Why So Many Black Characters Use Electricity

Don't get me wrong, electricity is a cool power, but there are a lot of them...seriously.
Music:
Track 1: Persona 5 OST-Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There
Track 2: Melty Blood Type Lumina OST- Training Stage Theme
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[@MixedUpMedia21]

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[@jordyplaysgamesAUTISMYEET]

don't, they might give us a Black Thor

[@bobbym1799]

Can you please do a video on why are no real Omega Level telepaths because there's a lot of superheroes with lightning power that are black but how many black telepaths are there for real for real when you break it down

[@theparadoxicaltouristtrave9320]

That end where you said should've stayed with black bomber. So cringe I have to slow clap for it.

[@thispersonrighthere9024]

melanin conducts electricity, and that's all i'm going to say.

[@lawrenceesmachiah4557]

Black bomber is the exact opposite of what happened to God the Father, Jesus, the angels and the Jews.(how they are modernly portrayed today)

[@NickTheGreatAndPowerful]

"Because Warner Bros was too cheap to pay royalties to use Black Lightning" wasn't the answer I was expecting, but at the same time, it in no way surprises me.

[@forickgrimaldus8301]

Looks like they can't handle Black Lightning

[@kishiberohan4038]

@@forickgrimaldus8301 oh my god

[@FirstLast-yh7gj]

@@forickgrimaldus8301 lol

[@richmcgee434]

It's even less surprising when talking about the original source of the problem, Hanna-Barbera. The word "cheap" is essentially synonymous with everything that company did.

[@thamisfit333]

Dude, you’re not lying that Tony Rebello guy or whatever his name is he needs to sue the fuck out of them Hanna-Barbera in DC completely screwed him out of a legacy. He could be like Stan Lee for black superheroes.

[@EzraTheEpic]

"Let's just call this trope black lightning because it sound tight" Yeah this is the type of channel I will subscribe to.

[@nameforcomments4092]

He got me at "and he basically was in everything except name. ...and pants." Edit: "Whenever I see it, I shake my head, and my neck hurts." got an actual LOL out of me.

[@sanketvaria9734]

Nah you can't call that, you have to pay the royalties 🤣🤣🤣 call it something else 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@endless2239]

@@sanketvaria9734 chocolate thunder?

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

“The rage of Africa incarnate” - woolie madden

[@thelorddrinian]

So, it’s basically because they didn’t want to pay royalties to one artist….. Wow.

[@Canzary]

As bad as this sounds we dont know the percentage.. If it was anything over like 3-10% at most then it is reasonable to say no. Bear in mind the costs go pretty far in making stuff like this. This dude shouldnt get the whole budget (leading to everyone else like writers and such getting the shitty end of the stick) just because he took a super general power (which is apparently protected under some form of fair use law) and black skin.. Nothing truly inspiring or great there other than his promise to his friends as a kid. If it was some amount that left it to still be a profitable endeavor and they chose this though then thats sad.

[@rosaevee274]

@@Canzary did you watch the video? The character was very well written and not just “black with lightning” in fact the latter is more true of the characters DC created to avoid paying royalties.

[@Fridge_Fiend]

@@rosaevee274 no, Static shock is well written but Black Vulcan and Soul Powers are just copy's because they didn't want to pay royalty's

[@mdemus5472]

Yes... That's basically it. We want to use the original Black Lightning. DC says we aren't going to pay the artist royalties, so we will copy and paste.

[@cristrollelgeekmaster4674]

I'm kinda sad Black Lightning is such an underrated character. The fact that DC didn't want to pay to the creator means that Black Lightning missed the chance to have the popularity he truly deserves.

[@BajanShinobi]

His CW show was dope mostly and him becoming the leader of the Justice League in Young Justice was a super cool moment.

[@umbralember]

@@BajanShinobi It gets a lot of hate which i think is mostly based in prejudice(and having 3 good villains) but honestly to me its fire for the first three seasons, the fourth and last season is mid as all hell though

[@MasterIceyy]

They could do a really cool story, where it's revealed that Black Lightning has had his soul split into all these different heroes, and he needs to collect all these fragments to get his true power back, it would be poetic justice as they're all him just without breaking copyright

[@Nerdgasm13]

im late but i really dont get this,almost everyone i know and in general that watched the arrowverse watched all the shows and blacklightning so what do you mean underrated

[@Ehh97]

I think its actually really sweet that the creator had kept his promise to his black freinds to make more inclusive characters if he ever got into comics. Its a shame he didn't get the royalties he was owed though

[@Bruva_Ayamhyt]

He didn't, but he achieved more than he ever thought possible by indirectly spawning dozens of black superheroes

[@illcarl6651]

He opened the way for us and helped get rid of the black bomber at least that's powerful

[@saaytin]

@@Bruva_Ayamhyt So he got paid in exposure.

[@NoConsequenc3]

@@saaytin for the culture

[@spacecorgi3074]

Something else that's wild to me is that, he vowed to create more black super heroes for his friends, and because he would've had to have been paid royalties for just *one* of the black superheroes he created, it resulted in all these other black super heroes being created instead. Either way, he won! 😂

[@trevorn2969]

The black/yellow color combo is super dope, and yellow is very synonymous with lightning

[@jingbot1071]

Cobra Kai never dies.

[@getaround1276]

Barry bee Benson

[@apathy2454]

Yellow also looks good with the color brown it’s actually one of the best colors

[@rheawelsh4142]

Black and blue too, really just the fact that lightning doesn't look as cool when it's making already white skin brighter

[@CYB3R2K]

You know what it is

[@nuyabuisness7526]

Honestly it's really funny that it's not a case of type casting or actual prejudice, it's just a bunch of different writers that didn't want to pay royalties for the original. Also Static shock was the absolute shit when I was a kid. I freaking loved it and it's probably in my top 3 of superhero shows growing up.

[@IEPerez1994]

Tbf, there is an element of racism behind the logic. You cant help but realise that they cared so little for their black superhero that they would rather just rip themselves off than protect their ip. We ended ip with a tolkien black superhero

[@sirgentlebread7302]

​@@IEPerez1994Nah, creator rights back then and even up to now has always been egalitarian with it's ass fucking

[@himurabattousai8408]

@@IEPerez1994 Maybe in other industries but superhero comics are the gods of ripping off characters in general... The only reason they don't sue is because once someone started, half of everyone's characters would get nuked and then everyone loses money.

[@thatboi134]

⁠@@IEPerez1994Are you not familiar with Marvel and DC, or just in general, comics? Cause once an original character is made, everyone just rips each other off based on that character until it’s hard to even figure out the original. Like with deadpool and deathstroke, aquaman and namor, more obvious who’s the original, but superman and hyperion. These are just a few examples of pretty blatant copies of characters. None of these characters are black and they basically keep their ethnicities. It’s not a race thing, more of just liking a character, ripping it off, and not bothering to change them too much, at least race wise.

[@him1517]

@@thatboi134 I guarantee if it were a white hero they’d have paid for him.

[@Antifrost]

The funny thing about this trope is that electric powers are usually one of my favorites, so I'm usually all for black characters who use it. That being said, it is nuts how many were just direct ripoffs of the ones that came before. Even still, if we eventually got characters like Static, Aqualad, and Miles out of it, it was more than worth it.

[@jajajasputin8927]

Truee

[@HollowMaskYT]

I really love miles morales I know people dont like ultimate spiderman (im talking about the show not the comic), however thanks to that show I knew about the spiderverse, miles morales and miguel o´hara before most people

[@bobbyshewan4229]

@@HollowMaskYTfor me it was a combination of the Beenox-era Spider-Man games (Edge Of Time and Shattered Dimensions), Miles’ suit was a costume in both and Miguel was pretty prominently featured in them to boot. I’m glad USM put ppl on tho

[@Lylybeebee]

@@bobbyshewan4229Wait miles’ suit was an option in shattered dimensions? I thought that game came out before Miles’ debuted

[@cousintrunk]

@@Lylybeebee Pretty sure it wasn't. I don't think Shattered Dimensions had Miles, as that was about a year prior to his comic debut, but Edge of Time definitely did. (At least going off my memory I don't recall a Miles suit)

[@morpheus1345]

I like Static Shock, he's unusually popular in my country because of his animated series, It was really weird when I found out he wasn't as popular in the US as he is in Brazil.

