Why you SUCK at writing: Black People

[@ScritRighter]

I get a kick out of everyone in the comments listing off the black characters without lightning powers. There is no reward for you to list them off, but that hasn't stopped many of you from doing it anyways, and that gives me a giggle every now and then. If you want a SUPER challenge, then do not list off these common characters I've seen everyone default to: - Falcon - Jon Stewart (Green Lantern) - Cyborg - Black Panther - Luke Cage - Darwin Good luck and god speed!

[@JosiahtheMessiah-11809]

The Prowler

[@yellowbelt]

As black I had to try. This is mine. Vixen, John Stewart green lantern, Mr fantastic, Blade, Cloak, Spawn, Spike, Anasi from static shock, Aqua Lad young justice, and iron heart. This was a lot then it needed to be lol

[@yellowbelt]

Damn didn't see green lantern lol

[@allengrayheart]

Can you name 5 black superheroes with lightning powers without defaulting to and variations of: -Black Lightning -Storm - Miles Morales - Static Shock Good luck, fr.

[@ScritRighter]

@@allengrayheart Lightning(DC) Black Vulcan Electro(From Andrew Garfield Spiderman) Volt Wally West (CW) Yes, they have lightning powers change my mind.

[@cjrollins6851]

The problem isn't the fact that every black superhero has electric powers but all the famous do

[@WASYSHOOTS]

There are only 5 that I can name (that exists) but EVERY superhero has lightning powers. Black lightning (& his youngest daughter), Static, Myles Morales, Storm and that's it.

[@taejoonpark9613]

Why does it matter how many other heros have laser eyes or can fly? Like i don't understand ​@@WASYSHOOTS

[@WASYSHOOTS]

I dunno@@taejoonpark9613

[@caldw615]

​@@WASYSHOOTSLightning Lad and Lightning Lass too from the Legion of superheroes. The Raikage from Naruto. Yoruichi in Bleach uses electricity. Laura from Street Fighter is Afro-Brazilian with electric powers. Thunder from the Fable series. Coldcast from Superman vs The Elite was a villain. The Doctor from Dead By Daylight is black and uses electric attacks to induce a shock therapy type of madness. That's just from my memory, there's a lot more I've probably missed.

[@Maskedmenace8267]

Nah cause mf forget vixen exist or cyborg

[@jawz9455]

Picolo hiding in the back of the tumbnail.

[@laisphinto6372]

Makes No sense

[@Thezahza]

​@@laisphinto6372Most people see him as black (if he was a human)

[@moosesues8887]

Where knuckles he actually one of us

[@jawz9455]

@@moosesues8887 Facts.

[@axe-tq2wn]

@@laisphinto6372he claimed him

[@jawz9455]

It is the level of effort for me. Race swaps usually tell me a writer has no interest in actually taking the effort to write a character of that race, only doing so to get brownie points with that community. It feels demeaning. Either they aren't willing to hear out the experiences of someone of a different race to see how their skin colour has affected their life or think they are so different just because of their race that they cannot be written by them which is kinda dehumanizing.

[@ScritRighter]

Yeah that's a good point, but sometimes the writers are not always in full control of what they are allowed to write about. Sometimes marketing and other interests get in the way, and that's the only loophole a writer can use.

[@jawz9455]

@@ScritRighter I never thought of it like that.

[@cryo9017]

​@@ScritRighterok makes since still think it's really dumb tho

[@IsabellaMathew]

I somewhat disagree mostly because of Nick Fury and High Evolutionary. Both characters were white in the source materials but, cast black actors because best embody the characters.

[@ScritRighter]

@@cryo9017 I agree. Race swapping is dumb, but I don't care too much overall. Sometimes it can define a character (like Nick Fury) and other times it's kinda just awkward. Overall, I feel it's a net neutral on the quality of a character's writing.

[@yoder6162]

Why is she fighting crime while pregnant anyway? That just seems incredibly irresponsible and dangerous to the new baby.

[@sizweshongwe7312]

It's the same thing with Peter too, like why not just hand over Mayday to MJ or at the very least one of the Peter Parker's. I'm sure they'd be more than willing to for the meantime.

[@Achieme]

And unrealistic TBH. Also they took inspiration from the comics

[@onlychrisallthetime]

@@sizweshongwe7312the difference is he was there to chill and wasn’t expecting trouble at all

[@Ninja07Keaton]

@@sizweshongwe7312Peter outright calls himself a terrible mentor and parent(albeit in a jovial manner). It's not really suppose to be taken seriously. And given what they were talking about soon after, Mayday was needed to ease the tension before igniting it again for their 3rd act of the film.

[@ryantrice2303]

They are spidermen , they do this dumb shi all the time I swear

[@nasirmarcelandrews7653]

Black Characters without electric superpowers: Mirage Bishop Darwin Misty Night Luke Cage Wise Icon Prodigy Rocket Spawn The Prowler (Hobie Brown) B;ack Panther Falcon Spike Mr. Terrific Monica Rambeu Black Manta BatWing Deathlok Bronze Tiger Azrael (second one) The Tatooed Man Green Lantern (John Stewart) Vixen Anansi Holocaust I'm black by the way.

[@christopherauzenne5023]

yeah, frankly i believe if it was pictures of black panther, cyborg, steel, and mr terrific next to each other with the text "why do black superheros always have super tech" everyone would have believed that was the go to power (instead of black lightning, storm, static, & miles which is probably how it got started). honestly, superstrength (plus possibly flying), some type of energy power, or just having high tech are literally the go to ability for almost every hero ever (if you go through the list of all heros 9 out of 10 they have some form of that) so obviously there will be repetition

[@keeferkifflom360]

Aku Aku,Uka Uka and Crunch Bandicoot you forgot them

[@xanightsbeloved]

Shaft black dynamite afro samurai captain falcon Luke cage and the guy from fire force lightning powers aren't annoying lowkey I like them with it

[@Shockguey]

​​@@keeferkifflom360wut? If anything they're Aboriginal not Black.

[@Black_Guy]

But how many of them are well-known? And some of those you mentioned aren't super-powered. They are just heroes. It's just comes down to a lack of visibility for many black heroes, super or not.

[@blankblank6214]

It be pretty cool if they wrote black people as people and not as charictures of black people

[@anubis7457]

Race-swapping is just a sign of creative bankruptcy, although this may not even be the writer's fault as much as people may want it to be. Executives, in general, despises allowing fresh new IPs and want to just milk the same giant IP cow with slightly different flavors until it's completely dead. From a business point of view, it makes sense. Why would you waste time on something new when you could just rebrand and appeal to something that already has a built in audience? Unfortunately, looking at things from a business point of view is what is ruining art. With every live-action remake (regardless of race-swapping) a bit of my soul dies.

[@Shockguey]

The explanation for a lot of the race swaps and character replacement is actually just Corporate Greed. The original creators had solid contracts with their IPs and are entitled to compensation in royalties. Newer writers aren't. So they put them to make new characters which they'll barely see any residuals from.

[@anubis7457]

@@Shockguey Didn't the OG creator of superman get so screwed that he got virtually nothing from his character, then died in poverty while preventably blind?

[@Shockguey]

@@anubis7457 Yes. It's the companies skirting on their responsibilities which is why there's several ongoing lawsuits right now. Steve Ditko's estate won their lawsuit last year against Disney and immediately after Insomniac announced they'd give Peter a less significant role in Spider-Man 3. The box office for the next Spiderverse and Holland Spider-Man will determine how much of a prospect it will be to fully replace him.

[@irinaiturri]

the excessive executive control behind creation of fictional stories of mass media are very concerning, specially this creative bankruptcy

[@Redeemedentertainment]

@@Shockgueythat’s wild

[@resistancepublishing]

As a black writer I write good characters regardless of color. I don’t get hang up on representation or stereotypical b.s. black, white, yellow, red, brown I write all of them as human beings.

[@kingkizitokai1705]

Same here, I'm an aspiring character and i create characters regardless of stereotype and colour, I just wanna make really captivating characters

[@kingkizitokai1705]

Though I like adding culture in a respectable manner

[@kingkizitokai1705]

Dang I said character, writer i mean

[@resistancepublishing]

@@kingkizitokai1705 the best stories come from great characters. People remember good characters. They who love great characters don’t care about color or race. They just want stories they can connect with and read over and over

[@resistancepublishing]

@@kingkizitokai1705 yes I have to add culture too. It makes the character feel more human. I just don’t make the character all 100% about their culture because no one lives like that every hour of the day. It gets tiring and boring.

[@papaxota4725]

eehh I partially disagree with race swap, not to say its woke but it does feel very cheap on some cases. When an iconic character that we have known to be a certain way for decades like Ariel or Snow white suddenly changes to a completely different race it does feel like a weird way to add inclusion and gather easy attention through controversy. Even if it doesnt matter to the overall story, characters like Ariel have a strong visual identity and simply changing their races for the sake of having a black person as a main character isnt going to change that. Ariel will still be known as the redhead disney princess, its been decades like this. The same way you cant make L (death note) black. However its kinda of a complex debate because there are other cases where race swapping works when a white character is just a blank slate, generic design (Nick fury, Amber from invincible) But even then, it still feels like they are robbing black people of having their own character when they just raceswap popular white characters skins for the sake of it. I think what makes most black characters like Miles morales, static shock, Cyborg (teen titans) stand out is that they are their own character with their own personality, arcs and flaws instead of being the same previous white character but with a new skin to please a certain audience and check a box.

