Keep in mind, Storm was made by Marvel 2 years prior to Black Lightning's creation. But she has general weather powers, not strictly electricity, so I don't count her.
@@Tenebris616 The way that happened always seemed like they wanted to replace one minority with another. Red Heads got chopped because they are allowed to get rid of them. They are "white" after all. Might be something to do with the Irish but might also just be red heads getting sucker punched again.
The heartwarming/sad part of this is that Tony Isabella grew up in the inner city, and didn’t like how none of his black comic loving friends had a black superhero to look up to, so he promised to make them one, and he did. So he did it for his friends, and DC didn’t want to pay him for it.
@@Throwawaychannelmcgee I mean look, that’s the modern day creators (purposely?? 🤷♀️) changing a character to fit a stereotype. The same thing happened in the Birds of Harley Quinn movie-for years people have complained “why do black superheroes always have ‘black’ in their name,” and then Jurnee Smollett was cast as Black Canary.
@@ND-nr6mxStill should pay him it was his idea either way. Just because you work under a company (which we don’t know if he actually has worked under DC this is jus speculation) you should still get some compensation 🤷🏽♂️
This is why you make your own. In this day and age, you can get your own comic printed. You can go to comic shops and get it out on shelves. There are many independent comic books/graphic novels on shelves. Just go your own route instead of dealing with DC and Marvel.
@@ND-nr6mxBut comic creators had contracts at the time to get royalties for characters they created--they all knew what happened to Schuster and Siegel over Superman. DC did this to get around _that_ contract.
Tony Isabella's inspiration for Black Lightning was black inventor Lewis Howard Latimer. Latimer wrote the *first* book on electric lighting, "Incandescent Electric Lighting" in 1890.💡
Sonds like you're making sh!+ up to avoid giving a Latino man the credit he deserves for creating a black comic character 😂 . Next you're going to say bs lie about some black guy created black panther instead of stan lee 😂
@user-ui2oq8qu7k dude, he didn't say that Lewis Lattimore created the character. He was an inventor that contributed to a lot of electrical inventions. So calm down dude
Fun Fact: Storm doesn’t count as she controls the weather. In fact since Storm is an Omega level mutant and one quality of Omegas is reality/molecule control, Storm is actually a weather based reality warper.
The comic for Black Lightning that's shown is Black Lightning Year One, a comic that came out in 2009. The original 1977 version of his costume doesn't have a jacket, and looks pretty similar to the original Nightwing suit.
Kinda crazy to think how deeply integrated black lighting woulda been in the lore of animated DC had they not fucked him over. From super friends, to justice league, to static shock is an incredibly consistent run. Even crazier being a 2000s baby who’s just familiar with the name “Black lighting” and watching these shows going, “Why didn’t they just use black lighting?”
Alien white guy Detective white guy Sorcerer white guy Animal-themed white guy Soldier white guy Godly white guy Let’s be real, for much of comic’s history, every single archetype was white guy, or exceptionally white girl ( Wonder Woman you’re a real one) or a few Asians in supporting or antagonistic roles. Yeah there’s a lot more characters and diversity now, but most characters archetypes are still mostly represented by white guys, lighting power being a black guy thing is an exception rather than the norm.
Part of it is just that two of the colors we associate with lightning, yellow and that sharp electric blue, just look really dang good with dark skin and hair though. Cant deny the allure of nice character designs
It's our hair! Scientifically black people's hair is the only hair that actually conducts electricity! This is why our hair is curly and kinky and doesn't burn when we comb it with a red hot metal comb off of the stove top! This is also where the superstition of "the lucky negro" came from where it was supposed to bring good luck to rub our hair! So that's why we always get the heros with the electric powers! 👍
So not only did they continue the trend of black characters with lightning powers, but also race swapped more gingers into black? That’s a double whammy for lack of creativity even for something so recent.
Static, storm and Miles are just coincidences, though it wouldn't shock me if McDuffie wanted to use Black Lightning but wasn't allowed for the same reason
I don’t think it’s a coincidence, they aren’t reskins to get around licensee agreements. However the trope was we’ll establish by the time Miles came around and the author probably knew about it but thought it was cool reinforcing the trope.
@@ruriva4931 I think storm is. at the time of her creation in 1975, there would be only one black electric guy example. Storm's primary power isn't electricity, it's weather control. two characters a pattern does not make. I think you are right about miles.