[@Greedyshitholebastard]

Did you know that the largest building in the world wouldn’t even touch the bottom of the ocean?

[@Sorrelhas]

SBT really is responsible for a lot of things being super popular in Brazil for no reason lmao But yes, I am Brazilian and I have fond memories of Static Shock

[@FloresRain]

Everyone my age knew Static Shock but it never picked up after that. I think they dismiss this hero because it stereotypes the hood.

[@AtomicF0x]

@@Greedyshitholebastard Well, I'm white and my brothers and I liked Static Shock. Vergil is just a cool character who _happens_ to be black.

[@serenityq26]

interesting

[@KELSO2TIMES]

I’ve met Tony Isabella back in 2018 and his reason he says for creating BL was because his black friend in college was attacked wrongly by the police and put in the hospital so Tony told his friend he wanted to create a hero dedicated to him

[@jasonedenburg9427]

Great now I'm fucking sadder he didn't get any royalties 😭

[@arsilent5038]

I'm South African and growing up I noticed these very same similarities, funny enough I created my own version of a superhero and gave him electrical powers. Not once did I begin to notice that this was a trope, I kind of felt that having electrical power as a black person would differentiate myself from white superheroes. I felt that having electrical powers was the best thing instead of being like Superman who have super strength, speed and all these other things. Superintelligence was also something I felt was rather cliche so instead I looked at electrical powers as being the best.

[@suzygirl1843]

Load shedding

[@arsilent5038]

@@suzygirl1843 so, here's my gig. He (my electrical powered hero), would find a team of local scientist, to build the legendary self sustaining battery (theoretically built by Nicola Tesla), build it to mega size (it's comics, they'd do that easy), then he'd use his power to charge the battery to max capacity. The government being d**** would try to stop the project but they'd give in swing the true benefits. The power source would expand into Africa and begin economic liberation... 😢 Any comic writers in the comments, I have a feeling this story would fly.

[@Human_traain]

@@arsilent5038 don't go with corporates but instead get yourself a team

[@arsilent5038]

@@Human_traain a team you say? Bet. I have MANY ideas, concepts and quite literally an entire world to build. I just don't know where to start.

[@Human_traain]

@@arsilent5038 start in the beggining get your favorite character start with their origin and slowly built your lore (also go rear other comics and listen to the critique other people have on certain comics and learn from your mistakes

[@mr.incorporeal7642]

I love that the later seasons of Young Justice finally got around to having a mentor/mentee relationship between Virgil / Static and Jefferson / Black Lightning. Not just due to it being a long time coming, but also because of how well it played into the show's overarching theme of inter-generational responsibility. Arthur Curry voluntarily passing the mantle of Aquaman to Kaldur'ahm was another good example of that theme.

[@mimo__.-]

Dude it's been so long since I watched young justice and I never noticed it was static shock!!!

[@mr.incorporeal7642]

@@mimo__.- Yeah, they had a bunch of Dakota Comics characters scattered throughout. Static, Rocket, Icon, etc.

[@iminumst7827]

I think visually too it's complimentary. Think about how much comic books were based on dark ink and harsh contrast, just the style alone was unfavorable to darker skin tones. But if the super hero's ability produces light, it allows them to be constantly lit by sharp edge lighting. Contrast is a powerful tool, and it's why that CGI final showdown in Black Panther looked visually terrible, it was black dudes fighting in black CGI suits in a black CGI background, the action was so hard to understand. This concept of contrasting a black character against light colors goes beyond lightning, Pixar's Frozone comes to mind. So does the white accented original costumes of DC's Cyborg and Marvel's Falcon. So I think the gravitation towards something like electricity has partially to do with color theory.

[@jdajayi92]

Thank you!! That's more-than-likely 90% of the reason. Art is still art at the end of the day

[@magic8ball237]

@@jdajayi92 Don't underestimate the urge of big companies to save a penny by exploiting someone else's work.

[@Akoalawithshades]

I was going to say the exact same thing. Red is too evil with black Green just makes you think poison or plants ... so the obvious powers would be lame. Pink is girly Purple is girly Orange and black blend to make chocolate. You're basically left with blue or yellow. And electricity is obviously the first thing you'll think of. Then ... after that ... everyone copies.

[@vaiyt]

But why it's gotta be electricity and not anything else that generates light?

[@corey2232]

To expand on this even further, it explains why I've always thought black people can pull of white suits (or tuxedoes) way better than white people can. They make it look sharp & dignified, where white guys in white suits look either like a villain or just cheesy. Saying this is as a white guy, so it just may just be my own bias.

[@andreas8488]

Also Miles Morales has electricity powers.

[@kadegetslaid634]

Kinda but yeah

[@dragon_ninja_2186]

Yeah he already said that.

[@alienalchemist]

Spider-Punk is black and has electric guitar.

[@kadegetslaid634]

@@alienalchemist 💀

[@thedude8457]

Venom blasts

[@fealubryne]

I adored Storm as a kid because she was a fairly rare (in my limited experience) black female superhero. The funny thing is, the part I connected to the most about her was her wind powers, not her lightning. For some reason that's been one of my favorite powers ever since, though I was obsessed with Static Shock too.

[@mystii8134]

I just looked her up and woah her design is gorgeous, I also love the idea of wind powers something about it just makes a character seem more carefree and fun

[@Torsion]

Growing up in the 90s, enjoying the X men cartoon and not reading comics religiously due to being lower-middle class and growing up way out in rural America, I always thought she was Egyptian, instead of Black. My brain also glossed over Jubilation Lee's Asian heritage. Maybe it just wasn't important to my brain, but I also remember being like "holy crap they've always been black [or asian?!]" and laugh to myself

[@ChaosDesigned]

@@Torsion o.o; What 'race' do you think Egyptians are...? Cause.. Just to let you know. They're black. Egypt is in Africa.. That's the homeland of blackness., its the Europe to whiteness.

[@mortiferamorphasmus]

@@Torsion As a clarification, Storm's father is from Harlem in the US. Storm's mother is from Kenya. They moved to Cairo Egypt and died there. Storm lived as a pick pocket until her powers developed she left Cairo and travelled to the Serengetti where she lived as a goddess until joining the X-Men

[@Torsion]

@ChaosDesigned keep in mind that these were things my brain decided as a child, not really making the Egypt is in Africa connection. Even then, I'd say they're more Mediterranean/Middle Eastern than "Black?" I'll admit though, it probably had more to do with her skin tone and straight hair more than anything. If she would've had curls in her hair for the 90s cartoon, maybe I would have realized it sooner? Not saying that all Africans have curly hair, but as a generalized trait in [US] media, kind of? Especially since I don't equate a street rat and thief to having very good hygiene/beauty routine ... so natural hair instead of the straight hair probably just led to the assumption.

[@jojomarshall6465]

I’m glad that in young justice we got to see them together and black lightning is a super important part of the show as well

[@MixedUpMedia21]

Black lightning is definitely one of my favorite characters in the show

[@minisarge2619]

Finally, right?

[@anthonyvillanueva5226]

To be fair, Shocker's thing even in Homecoming isn't electricity. It's sonic shockwaves, and in Homecoming powered up punches as a result of scavenging Crossbones's tech.

[@DaviRBify]

O he confused Shocker with Elektro.

[@TommyLaoGanMa]

Shocker has to be the comic character that people get the powers wrong the most lmao very common mistake

[@evan6338]

@@DaviRBify he mentions Electro in practically the same sentence.

[@togucvinw7]

@@DaviRBify even electro is white in the comics

[@clamar3238]

So what’s your justification for everything else?

[@kirbybirb253]

This is so funny to me because I'm basically this trope but for a completely different reason I wanted electrical superpowers as a kid and that made me start studying physics to learn how electricity worked And here I am now majoring in physics because electromagnetism is badass

[@skremblo]

Are magnet just electric gravity 🤔

[@kirbybirb253]

@@skremblo Not really. Both gravity and electromagnetism are two of the 4 fundamental interactions, but they work differently. For one, electromagnetism is carried by the photon, but we haven't found a "graviton" yet if it exists. Electromagnetism is also far stronger than gravity, it's just that gravity doesn't cancel itself out. There's no negative or positive gravitational pole so the force doesn't "loop" back in on itself like a magnet would.

[@jameswtlocs]

@@kirbybirb253 could there possibly be a "negative" gravity to the "positive"???