[@montee3766]

Race swapping IS woke. Companies do this to avoid making original stories because they don't want to take risks so they take well-known characters and race swap them to attract people and say 'we're inclusive'.

[@jawz9455]

I feel like a whole essay could be written on the visual identities of characters.

[@Antwannnn]

my take is some characters NEED to be their race/ethnicity bc its intrinsic to their character and their experiences. I also believe there's plenty that can be swapped to any gender or race with little to no change to their personality/experience. I also think we need to consider our role as a society to have more diversity when thinking not to swap a characters appearances. I want people to think why so many characters are white or redheads in the first place. It all connects and learning really helps. Bigots dont like learning or changing tho.

[@Shockguey]

​​@@Antwannnn One example is Superman. His whole deal is the subversion of the Ubermensch trope that was present in the early 20th century sci-fi. Where he directly challenges the ideations of characters born from Friedrich Nietsches philosophies. He is that exact alien super race concept except adopted by traditional Anglo Americans in the heartland who go by Kent (itself being a name tied all the way back to the Protestants of England). Making Clark any other ethnicity than White is a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of the character. There's traces of the Ubermensch trope in Invincible (The Viltrumites) except it's more accepting of Nietsche. This is also why his nemesis is Lex Luthor. A business tycoon that abhors the concept of a godlike figure.

[@Antwannnn]

@@Shockguey honestly I have no clue what you just said but I believe you lol I also think Batman has to be white bc he's supposed to represent the upper echelon of class. One of if not THE richest man in the world. I think they handled that dynamic in 'The Batman' very well. Catwoman makes a brief comment on it but it puts Batman's position in a new perspective. That's why him going after a Jason Todd in the sequel due to his guilt or whatever could be cool to see. And if Jason ends up black then I see no problem with that. I mean people were already theorizing that the kid in the beginning could be Jason. And ironically enough he already played a Robin (Tim Drake) on 'Titans'.

[@javasscript4561]

I need to see black people fighting dragons and goblins

[@Quantum_Bluntz]

You can in Baldur’s Gate 3 😊

[@Toad917]

⁠​⁠@@Quantum_Bluntznot only does he fight dragons but he fights demons and cultists and probably more depending on where you take him

[@ar.zpoint5700]

Read Brother Voodoo comics during the New Avengers run

[@ar.zpoint5700]

@JoysPerspectiveThis is true. There was a huge cultural shift around maybe 2016-2017 when a lot of media and entertainment started representing more than before, or as the hard right call it “woke”. Now that it’s been well into a decade, the term just doesn’t hold any value anymore. It’s not a valid criticism, because these so called “woke” projects vary in quality, some are genuinely good but get shut down by these old ass woke haters. This unfortunately prevents the actually good shit from even getting proper promotion.

[@Remember_the_Time]

@JoysPerspective tbh, anything is considered woke now

[@kindasomeviews]

As a black man, I can't tell y'all how annoying it is to have black characters that pander to their audience "Oh yeah these colored folks have all these baby-mama dramas/have all these shootouts in the hood. Ain't that sad?" "It's so damn cool to be black". Like he said have your characters be characters first than just stereotypes. Surprisingly haven't talked about Boondocks but it's a good example. You have Huey, an atypical black kid and Riley who's as typical as they come. Neither are bad in the slightest and you learn to not go far too right or left with them. Even as a kid I got that much

[@vidshead]

The only reason why as a black man that I hate seeing characters being changed white to black is because we already have a lot of good black characters also don't force other people to draw something they don't want to that's just messed up also spawn Ogun Montgomery from fire Force

[@Vghst3218]

This guy gets it

[@Accountthatexists]

I think race swapping in live action is ok (as long as the race dosent matter for the story) cause we just want them to find the best actor/actress for the role...........now in animation i feel like race swapping has no point? Like it changes nothing and unless u have a reason for doing so, ur probaly just doing it for brownie points and showing "oh see were progressive"..........(aka Disney with everything they do, they specifically point it out and use it as marketing)

[@itzs0weezee]

@@Accountthatexistsalso my adventures with Superman lol

[@KAXSH]

No one is forcing anybody to do anything! You’re exactly the person he mentioned in the video. You see making a character black as some the creator giving into some political agenda when that just isn’t the case. No one cares if you’re black, your views are still trash.

[@IdekPhoenix]

​@@Accountthatexistsyeah I agree here

[@caleocarty113]

As a theatre major, I find it interesting when people turn race swapping into a controversy. In the world of theatre, we do not see race or gender when it comes to most characters, which is why you can find an all-black cast act out a Shakespeare play. The only time we put a focus on race or gender is when it is crucial to the story, for example, A Raisin in the Sun and Fences are both plays that depict black American experiences so the characters must be played by black actors. Then when it comes to plays that are not race based, black actors have always fought so hard to get these roles. Those culture war fearmongers are trying to start a controversy with the Wicked Movie casting a black woman as the lead, despite the movie being based off the theatre musical, and the fact that talented black actresses have begged to be casted in the Boardway performances, because the roles in Wicked are viewed with high status similar to Hamilton. The main protagonist is literally green, so the role can be played by any race. The story is also an allegory for race discrimination so a black actress might do a better job at portraying the character because she will most likely relate with the character's struggles. This was a well thought out video, I'm going to check out the "Why you can't write female characters next." :)

[@ScritRighter]

That's an interesting perspective, and it makes a ton of sense. Glad to see you enjoyed as well!

[@marcusclark1339]

nah race swapping is always a lazy thing cause the point is obvious to agenda - to change something to be more "inclusive" is a social engineering tactic to make you think the previous wasn't "inclusive" which is just racism touting it self as moral

[@evansentcoffee]

Absolute facts. When I went to see Frozen the musical, young Elsa was black and adult Elsa was East Asian. Young Anna was East Asian and adult Anna was white. Every single one of them did an amazing job, those little girls playing young Anna and Elsa especially, they had really impressive voices for their ages. Neither character's race is integral to the story. People need to grow tf up, talented performers are talented performers.

[@sovereign9708]

Live action and movies has a bit more pageantry I’ve noticed, as a stage actor I’ve noticed this too. My Scrooge and Marley were both women and one was black but I never questioned it. I feel the reason is that it’s intentional in film while in theatre it’s merit based

[@denisl2760]

But if "A Raisin in the Sun depicts black American experiences so the characters must be played by black actors" then what's preventing someone from saying something like "Hamilton depicts white American experiences so the characters must be played by white actors." What exactly is the difference? Would it be ok for a Kenyan man who doesn't know anything about American history to play a black American in A Raisin in the Sun?

[@johnark4723]

There are several problems with changing the race of characters in historical movies. 1. For lesser known cultures/histories like African, Native American and (to a lesser extent) Egyptian, these movies, paints how society views these cultures. That's half the reason why a lot of Native Americans hate Pocahontas, since it portrays her relationship with her real life abuser as romantic. Woman King is another great example of this, since Most Americans don't know anything about what happened in Africa during the slave trade besides the fact that slaves were captured. Therefor, a movie claiming to be based on real events that twist the facts and glorifies the actual slavers while villainizing the people who stopped them is extremely damaging (an opinion shared by many Africans). 2. These films flaunt constantly that the events in the film happened in some way. Queen Cleopatra uses testimonies from several questionable people in the series to justify Cleopatra being black, as well as the series being tagged as a documentary. When people see these things, it misleads people into thinking that it's a fact when it's not. 3. It just doesn't make sense. The race of the population has just as much importance to the setting as the architecture or clothing. When you add Black or Asian people to a Native American tribe like it's no big deal, you're implying that not only is there no racial conflicts, but also that there was enough migration of Black and Asian people to North America that it's seen as commonplace. If you make a story about modern China, you wouldn't have it be as racially diverse as LA. Even in fantasy settings, it's important. If you make a story in your classic Tolkien like setting, and you add humans to an elvish kingdom like it's normal, it would be contradictory to elves prideful and racist culture. Heck, even things like black elves raises a few questions since we know from history that you don't really stop at just every other race being inferior, but also traits in your own race being considered inferior. This is also one of the reasons why Gods of Egypt is poorly written, since it's weird for an Egyptian people to have white gods even though it's a fantastical setting.

[@anti1training]

Well no one really disagrees with keeping historical figures the same. Because they're actually real. Queen Cleopatra is a fluke series

[@BBBBBBBBb333]

Can't believe you have to defend historical accuracy, in a fuckin historical movie.

[@Meiling-Tea]

me when historically accurate Pocahontas

[@AYTM1200]

But those people didn't end slavery, they joined and even hired the locals. It is historically inaccurate to glorify Dahomey slavers but it isn't historically inaccurate to show white people engaging in the slave trade. Just say you want your people to be glorified at the expense of others and stop with this elaborate explanation and disingenuous ask for historical accuracy.

[@Dzzy123]

The Woman King example is weak since the movie did not glorify the Africans. It's made clear in the first 30 minutes that the Africans are partaking in the trade and make lots of money from it.

[@Mysterygii69]

I have a few disagreements that are pretty minor and inconsequential, but overall this is a surprisingly good video. You aired out a lot of the points I have floating in my mind that I can’t put into words. One thing I do want to bring up though is how insane it is to me that the dread comb-over is everywhere when there are SO many things that black people can do with their hair. Like as an artist I can’t stress enough how fun depicting black hair can be because you can realistically make so many shapes out of it. Black man with a pretty simple Afro here, do you not realize how cool it is that you can draw a character with hair that’s a just an honest to god circle???

