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Nighthawk Shows "Real Comic Fans" Don't Want Black Heroes


By now it isn't a surprise to anyone that David Walker and Ramon Villalobos' Nighthawk series has been canceled by Marvel. The series stands as proof that despite what the "real comic fans" say, they don't want new black heroes, or old black heroes being pushed to the front. They just don't want black heroes at all. They want to return to the days when shelves were dominated by middle aged straight white male heroes and everyone else was an after thought, a racist caricature or a woman to be gawked at as men did the real work.

Nighthawk isn't a new hero for Marvel. He's been around since 2006 but recently found new fame with the success of the Squadron Supreme series. He was given his own solo series. The series see's him stop a white supremacist uprising, battle police brutality in Chicago and track down a serial killer. All of this without even getting his Yeezy's dirty. Most of the people I've talked with found the series enjoyable. But, I talk with mostly minority comic book readers, so maybe we saw things differently than the "real comic fans." 

So, I started to look elsewhere. Places like Reddit and the whiter side of Twitter to see what they were saying about the series. They found it to be horrific. There weren't issues with the story, it was mostly disgust at the content. The idea of a minority heroes facing off with police has become more frequent with Sam Wilson currently taking on the Americops in his solo series alongside Misty Knight and Joaquin Torres. Yet, the issue isn't new as we've seen both Superman, Batman, Spider-Man (Peter) and others come to blows with police over there actions over the last two years. Yet, somehow when a black hero does it the "real comic fans," have an issue with it.

Is Nighthawk a hero who frequently kills and does collateral damage? Yes, but he's not the only one to do so. He's not even the first hero to take on white supremacist. Green Arrow, every Captain America, Mr. Terrific, Static and even Superman have done so. The problem with Nighthawk is that he was a black hero doing these things. Yes, I'm saying his book sold poorly because he was black. 

David Walker may have put out a group of elegant tweets, but he has a job to protect in the industry and I don't. While minority readers celebrate the increased diversity in comics, there are plenty who don't wish to see it. These people feel the industry is being ruined by SJWs and political correctness from people who don't read comics. They call themselves real fans, but if they had it their way the industry would end up dead.

The thing is, they complain when someone like RiRi replaces Tony Stark as Iron Man, but don't bat an eye at Dr. Doom also taking over for Tony in the same time period. Any time a minority character replaces a white one, or even a known white character coming out of the closet, they throw a fit. They complain about how we should be making new minority heroes or celebrating old ones. They claim that they would support these books.

Yet, they never seem to support them. Don't get me wrong Miles Morales and Kamala Khan have had great success, but for each of them there are plenty of minority heroes who go ignored. Nighthawk didn't suffer because it was too edgy. It wasn't a new topic covered in comics, not even by the major two. It suffered because he was a black hero dealing with these things.

As much as the people who complain about Mary Jane being a black woman in the upcoming Spider-Man film swear they would buy comics with black heroes, they just don't. These so called "real fans" use this excuse time and time again, yet when it comes time to put their money where their mouths are, they back down. 

Now I'm not saying every black hero has an awesome solo. Mr. Terrific is one of my favorite heroes and despite that I still think his 2008 series was horrible. Nighthawk however wasn't something that was horrible and it wasn't even uncomfortable for most people, being no more violent than your average X-Men, Justice League or Red Hood story. Nighthawk just proves that the self titled "real comic fans," aren't that. They're the ones who almost let the industry die. They're the ones who don't want any progression, they want everything to always remain stagnant, growing stale and unappealing while other media expands.

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
Darrell S.

Hey, I write stuff, a lot of different stuff, that's all.

3 Comments

  1. Let's just keep it real, comics are white male dominated so they aren't that interested in sharing their world with anyone unless they stroke their ego or are willing to be sexual objectified.

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  2. Reed Richards couldn't reach reach as much as this article did to justify the calcified mindset that says comic book fans are all white males interested in reading stories about characters who look like them. Nighthawk is not a good example to push this erroneous argument.

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