@@priestesslucy3299 Ah. But pre static, it was barely a trope, only three characters had it and one of them was a clear re-skin of another and the other only sorta counts. there are just as many if not more black super geniuses than electric guys
Great job. A separate but similar note, when Blue Beetle came out me and a few friends were wondering why DC would put out a movie representing a Latino superhero that was rarely heard of before the countless black superheros. Especially Cyborg who was in Justice League. We thought that was very shady.
The answer: Jaime Reyes is VERY popular in the comics, and it also helped a lot him being one of the main characters in "Batman: The Brave and the Bold", one of the best DC series of the latest time. He actually started to get pushed as the "New Cyborg" after cyborg got moved from Titan to Justice Leaguer (for example, in the DC animated movie "The Judas Contract").
As a black writer who created a character that's black and has lightening powers while also having just realized that this trope even exists, I approve. Having lightening powers is just cool.
For real. Handled the "issues" better then anything modern day, too. His race wasn't the only characteristic about him, which is why so many people loved his old show, he was relatable, had his flaws, but was shown to grow throughout the series, and was an overall good kid, just trying to do the right thing. I'd say just give us a new Static Shock show or movie, instead of the constant race swapping, but we all know what they would do to his character, and every storyline would just be "the cops bad. White people be better" 🙄
No not necessarily. Konoha(the hidden leaf) is located in the land of fire which means that ninjas(Shinobi) from there will most likely use fire release in a fight. Or have an affinity for fire release. Same goes for kumo(the hidden cloud) Shinobi there have an affinity for lightning release to and will more likely use it in a fight. That doesn't mean that they can't use other chakra natures.
“And you think I named myself Black Vulcan?, HELL NO, I used to go by ‘Super Bolt’, Black Vulcan was Aquaman’s idea, so I said ‘Maybe we should just call you White Fish!’”- Black Vulcan
@@WilliamBrowning DC screwed a LOT of people including the creator of the ORIGINAL Captain Marvel. They were only upset that Captain Marvel was selling more than Superman so they sue the guy to eliminate the competition and the courts back then were stacked full of activists judges willing to help big corporations over the little guy. All in the name of fairness.
@@Icemario87 Justice is more skewed towards the big corporations i agree but nothing like in those days. Although we are headed back to those socialistic days of juris prudence.
If I am correct, Juice in Justice League unlimited was part of a team that was meant to softly parody the “original” characters(like black vulcan) made for the super friends cartoon
Spider-Man movies changed the race of two characters to fit this trope, one in Amazing Spider-Man 2, with electro, and the second time in the MCU in the first Spider-Man movie with Shocker, who in the comics isn't lightning/electricity based, it was based on vibrations. The first one doesn't really affect the character that much, but to change the power set of the Shocker to be electricity based seems intentional to fit the trope.
Correction, Juice was an homage to Black Vulcan, who in turn was just a royalty free version of Black Lightning. The Ulti-Men in general were homages to the Super Friends, Longshadow (Apache Chief), Wind Dragon (Samurai), and Shifter & Downpour (The Wonder Twins).
@@lavellelee5734 Technically. Galatea is a clone of Supergirl, who already exists in the continuity, but A) She's older and designed as a homage to Kara's Power Girl and B) Supergirl went to the future and stayed there because she fell in love with Brainiac 5 and thus became a Legionnaire, meaning that Galatea is literally the only Power Girl in that continuity.
Why do people have to pander towards 3lk people? How do they not want to pay 3lk people anything pls explain? Why don’t you guys create your own society’s n build your own things? Why do these people who hide in the shadows push you every where? Is it to ruin society’s n make them worship you?
Just to clarify, Juice was _not_ created to get around rights for Black Lightning; he and the other Ultimen (Winddragon, Longshadow, Downpour, and Shifter) were created as expies for the show-original Superfriends (Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief, and the Wonder Twins) because Timm & Co both wanted to avoid the racial connotations of some character names _and_ be able to write the characters as degenerating clones who come back evil without doing it to preexisting characters. Same reason the Justice Guild was created in Justice League, because they couldn't do that to the Justice Society. Funnily enough, the villain in Huntress' first episode _was_ created because they weren't allowed to use the Black Lightning villain Tobias Whale.