[@M1LKBO1-]

Lmao literally

[@nerdstorma8427]

Hey, you're gonna hate me for this: But there isn't "no reason" tropes like lightning powers or dread combovers exist. It's because internally, black culture stresses so much conformity, often forced. I say this because I grew up around other black people who bullied me for "acting white" or "talking white" when I was just being myself. And white people seemed to treat me nicer than any of them did. I never understood what praising a dysfunctional culture or ebonics had to do with my skin color, neither what rock music or skateboarding had to do with it either. I was just being me. And I GUARANTEE you, someone will see this comment and accuse me of being a white dude. What's bothered me my entire life is something I see reflected in these character tropes: black people create a series of characteristics and notions that they prescribe themselves to. And anyone who strays outside that predefined, limited box of what "blackness" is considered to be, is promptly ostracized. Growing up, I wanted to be white because there were no limitations on what other people wanted to be or enjoy. Look at eminem, he's white and does "black" things. You got to dress how you want, define your own image. But being black made me feel like everyone around me was telling me I HAD to cut my hair 1 of 2 ways, or HAD to like rap, or HAD to speak a certain way. Black culture is collectivist, it doesn't really praise individuality or uniqueness, it praises how "black" a figure is. Instead of being me, I was given a series of instructions of what other people wanted me to conform to, implicit suggestions on how I HAVE to express myself. Exemplifing the typical role given to you is then rewarded by other black people. And so, those people rise to prominence and their characteristics are parroted by the media they inspire. Certain characteristics become "black" things and thats extremely frustrating. And it cycles back to me, being afraid to be labeled off of skin but not mind. That's why I really appreciate the outspokenness of Idris Elba or Terry Crews, who seek to establish themselves as themselves and not what's approved by the black community, at times at their own cost. Terry Crews disagreed with the BLM riots. Idris questions why he's seen as a "black actor" as opposed to an actor. I am a PERSON before I am a person who just HAPPENS to be black. My skin has nothing to do with my internal schematic, mind, tastes or personality. I'm just me. The ME who got bullied for being too nerdy, had to cope with humor and escaped into the sciences. Those personality traits and experiences are the reason PETER PARKER is my hero, because despite being different races, we share those. And it's eyerollingly obnoxious, when I have to watch Miles be a vague undefined amalgamation of traits and brands associated with what is pre-approved for black people to like, under the pretense he's "my spiderman." And being put aside to get a boring history lesson on black music in a game where Peter is fighting for his life. I mean, swinging around in basketball sneakers is about as obnoxious and condescending to me as it would be to you If Peter fought crime dressed as Colonel sanders

[@CanofArizona]

You summed up my primary school experience pretty nicely. People like you and I are pariahs. You are absolutely right, black culture is extremely collectivist. So long as you are part of the black community you don't have many options to choose from in how you present yourself if you wish to be accepted. Personally, I listened to all of them tell me how non black I was and decided to keep being myself anyway. I don't identify with black culture or have a deep attachment to it. So long as I'm surrounded by people who like me for who I am, I'm content not being accepted by the black community.

[@florenciaportillo6955]

If I can understand, I am from South America and although I have not lived in the USA, according to what my friends on the internet told me and what I see, the issue of race is so ingrained that even though years have passed since the time of segregation, they continue to do so. . Also, I never understood those insults of “Act like a black person or stop acting like a white person” when what does it mean to act like a black person? Oh, are we going to polarize that being ambitious is being a white person? Is the calculating thing or being a yellow person?

[@ShadowNemesis575]

This comment isn't getting anywhere near as much traction as it should. If I had to guess it's because alot of people now adays have really short attention spans and refuse to read anything more than a few sentences in the comments but I appreciate reading something like this because I went through the same shit growing up around other black people expecting me to confrom instead of just being myself. Thankfully I found other friends black and otherwise that were way more open minded and shared similar interests as me but I really feel for the people that didn't. That isolation well fuck a person up in the worst of ways especially if they already have it rough at home.

[@majestymxnt7384]

Hey y'all, black dude here. You could probably say I align a little more with "black culture" based upon seeing me and some of my interests and how I speak. However I've never understood the "acting white" thing whenever there's a black person who isn't what people typically view a "black person" as. That black person who "acts white" is still black to me. I don't believe black people should be narrowed down to who we can be and what we're interested in, how we dress, how we talk, etc. What I will say is that you've also gotta have an understanding of why there's black people with this mindset. We've had a lot of culture and individuality stripped away from us so it's important to a lot of black folks that we hold on tight to the culture that we do still have and have created out of our unfavorable circumstances. On top of the fact that we've been told so much what we can and can't be by the people who oppress us. So there's alot of black people trapped in a certain way of thinking and they don't even realize it. You've just gotta understand that for the black people who think this way, it really isn't as personal as I'm sure it feels. They're just operating in a certain way of thinking they've be conditioned into that they have to be liberated from. P.S. Spider-Man/Peter Parker is my favorite superhero lol so I understand him being your hero all too well.

[@bobtheball5384]

@@majestymxnt7384 Long Post incoming, read if you dare. I'm really glad you said this ngl, I am a black person, specifically a queer trans man(trust me it's relevant) and I sure as hell didn't grow up with people thinking I was normal, especially when I moved to the hood- but even before moving there I was told I acted white by my older family members for liking anime, or Sonic, Radiohead or The offspring or peers at school who thought I didn't act "hood" like them. I got a different flavor of this cause for the first half of my childhood I wasn't trans and I'd aligned with being a girl, so I got shit like, "Why are you so quiet?" Or, "Oh you're so nice", it was somehow always a surprise to people that I wasn't like other black kids, even when I lived in suburbia. I wanted so badly to just be *me* without any labels, especially from my family members saying I "act white" because I didn't talk like them or wanted to be like them when they grew up in the hood for the majority of their own lives. It's like they didn't see me as anything but black and I wanted to rip myself away from anything that was culturally identified as black for so long. After a while, I started to understand why exactly being "black" is and was so important for so many, and how devastating and necessary for black folks in order to compensate for lack of ownership our autonomy, we've had to make our own. I don't like obsessing over race too much, especially when I cannot relate to most black people's experiences, including my parents like people outwardly being racist to me. But to say the issue are within those who care so much about their blackness when over the generations we've been made to feel ashamed of our own traits even till today I don't think that's entirely fair. SO I do agree that this really does chalk down to circumstances, and I try to personally not to take it too much to heart, though the frustration is also fair. Nobody should be shaming anybody for something they can't change, I can't change the fact that I like things that are "white". I feel this especially when it comes to being lgbt+ too since it's always about some shit about how the white people are just want extra privileges' and our existence is ignored, or if we're not being ignored we're suddenly being led astray by them and or it's suddenly a bad look to be whatever the hell you are. Though I feel like this is mostly an older generation thing, because I never had this issue with my older cousins that would watch anime with me when we were younger. In short, I feel like this conversation needs understanding on both sides. In a nutshell being black is difficult in this context because of this, because not only are you fighting assumptions about how you should be acting from people who aren't even black because of certain things in the media, so are you fighting them from the inside. Being black is important to some and to others it's not as much, and that's perfectly fine just like any other race- or even identity. I think acknowledging both is the best approach to this conflict since you can bridge this understanding so you're not boxing either side into one generalization. I wanted to give my own experience on this as well since I sympathize with op a ton, but to mostly emphasize that this varies to person to person. Need to throw my hat into the ring lastly: I've idly followed Spider-Man over the years but Spider-man has always appealed to me the most in superhero genres outside of maybe Teen Titans. So originally I used to find Miles nothing of a character before Spiderverse since I was exposed to him from the Ultimate cartoon (I know) and nothing in comparison to Peter because of Spectacular. Spiderverse immediately challenged that though, and honestly he has to have my favorite costume between the two. Dunno much about the games but he's really grown into his own character in Spiderverse and I appreciate that immensely because I've found his journey endearing of not feeling like he fits in because of all of the dozens of Spider people he has to consistently compare himself to. That and his identity is still apart of him, I don't care what op thinks I think the Jordans on Miles is fun characterization if you ignore the blatant advertisement.

[@KalicoKal]

green lantern,vixen,cyborg, black panther, falcon, storm( her powers weather so it counts), blade, luke cage, invincible/bullet proof, aqua lad, and everyone's favorite darwin. black superheroes arent even mostly lightning based. static shock was just so good of a show the blindly accepted the narrative we only get electricity powers when in reality we mostly get...super strength...super durability, and super speed... on second thought lets keep the lighting powers

[@christopherauzenne5023]

i think its partly the fact if you put black lightning, static shock, storm (technically shes weather but since lightnings the big flashy use i guess she counts) and miles next to each other, and since half of them are the most well known, it makes it look like the issue is much bigger. like instead, if you put cyborg, black panther, falcon, and Mr. terrific together with the text "why are all black superheroes super high tech heroes" they would have equally believed it. frankly this may be more an issue in media/stories OUTSIDE comics that involve magic powers because in superhero comics there is a more even array of abilities and stuff like superstrength or anything with energy is just most prevalent because thats just the go to for any superhero character in general, regardless of race (if you put every superhero from marvel or dc in a line 9/10 they will either have some form super strength or some form of energy based power)

[@VaughanAtLarge]

My theory about why black superheroes tend to end up with electric superpowers is due to colour contrast. I imagine the idea is if the hero is dark, the powers should be bright so they pop and look dynamic. So, what’s brighter than lightning? It’s got ‘light’ in the name! So, if multiple writers come to the same conclusion, then boom! You have an electric black superhero trope. Especially if others get inspired by said heroes.