[@kirbybirb253]

@@jameswtlocs Not quite. The thing about gravitational fields is they extend effectively forever. What allows gravity to reach so far even though it's the weakest force is the fact that there's no negative gravity. All magnets we know to exist are north-south dipoles, meaning every magnet cancels out its own field, and electricity has positive and negative charges so that every negative charge in the universe has a positive one to cancel it out. But gravitational dipoles don't exist in such a way. Gravity is _always_ an attractive force generated by mass. Now, in theory, matter may exist that has negative mass, and objects with negative mass _would_ theoretically generate a repulsive gravitational field. But nothing has been observed to have negative mass, and if it did it would be *really* weird because of the properties matter with negative mass can be expected to have.

[@jameswtlocs]

@@kirbybirb253 wow that's the coolest thing I've ever heard. I can imagine making characters from this information. What are the main forces of the known universe thus far?

[@IAM-nb4yk]

I heard this discussion before, but in a different retrospect. The consensus was that lightning was highly conducted through melanin. I don't know how true that is scientifically, but I shrugged it off. I liked your breakdown

[@MixedUpMedia21]

Well I appreciate you watching the video. I also saw people say that it was because the color of lightning contrasts nicely against brown skin. I think “Black Lightning is cool” is probably the best explanation tbh lol

[@joshtowers6102]

That actually is true

[@heregoesfranklin5962]

It’s true… Interesting thing about that… Scientists have been studying how to use melanin to create cybernetic organisms, which points to another trope I’ve seen… cybernetic black characters…

[@cosmicquestion9184]

Well, it's better than fire control because then they'd say "He's black because of the fire." 😂

[@danpatrickth2759]

I know alot of black consciousness groups are going to say "the black man is god" rhetoric...🤷‍♂️😏

[@Ze_N00B]

I think part of its commonality is that brown as a color is actually just a really dark orange, which is on the opposite side of the color wheel compared to blue, the color most people associate with electricity. As such, the motif of blue electricity on a person with brown skin would make an appealing contrast, especially compared to characters with lighter skin tones such as Raiden (Mortal Kombat) or Thor (Marvel), where such effects are either really subdued or exaggerated since they have a harder time distinguishing themselves from the skin tone in an effective and visually pleasing manner.

[@jjju3]

its so funny this happened _completely_ on accident. with every other "trope" related to black people they all feel like theyre rooted in some deep seeded racism or fetishization or stereotype or something, but this is literally just "we kept ripping ourselves off so much it became a trope." a buy and large completely harmless trope.

[@hypno5690]

"with every other "trope" related to black people they all feel like theyre rooted in some deep seeded racism or fetishization " dude get off the internet your brain is rotting

[@karithema9ician657]

Even the same colors in 🤦🏾‍♂️😂😂😂 Blue and yellow costumes 🔥👀

[@DeanCubed]

In this case even trying to frame it as a stereotype is laughable. "You know those black people, always plugging things in, and uhh, generating static with friction!"

[@MK_ULTRA420]

@@DeanCubed Clearly the Moonwalk was just a way for black people to generate static with style.

[@d4nniedark0]

because this trope is so widely used it feels a little racist to still willingly add to it when writing a black character. For example; Miles Morales started out with a nerve touch ability that would “shock” enemies then as he got more popular and was being adapted theyve given him full electric powers shooting bolts from his hands making him Marvels equivalent to static shock.

[@darkservantofheaven]

even in african myth there is a vampiric being called the Impunduluu or Ishilogoo.....its a south african or zulu concept. It translates to, (sigh) Lightning Bird) it can take the form of either a giant bird of prey, small bird of prey, a human with avian features (or bird/human hybrid) or a handsome young african man. He is often the lover, protector and familier of a witch in zulu folkore. as this vampire's name suggest, it has control over thunder and lightning along with its avian features.....accusations of this creature exist even to this day.... even as vampires, we still have electrical abilties.

[@MixedUpMedia21]

Woah, that’s really interesting! Thanks for sharing, seriously

[@xocolatl3682]

Like thunder bird....

[@yesmansam6686]

That's pretty cool actually. I'm trying to read up more on African myths myself. You have recommendations on reading material?

[@13KuriMaster]

Guess if DC ever wanted to give some sort of in-universe reason why so many of their dark-skinned super heroes have electrical powers... that could be used as a starting point.

[@emmanuelbangalika527]

@@yesmansam6686 can't recommend a book. But for gods and stuff, read up on the 'orishas', the anansi stories and all the Egyptian stuff. For mythological creatures,.I'll just list off a few. IMPUNDULU, Nyami Nyami and Tokoloshe for a start.

[@darkservantofheaven]

I'll admit, Im guilty of this too. I wasnt even aware of these of most of chareacters when I was in high school and started writing for fun. I was thinking about a black martial artist whos QI manifest as electricity in his fist (similar to Kazuya Mashima from Tekken) or can channel is electrical looking Qi into a sword or something. (even had his cornrowed hair glow for a second or two when he charges the power similar to Godzilla's dorsal spine when hes about to use his radioactive breathray.....) But when I saw so many of these chareacters, I was like "yea, I better not...pretty unoriginal, pretty cliche, not to mention...I could get sued" might just change it to blue flame and stick with the Godzilla inspiration

[@MixedUpMedia21]

In all honesty, most of the characters in the video are cool. So if your character looks better with lightning, go for it. Your idea sounds pretty damn awesome either way, especially channeling the energy in his spine like Godzilla.

[@landonaustin6623]

I swear l never thought of it when I made my character either I just thought electricity powers were cool.

[@hayothegunosaurus]

that sounds awesome

[@jms7265]

Better copyright some of your ideas especially if you plan on doing something big with it.

[@landonaustin6623]

@@jms7265 how would I go about that?

[@kennethferland5579]

I think the strongest Black Hero archetrype has historically been John Henry the Steel driving man, it's a piece of universally known American folk lore that every comic book creator will know. From him we derived tropes of Black heros associated with metal and hammers, the most blatant being Steel. From this we derived characters such as Cyborg who is one of the most recognizable black super heros today due to the massive popularity of Teen Titans. The overall pattern you have black characters assosiated with technology a trend we see continued in the Black Panther movies and Wakanda. This is likely that folks are trying to go 180 degrees away from anything which would seem like pritimivism which would draw a comparison with racist tropes.

[@minisarge2619]

Holy crap can we see the paper that I really hope you'll write because that is such an interesting idea!

[@greenbee09]

Um, hell yes. Excellent write-up, thank you!

[@Nagasakevideo]

I will say, when it comes to storm, her powers aren't exclusively electricity. She can control weather in general which includes electricity but also includes a lot more than that.

[@Harlem1mentality]

Yes but she used lightening more then anything else.

[@brooklyngray1527]

🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓

[@dieptrieu6564]

@@Harlem1mentality Cause lightning is powerful and cool

[@sulisuli35]

@@brooklyngray1527 what’s that supposed to mean

[@Stylez-13]

The best example is Black Adam 😁

[@revoltpuppy]

I love the dry sense of humor behind this, and it's kinda cool that the answer isn't just "flat-out racism" for once.

[@genericyoutubeuser8957]

The answer very rarely is "flat-out racism".

[@ashleyhoughton8592]

Though unsurprising that the second answer was 'corporate greed' cause they just didn't want to pay royalties.

[@cdw2468]

@@genericyoutubeuser8957 define “rarely”

[@genericyoutubeuser8957]

@@cdw2468 I'm not going to engage with someone whose handle supports a violent mass murder.

[@cdw2468]

@@genericyoutubeuser8957 it’s a joke, and not at all a reason to not engage with someone about racism. what’s more likely is that you realize you don’t know what you’re talking about or you’re too much of a coward to stand behind your true beliefs so you’ve tried to find an excuse to not say them

[@kr6productions]

This became more insane as the video went on but the Village Hidden in the Cloud members was the icing on the cake. 😂😂. It's insane how it's now just a subconscious or purposeful combination that's made

[@DevinParker]

*Of course* it was because DC didn’t want to pay royalties to an artist. I should have known… I’m glad that as a Gen X kid in the late 70s my first superhero comic was an issue of Black Lightning that I got at a 7/11 as a treat during a family road trip. It had a compelling story that dealt with BL trying to balance his double life, and even though he beat the villain by the end, his mentor who was like a father to him was killed, so the ending was bittersweet. It sold me on the idea that superhero comics could tell “serious” stories. Good stuff!