Someone suggested in the previous video is that blue black and yellow just look good on black characters and they normally the associated with lighting base powers
I did my college thesis on this, in my African studies class. I theorized it going further back to the Yoruba legend of Shango. A God king of the people with knowledge and lightning powers
@itsgonnabeanaurfromme my professor loved it. She actually did research on comic book characters. We had an interesting correspondence. For example as the Yoruba people advanced in western technology Shango also became the God of technology and around the same time more tech based heroes of African descent came around
That's actually the origin bases for Storm. She may or may not be descended from Orisha. So her mutation is genetic but heavily influenced by the fact she has magical ancestry that also allow her to potentially be one of the strongest magic users.
But Greek Pantheons patron god is a thunder god too, Zeus. Babylonian patron god is also a thunder god, Marduk. In Hindusim Indra is the king of gods and is also a thunder god. There are a lot of instances where a religions patron god is a thunder god but you don't really see Indian or Greek superheroes with electricity powers. I guess you can argue there aren't many indians or greeks in the U.S. as subsaharans to be represented in superhero comics, so that's a valid point
Truthfully I believe Static was Black Vulcan originally. If u remember when he trying pick a costume, the Black Vulcan costume was one of the first ones he tried on.
To be far to JLU, that episode was explicitly meant to reference the original characters from Super Friends, also including stand ins for Samurai, Apache Chief, and The Wonder Twins, so making an original character in that instance probably wasn't a royalties thing
@@betweenthehammerandanvil It's weird to just consider it a trope though. It is a trope but tropes normally say something about the writer or you can normally see to what end the trope is for. Superman is the last of his kind because it helps us endear to him. Batman is dark and brooding with a strong sense of justice because his parents were murdered. Black and lightning powers doesn't really scream anything except "unoriginal."
I need the tea on why DC specifically hates the original creator. Why do they refuse to pay him so bad that they want to rip off his design instead of scrapping that project? I mean besides the whole corpo just steals artists/creators works. Seems oddly specific to just not want to pay this guy this bad lol.
It wasn't just him; the Big 2 routinely screwed their creatives sideways for decades. Siegel & Schuster, Jack Kirby, Bill Finger, Stan Lee (yes _that_ Stan Lee) and pretty much anyone who worked for them before the Modern Age.
Isabella is one of the few creators who is particularly contentious/litigious about this character was not created specifically as “work-for-hire” and that he still has some degree of stake in the character’s use and publication. DC claims that it was work-for-hire. But they know that if they use Black Lightning (like they claim they can) that he’ll call his lawyers and bring about another lawsuit. Which they find annoying if not unwinnable.
Its not just that they didnt wanna pay him though... its because the character was actually popular and would force open MANY doors that were still closed then.
I saw a video of an artist showing proof that DC had used one of his designs as a side character but they never got permission nor did they try to compensate him. I think he ended up pursuing legal action.
Also, this may be influenced by simply design and color theory. Lightning is depicted either yellow or neon blue/purple that slowly turns white. Bright colours contrast pretty nicely with dark browns and blacks.
It happened constantly with DC. Animal/shape shifting characters, nuclear characters. Always avoided paying creators of characters that didnt sell enough. It even took almost 50 years to pay the creators of Superman.
it does but at some point you just gotta stop... I cringe just remembering that young justice line "but you never had the black lightning before" like is that supossed to pander to black community ?? just so cringy
Me, writing a fantasy story set in a world where people wield magical elements similar to Avatar: the Last Airbender, whose protagonist is black male with lightning powers: "Wait, what? That's a trope?"
Well DC was about to make a white racist who tranforms into a black person for a superhero story and Iglesias had to tell them it was a horroble idea when they hired him. That could be related.
Most of the other heroes they had at the time were work-for-hire creations where the creators gave up their rights to the character. Isabella claims that Black Lightning is not, though DC says he is. But they still avoided using him. Either because 1) They’re lying, 2). They somehow “misplaced” the legal paperwork that would back up their claim or 3) They just don’t want to bother with the inevitable lawsuit.