[@geschnitztekiste4111]

They could make them fire users, for example like Mohammed Avdol from JoJo‘s Bizarre Adventure. Or give them straight up light beams

[@malikpierre-louis3343]

I heard that apparently it was because back in day DC didn't want to pay to use a certain black character so they just made a bunch of original black characters. Althought I guess that only makes sense for DC.

[@anticlaws4105]

But they could just make the superhero costume a light colour if they wanted to give them a dark superpower

[@lenerlink]

When I see a black character in a show at times: Oh look I like this black character not many of them in the show and this one seems well written and I can relate to a little bit. When I see a black character in a show at times....and they marketed all over the place saying that they are in the show and look how diverse our cast are: This character seems out of place doesnt really seem to fit in with the setting...actually allot of the cast are TOO diverse with its setting. Why did they place emphasis on this character in marketing if they aren't even part of the main plot.

[@gray.puppet]

YO WAS THIS VIDEO REALLY 42 MINUTES LONG! I was so invested in the premiere that I didn't even notice!

[@ScritRighter]

Thanks for showing up!

[@etabiansosin]

@@ScritRighter A stereotype that I don't like is when black parents are authoritarian and physically and emotionally abusive assholes towards their children.

[@flowerbloom5782]

I am Hispanic and I agree with the making of new characters. This why miles is loved because they didn’t bucket tool Peter. It feels like sloppy seconds when they race swap characters. It’s annoying cause I know my culture can be seen in a cool way while having a well written character. My personal favorite character is gambit because he clearly shows he’s cajun in his mannerism but he’s awesome character. While I feel “make original characters” statement is getting old but it’s true and super hero comics are suffering a lot from regurgitation of old ideas. I think that’s why I gravitate to other media from Japan, china, and India. Because they are creating new ideas with their own style influenced by their culture. For example gun fu was inspired by Chinese opera. Gun fu and wuxia films later on inspired the matrix in its gun fight. I can find better rep in other countries compared to USA.

[@3lith3gr83]

As a black person, I wish I had lightning powers 😞

[@Acorn905]

I wish i had water or plants it seems so fun :D

[@uraniancoolery927]

@@Acorn905I prefer blue flames like bill cipher

[@blankblank6214]

Wasn't the race swapping controversy in invincible not the viltramites but the race swapping of amber from white to black and instead of writing her the same they rewrote her to be a special kind of insufferable with one scene over the secret identity argument ruining the character like the show race swapped other characters like rex and gender swapped shrinking ray but no buzz on them cuz there character wasn't changed

[@ScritRighter]

It was both, although I think people just disliked Amber as a character for how she treated Mark.

[@blankblank6214]

@@ScritRighter weird cuz I've never heard race swapping vitrimite issue mostly cuz characters like Lucien existed and in season 2 I heard complaints they made him fat. And on the mark amber part they did the character change and race swapping cuz whenever race swapping happens at least in the modern age they can't just keep the character the same but they seem to just need to make them act different so they can be both the same character and different at the same time and this is the case in a lot of stuff now a days which comes as a bit of a bad omen when the character is either an love interest or a plot important character

[@ScritRighter]

@@blankblank6214 Congratulations, you are a normal human being lmao.

[@poutineausyropderable7108]

@@ScritRighter The vultrumite thing is just the crazy ones making a fool of themselves and diluting the discourse.

[@SammyRobinson62232]

One thing I don’t understand when people says “oh media is becoming to political now”. When media has always been politic in one way or another. Even when it’s not intentionally. From stories of thousands of years ago, to stories from ten years ago. They still have an message and political view in them. Also there has been moment where poc have been making their own characters and yet they still get hate from it. Anyway keep up the amazing work

[@CanofArizona]

While political messages have always been included in media to some degree, let's not pretend things haven't gone completely off the rails in recent years. It was not common place for politics to ruin the quality of the story and were more used to enhance said story. Back then it wasn't boarderline expected to be bombarded with political messages in just about every single thing you engaged with. A lot of things could be enjoyed as entertainment. I watched in real time as activists started getting more and more involved with media. The shift in the types of things produced from 2010 to 2020 is radically different. Media became less about entertainment for the most part and about pushing a message. The pandering is unapolegetically obvious to the point it's insulting. When companies care more about their investors that, for some reason, want this stuff present in their products or they pull funding it causes them to hamfist these things into stories just to meet a quota. Disney, netflix and others are speed running themselves into the earth's core because of it. Yes media has always had politics present but the frequency and careless way they are implemented today is why people make that complaint. It also doesn't help that the people responsible for this environment keep stirring the pot.

[@SammyRobinson62232]

@@CanofArizona That’s understandable. Since the writing quality have been questionable lately. Not saying there hasn’t been amazing tv shows and movie I haven’t been enjoying. But they keep on getting canceled for stupid reason. Still upset about the owl house till this day 😓. It also doesn’t help that people media illiteracy is very low. So if a writers does do their political message in a smart, effective, yet very blunt way. You still have people that doesn’t understand it. Like My hero academia when it comes to their villains.

[@sincorazon9920]

@@SammyRobinson62232 some people do seem to be understanding things a lot less, I wonder if it’s more of a general lack of attention opposed to media illiteracy

[@SammyRobinson62232]

@@sabersin5368-c2c Media is always political because it has a message or a political stance of something. Media from a time period is kinda like a snap shot of the time period. Due to the behaviors and stories of that piece of media. You can see what is the political view during that time period

[@opadrip]

There is a major disconnect between a story presenting an idea in a very subtle manner and ham fisting an ideology into someone's face with no tact and all the subtly of a sledgehammer to the face.

[@JikuAraiguma]

Possibly related note to representation of African culture, the upcoming major content update of Genshin Impact is a nation called Natlan. There is a common idea that this area will feature Afro-Latin-inspired concepts. The developers are from China, so they would very likely not have the same lens that we have in the west. I look forward to seeing a new perspective on these ideas.

[@WesternNoivern]

Like how they made everyone from Sumeru white? Lol

[@nessmarie6044]

the new perspective on meso-america in question: basing the fashion on their colonizers

[@gangofheroes]

Luke Cage, Falcon, Blade, Vixen and Blue Marvel, it's not a trope but a lot of the ones that get pushed tend to have it, I can name 5 more without looking it up like Oya, Debris, Darwin, Gentle, Bishop, Spawn, Cyborg, Black Panther. But I am black myself but like I said earlier they seem to be the ones with the bigger presence in media which may or may not be a coincidence.

[@jawz9455]

I wouldn't include Miles Morales and Storm but the reason why they're so many black superheroes with lightning powers is because DC didn't want to pay the guy who made Black Lightning so they kept on making clones of the superhero.

[@Achieme]

I know it's going to be annoying to hear but that's why i don't like race swapping because Marvel and DC has these characters and half of them get expanded on besides the comics. Meanwhile they're left on the shelf to collect dust or reduced to background characters

[@Achieme]

Let's not forget rocket, Icon, john stewart

[@christopherauzenne5023]

​@@jawz9455 wait I thought that whole not paying the Black lightning creator was only really for the super friends show and nothing else, in DC comics the only other "clone" i could see is static shock but even then he wasnt DC he was originally apart of Milestone comics (a separate company made of black creators creating new black superheros that was later bought and added to DC) and the other two are thunder & lightning who are black lightnings kid so, obviously similar powers.

[@jawz9455]

@@christopherauzenne5023 Check out DC animated shows, you'll see alot of black superheroes with lightning powers dawning Black Lightnings colours.

[@neosalvi]

When I think abt miles morales I think of him as Latino bc I’m Latino and I desperately look for ppl like me I’m the media ig and I’m glad he isn’t js a stereotypical Latin lover or something

[@lionconstellation]

one character I love is Lee Everett from The Walking Dead Telltale series. even though he's the playable character and we make the majority of the choices for him, there's still an underlying personality in Lee. he has great leadership skills, learns how to adapt in an unforgiving environment, and is a great father/mentor figure to Clementine. He's a great protagonist, and my second favorite TWD protagonist in the entire franchise, aside from Clementine, who is also a great character.

[@abyssalnightmare551]

I love Lee and Clem so much

[@killerofbats1705]

To be fair they have a point about Spider-woman. Why the fuck is she fighting crime with an unborn baby in her stomach. One punch and she is done for. Other than that I agree with most of your opinions.(I'm black and I think my opionion is valid in this). Edit: There is a difference between doing office, retail, and other jobs pregnant and fighting crime which have bad guys hitting and puching a vunerable part of your stomach you need to protect.

[@christopherauzenne5023]

yeah same opinion, and to anyone who says "well peter is basically doing the same thing with his baby and you don't think that's an issue", NO I do, that is also incredibly stupid as well. honestly this is the third time ive seen something from marvel having a pregnant superhero fighting and like you said a pregnant woman working vs one in active combat or soooo not the same thing. (like at least the original comic pregnant spiderwoman this was based on, her first decision was to be as far away from fighting as possible and was only forced into fighting because she was trapped in a hostage situation)

[@flowerbloom5782]

The kid is gonna come out as an omelette if she keeps spinning around like that.

[@thewanderingronin1924]

You do know that’s a super baby right?

[@CyreseParrish]

​@thewanderingronin1924 Cool fact, still an unborn baby.

[@thewanderingronin1924]

@CyreseParrish Even more fun fact it's a radioactive unborn baby whose mom is Spider-Woman

[@HopeReviews]

Thank you for shedding light on this, Growing up I had to constantly see black people act like thugs form the ghetto and it always got on my nerves, like were not all like that. It's so frustrating when these writers try to be "inclusive" but instead of doing there research they just resort to using stereotypes.