[@jadedcode8953]

Whoever thought Black Bomber was a good idea, I wonder what they're doing in life now 🤔

[@MixedUpMedia21]

I wish I knew who’s idea it was but I’ve never been able to find the specifics lol

[@esean1]

@@MixedUpMedia21 It was longtime DC editor and writer Bob Kanigher, well-known as a writer on SGT. ROCK, THE METAL MEN and Silver Age WONDER WOMAN among others.

[@OMARIONNELSON-o9n]

Wasn’t it originally brown bomber and it was a white guy who had the powers of a black man

[@Afterlord2]

Damn I literally never noticed this. Static shock, storm, yoruichi, the whole village hidden in the clouds. Darui was one of my favorite characters and I thought the fact that he had the special tattoo and used lightning that was different to everyone else's was really unique. It kind of cheapens the experience knowing the characters I love have roots in literally hana-barbera being too cheap to pay for a character.

[@tpsam]

Even in One Piece eneru is designed after Eminem who is white but as black as any white man can be

[@tpsam]

And now on some degree black Adam can be added to the list

[@karithema9ician657]

@@tpsam wow that’s crazy

[@pebblebrookbooks4852]

Ya let's be clear - Hanna Barbera is not really racist - they're just cheap af.

[@107Pedro]

Was reading black clover today, there's a character thats a gyaru(japanese that tan and are the closest we get to black people most times in manga) whats her magic? Electricity lol

[@Daragausthedragon]

When the black lightning show came out I was really confused because I only ever knew static shock. I legit thought they were the same character until I looked deeper. That’s what led me into the long list of black electric characters

[@geoffreybark4]

The lore goes deeper. The Cloud village in Naruto is a place where lightning chakra is very common. It’s also the village where the show’s most iconic black characters come from.

[@bluespaceman7937]

Right, but I am sure the creator had to know at least a little about American Superheroes from comics and cartoons to make that connection, unless it was an accident.

[@DeathRex88]

I always thought that black + electricity powers came to be trying to create a "Urban" powerset. Growing up in a city the idea of electric powers always appealed to me as I could easily imagine using such a power to its fullest in my environment. Edit: a lot of folks I speak comics with who didn't grow up either in a city or enjoying those specific characters tend to favor different powersets, even among just elemental stuff.

[@LegendStormcrow]

I think it's because there already were a lot of heroes that had fire, or even ice powers. Water was rare, but not unknown, but electricity was only ever used in villains.

[@jasonreed7522]

I agree, especially when you consider how many electrical powers require charging up from an outside source it becomes most practical in a city where the grid is everywhere. (I cam just imagine a joke like in Spiderman homecoming where he couldn't swing across the field, where the electric hero has to lure the villain towards a transmission line just to use his powers again). Basically its like how plant growth/manipulation or speak with animals is most useful in rural areas where the "fuel" of your powers is. (Although speak with animals in a city would still work out well as pidgeons and seagulls are everywhere and probably have seen alot)

[@ChaosDesigned]

The power types also have personalities connected to them too, like The Superman powerset, Speed/Strength, or Strength/Invunerable has a personality typecast to it and is almost always given to the white male subset and then spunoff to everyone else later Ala Captain Marvel or Black Atom. But Electricity always has this lowkey subtle but powerful far reaching feel, that is good for black characters. Its not often you see a Main character in American comics with flame powers, as usually the more raw destructive powers are left to badguys. Eletricity is pretty versatile.

[@wolfgang8391]

I think this is really accidental in nature. Like an English teacher trying to cram a metaphor in every page... however, it does work. Electricity would be a cool power regardless. Though I love how comic creators forget just how deadly and powerful lightning truly is.

[@NotEvenOverThere]

@@jasonreed7522 rats too, can't forget the rats possums and dogs, if you can talk to animals a pack of st Bernards at your whim is pretty deadly

[@edwardwatson1208]

I hadn't heard of Black Bomber until today, so thank you for sharing that comic book tidbit. Yeah, thank goodness his character didn't see the light of day, or else there would have been turmoil amongst many comic book fans.

[@saintzeroinfinity]

Black bomber would have a disturbingly effective super villain for black lightning.

[@OnlyMarvelSnap]

Would’ve been terrible lol

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

The great late Dwayne McDuffie wrote a hilarious parody of the situation but dc censored it

[@meijinx9673]

Honestly, I'm black and electricity is my favorite elemental power. Other black people might have a problem with having so many black characters with electric powers. I love it. Dairui is one of my favorite naruto characters simply because he's black and uses black lightning. Idgaf

[@UrScum]

Dairui is truly that nigga, the whole cloud village is so raw

[@ChaseBlackmoon]

I agree, I'm off white (Slavic and Persian ancestry) but think electrical powers are awesome, being able to shoot a bolt of lightning, what's not to like? You could also just make a static field to mess up electronics.

[@Zyocuh]

Darui

[@Reverend_Salem]

@@ChaseBlackmoon or depending on control use it to fly using earth's magnetic field.

[@kurokaizen1889]

@@UrScum 🤦🏾‍♂️

[@marsmech]

I can attest to static shock being a amazing amazing cartoon. so good that I have no idea why more isn't done with the character.

[@ohishwaddup]

Gen Z is just gonna call him a Miles Morales knock off 😭

[@midnighthydro7434]

He does appear in young justice though! He also has a mentee/mentorship role with black lightning in the show!

[@90LiLKing]

@@ohishwaddup gen z watched static shock stupid

[@johnnojojack-exe]

At first, I thought it was going to be based on offensive stereotypes or because the historical racial struggles in the US --> (Black Power --> power being related to electricity) but it was actually because DC and HB didn't want to pay royalties for Black Lightning so now we just have a lot of copies of Black Lightning. Since this history is very obscure, from the perspective of the commonfolk, it started to look like a trope to use and to poke fun of. That's pretty funny.

[@Naomi-xu4hq]

Most tropes honestly come from copies. There are so many redhead female superhero’s that can read minds/move things with their mind as a copycat from Jean grey

[@gelinrefira]

Haha if there is another thing that motivates America other than racism, it will definitely be refusing to pay people what they are owed.

[@Focusing-profit]

Crazy thing is DC comic made A successful son (static shock) but he never got to meet his Dad (Black lighting) 😂😂

[@t850terminator]

Meanwhile Superman, Shazam, Captain Marvel, and Miracleman/Marvel Man

[@cyborgchicken3502]

Super heroes are built off a lot of tropes and even villains, look at how many copies of Venom there are, and Venom's design itself is based off an earlier indie comic character called Grendel which released by Darkhorse in the early 80s, look how many super heroes have the power of flight, or a healing factor... Wolverine, Hulk and Deadpool pretty much have the same healing factor....I don't think it's a racist trope at all because the same trope exists among non black super heroes too....and there are white super heroes that have electrical powers too like Thor

[@thunder6434]

(For context, I'm not black) I never really noticed this but looking back this was weirdly common. Me and my childhood friend (who was black) used to write stories about ourselves and our classmates as superheroes. Whenever I asked him what superpower he wanted me to write him with, his first answer was always electricity. I don't think he was even aware of a lot of these characters since he was more of a Marvel fan, which makes it even more weird to me. Because of this I think it may just be a really weird coincidence with some of these characters having the same powers, besides Black Lightning and all his copies.

[@Harlem1mentality]

Hmmm honestly It may not be that deep. I imagine the the thought process in the 1970’s was more literal than anything else. Black power was a huge back then. All the young black people an cool Black people were saying it. Black power hmmm what is black power? Electricity that’s power. When we don’t have electricity we don’t have power. But when we do it’s black power electricity. Lmao that’s what i think happened

[@fascilime]

I think it's just coincidental because lightning powers are just really cool

[@blanktrigger8863]

I don't think it's a coincidende. It's more like an odd cultural thing that nobody notices.

[@r3ady780]

@@blanktrigger8863 honestly i think it's coincidence. I don't see how your skin color affects a superpower you think of

[@blanktrigger8863]

@@r3ady780You said skin color. By trying too hard not to be racist you expose your racism. Has nothing to do with my comment.