People will mention Miles, and while, sortof, I think Miles getting the venom blast has more to do with Bendis just really liking Jessica Drew and giving him one of her unique powers.
it's interesting (read: weird) to me that they almost never seem to keep the ginger hair when they change the skin color. anyone can have natural ginger hair, and they can certainly have the character dye their hair. they have the potential to rep the brown skin-ginger hair community and they fail to almost every time smh
There's also a weird fun fact that I learned about juice. Apparently him and his team were acting as parodies of the superfriends cartoon original characters down to the same powers Also neat fact they end up facing off against Aquaman Superman Wonder Woman and Batman aka the original four leads of the Super Friends cartoon. Wind Dragon /Samurai = Air manipulation Juice/Black Vulcan = Electricity manipulation Long Shadow /Apache Chief = Self-magnification Downpour and Shifter/Zan and Jayna (The Wonder Twins) Assume and control any form of water (Zan/Downpour) Assume any animal form (Jayna/Shifter)
you can level with SRS to get over the hump until act 3. Doesn't need minion damage on the tree, just minion damage support, melee splash/infernal legion based on socket colors.
Fun Fact: Black Vulcan wanted to be called Supervolt but Aquaman suggested Black Vulcan and the rest of the Super Friends liked it and they just called him that.
I like how this just stems from the same guy being cloned like 3 times and people thinking there were 4 different black superheroes with lightning powers, that's like the biggest gas-light ever
Don't forget Cardiac from Spiderman. I feel like most people don't even know who he was but as a kid I had the comic books he was in and thought he was awesome.
Just realized Japan jumped on this in Naruto..where the only black ppl in the show comes from the cloud village...and their techniques are for the most part lightning based...the technique they're most famous for is covering themselves in a lightning shield..and moving as fast as lightning. The leader of this village is called the Raikage...which in Japanese literally means " lightning shadow"
Keep in mind, Storm was made by Marvel 2 years prior to Black Lightning's creation. But she has general weather powers, not strictly electricity, so I don't count her.
Omg, you are the Timothy Chalamet of Nerdland and I am 😍 it.
Another trope, you kind of touched on, was redheads, being Rase swapped
@@Tenebris616 The way that happened always seemed like they wanted to replace one minority with another. Red Heads got chopped because they are allowed to get rid of them. They are "white" after all.
Might be something to do with the Irish but might also just be red heads getting sucker punched again.
Would I count?
Storm is canonically a mutant goddess of storms in wakanda at some point
An entire trope to not pay one man😂💀
I feel really bad for him at this point DC is just constantly giving him the middle finger
based
Now THAT is petty.
@@stanleyjarman7706it depends on how much he was demanding or if they agreed to a price and he said he wanted more after he was paid initially
Unpaid labor
HMMM
where did I hear that before
🤔
The heartwarming/sad part of this is that Tony Isabella grew up in the inner city, and didn’t like how none of his black comic loving friends had a black superhero to look up to, so he promised to make them one, and he did. So he did it for his friends, and DC didn’t want to pay him for it.
And now there are multiple black heroes based on his.
😢 that’s so sweet. I mean, of Tony. Wow that sucks of DC.
He a real one
And in doing so, they unintentionally increased black representation in DC media by a significant amount.
@@irrespondiblethat there are copies is not meaningful when those copies are derived from the original but made solely to avoid royalties.
Even Usain Bolt couldnt run fast enough to escape this trope lool
Nice.
@@stactionsmedia3318it is
@stactionsmedia3318 Fortunately, it is. How fitting that someone with that last name actually bolts for a living.
@@stactionsmedia3318 Would have also been great as an electrician, locksmith, mechanic, or a, uh... crossbowman?
@stactionsmedia3318 imagine how disappointing it would be to see a nigga named BOLT only come 2nd or 3rd place😂
"I wanted to be called Super Volt. You don't see them calling Aquaman; Whitefish" - Robot Chicken 😂
Whitefish😂😂😂😂😂
Correction: its from Harvey Birdman.
@@Mekaniac That's right. 🤭 Thanks for the correction. 👍 That's another great show. 😂
*Spider bites Miles*
Spider: "Oh shoot, this one is Black, gotta give him a little extra juice for the trope"
Except bio-electric spider powers originate with the ‘70s Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew.
@@DrFranklynAnderson Except even she's black in Spider-Verse
@@Throwawaychannelmcgee I mean look, that’s the modern day creators (purposely?? 🤷♀️) changing a character to fit a stereotype. The same thing happened in the Birds of Harley Quinn movie-for years people have complained “why do black superheroes always have ‘black’ in their name,” and then Jurnee Smollett was cast as Black Canary.