[@arson135]

I'm black and I don't approve of some of my favorite characters getting black washed. I'm one of the few OG Nick Fury fans and didn't need the talented Sam Jackson to be him. Johnny Storm became Michael B Jordan, and they made Wesker a black guy that awkwardly ended up looking like Temu Blade. I like Black characters, but don't race swap everything for diversity points. If we are so creative we should have fresh innovative original Black characters instead of cheering when we get second hand heroes.

[@Wandermidget]

MCU Nick Fury is based on Ultimate Nick Fury, who is based on Samuel L. Jackson in the first place, abit without his permission. When Jackson brought it up, Marvel offered compensation by offering the role of MCU Fury to him.

[@arson135]

@@Wandermidget Nick Still got race swapped, it just happened in the comics first 😆, then they got Sam to get on board after the fact. So my point is still valid to an extent. I still prefer the scruffy faced, touch of grey hair on the sides with a cigar in his mouth at all times Nick Fury, but that's just my opinion.

[@morganqorishchi8181]

The trope of lightning powers comes from Black Lightning, a DC hero who was the very first black DC character to receive his own series. He was instrumental in proving black characters could be the title lead of a series and still sell decent numbers, and not only among black people, but among white people, too. A lot of indie comics made their own ripoffs or homages to him not out of disrespect, but because 1., it sold well and 2., his success led a lot of people to finally give black lead characters a chance in the medium. Later comics creators created characters with lightning powers who are black not because they wanted to make it a trope, but because they wanted to honor the importance of Black Lightning in comics history. The creator of Static (or Static Shock, as the cartoon was called) gave his lead lightning powers to reference Black Lighting because the two characters are both science nerds and superheroes, two roles that historically, black characters in comics didn't get to be. Miles Morales' lightning powers are a reference to Static's powers, as he is also a kid interested in science and the success of Static and Black Lightning at DC was something his creators used to help convince Marvel to publish Miles' series. I don't think we as non-white people get to tell black creators not to write black characters with lightning powers when that's a reference to something historically significant in black representation in media. No one gives white people shit for writing characters with Superman's powerset. Why should black people be barred from a specific superpower simply because they're black? Characters like Frozone who have no storyline, no interiority, no development and no focus put on them have non-electric powers. Power changes don't equal good writing. Writing a character who's a teacher, involved in his community, kind and thoughtful (Black Lightning), extroverted, nerdy, into science and funny (Static) or artistic, scientific, creative, self-confident and so heroic he stands up to the multiverse (Miles) who have a single trope you don't like doesn't make them bad. Writing is more important than anything else. If I give a character fire powers and his personality is gangsta stereotypes, I haven't really done anything to make good representation. I've just made a small change and patted myself on the back for it.

[@THEMilesMorales]

As a black person yeah Ariel and Jim made me mad i mean it wasn't necessarily just because they were black but because it seemed like bs because during that time we saw the rise of black created media so it felt as if we were just being catered too

[@THEMilesMorales]

Oh yeah and that Velma show bs swapping almost the whole cast but Fred just to turn him from THE GOAT to a pathetic incel

[@thewanderingronin1924]

You use terrible examples when those ACTORS got there roles because they were good at ACTING they do auditions believe it or not

[@thewanderingronin1924]

@@THEMilesMorales You know there race has nothing to do with the story if you just said characteristics being demolished I would agree with you

[@THEMilesMorales]

@@thewanderingronin1924 I mean I wouldn't day the characters aren't deep but with the story adapted Jim really aint all that he was just an assistant and the only way they could character assassinate Ariel is if they make her smart acting brain dead ain't hard

[@THEMilesMorales]

@@thewanderingronin1924 and they did destroy the characters of the Mystery Inc. none of them acted as they really would barely besides shaggy and all he did was act like a nigga who was high so what

[@mongezibuthelezi1032]

Honestly the "there's too many black superheroes with lightning powers" is kinda overblown theirs not that many if I remember correctly there's maybe 16 to 17 superheroes with lightning abilities including those with weather control abilities but theirs a lot I man a lot of other black superheroes with different powers it's just the lighting black superheroes are the most popular to the point were we see them every where

[@SuperKillJoy15]

5 Black Characters with powers that arent lightning: 1. Ussop, King of Sniper Island. 2. Barret, FF7 l, Has a gatling gun for an arm. 3. Burton Guster, Psych. Power: The Sniffer 4. Prototype 2 guy whos name I forget but his power was tentacles or something. You told me not to google... 5. Current Green Lantern whos name I do not know

[@danielbishop3806]

What!? You must have Ussop confused with Sogeking. Which I do understand since they both have long noses. It's a shame that they never got to see each other in enies lobby.

[@freddogrosso9835]

Sogeking is Black?!?!

[@WeatherWitch]

I'm creating an indie series. One of the main 4 characters is a black woman. She's based off a irl astronaut whose the first black woman in space. I've been talking with a lot of black creators and friends of mine on how to avoid the common tropes and stereotypes to make a genuine good black character in my creation that people can love and look up too. I see the way companies give sloppy seconds to people of color instead of creating original characters for them. It's sad and I'm a Latina-Irish woman.

[@NebulaBubbles]

I'm working on an indie project, all by myself and the main is a black woman who is Korean. I don't have any black friends at all and I don't have much guidance on making my character. Good on you that you have help and support!

[@DrAngelKins]

Tbh, i love miles, and it connects to me. However, cleveland doesn't. I But the writing is pretty different

[@Darth_Bateman]

Bro, cleaveland was kind of lame…

[@yoder6162]

​@@Darth_Bateman Was? He still is even now.

[@anubis7457]

@@yoder6162 OG Cleveland was kinda funny. The one before he left for the spinoff, Loretta being a bitch to him while he was completely dead inside was funny to me, at least.

[@giantpinkcat]

"Why can't black people just write their own characters?" *Original Black character* "Ugh! What is this forced diversity?!"

[@Ayyavazi13]

I was so worried about where this video was going to go. Glad I stuck it out. So worth it and gave me a lot to think about in how I write black characters.

[@sick_icarus]

I’ve never had the most diverse casts of characters, I am white and grew up in an area with very few minorities. As I got older, I made more minority characters but always felt ill equipped to write them well. My instincts told me to write them like I’d write any character, but I also knew that being black in America often comes with a culture and perspective I am very unfamiliar with. I always avoid research even though I know it would expand my understanding of my setting and characters, which is a shame because that lack of knowledge is what gives me pause in writing more diverse characters. For me there is more pressure to write black characters well and sometimes a feeling like I have no business writing from a black character’s perspective being a white person who’s had very few interactions with minorities. Ultimately, though, I think it’s sort of like being an artist. You may not be the best artist, but if you never create anything, you’ll never get any better. So I guess the advice I need is to get over the fear that the world will end if I write a cliche or badly written black character. More so that a character can always be improved the more you learn. So I guess, don’t hinge your character’s value on whether they’re perfect but also be open to information and perspectives that can help you write them better? Idk, sounds like a start. Just trying to help myself out without delving into the whole political angle.

[@UnlimitedIvory]

Challenge accepted. 5 black heroes who dont use lighting powers. Icon Monica Rambo Luke Cage Brother Vodoo Cyborg Easy but i guess its not really fair sense im kinda a nerd. Also ill say this lighting powers can be used well but its always used for the same thing shooting down or out lighting. When i think of lighting powers i think of Cole McGrath from infamous or electro from Marvel. Both of them use thier powers in similiar ways but its diffferent enough to make them stand out above the rest in my presonal opinion. For example electro can travel threw electronics and his body is made out of pure electricity so bullets go right threw them, Cole can access almost any source of information by hacking into the any thing that uses it.

[@sircorny2894]

I agree with most the video outside of the race swapping part and saying that people that dont like it are uncomfy with black people in media. I find that disingenuous. I hate race swaps in general because most times they are done for a bad reason and its a terrible excuse for diversity. The same with gender swaps now that i'm here. But im this way not just with white characters getting turned black but all characters. If the original vision of a character was black,white,asian,latino keep them that way. Make new characters instead of changing old ones , like you said in the video its really damn lazy in the first place. I dont want black characters changed white and white characters changed black especially since its almost like i said never done for a good reason. In cases like actors i give a pass sometimes because the best person to play that character sometimes just happens to be of a different race. As black puerto rican i love characters like miles but because hes well written him being from my same country and my same race is just a plus as someone who writes myself quality should be put above everything else from my own standpoint. A good story will already just naturally be diverse only when it is forced and put above the quality is when i give it and disapproving side eye.