[@spectre9340]

The whole time I was also kinda thinking they do the same with really pale characters that have ice powers. Aside from Frozone from The Incredibles, most ice-powered characters I've seen have been fair-skinned with platinum blond hair. With the whole black characters with electricity trope, I think another factor to consider as well would be aesthetics since the contrast between the dark skin tones and the lightning looks so good.

[@ReblazeGaming]

That's similar but idk if it's the same. That is designing characters based on the properties of their powers, not that they give ice powers to white people. Ice powered characters may be pale skinned or literally white coloured because of the connection to ice and snow as being white and how being cold makes you pale. They also often have blue skin. Also I'd say ice characters are more likely to have white hair, not blonde hair due to the snow connection. But there isn't really a connection between the aesthetics/ properties of lightning and black skin/ people.

[@piusdoe8984]

Man ddnt pay attention to the video at all.. yah. Aestheticis aight

[@bearman_1826]

That's true. Yellow and black just go well together.

[@WingXCustom]

Yeah, but Frozone doesn't count. That was a Disney movie for kids.

[@mpratt69]

@@ReblazeGaming what's "logical" about ice powers giving white hair? I think that's a pretty fair comparison that it's also based on aesthetics in a similar way. It only seems logical because they made it a trope. Your argument is similar to saying Wendy's beef patties don't look right. It's not logical.

[@dragowolf268]

As a black kid i still love lightning powers

[@MixedUpMedia21]

Same here

[@ODSTWhiteout]

I agree

[@NightmarePoliceX]

I have always loved lightening powers even before I realized alot of black heroes is shown with this ability, pretty cool.

[@codysmith8639]

My username is Greenthunder and I’m black. Never even knew

[@El_Donahuego]

Other than intellectual property rights, I think from an aesthetic perspective, black and yellow, and black and blue just look good together. Whether you start out wanting to make a black hero or an electric hero, blue and yellow look good with dark skin tone and outfits.

[@chairwood]

ya, uhuh, u kno wat it is

[@MelodiousThunk]

Surely fire is the most obvious yellow thing that a Black superhero could control though? Other obvious choices include lava and sand (ok, sand doesn't emit light, but I'm sure they could make it look good if they really wanted to). I suspect that the electricity trope is more to do with a lack of imagination than anything else. Blue and yellow aren't the only colours that look good on dark skin either. E.g. a well chosen shade of green can look at least as good as blue, so control of plants or dangerous green reptiles (crocodiles, some snakes, etc.) would be another obvious superpower choice. Or for a really strong colour contrast, why not give a dark-skinned Black superhero control over white things, like light, snow, ice, skeletons or ghosts? I mean light in general, not just lightning. E.g. a superhero who could bend light or alter its speed or colour would be a powerful illusionist.

[@pastoryoda2789]

True

[@noidsuper]

Bruh black looks good with everything

[@valhatan3907]

@@noidsuper yeah, on design color theory I was in, black is one of neutral color that got along with other color fine, in some saturation of course. But, having black alongside with white in the color scheme is crucial. Idk what i'm talking about at this point the more I read it.

[@quentinjones6877]

I always had a thing for electricity powers, from playing games with Jin in tekken to Cole in infamous. At this point if I could make my own character, I wouldn't know what to give him, I'm constantly looking up different powers

[@Hardmanferdead]

Sailor Jupiter is one of my favorite electric powered characters. Psionics is another favorite power set of mine.

[@quentinjones6877]

@@Hardmanferdead I'm starting to get into psionic powers too, like telepathy

[@noctisastrum7495]

@@quentinjones6877 maybe the character has plasma powers or controls crystals

[@quentinjones6877]

@@noctisastrum7495 who?

[@noctisastrum7495]

@@quentinjones6877 I meant that the character you're working on could use those powers, sorry I worded that weirdly

[@jairusjackson7799]

Sometimes in TV & Movies it's a joke electricity makes hair frizzy. I always assumed they did due to that connection, and the fact the color yellow looks good on brown skin and that goes into a lot of their outfits.

[@KnightLineArtYT]

I know they updated Miles' powers to not be an insta win with the Venom Shock(based on The paralyzing sting of a Spider-Bite, similar to 2099's literal paralyzing Spider-Bite and Organic Webs), cause it did make his fights boring in the comics compared to Insomniac or Verse. But I feel like Acid would be a bit more fitting for a Bug-Themed Hero than electricity. Storm on the other hand, is my favorite X-Men character, and I'm glad she's at least a much more well rounded powerset wise, using Wind, Water and Ice alongside the Electric powers.

[@falkyrie5228]

Holy shit, DC. Just pay the man his royalties!

[@GoodnightIrieMon]

He sure checkmated DC. The more DC refuses to pay him, the worse they look.

[@joelpartee594]

Seems to have been resolved - Isabella returned to DC to write a Black Lightning story in 2017, and recently had a cameo on the TV show.

[@k9commander]

@@joelpartee594 Do you know which episode?

[@joelpartee594]

@@k9commander The Book of War: Chapter Three: Liberation (Season 3 Episode 16) as "Judge Isabella".

[@k9commander]

@@joelpartee594 Thanks.

[@amirmoradi9595]

Static shock was an amazing show. Loved watching it on Saturday mornings as a kid. I also distinctly remember that being where I learned what dyslexia was through the character rubber band man.

[@noremac7216]

I think it's just Black lightning was one of the earliest arguably mainstream black superheroes that was allowed to be black, as an actual part of his character. Essentially he created an archetype

[@mikevignola4213]

The first black superhero wad going to be a Caucasian that turned black as a superhero transformation. Thankfully more sensible people made the final decisions there. That was the brown bomber pitch, fortunately we got black lighting instead.

[@piusdoe8984]

This man just made video with facts on this sht. And we gonna go with "I think this is why" man no wonder fake news spreads so quick

[@noremac7216]

@@piusdoe8984 this isn't an award-winning biopic my dude. It was a really good video that I enjoyed but yes I feel like as someone who has been reading comic books for literal decades I do possess the knowledge to weigh in on the subject. What are you 12?

[@OhitsONnow]

Its a youtube video man, its not the be-all end all. Guy listened to the video, had his own thoughts and put them down, open for discussion. There's nothing wrong with that. and why is everybody in this comment section so touchy? Anyway I agree Noremac out here, I think it was just an archetype that was created. Alongside what was said in the video, these guys are companies and what they had was a template that was proven to work and more importantly not tick anyone off, so they made more of it. Could've been more forays into different powers but could've felt too risky. In the design process there could've been all kinds of decisions left unsaid. The contrast point people are bringing up is plausible too. It might be an archetype or a cliche, but there's nothing wrong about it, characters are made out of them

[@Gimosknight]

@@piusdoe8984 The video's conclusion is simply "DC started it." Try critically thinking and you'll realize this comment and the video are in agreement.

[@MarlonDeathboy]

I'm a black comic writer and artist currently working on a new fantasy comic series titled "Nightshade". It's about a group of high schoolers that encounter the forces of evil through events and must find their way to overcome each event. Witches, vampires, demons, and other forces of darkness are apart of these encounters, and these mortal high schoolers are forced to battle them without any supernatural abilities to aide them.

[@aldiascholarofthefirstsin1051]

Ok... what is the point of this comment?

[@travisfields157]

​@@aldiascholarofthefirstsin1051That none of his heroes will have electricity powers.

[@joshwist556]

@@travisfields157The black character proceeds to tase a villain.

[@snkybrki]

#ad

[@ODSTWhiteout]

Cool story bro

[@ShrubRustle]

I feel like it wouldn't be..... ENTIRELY impossible to make Black Bomber interesting and thoughtful..... but i think it would take a miracle of writing, honestly

[@TheRealPunkachu]

I agree but it’s also just NOT representation lol.

[@minerman60101]

Is there any character that couldn't be made interesting and thoughtful with sufficiently good writing? Granted, that description puts no upper bound on the quality of writing necessary to do so.

[@retrospace2150]

Black bomber is a crazy name too

[@jeremycards]

I don't think it would be THAT hard, just make him have a huge existencial crisis at having to live as a black man from time to time and experience the racism that he himself causes. But yeah it wouldn't be representation, and comics at that time were DEFINETLY not on the level of handling such a topic correctly. But nowadays a good writter could make it work easily, just watch the episode where Johnny Bravo turns into a woman.

[@REDDAWNproject]

Black bomber would honestly be a really interesting character to try to pull off. it probably wouldn't work, but it would be a super interesting challenge.