Omg
He also has the trope of Latino with an animal theme. So two for price of one.
A massive company not wanting to give someone money for their work and instead just copying them... A tale as old as time
Or alternatively, "Any original ideas you come up with while working at the company are no longer yours and belong to the company."
@@ND-nr6mxStill should pay him it was his idea either way. Just because you work under a company (which we don’t know if he actually has worked under DC this is jus speculation) you should still get some compensation 🤷🏽♂️
Yeah, Marvel and DC have ripped off so many creators.
This is why you make your own. In this day and age, you can get your own comic printed. You can go to comic shops and get it out on shelves. There are many independent comic books/graphic novels on shelves. Just go your own route instead of dealing with DC and Marvel.
@@ND-nr6mxBut comic creators had contracts at the time to get royalties for characters they created--they all knew what happened to Schuster and Siegel over Superman. DC did this to get around _that_ contract.
Tony Isabella's inspiration for Black Lightning was black inventor Lewis Howard Latimer. Latimer wrote the *first* book on electric lighting, "Incandescent Electric Lighting" in 1890.💡
That's complete bullshit
Lewis Howard Latimer he was the one that invented the light bulb all Edison did was put a glass jar over it..white devil thief
Source please.
Sonds like you're making sh!+ up to avoid giving a Latino man the credit he deserves for creating a black comic character 😂 . Next you're going to say bs lie about some black guy created black panther instead of stan lee 😂
@user-ui2oq8qu7k dude, he didn't say that Lewis Lattimore created the character. He was an inventor that contributed to a lot of electrical inventions. So calm down dude
Fun Fact: Storm doesn’t count as she controls the weather. In fact since Storm is an Omega level mutant and one quality of Omegas is reality/molecule control, Storm is actually a weather based reality warper.
Only uncultured swine would think she only has lightning powers pfft
In other words, she controls the weather.
@@jamesb.russell2942 said that in the first sentence. What I’m saying is Storm isn’t lightning powered as much as she is weathered powered
@@Eheiou wow really? Had no idea
Fun fact: Storm is a black superhero that controls lightning. Ffs
Og Black Lighting looks way better than his other copycats in my opinion design wise. I especially love his jacket.
Yeah I agree. Plus he was his own character, so that made him even cooler and more special.
Fr dude I’d kill to be as good of a character designer as that man
he looks so much cooler, like yea i trust this badass dude to save me (he also lowkey looks waaay smarter)
The comic for Black Lightning that's shown is Black Lightning Year One, a comic that came out in 2009. The original 1977 version of his costume doesn't have a jacket, and looks pretty similar to the original Nightwing suit.
I enjoyed Soul Power he was fun
Thankfully this trope is dope as hell
And Static Shock is fantastic.
I mean, Miles Morales is still around, rocking his electric spider-powers.
Kinda crazy to think how deeply integrated black lighting woulda been in the lore of animated DC had they not fucked him over. From super friends, to justice league, to static shock is an incredibly consistent run. Even crazier being a 2000s baby who’s just familiar with the name “Black lighting” and watching these shows going, “Why didn’t they just use black lighting?”
Black lightning guy.
Psychic white girl.
Asian tech guy.
Any other weirdly race specific powers.
Native American nature powers?
Indian Futuristic guy
Alien white guy
Detective white guy
Sorcerer white guy
Animal-themed white guy
Soldier white guy
Godly white guy
Let’s be real, for much of comic’s history, every single archetype was white guy, or exceptionally white girl ( Wonder Woman you’re a real one) or a few Asians in supporting or antagonistic roles. Yeah there’s a lot more characters and diversity now, but most characters archetypes are still mostly represented by white guys, lighting power being a black guy thing is an exception rather than the norm.
Animal spirit Indian dude
Indian death dancers, kills with funny song.
Asian monk/martial artist
Also fun fact: Obama's first name Barack means lightning in Hebrew, so even real people couldn't escape the trope
Wait that’s so funny, I googled it to make sure you weren’t trolling and holy shiy
Even the blackest Pokemon couldn’t escape the trope 💀💀💀
@@idreadFell365 I was about to say "Luxray?" and then I realized you meant Zekrom
But that still leaves the question... what is Obama's last name?