[@audreyharris7643]

I agree

[@Kuromikinnie]

No definitely just don’t like black people love cause, where was this hate when people were white washing Amanda the adventurers a recent game . 😂you seem heated love take a bottle of water

[@historyking9984]

It’s ironic someone would get mad about a black background Vilturmite. I mean Debbie wasn’t Asian from what I remember in the comics or didn’t seem so

[@wambokodavid7109]

Wait, some people were mad about that??? there's gazillion black viltrumites in the book

[@Justanidea5976]

Very much enjoyed this video. As a black person, I love seeing well written characters in general. I recently saw Dune 2, cuz I was heavily excited for it after seeing the first one, and I absolutely LOVED it. Hearing book readers also enjoy it and seeing the differences between the movies and the book was very interesting. One of the main changes was Chani and Kynes. Chani is described as a redhead and Kynes is described as a white man. In the movie, however, Chani has brown hair and Kynes is a black woman. From the perspective you have of a minority of the "anti-woke" crowd, you'd expect us to be making video after video of these changes, but, once you look at the actual arguments being made, you see it's more nuanced. Nobody cared because the movie was great and the director cared more about Chani's character than just lazily swapping her race. I dont think we should look at race/ gender swapping with indifference, but with nuance. The reason the "anti-woke" crowd exists is in response Hollywood and big gaming studios pushing a narrative rather than telling a good story. This causes whatever people they try to "represent" to get a bad look and deepens some in their racist beliefs while putting in 0 effort themselves. Miles Morales, for example, started off as the exact same character as Peter Parker with some added negative stereotypes with his uncle. Almost anytime you hear the creators talk about his story, its about inclusion, diversity and not much about his actual character. In comes ITSV, and not only is there unique animation, great story, and great music but made Miles unique but still relatable while still keeping the inclusive and diverse message by letting the movie speak for itself and not speaking for Miles. For a long time, Marvel would hire people who knew nothing of their legacy characters or how comics work, to make new characters. First thing on their mind was "diversity and inclusion" instead of good writing and during that time, they replaced legacy characters and shit on them. But they also made themselves the new character and made the characters assholes. These characters can make a racist even more racist, a sexist, even more sexist because of how bad their characters are. Then their comics/ movies don't sell well and they blame it on the audience when they're the ones being sexist/racist in those comics/ movies because they're projecting it. Lets look at the whole Sweet Baby Inc. fiasco going on right now. Even if you don't believe modern "wokeness" exists, its a HUGE problem that a consulting company that is supposed to be helpling with writing minorities and being against racism, sexism, etc. but the leader and SEVERAL employees are actively being racist and excluding people from getting a job. They are being hypocritical. Disney, EA, etc, do not care about us black people, they dont care about women, men, gay ppl, trans, etc. they say they do but then put 0 effort in those movies and games and still raise the price to even get a ticket. Prime example, the new Little Mermaid movie. As a black person, this pissed me off the most. Not that they made a black Little Mermaid, but that they took Ariel, someone who's known to be white, changed it, and made it a bad Live Action. There's black mermaids in one of the animated movies made by the same company and instead of doing a unique story about them that could add more world building for the verse, they instead to do this. This is what's meant by "woke" when trying to present yourself as for progressiveness or to be helping a community but being so lazy or hypocritical that you're not willing to stop getting money from those that are racist/ sexist. Youve seen what Disney has done for China regarding us. Sorry, for the long post, but sure there are "anti-woke" people that are racist, but most of us, 99.999999% of us, aren't that but are responding to the fake progressivism from these companies.

[@ExeErdna]

Look at how Miles was even created it was a virtue signal because Bendis has 2 adopted black daughters he claims he's "writing for them" Yet then he leaves the project for others to deal with and he moves on to something else. This have 2 more times with Riri Williams and Naomi... Naomi being the worse offender since DC completely removed her after a WILD push with her in the canon. After the cheaply made CW show flopped she was MIA from everything. Going back to Miles he was LAME for almost 10 years before ITSV that movie did what 10 years could not do. Then he STILL was lame and they made him even worse in the comics imo. Yes, I would have loved and respected a Little Mermaid that was a spin off where you see what those black Mermen were doing. Ariel is OVER THERE yet here this story going on here that how they can keep and bank off legacy yet then have something new as well. I've been anti since the first GG insulted my intellengence as a black male gamer. I was gaslit more by white people claiming my experience my feeling weren't valid because I didn't agree with theirs. I was often like "So I'm supposed to just be mean to you because your techincally the problem and you're ignoring what I'm saying" It cascading for 10+ years and here we are now where once again Black voices who are tired of corpo slop are ignored because these woke assholes don't think we would refuse them. They automatically think we're white or they just throw out a slur thinking it's sweet to do so. It's their actions for white more anti-black racism is popping up because they have black folk legit dancing to their tune and flipping the script calling anybody that notices the racism as racist... How my black ass racist for pointing out these companies use racist stereotypes in there themes for black characters then use them as a shield when black people go "nah, this ain't it" Corpos only want our money they don't care.

[@kidflashII]

You tripped over your point when you started trying to tackle the culture war part.

[@Cvr5ta0ywa]

Also for correction green lanterns are not legacy characters or slant characters because green lantern is a profession. think of them as galactic interpol. So anyone can be a green lantern regardless of their identity. Also, there is a difference between legacy characters and slant/derivative characters. Legacy characters are mostly mentee/aspirational characters that are inspired by the main established character to do good or continue the legacy of their mentor or inspired hero. While derivative characters are mostly a mirror version of the original they are sometimes presented as legacy characters that can have their own heroic journey but mostly tend not to have one or are highly dependent on the original character to feel significant. The Robins are good examples of legacy characters and as I stated before traditions within the medium have a specific character arc. The reason why we call Richard Grayson first Robin or Dick Grayson Robin and don't call Dick Grayson Knightwing is because the character has a sort of graduation arc where they move from point A of their life into point B. The student leaves their mentors and has their own heroic journeys. The same applies to the other robins. Miles doesn't have this aspect.

[@sonyyung5510]

Two points Id like to say about this topic as black man. The main issues I've had from writers being unable to write black characters is that they don't do the bare minimum research to understand the black character they're writing about, or make it seem like black people are these otherworldly people that's impossible to relate to somehow; and I've seen it go both ways in terms of being legit racist or WAY to woke about it. i grew up in early 2000's-today watching shows, cartoons, and some anime to an extent, with well versed, enjoyable and non-cringe black characters. Nowadays though it feels like people in the media space have either forgot about that, or they are wrapped up in some weird Ideology about blackness that they overcompensate and make the black character into a mary-sue or caricatures. Another dynamic is the difference between hood blacks and normal black people. Most black people don't act like they're from the hood, but there is so much media about black people acting like hood blacks. So what I see is that a lot of people from other cultures see that and assume most black people act like hood blacks. In reality most black people are more like their African brothers and sisters than they would like to admit. It's so bad that a lot hispanic blacks down in south america outright deny their blackness just so they aren't lumped with the other blacks from the US. That's why I think Black Panther was such a global movement in the Afro-sphere of the world. It kinda showed that not only was being black cool, but it was profitable as well. I think if more writers actually do the work to make their black characters, GOOD characters, instead of focusing on woke agenda; more people from other cultures will come around and understand the black people are just people too. So either just write them like normal characters, or if you are going to write from a more african lense then do the research so you know what you're talking about.

[@Eniggma39]

A 5 minute disclamer usually is not usually a good sign before discussing a topic. I got scared aha. As a black man I hate raceswaps. It's just a cop-out for studios to not take the real risk of promoting a diverse character. Miles Morales used to sucks in the comics. Glad they fixed him in Spider-Verse. Also: Spike (X-men evolution) Aqualad (young justice) Mr Terrific (DCAU) Green Lantern (DCAU) Luke Cage (Netflix) Blade (Wesley Snipe version)

[@WarsunGames]

26:42 I love this part because people just don't know. Peter is under so much stress all the time. He has 1 person he can trust an that person turned into a super villain once.

[@Redeemedentertainment]

Black characters with electric abilities stems from the original character “Black Lightning”. As time went on, DC didn’t want to pay the creator of when it came to cartoons.. so DC would create very similar black characters and introduce them into the cartoons. That’s why there is so many of them.

[@doronaznible7298]

Good advice at the beginning that I’m actually going to take note of. Though the last half felt somewhat drawn out and a bit too unrelated to the video topic at times, but I liked it nonetheless.

[@omous7770]

I think this video could have done with being more concise, yeah. I was mainly focused on the writing advice and didn’t get much out of the odd 30 minutes spent talking about other things.

[@onceuponagamemaster1588]

Blerd without Fear did a video on how it's not that a lot of black superheroes have lightning powers. It's that a lot of POPULAR black superheroes have them or are associated with them. I'd recommend checking out his vid - he did an excellent contrast to show it's a very small percentage and people's perspective on this phenomenon is kind of skewed. On another note, making black superheroes have lightning powers is really...not something writers do just to copy. I'm surprised people don't talk about this but a lot of black people actually LIKE the dynamic. It has a lot to do with the 'Black Power' movement back in the 1960s and when you wield something as fundamentally dynamic as lightning you have 'Power.' This is why we have a character with the name 'Black Lightning'. In essence, it's an allegory for 'black power' and if you at a lot of the icongraphy of the character he's heavily embodied that to a non-subtle degree. Yes, it not something we need for every hero - I absolutely agree. I'm not saying that the trope needs to be done more and I don't want to see creative powers from black superheroes. But it's not out of 'nothing' and quite frankly while there are some black people who say they're sick of it; there's a lot of black people who eat that shit up and it's probably why the dynamic still runs strong after so many black characters have overused the theme. Also I wanna say as a black person, I'm also not keen on seeing my race and culture being overly catered to via the savior complex. I say this because...I love the Spider-Verse movies and I take no issue with them. But then I look at something like Insomniac Spider-Man 2 and I honest to god cringe. Yeah, there are some racist people out here and some of them are the ones complaining about these things. But they really should not just be blanketed dismissed when there are valid gripes brought up. Insomniac making Miles the main Spider-Man after spending an entire game of shitting on Peter and making him apologize for things that were not his fault and acting as if he were lacking? Yeah no. It's _weird._ Like you said at the start of the video - we notice that shit. And this is a particularly complex case because you gotta remember black people are >people< too. And it's in style these days for people to lean into being a victim so that others can hand you things. Bottom line - I take issue with acting that everyone who has a problem with these sorts of things must be inherently racist and look inward at themselves. Because it feels like we're just encouraging another form of oppression.