[@caldw615]

I find it funny that a few of these are instances of other characters being changed to a black character later but keeping the same electric powers. The Doctor in Dead by Daylight was originally supposed to be a Chinese man heavily inspired by the real world doctor Yang Yongxin, a controversial doctor who performed electro shock treatment on kids and teenagers to try get rid of internet/video game addiction. The Chinese DBD playerbase was asked about killer idea suggestions and they came up with the idea of a killer doctor who used shock therapy based on Yongxin. Hence when The Doctor was thought up he was paired with a survivor who was a pro video game player to make if thematic. However the design was changed to distance the character from the real life inspiration because the Yongxin was still alive unlike previous IRL killer inspirations (The Clown and John Wayne Gacy) so probably to avoid legal issues and potential lawsuits they changed him to a black doctor called Herman Carter that worked for the FBI as an interogator during the cold war. So he wasn't designed to be a black character with electric powers but they wound up making one anyway.

[@Vyomesh839]

Same thing with Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Electro is a white guy in the comics, but Jamie Foxx is Black, so by changing the race they inadvertently contributed to this, which is hilarious to me.

[@jevonsims900]

Why black though? That's another common Anime Manga trope of making an evil character have a darker completion when he/she turns evil.

[@Magnet_Chaos]

@@Vyomesh839 Not only that. But Elctro is a ginge in the comics.... Before going bald. So they also added to the trend of race swaping ginger character as blacks.

[@honeyham6788]

@@Magnet_Chaos thats because Gingers tend to have similar problematic stereotypes in media as black people. Hyper-sexual people that are quick to anger and have aggressive personalities. See common similarities between the black Jezebelle trope and the Fiery Redhead trope. All very common stereotypes of the Irish as well as black people, so all the story tropes and writing habits that you can slap onto one character, they can easily slap on the other

[@trollge3712]

@@jevonsims900 he was gonna be an evil character already in this case

[@GeneralTheGuy]

I remember really loving static shock as a kid, kinda wish he'd come back to the limelight.

[@pengwin_]

its apparently in development.

[@afterthought6889]

i really loved all the future Static appearances in the Batman Beyond / Justice League (was it?) crossover episodes

[@EverythingInTheFrame]

He’s basically dcs answer to miles morales so with his recent popularity we will probably see Static Shock show up again

[@carcosanative666]

Me as a writer who never really knew this was a trope: *Fuck, I need to change her Powers now.*

[@pathevermore3683]

0:53 to be fair to BL, electricity is just a small part of Storm's powerset.

[@gx9183]

True but it’s usually the one she’s most associated with it

[@pathevermore3683]

@@gx9183 i would say it's weather.

[@christianemden7637]

@@gx9183 she controls the weather, uses wind to fly, something that i associated always first with her.

[@gx9183]

@@christianemden7637 Yes and I’m aware that’s what she does. Just that a lot of forms (specifically the movies) of media depict her using lightning as a main source of offense which is what the general public tend to consume.

[@elijahferrer9216]

Same with Kaldur (Aqualad), his electric powers are more based off his Atlantian magic powers and aren’t his staple ability

[@fudge6999]

I always find it interesting when people put storm in this category even though she can control lightning her powers have always revolved around her controlling the weather she just uses lightning as a form of attack but her most used element is wind.

[@thewalrusaurus]

That's cause most people don't read the actual comics. In the movies you pretty much only see her using lightning, likely cause that's the easiest to visually convey.

[@TaxTaxes]

to be honest, her coolest looking ability is striking people with lightning lol

[@everretwavince1843]

It is her most offensive ability and the fastest to ensure a kill. Her wind powers has never been used to suffocate someone or showed that she is even capable of control like that. I remember that old cartoon and she was really good in it. Her and Rouge were really good in that cartoon with Jean Grey being the butt of jokes.

[@sea-envy3137]

I am "upset" about The Wizard who empowers Billy Batson being on the list. Yes, Zues is one of the legendary figures that give him power, but "lightning" is a cosmetic effect of the magic spell of transformation not something he really uses for effect.

[@joereno955]

Another possible reason that it might be common: the contrast between lightning (which is usually white or yellow) and black skin (which is usually, well, dark brown or black) is more visually striking and dynamic than white on white. It's similar to how Gorr's All-black Necrosword contrast with his pale skin. It's an easy way to create dynamic, striking, high-contrast panels!

[@TheDweeb002]

*Thor has entered the chat*

[@hachelyd_i3232]

You don’t know comics. All these dudes talking about “contrast.”

[@tofu_golem]

Storm has weather powers. Throwing around lightning is just part of that. If we included her, then that opens up Pandora's box. For example Photon can create our absorb any kind of energy she can understand. Most of this was DC and other companies not wanting to pay royalties to a writer, which is an incredibly common story in comic books.

[@darrenkey207]

Good point. Would it be correct to add Kaldur'ahm into this conversation? His main ability is manipulating water with magic, with electricity being a secondary power

[@MistarZtv]

yeah not wanting to pay royalties was the whole reason she-hulk existed and seems to be a common thing, luckily she turned out pretty good with a talented staff behind her stories. it happens in video games too apparently, Ms Pacman is getting all but completely erased from games and replaced with an imposter because they didn't want to give the royalties to the original creators.

[@abdul-rahmanwashington2479]

It's sad when people use race for views or profit. The entire video covered one character and the sometimes shady comic business.

[@darrenkey207]

@@abdul-rahmanwashington2479 I don't think that's the case in this instance

[@MistarZtv]

@@abdul-rahmanwashington2479 uhm how did you come to to conclusion? 🤣

[@Replica_Rabbit]

I fine with the trope, I love lightning base powers because of Storm, Livewire and Static. You can do a lot of awesome things with electricity powers like, turn into lightning, control techology, control metal, gain super speed, and could be immue to mind control When I think of a power set for an comic character I want to created (that would be Black) I usually go for (an close second is energy constructs)

[@felixlara2945]

Storm doesn't have lightning based powers

[@nonon8952]

@@felixlara2945 she can control lightning smart guy

[@Harlem1mentality]

Hmmm honestly It may not be that deep. I imagine the the thought process in the 1970’s was more literal than anything else. Black power was a huge back then. All the young black people an cool Black people were saying it. Black power hmmm what is black power? Electricity that’s power. When we don’t have electricity we don’t have power. But when we do it’s black power electricity. Lmao that’s what i think happened

[@joshgroban5291]

Not black, but you'd like Mikasa from A Certain Magical Index series. She uses electricity in great ways, and her nickname is Railgun, and I'm guessing you already know why. She's also immune to mind control as you said because of the electric field around here

[@CMan-x7k]

@@nonon8952 But it's more of a subset of her power to control the weather. It's not her main power.

[@dustinhatfield8373]

Another thing i find interesting about electric based heroes, in general, not just black, is that stories with protagonists that use this ability often have an xmen type of plot about a large group of people getting powers and then how the world reacts to them and how they integrate into and change society For example, Static Shock, Infamous, Darker Than Black

[@ThermalTyphlosion]

Black Lightning in the CW show as well. That's pretty interesting.

[@MichaelBNegron]

Great breakdown of the history! I always wondered why this trope was so common (especially since it's so seemingly random!), but I suppose it makes sense that it occurred due to major publishers trying to copy each other!

[@jasonreed7522]

I never really noticed but when pointed out it obvious, and it makes sense someone makes 1 good character with powers that are aesthetically pleasing (contrast is huge in comics, and white/cyan/yellow lightning against black/dark brown is just about as contrasty as you can get), and then for copyright/royalty reasons they just kept copy pasting until the few good original chracters were influenced by the trend/trope. (Black lightning and static shock are iconic so now black with electricity powers is a trope to make a character quickly just as much as evil superman is a trope for a quick villain)

[@Supremmo]

I remember looking at some early art for the Justice League and originally Black Lightning was on the team and Hal Jordan or Kyle Rayner was Green Lantern. The producers later went in a different direction and the rest was history.

[@nickhyped]

bro I’ve always wanted to have electricity powers, now I’m starting to rethink 😂💀

[@quentinjones6877]

Lol same here there was just something about electricity powers that interested me even before I was aware most black characters had that power

[@nickhyped]

@@quentinjones6877 same with me bro lol

[@cosmicquestion9184]

I'll take it, with the raising cost of utilities it's one less bill to pay. Well, not that a brotha's cheap or anything.

