletes are the pinnacle of human physicality,

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while the best athletes from the nineteen thirties

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were just the ones with the least polio times

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change, Jackson used

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his abilities to fight against fascists during

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the war and right the wrongs

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of a racist society, which

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is tough because superpowers don't help

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when you're fighting systemic racism.

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It doesn't matter if you have the strength of ten men if none

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of those men can get a mortgage. In

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ninety seven, black superheroes

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made the leap from comic script to

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comic book with lion

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Man, a cat themed superhero

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who protected the world's largest uranium

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deposit in Africa's Gold coast.

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Although a cat may not have been the best

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animal to defend the valuable resource. Sure

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cats are fast and agile, but

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you're getting there doing one of those twenty two hours that they're

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asleep, and that uranium is yours.

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Lion Man was created by Oran Evans,

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who intended his comic to counter the racial

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distortion seen in other comics,

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although if he was trying to avoid

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racial stereotypes, I think it's

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fair to say the results were mixed. Look

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at lion Man right there, shirtless

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with the loincloth and an arrow

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through his butt, and somehow

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that is still the least problematic

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character on the cover. Despite

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how it looks today, line Man was

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still groundbreaking as an all

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black, ridden and illustrated comic, even

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if now the cover looks like Tucker Carson tried

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to draw Africa in

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the nineteen seventies, there was an explosion

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of black superheroes, characters

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like Black Lightning, Black Vulcan,

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and Black Goliath. Basically,

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if you were trying to create an African American

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hero in the seventies, you put the word

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black in front of whatever was lying

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around you in the apartment. This

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week, Black Shender Liird battles

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it out against his arch nemesis, Black

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Candy Rapper. But

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the most popular of these superheroes

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was the newest member of the X Men, Storm,

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an African priestess who could control

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the weather to keep the rain from messing up

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her hat. Storm was a landmark

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character for both black and female

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representation in comics, and on top

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of that, she's definitely the best X

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Man. You know him, right, Who's better than

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Storm? Row? What's her power? If

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I hold my boyfriend's hand too long, he'll

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die. Wolverine

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is indeed strong, except for when

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he has to go through t s. A professor

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X can read minds, but that means

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he also sees all the kinkis sex

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stuff. His enemies are thinking. Good

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luck defeating mcneto when you know how much he loves

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feet. But the nineteen nineties

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black superheroes were making it to the big screen.

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Robert Townsend directed The Media

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Man, a film about a mild

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menute teacher who was hit by a radioactive

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media and got superpowers. And

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I'm gonna say it's bold to name

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yourself after the worst thing that's ever

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happened to you. My superhero

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name would be Sheila left him Man

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with the power to eat one whole can

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of tuna over the sink. You

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were right, Sheila, I can't do

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better. Marvel

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bet on Black with the Blade franchise.

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Wesley Snipes starred as a vampire

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hunter to great box office success,

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and Blade was a powerful Mama Gemma.

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He managed to be that cool while

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wearing the same sunglasses as Guy

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Fieri. That's also why

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there's no vampires in flavor toown. Blade

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became a household name and the first

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major theatrical success for Marvel,

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setting off a wave of Marvel films to

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come in the next two decades. Because Wesley

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Snipes proved that no one's powerful

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enough to defeat novel heroes

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except for the I R s. Please

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don't punch me, Westley snaps big

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fan now

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Black superheroes everywhere, even

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taking over the mantle of formerly white heroes.

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We have an African American Green Lantern,

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iron Man, Captain America and

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Spider Man. No black Bruce

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Wayne though that requires too much generational

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wealth. Well that's it for CP

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time. Remember before the

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what's that? It's the CP signal.

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Someone needs a folksy man to come and tell him about

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black history. I'm on my way Florida

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to the see people, Bill. I

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need some gas money for the C people, Bill, Let's take

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letter I can't afford. What's

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the Daily Show? Weeknight Central

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on Comedy Central in stream fool episodes

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anytime on Paramount Plus. This

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has been a Comedy Central podcast