[@JonahFinch-li7zn]

Just write original black characters the way you would write white characters just write them as people that’s all I keep saying when someone asks me this

[@LVdeo]

John Stewart’s Green Lantern Rocket Icon Black Panther Blade (he’s an Anti Hero, so just in case we want to do another actual hero, Bishop) Only reason i didn’t say Cyborg was cause he’s a robot so electricity is essential to him. Don’t wanna cheat. EDIT: Luke cage and Falcon were right there and i forgot about em

[@RenoReborn]

"I made a black movie, I can't be racist" Yeah, that sounds about right for your average Hollywood Studio Exec🤣

[@kamishin7135]

1. Black panther 2. The Falcon 3. Killer Bee 4. Miriko (MHA) 5. Blackbeard (One Piece), he is comfirmed to be from Somalia if he lived in our world by Oda

[@oumarbrouwer2763]

yo killer be has lightning style tho....

[@shadowarcherx15]

Miriko is not black but im surprised that you forgot Rock Lock

[@caretakercat7176]

Miriko is just tan

[@colonelthunderbolt4396]

This helped me a LOT with getting over some worries I had about writing black characters. I was fed with a lot of, let's just say, closeted racist ideas from white liberals from the US (I'm from Brazil but talk a lot with people from the US online), to the point that I sometimes was worried about offending someone without meaning to, and that shut myself off of writing black characters at all once upon a time. Thanks a lot for the video.

[@juliovictormanuelschaeffer8370]

I dealt with that topic in my novel, _A Limitless World._ Luara Baiense is an afro-brazilian assassin raised, trained AND indoctrinated by an old group that wants to reunite South America and rebuild it as a superpower equal to the US. She's in one hand a cold and deadly assasin who hunts drug lords, criminals, pimps, corrupt businessmen and other scum like there's no tomorrow, and in the other a happy but shy woman affected by her upbringing. However, after meeting a... well-endowed stranger in Peru, she becomes a superhuman; basically, a weird mix between a Callidus and a Maurorum from 40K. From then on, her life changes, as things become stranger at every instant. What I want to do with Luara is talk about one theme in particular: alienation. Before the adventure, Luara was losing her faith in everything, in her group, in her country, in everything. She felt that, aside from a titanic world war, nothing was gonna change in her homeland, but at the same time, _she feels disconnected from it._ She was basically raised as a weapon, comparable to fictional assassins and hitmen from games like Trench Crusade or Final Fantasy, yet she's considered like the main lady in The Acolyte, an annoying *token* who doesn't "deserve" to be where she is. In short, she's alienated from South American society and her own country due to how she was raised, and even from the character ideal due to her race and birthplace. However, race wouldn't be her main character trait, nor her story's main plot, but the adventures she has _in spite_ of the aforementioned "cons".

[@zekethefreakmashingupgeek]

Excellent essay! Very logical. Hit the subject matter out of the park. A must watch for so-called "culture warriors."

[@IsabellaMathew]

“Politics doesn’t help with writing with writing a good character.” I agree with it. I also, feel like my generation has problems with political addiction.

[@cryo9017]

Your right a bit with politics thing but some characters are inherently politics but not all still a good point man.

[@lordraiden7397]

Everything has politics. This. "Urk my generation" thing is so corny

[@IsabellaMathew]

@@lordraiden7397 Okay then tell me what is political themes of It’s wonderful life?

[@cryo9017]

@@lordraiden7397 I get the point your not fully right bro

[@cryo9017]

@@IsabellaMathew HEY what a wonderful world 😊

[@josephthomas3766]

To answer you question yes spiderwoman shouldn't fight crime while she's pregnant. I don't think I need to explain what can happen if she gets hit in the guts hard enough. There is a way to put pregnant superheros in heroic settings that don't involve them being full-time hero while carrying your unborn child. Hell, I thought it was weird that Peter brought his daughter to manhunt yeah there were cute and heartwarming moments, but we don't need an even worse Gwen Stacy death moment.

[@Nebulous8091]

First of all, great video. The way i see it as a black guy, i think we( as the human race, not just black people) should be able to write characters of a different race without a guide, irregardless of one's race. In fact, i discourage it as any race and ethnicity is not a monolith.

[@Kingbeat1]

You snuck in piccolo in the thumbnail

[@Valentine_D4C_LT]

You don't aim to write a good black character,you aim to write a good character who just happens to be black.

[@EsperHubb]

Waiting for the day we get a black super hero with that uses ice just so they can have the catch phase "Stay cool". Also that isekai analogy killed me.

[@ieuansmith518]

Thank god I was dragged out of focusing on this stuff. (pause) 24:43 Looking back on it, I only cringe now and ask "Why did I see this as a problem? This stupid to complain about in the first place, 'woke media is ruining cinema', oh god, give me a gun so I can shoot myself for saying that sentence." But other than that, keep up the great video, my man.

[@Leahcimmichael]

That Green Lantern, Robin and Flash examples are perfect

[@rfhextra]

The video put a smile on my face.

[@adonniseaston-tolbert608]

8:53 “Spit white boy”🗣️💯

[@gergokun7154]

28:51 Literally yes?? I feel like that wouldnt be too unreasonable.

[@flowerbloom5782]

Yeah. Was that question? Also why does he bring about the maternity leave?

[@TheHeavenlyBeast]

>Be me >black man >be a writer >likes lightning powers >like the dreads (though prefer them going straight as opposed to a combover) >shit

[@mellowyellow7518]

Just because Spiderverse is a good movie, which I agree with, doesn't mean that gender and race swapping characters isn't lazy and uninspired. Having multiple green lanterns makes sense, it's a corp that was established very early. Having multiple Robins also makes since, still unoriginal which is why most people who are actually into the comics prefer Nightwing and Red Hood over Damien and Tim. They are all just Orphans that Bruce adopted. Having two characters with damn near the same powers while one has been established as one of the most popular comic book figures ever, and the other has lighting powers and Jordan 1s... Is lazy. Name 3 Miles Morales villains? The Prowler?! They recycle all of Peters villains as well. I just feel like writing off criticism of race swapping a character just because a movie was good as being uncomfortable with black people is disingenuous.

[@marcusclark1339]

THIS

[@CrocsFortress]

I mean to be fair Miles does have some villains like Frost Pharoh, Bumbler, and The Acsessor, but I see your point, he does need more of his own villains that are not Peter’s.

[@MrBleuskyz]

I’m a little ashamed of myself for not making more POC characters, and this video is reminding me why and how I can be making better/more POC characters

[@Thewhatiffstudio]

My biggest gripe rite now in modern writing for black people as a black man im so tired of the hole were oppressed and white man bad in almost all trust me we do care when they get the mythology wrong it shows the lak of care and resurch oing into it

[@reichen609]

Just finished watching. This video is #requiredviewing in all schools around the world. Thank you for making this!

[@keeferkifflom360]

Aku Aku,Uka Uka and Crunch Bandicoot are black characters who are so underrated. Aku Aku is PlayStation’s first black father figure.

[@reubenhugo6450]

Perfectly written and spoken piece bro… really level headed take

[@ReginaldOrakwe-zi9up]

Here's a list of 5 fictional black characters without lightning abilities 1 titan from invincible 2 vixen from DC comics 3 bronze tiger from DC comics 4 war machine from marvel comics 5 cyborg from DC comics I could keep going if you want

[@freddogrosso9835]

I love how he tricked a whole bunch of people to write extra comments.

[@SatiricalSheep]

how i make characters is that i make a character and just give them whatever skin color looks best for their design lol the races of my characters don't play a huge role in their personalities so i can just do whatever, so if you're struggling to make a black character, make a white one and then change their skin color! :D

[@V1Ultrakilllmao]

This may be off topic but have you considered covering how video games have to blend story and gameplay? Still all your videos are really helpful, so keep up the good work.

[@ScritRighter]

How do you mean? Also, thank you!

[@BjornIdiottsonn]

​@@ScritRighterI think they mean that video games should strive for a story that complements the mechanics of the game. I.E., if the story of a game and general actions of the characters involve a fantasy feel and killing monsters, then it would feel weird and off-place for the gameplay to be some match-three Candy Crush clone

[@danevisser1927]

Like ludonarrative harmony

[@PrestonTV]

I really liked this video calling attention to the obvious trend on "how to make a black person", but just to me personally, I'm not a fan of changing a character, at least a major one, rather its origin, race or background.

[@theillustriouscosmowitch617]

Hot take: The “I don’t see race.” Mentality is just as discriminatory as conventional racism, causes more harm in the battle for racial justice than good and is an atrocious way to go about writing black characters in fiction, both historical figures and made-up characters.

[@ScritRighter]

I agree 100%. Ignoring race or the histories behind it is a way to brush things under the rug and avoid the work which still needs to be done. But I also feel that fighting for social justice all the time can be exhausting, and sometimes we just wanna write cool characters in cool stories without having to delve into topics we may or may not be prepared to do proper justice.