@@WhiteWolf-lm7gj ruclips.net/user/shortsCnWFRJhAobw?si=ady-bWfGo1Sf17gz
Part of it is just that two of the colors we associate with lightning, yellow and that sharp electric blue, just look really dang good with dark skin and hair though. Cant deny the allure of nice character designs
It's our hair! Scientifically black people's hair is the only hair that actually conducts electricity! This is why our hair is curly and kinky and doesn't burn when we comb it with a red hot metal comb off of the stove top! This is also where the superstition of "the lucky negro" came from where it was supposed to bring good luck to rub our hair! So that's why we always get the heros with the electric powers! 👍
If that comb is hot enough the hair will burn. You have to be a guy. I've had the burnt ears and hair. Stop spreading fake information.
@julybaby8523 Never saw my sisters hair burned by my mother who pressed their hair regularly! Not all skin folks are kin folks!
It's a reference to spiritual bodies and powers.
Lightning Lad and Lass’ raceswap was actually much more recent than that. It was post-rebirth, not post-crisis.
Ah I messed up my big DC events during the original creation of this video. Thank you for letting me know that.
So not only did they continue the trend of black characters with lightning powers, but also race swapped more gingers into black? That’s a double whammy for lack of creativity even for something so recent.
@@ghostspider2056I'll just add them to the list real quick.
@@ghostspider2056 maybe they were a little dyslexic when reading "the characters are gingers"
👀💀
@@ghostspider2056 why is it always the gingers? 😭😭
Static, storm and Miles are just coincidences, though it wouldn't shock me if McDuffie wanted to use Black Lightning but wasn't allowed for the same reason
"Shock me" heh, well pinned.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence, they aren’t reskins to get around licensee agreements. However the trope was we’ll establish by the time Miles came around and the author probably knew about it but thought it was cool reinforcing the trope.
@@ruriva4931 I think storm is. at the time of her creation in 1975, there would be only one black electric guy example. Storm's primary power isn't electricity, it's weather control. two characters a pattern does not make. I think you are right about miles.
Static is deliberately playing into the trope
@@priestesslucy3299 Ah. But pre static, it was barely a trope, only three characters had it and one of them was a clear re-skin of another and the other only sorta counts. there are just as many if not more black super geniuses than electric guys
Also worth pointing out higher quantity of melanin in the skin increases the skins conductivity, ive read that that contributed to the trope as well.
Great job. A separate but similar note, when Blue Beetle came out me and a few friends were wondering why DC would put out a movie representing a Latino superhero that was rarely heard of before the countless black superheros. Especially Cyborg who was in Justice League. We thought that was very shady.
The answer: Jaime Reyes is VERY popular in the comics, and it also helped a lot him being one of the main characters in "Batman: The Brave and the Bold", one of the best DC series of the latest time. He actually started to get pushed as the "New Cyborg" after cyborg got moved from Titan to Justice Leaguer (for example, in the DC animated movie "The Judas Contract").
The trope itself doesn't offend me. I'm just glad that Black Manta knows how to swim.
Now we need a white hero who can dance.
@@CidGuerreiro1234 or jump, or cook food with flavor. There's a lot of stereotypes lol
Why would it offend you?
@@michaeldavis9190 The fastest man alive in comics is white 😂😂😂😂 so there's that
@@CidGuerreiro1234Dazzler.
As a black writer who created a character that's black and has lightening powers while also having just realized that this trope even exists, I approve. Having lightening powers is just cool.
I'm black, and lightning is my favorite elemental power
In Black people's religion, CHANGO/SHANGO is the God of Lightning/Thunder/Fire.
which religion specifically? Are you talking about the orishas?
@@lavellelee5734 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
@@koguma.newyork1 oh yeah, getting cultured and shizz 👍🤗
Stan Lee got his idea for the X-Mens powers from stories he heard about African gods.
we are light beings who can mold and bend light from darkness that’s what melanin does
Static is still in my top 10 favorite superheroes. He had one of the best TV shows.
Yes!
Love the show!! Along with Kid Flash and Luke Cage!!
Really all of the Milestone comics from the 90s.