[@quentinjones6877]

@@cosmicquestion9184 right

[@astoundingmango8984]

This video was informative, entertaining, and really well edited and scripted! Black lighting superheroes were something I had never really consciously thought about the origin of, so it was super interesting to see where the trope comes from. Subscribed !! About to binge you other videos

[@IN-tm8mw]

I came to the conclusion years ago that the "Lighting" powers were a simple wordplay inspiration from the "Black Power" Movement. That explained the designs and personalities of Black Heroes created around that time. Since i grew up around that time, I still prefer black characters like those than the current ones that appeal to "street culture".

[@truffeltroll6668]

Nah, that would be like naming a hero "Black Panther" Wayyy too on the nose

[@coldchillin8382]

Makes sense. Black power. Electricity is power.

[@christopherauzenne5023]

this was a really interesting video that helps shed some light on the origin point for why so many black characters in fiction have electrical power. I would be interested in your thoughts/a follow up video on why so many black characters have white hair (another common pattern in fiction). I feel it all snowballed from Storm of the X-men and I believe they did it for 2 reasons. 1) the white hair would mimic a storm cloud (character design reflecting powers) and 2) storm was created in the late 60s/70s era of comics and the paper and printing used for comics was not the best/as clear as it is today (it was basically newspaper), storms original costume was almost entirely black so having black hair & a black costume on a darker skinned character with the limited printing ability might make the character not really clear to see so they added the white hair to help her pop of the page (this is only a guess but I feel it makes decent sense)

[@PsykoDrama]

Anime especially does this. Any melanin heavy characters have white/silver hair. Scar, Raikage village, Jonah, BNHA rabbit girl, and smell guy from food wars. As you said they like the color pop but it's a lot. Then you look at Bleach and they break the mold with designs so other colors can be used.

[@no_1_one]

honestly i think its just bc white hair complements better on dark shades of skin more than white ones(overall looking too pale) so its simply likely an aesthetic reasoning of contrast

[@ReblazeGaming]

@@PsykoDrama There are lots of reasons for this. I'd say from the Japanese perspective, a lot of that is based on the "gyaru" subculture in Japan, usually a style where part of it is tanning their skin to make it dark and dyeing their hair blonde. This doesn't mean all characters with this combo are "gyaru" I just think it's part of creating that combination in Japanese culture. A lot of anime characters with dark skin tend to be "tan" or are literally this. Think Ikumi from Food Wars. White hair is also an indicator of a character being "special" or magical a lot of the times too, so if they have powers they will likely have cool hair. Another thing is that it works great for creating fictional races. Dark skin and blonde/ white hair is a rare combination irl unless a dark person dyes their hair or they're mixed. So to make characters from a fictional race look unique, that hair colour can be used e.g Scar as an Ishvalan in FMAB, the Lightning Village residents in Naruto etc. And of course the contrast just looks cool. I love Aqualad's look from Young Justice. But of course there are still black characters in anime without blonde hair like Onyankopon from Attack on Titan, Ogun from fire force, Canary from Hunter x Hunter, Afro Samurai, Sister Krone from The Promised Neverland, Lock Rock from My Hero Academia, Advol from Jojo and more. I personally want to see more black characters with crazy hair colours as well rather than black or white/blonde hair. Green, pink, blue, go crazy lol.

[@PsykoDrama]

@@ReblazeGaming yea, I tried to steer clear of gyaru examples since those are still Japanese representative characters but I guess if they are trying to blend a separate culture into their own then blond/white hair is gonna happen. And as I said Bleach has at least 3 examples that counter the white hair, Soul eater doesn’t use it, Black Lagoon, Fire force, and probably many more. I think anime is figuring out how to draw black/brown people with more of their own cultural flair than with Japanese flair. They are doing this with other races as well, I mean Vinland saga is definitely a far cry from G gundam’s take on anyone European.

[@milliondollarmistake]

Black Bomber could be a pretty interesting character unironically. With some tweaks he could be a unique way to explore racism in a way that only comics could do. I mean he should never have been DC's FIRST black super hero because that would have been fucking stupid but nowadays it could work as an indie comic. Also C. Viper is black?

[@Vandylizer]

I was also wondering what was up with that lol. The Laura connection makes sense since she and her brother Sean from SF3 are peeps of color. I think Blanka is also a person of color, but that color is green haha. This was a cool video idea though! Nice work.

[@quiteabizarreone6441]

I said this out loud man. I truly do think that with some tweaks this would work really well as a indie comic which would probably even become a cult classic years after release

[@ReblazeGaming]

It would need a LOT of tweaks and very careful writing for that type of comic to not be a mess. But it definitely could work. Like maybe after living as a black superhero and being among black people he sees things differently and learns that we're all the same on the inside or something and his character development would be becoming not racist idk. Also C Viper at least looks mixed.

[@gazem_3211]

Hot take: He would actually be hilarious to see in Doom Patrol

[@illcarl6651]

He'd be constantly conflicted about who he is and he'd probably have an arc where he comes away from racism it would honestly have the power to be moving if did right

[@anonymousaccount4483]

Even in 2023, DC Comics and WB drama with their employees and fans still hold up

[@Joshkevin12]

Wow this is honestly such a good video. Shoutout to you, you do great work! So glad MovieFlame made me aware of you

[@MixedUpMedia21]

Funny, I just commented to you over on his channel, and thanks for coming over. I have a lot of fun making these so I hope it shows!

[@dr.braxygilkeycruises1460]

I really love this video!!! This is one of those things that you notice without noticing until someone points it out and then you're like, "DAMN! That's Right!!!" That's how I felt during this video. It was a sense of past Deja vu. Wonderfully done, Mixed Up Media!!!

[@garrettgomes7176]

MovieFlame brought me here. I loved your collab with him, you two have a great flow that seems very natural. I immediately checked out your channel after finishing the MCU quotes video and I’m glad I did. This was spectacular, I absolutely loved the intro, that was a very engaging way to start off. I never really thought about this until this video, so thank you for enlightening me. I also really enjoyed your breakdowns of Ms Marvel, you seem to have a lot of knowledge on marvel comics, I’m very impressed. By any chance to you have a patreon? I would love to support you monthly, you have real potential with this channel.

[@MixedUpMedia21]

Thank you so much for stopping by and watching my videos. I’m glad you enjoyed the collab, it was so much fun to make! As for Patreon, I don’t have one just yet, but I plan to in the future.

[@garrettgomes7176]

@@MixedUpMedia21 Looking forward to more of your videos, and when you make one I’ll be the first to join!

[@brionyc]

Me too 😊 Really enjoyed your video. Thank you

[@mythking541]

The funny thing is, they had Martian Manthunter. All they had to do was make his alter ego, John Jones, black. They did in Young Justice. Also interesting that their answer to copying Wasp was another black superhero with lightning powers (Bumblebee).

[@KnightLineArtYT]

I think Justice League Doom was the first time I've seen someone use John's Human alter ego as a Black Man, from then on, it kind of stuck I think.

[@cosmicquestion9184]

Ok here's my theory: 1 Back in the day activist used the phrase "Black Power!" and the word power is sometimes used to describe electricity. 2 Remember the Wats riots? Well Watts is a unit of electric power. 3 The idea of a Black superhero was shocking to many White people. 4 Some at DC didn't want the project to go through and wanted to Pull the PLUG. 5 Needed a superhero to bring LIGHT to the Black community. 6 We Black people like flashy things and what's more flashy than lightning? 7 There's always a cloud over the ghetto, and where there's a cloud...

[@kadegetslaid634]

HOLD ON

[@cosmicquestion9184]

@@kadegetslaid634 Got carried away I guess.

[@kadegetslaid634]

@@cosmicquestion9184 happens too us all 😔

[@ensabahnur7657]

I'll be 52 next month & a Comic fan my entire life & it's entered my mind & my cousins & I have talked about it from time to time throughout the years & although it's not just Electrical powers but their most noticeable without question! Great video Youngblood & I subscribed!

[@avonray9147]

A trope I've noticed for almost all OP female superheroes (not just from comics), their powers are almost always based on psychic abilities (sometimes magic). Edited : all --> almost all (that's what I had intended to say).

[@somedudes6455]

What? Which Characters are you talking about?