[@theillustriouscosmowitch617]

@@ScritRighter I’ll admit wholeheartedly my comment was somewhat hyperbolic. I think the “I don’t see race” approach to writing black characters works well for franchises where the concept of Racism either doesn’t exist (Pokemon and Fire Emblem) or if it does exist, it’s not racism targeted at humans, but rather, vaguely humanoid-looking creatures/monsters (Final Fantasy, Xenoblade and Zelda). I think it fails though for story’s based on real-life historical black people (e.g. Yasuke, Malik Ambar, Kandake, Dihya, Thomas Alexandre Dumas, Bessie Coleman, Josephine Baker, Mansa Musa, Nzinga, Shaka Zulu, Abram Gannibal, Coretti arle-titz, Obama, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, Malcom X) who objectively DID suffer from racial discrimination so much that it partly defined their character and personality and made their achievements feel so much more rewarding as a result. Robbing them of that agency and that aspect of their lives in favour of a nebulous, fabricated struggle that never happened would be, in my opinion, a huge disservice to their legacies and accomplishments.

[@audreyharris7643]

I always figured "I don't see color" was about you not making any decisions based on the race of someone else and it not being something you think twice about Rather than ignoring the race they have and what they go through

[@Remember_the_Time]

@@audreyharris7643 That's what I thought it was too, until I grew older and met people who thought like that lol. I see color and race, but I don't treat people differently based off of that, it's just how my eyes work. A lot of people I've met that say that tend to be lying or trying to cover-up what they really think

[@audreyharris7643]

@@Remember_the_Time understandable

[@caesertullo1824]

EYY this is SUCH a better intro. You're learning! ehh, we diid have a really short conversation one time. I know you slightly better than an uber driver (before the ride is over, then prob not.) Still really proud you tuned down the inflammatory statements. Either that our I'm getting conditioned into accepting these equally cringe and based video intros.

[@christopherauzenne5023]

fair video with a lot of intersting points but I kinda have a problem with this part 29:29 first off you literally just showed an image were only one of the robins was robin and the rest have become a different/new hero so that kinda screws up your point, the green lanterns have changed from being a sole hero to more an intergalactic defense force a good point before introducing guy, john and etc. and flash ISN'T venom he is his own hero Agent venom and it's not just a slight name change, the two work completely different. but regarding your point, I feel miles often gets the most of this is that a huge part of his story was the death of peter parker because that basically acts as his uncle ben moment but when stories try to have him and peter, with peter not dying he kinda feels directionless (like imagine batman but his parents aren't dead, kinda loses something doesnt it). Spiderverse made this work, even though technically they did kill miles' peter, by giving a mentor student relationship between pete and miles so they still have that passing the torch idea. but that only worked because they had an actual age gap, pete being mid 40s while miles being a preteen, when others try they have the two ruffly the same age or peter is still new at spiderman so the mentor element isnt there (no joke, there was a recent spiderman show and before the first season was over they made miles a spiderman/gwen spider-gwen)

[@woodyscorner8536]

Black characters having lightning powers come from the first black superhero who had lightning powers, comics wanted to use him but there was some issue I can’t remember? So they just made their own black lightning superhero. And then every time there was a new superhero comic they needed a token black character, so they just continued recreating the same black guy with lightning powers.

[@TheInvisibleCanadia]

Cleopatra was a Greek who ruled Egypt rather than an Egyptian herself, but the modern idea of race didn't exist then either.

[@Jkrocsko]

34:00 so my thoughts on this actually are "no. I liked this stop changing things, dont change their looks, dont change their personality, dont change their background or speech, and i will be opposed to it untill you prove that its more interesting or better done" see, Gwen Stacy and Nick Fury, those two actually became way more interesting and more defined in media. I like it. And if they made bad changed to either of these characters i would be very upset, nick fury isnt a white man anymore, Gwen's new haircut and face are so much more interesting than the old one, to revert it back or change her style again would upset me 100%

[@Mr.LegDay22]

I am working on a story and one of my main characters are black with lighting powers, but the lighting powers are based on music, and it is like gears from one piece. for example: his first form overdrive is activated by playing upbeat music, this form puts all of his energy into his legs witch higher his speed by 10x. If he uses this form for too long, he would not be able to use another form for 10 minutes and this can break his legs, so he has to be smart when using this form. would this pass for you, you can give me feedback if you can. like this channel btw this was the first vid I watched, keep up the good work. never knew it was a trope btw.

[@brendanfraser7616]

35:16 By that logic, no one should bat an eye if Black Panther or The Major is turned white.

[@ibrahimihsan2090]

13:00: Cyborg, John Stewart(Green Lantern), Jefferson Jackson from the Arrowverse, Ebon from that Static Shock cartoon, Ethan Bennett from The Batman(2004). I've had my fair share of media. 13:16: Saying I know a lot about black people from watching cartoons and some TV shows is like saying I know a lot about Japanese people by watching anime, only not as reliable and anime is barely reliable. I can only know a few stuff. Even meeting with a black guy or spending time with them wouldn't do anything. I can never know enough, really.

[@yoyoshi8947]

The problem is they try to focus on making them so black they forget to make them actual people first.

[@hnaw1360]

I agree with everything in this video except for Spiderwoman. There's a VERY clear reason why people don't like the fact she's pregnant. Peter is at least PASSABLE since Mayday has spider powers but Spiderwoman is PREGNANT and is fighting in an incredibly acrobatic way AND is on a motorcycle. There's a very high probability that baby would turn out still born because of all the shit she's doing in the VERY unlikely scenario it isnt just killed outright with a punch to the stomach. Outside of that I agree with everything you said. Honestly love electric powered superheroes and I never really noticed until you said it just how many of them are black. Hell they even raceswapped Electro in the Spiderman movies to be black. Could have picked anyone but they picked him. Though I feel that might just be more Electro has literally no personality so people wouldn't give a shit if you changed him lmao (which generally no one did😂)

[@grimreads]

As a Greek person, I can tell you that "how many black skinned people were in Ancient Greece" is triggering to a lot of us because of "Black Athena" and similar attempts to "blackwash" Ancient Greek culture. So Netflix Cleopatra or black Achiles is a point of frustration for many of us (The point on mythology being wrong also explains it, we are as outraged about Xena warrior princess, Percy Jackson or any other movie - probably 300 is an exception) Add in a number of wars with and occupation both of and by Arabic/North African populations, the fact that South Europeans are treated like Harry Potter mudbloods by North Europeans AND white North Americans while we identify as white (no matter how dark our skintones can get, they never match West Africans), and also the fact that we don't use some racist methods like "One drop rule" to determine race, instead it is more about ethnicity and cultural characteristics rather than phenotype and you get some of the main pain points. Also, what never works with inserting some African American actors in a historical setting as natives is that you need way more brown/mixed people in the crowd to make it believable. Unless it looks like a North African or Brazilian town/city then you are doing it wrong.

[@catbiscuit6107]

Bro is so respectful. Good job :)

[@sydney7348]

First off I'd like to say thank you for making this video (pretty brave on your part tbh). Unfortunately I'm of a similar opinion to the bigots when it comes to simply race swapping a character, fortunately it is for a different reason. I would love to be indifferent but it just feels lazy and inconsiderate. Sure complaining about a dark skinned humanoid fish is pretty weird but considering that the original film, the tv shows, the merchandise all portray Ariel as white I can't simply ignore why she's suddenly black. I love good black characters and I believe that anyone of any race (yes, even my palm coloured cousins) can create them. I love characters like Blade, Luke Cage, Vixen, Storm and heck if you ask me about Green Lantern my first thought is John Stewart. All these characters were created by white people and they're great. Just be sincere with your art and reasonable people won't attack you for making black characters

[@brendanfraser7616]

Alright, i finally finished watching this video and just...wow. What a bloated mess of empty platitudes mixed in with half baked writing advice. You spend more time talking about people you disagree with than actually giving good writing advice. Guess I'll have to give the ACTUAL writing advice since you couldnt be bothered to try. 1. Give your character a goal he/she is trying to achieve. If you're looking to write a black character, try looking at the goals other black men and woman have strived towards in real life. If you're worried about being "too cliche", just ask any black person on the street, or who you know, what they desire to achieve in the future. You may find that you two share a lot in common. 2. For every good trait your character has, give them a bad trait to counter act their virtues. This is a universal concept. Every person of every race, religion, and nation has good and bad in them. 3. Give your character unique quirks or hobbies to make them more interesting. In the case of writing Black characters, learn about different hobbies people of black and african decent are interested in. It can really broaden your horizons on different cultures. 4. Give your character something they need to grow, but refuse to accept. Another universal concept among all people of all races. Everyone can do better, but most of us would rather take the path of least resistance. Your story can benefit greatly by giving your character a universal truth they are grappling to accept. Bonus Tip: Dont be afraid of what others think of your story tropes. If people complain about things that are necessary for your plot to progress, they aren't your audience. Alright, I've wasted enough energy on a pretentious hack essay channel.

[@ScritRighter]

BLAST! FOILED AGAIN!

[@samuelebeddia6564]

That speech at the end required me to subscribe

[@Miedeth1]

For me I didn't care spider woman was black, it was weird to see her fighting crime while pregnant. As far as giving real women rights to maternity leave by law, I'm all in favor of that, but let's face it that's nothing I have control over. As far as race swapping goes, it depends on how it's done. In all the Marvel movies it doesn't bother me that they race swapped Nick Furry, Samuel L Jackson does a great job. They did it in the right way I think, where they just quietly did it in the background and you'd never know if you didn't read the comics. It's when the studio doing the race swapping makes a huge deal out of it saying how stunning and brave they are for doing it and if you don't agree then you're a racist that it bothers me. If they just quietly do it and make a good character who cares? Just don't sit there and tell me how wonderful, brave, etc you are for doing it.

[@jexelbur6872]

Has anyone ever heard of Meteor Man 1993? I feel like that deserves some recognition for being original. Plus he has some of the most unique powers like absorbing the knowledge of an entire book just by touching it (for 30 seconds).