For real. Handled the "issues" better then anything modern day, too. His race wasn't the only characteristic about him, which is why so many people loved his old show, he was relatable, had his flaws, but was shown to grow throughout the series, and was an overall good kid, just trying to do the right thing. I'd say just give us a new Static Shock show or movie, instead of the constant race swapping, but we all know what they would do to his character, and every storyline would just be "the cops bad. White people be better" 🙄
@@jasonrustmann7535Doesn't that summarize Vita Ayala's reboot of Static?
It's interesting how in Naruto the black characters come from the village with lightning powers
😂
And the Kages of said village were all coincidentially Black 😂😂😂
So true
Yoruichi from Bleach also has lightning powers.
No not necessarily. Konoha(the hidden leaf) is located in the land of fire which means that ninjas(Shinobi) from there will most likely use fire release in a fight. Or have an affinity for fire release.
Same goes for kumo(the hidden cloud) Shinobi there have an affinity for lightning release to and will more likely use it in a fight. That doesn't mean that they can't use other chakra natures.
“And you think I named myself Black Vulcan?, HELL NO, I used to go by ‘Super Bolt’, Black Vulcan was Aquaman’s idea, so I said ‘Maybe we should just call you White Fish!’”- Black Vulcan
Good observation young man 👌🏾
Anything to avoid paying the royalties 💀
SOOOO many comic book creators were burned this way.
@@WilliamBrowning DC screwed a LOT of people including the creator of the ORIGINAL Captain Marvel. They were only upset that Captain Marvel was selling more than Superman so they sue the guy to eliminate the competition and the courts back then were stacked full of activists judges willing to help big corporations over the little guy. All in the name of fairness.
@@KCKingdomCreateGreatTrekAgain "back then" as opposed to *today?*
@@Icemario87 Justice is more skewed towards the big corporations i agree but nothing like in those days. Although we are headed back to those socialistic days of juris prudence.
If I am correct, Juice in Justice League unlimited was part of a team that was meant to softly parody the “original” characters(like black vulcan) made for the super friends cartoon
Correct, so it's not really an example of this.
Thank you tremendously for not ending your clip so that it starts again. That is so annoying. Hats off man 🤜🏽🤛🏼
Spider-Man movies changed the race of two characters to fit this trope, one in Amazing Spider-Man 2, with electro, and the second time in the MCU in the first Spider-Man movie with Shocker, who in the comics isn't lightning/electricity based, it was based on vibrations. The first one doesn't really affect the character that much, but to change the power set of the Shocker to be electricity based seems intentional to fit the trope.
Correction, Juice was an homage to Black Vulcan, who in turn was just a royalty free version of Black Lightning. The Ulti-Men in general were homages to the Super Friends, Longshadow (Apache Chief), Wind Dragon (Samurai), and Shifter & Downpour (The Wonder Twins).
Plus, considering the Cadmus storyline, if they made Juice actually Black Lightning, things would get complicated fast.
@@Duskof81 They made Galatea, who was Power Girl in all but the name while Super Girl was also real.
@@irrespondibleso galeta and power girl are different characters right?
@@lavellelee5734 Technically. Galatea is a clone of Supergirl, who already exists in the continuity, but A) She's older and designed as a homage to Kara's Power Girl and B) Supergirl went to the future and stayed there because she fell in love with Brainiac 5 and thus became a Legionnaire, meaning that Galatea is literally the only Power Girl in that continuity.
Your “homage” is my ‘lazy ripoff’.
“I wonder why-“
Money. It’s always money.
They want your money…. without giving you any of theirs! Lovely concept!🤔😤🤥🤦🏽♂️
They'd rather put out a bad product and lose $2b before they give you $5k in royalties.
Im glad to be mixed an not racist but i can see what brudda telling us..he defending the realist 💯..i supoort you bro
I dont mind the lightning. That's one of my favorite elements
I met Tony Isabella, very friendly guy
We can allll admit storm is the coolest
Miles is also pretty cool
no competition
2nd place is static
Yup she's the true elemental queen + she also controls wind, water, ice, cold, heat and earth
@@yurifairy2969BL is 1 2storm is 2 static is 3
@@psymikefosho. Her in mvc2 always looks amazing to me bro
All because they didn't want to pay ONE dude... An entire superhero trope.
That's how Tipping was started. They didn't want to pay black people anything but they could get gratitude from patrons who were generous.