[@anotherrandomguy8871]

@@somedudes6455 I think he means characters like Scarlet Witch maybe?

[@joelpartee594]

The trend is there, but when you say "all" you get Well, Actually'd into oblivion - Carol Danvers, Supergirl, Jane Foster, and of course the most OP of all - Squirrel Girl.

[@somedudes6455]

@@anotherrandomguy8871 right but what about freaking captain marvel.

[@avonray9147]

@@joelpartee594 A mistake of wording on my part. Definitely not all.

[@k.w.pillsbury4070]

Take it as a compliment when I say, “It looks good on ‘em.”

[@loco_logic]

I always wondered if this trope was somehow related to the black characters having cyborg limbs/enhancements trope. I find that one equally weird and funny.

[@FoxxyFire-HellFrost]

I loved Static Shock! I woke up every Saturday morning for the WB cartoons and that was one of my favorites. I especially loved the many crossover episodes. They used real life people like Shaq as well as the Justice League. When Static was introduced into Young Justice, I was stoked. Getting to enjoy a character I felt was underutilized and mostly untouched since the early 00's was a real treat. It's just so unfortunate how little we get to enjoy anything from that universe, and that Static seemed to be the only carryover. :/

[@banquetoftheleviathan1404]

“Says his name’s beyonce”

[@jerrodbronson4044]

I’ve been saying this for years. Either electrical powers, tech enhancements, or, in a few cases, skateboards.

[@PlatyNews]

Yeah, Eletrical+Tech made me think it was based on the fact that both usually are weak to water, but I would gladly accept "black lightning was just cool" because the water thing has some shitty implications (like the racist thing that black people can't swim)

[@thetwofacedphantom53]

"You've never had black lightning before"

[@ghostdog1521]

I really enjoyed this breakdown, very well made video. It was interesting how close to the exact same conclusions I came previously when discussing this a year ago in a comic fans group. Though I must admit, as much of a fan of Black Lightning I’ve always been. I did not know he had a fake afro in the original comics. That’s so ingenious. Subscribing is worth it for learning that fact alone.

[@chrisw6164]

I’m a lifelong comic fan and I’m glad I never heard of the Black Bomber before today. Wow

[@chrismaystar3014]

In all honesty, being black with electric superpowers never bothered me because it feels like being the only girl of a superhero team and your the only one with psychic powers. I mean, its obviously feeding into a stereotype, but you're also automatically the coolest character with the best superpowers. If nature somehow blessed me with electric superpowers, I would not let anybody call me out on my stereotypical-ness because I have just cut down on so many everyday costs it is unreal.

[@intergalactic92]

So basically everyone loved the original Black Lightning but didn’t want to pay the artist and royalties so just made their own. That’s just scummy.

[@Radhaun]

I really loved (and still love) Static Shock growing up. I've never been and still really am not a huge superhero fan. Particularly in recent years the stories feel *very* samey with the constant attempts to reboot franchises. I hadn't noticed this trope before, nor did I know there were so many Black Lightening copies running around (and for such a petty reason!). Soul Power in Static Shock felt a little one note for me, I much preferred Anansi as his reoccurring mentor-style character. He just had a more interesting personality to me (and wasn't as abrasive). Thanks for the video! It was really interesting!

[@bearman_1826]

Now hold up. A racist who turns into the race he hates when he's under stress actually sounds like it could be a really good story. Imagine the kind of conflict that character would feel. He would have to set aside his prejudices just to be able to function as himself. Best yet, he would have to face the fact that he gets more love from the people around him as a black superhero than he does as a white racist. The room for development is virtually endless.

[@Vinegar101]

The premise shows a massive potential for character development and could be an amazing story if well executed. But, judging by the time period it was meant to air, I'm pretty sure the story wouldn't have had the quality of writing it needed to pull it off.

[@xXx_Regulus_xXx]

closest thing I can think of to this is with Kaladin in the Stormlight Archive books, except it's kind of reversed. He's born into the lower half of society, but eventually gets a weapon that changes his physical features to those of the upper half when he uses it, and the more he uses it the longer the effect lingers. He doesn't particularly like it, but it gives him two perspectives into his society.

[@valhatan3907]

We need that show right now.

[@Chocolategiddyup5]

This comment needs more likes wow, I'm kinda sold on this idea

[@snacksnake7418]

It's a cool concept, but the reality of their first black superhero actually being white is kinda bad taste

[@susiearnold]

I've been wondering this for a while since seeing the Black lighting TV show and wondering why they didn't just use Static (cause you know, I already knew and liked Static and his expanded universe vs this character I had barely ever heard of and sounded like a ripoff version to me at the time[oh the irony]) then I saw them years later in the same scene together in Young Justice and realized they were both separate legitimate hero's. Man was I surprised.

[@noremac7216]

Black lightning is in an episode of the WB static shock series, not blaming you for missing that episode just adding to what you were saying lol

[@jessespringer7723]

@@noremac7216 no that’s soul power

[@noremac7216]

@@jessespringer7723 are you kidding me? How many of them are there?!

[@ELbabotas1]

@@noremac7216 the cartoon people didn't wanna pay the creator up, so they keep makin margarine black lightnings

[@noremac7216]

@@ELbabotas1 that only explains Black Vulcan all the other ones almost feel like a meme at this point

[@ZandorClegane]

I'm not power-ist, I have lightning power wielding friends!

[@treylakingz9029]

So all this comes down to DC being cheap and not want to pay Tony Isabella his money so they kept making knockoffs

[@jjervin91]

I'll be adding to the trope when my comics come out. I realized it a few years ago, but I'm too invested in the story and don't really wanna change it now. Hopefully, some folks will enjoy him and not just see another black lightning.

[@lodewijk.]

Nothing wrong with a trope if you have a good story to tell!!

[@jonuff3104]

Bruh I’m working on this story and the main character is a black kid with electric superpowers. Granted, I made him before I noticed the trope maybe 7 months ago, so now before I actually finish the storyline I gotta make a black person with electricity joke

[@NovemberBlack]

As a kid, before I knew how to look stuff up or had access to get comics, I thought Static grows up to be Black Lightning...

[@SILVERF0X13]

Interesting video. Never knew that it was mostly down to blatant copies to avoid paying people, but I feel like I should have guessed that. I hope we get more shows like static shock in the future. I rewatched the whole series last year and it still holds up quite well. Even as a white guy, I enjoyed seeing things from a different point of view and I thought Static and Anansi were super cool heroes.

[@theultrablackman1654]

I honestly don’t mind black characters with electric powers

[@wolfgang6442]

I agree I feel it suits them and they look cool all electrified

[@theeyeopener4141]

Those are our powers.

[@theultrablackman1654]

@@theeyeopener4141 yes they are

[@reifuTD]

In addition to Electricity I've noticed a lot of Black people are cyborgs or have cybernetic limbs, to Cyborg from teen titans to Barret from Final Fantasy 7, Misty Night, Jax from Mortal Kombat, If there's a team of characters and on is a Cyborg it more often then not someone who is black or black coded.

[@AdonanS]

Eh, I'm not offended, nor am I complaining. Electricity is a cool-ass power.

[@orlandocerda5103]

Now this is what the internet was made for. Very informative and never realized this was an actual trope until now. Good job.

[@dylancrossman8502]

There’s also the Image Comics character Bolt, from Capes, Inc. who actually-doesn’t- have electrical powers. He has super strength. But he notes the trope is so common, he felt he just had to go with it.

[@IamJean-Miguel]

This still begs the question though why “Electricity” could it be the theory that this particular power is a bit more vulnerable to be tamed?

[@christopherauzenne5023]

it could possibly be a play on the phrase "black power" giving them literal power i.e electrical power

[@B1ackKingStar]

@@christopherauzenne5023 It's electric. Boogie woogie woogie.

[@ELbabotas1]

Or african vampire

[@D3xterJettster]

@@ELbabotas1 Blacula or Black Dracula?

[@cosmicquestion9184]

@@D3xterJettster Count Chocula! His cereal used to be great, but they change the recipe and now it's trash. 😞

[@mrrd4444]

Tony looks like such a lovely guy on top of actually being a rad dude, good on him.

[@BladeMaster0182]

I did not know any of this. Thanks for going in depth on it. Imagine what kind of black heroes we might have had if DC/HB actually paid royalties.