Why do people have to pander towards 3lk people? How do they not want to pay 3lk people anything pls explain? Why don’t you guys create your own society’s n build your own things? Why do these people who hide in the shadows push you every where? Is it to ruin society’s n make them worship you?
Just to clarify, Juice was _not_ created to get around rights for Black Lightning; he and the other Ultimen (Winddragon, Longshadow, Downpour, and Shifter) were created as expies for the show-original Superfriends (Black Vulcan, Samurai, Apache Chief, and the Wonder Twins) because Timm & Co both wanted to avoid the racial connotations of some character names _and_ be able to write the characters as degenerating clones who come back evil without doing it to preexisting characters. Same reason the Justice Guild was created in Justice League, because they couldn't do that to the Justice Society.
Funnily enough, the villain in Huntress' first episode _was_ created because they weren't allowed to use the Black Lightning villain Tobias Whale.
Someone suggested in the previous video is that blue black and yellow just look good on black characters and they normally the associated with lighting base powers
Same with white hair
To be fair that ain't wrong
Aesthetic is probably a factor
@@karatejoe9999bruh it's a winning formula that's hard to compete with
Thank you for making this short...
Wow this was a damn good history lesson, thank you
there’s even a streamer named lowtiergod who can summon lightning when telling viewers to kill themselves
I did my college thesis on this, in my African studies class. I theorized it going further back to the Yoruba legend of Shango. A God king of the people with knowledge and lightning powers
Seems like too much of a stretch. The people who created those characters don't have a background in that. Did they actually accept the hypothesis?
@itsgonnabeanaurfromme my professor loved it. She actually did research on comic book characters. We had an interesting correspondence. For example as the Yoruba people advanced in western technology Shango also became the God of technology and around the same time more tech based heroes of African descent came around
That's actually the origin bases for Storm. She may or may not be descended from Orisha. So her mutation is genetic but heavily influenced by the fact she has magical ancestry that also allow her to potentially be one of the strongest magic users.
Maybe the first designer had some of that in mind but a lot of these are just copycats
But Greek Pantheons patron god is a thunder god too, Zeus. Babylonian patron god is also a thunder god, Marduk. In Hindusim Indra is the king of gods and is also a thunder god. There are a lot of instances where a religions patron god is a thunder god but you don't really see Indian or Greek superheroes with electricity powers. I guess you can argue there aren't many indians or greeks in the U.S. as subsaharans to be represented in superhero comics, so that's a valid point
Truthfully I believe Static was Black Vulcan originally. If u remember when he trying pick a costume, the Black Vulcan costume was one of the first ones he tried on.
Fun fact: In the late 80's, There were alot of DC superheroes with Lad and Lass attached to their names!
"How can we not pay this man"
Use a different character:❎
Make the same character new name:☑️
Comic companies will create an entire subgenre of superheroes just to not pay a mfer
I want a black lighting t shirt, preferably with that image from comic book cover that you showed...hard af 🔥
To be far to JLU, that episode was explicitly meant to reference the original characters from Super Friends, also including stand ins for Samurai, Apache Chief, and The Wonder Twins, so making an original character in that instance probably wasn't a royalties thing
Low tier god
Your life-
@@Firemaster27serves zero purpose-
@@aaaronhernandez70 you should-
@@Firemaster27 Keep Your Smile
@@geodangoori0 -NOW!
STATIC SHOCK THE GOAAAAT🐐🐐🐐
This happened to us in so many different ways.
I'm not sure it's a racist trope but it's weird that there's so many. And it's definitely shady of D.C. to not pay that dude.
Wouldn’t call it racist just a race trope tho. There more black character with lightning powers outside of dc/marvel
@@betweenthehammerandanvil a gag?
Honestly, I always thought it was a connection between storm gods in Africa.
@@betweenthehammerandanvil It's weird to just consider it a trope though. It is a trope but tropes normally say something about the writer or you can normally see to what end the trope is for. Superman is the last of his kind because it helps us endear to him. Batman is dark and brooding with a strong sense of justice because his parents were murdered. Black and lightning powers doesn't really scream anything except "unoriginal."
@@l0sts0ul89that works
I need the tea on why DC specifically hates the original creator. Why do they refuse to pay him so bad that they want to rip off his design instead of scrapping that project? I mean besides the whole corpo just steals artists/creators works.
Seems oddly specific to just not want to pay this guy this bad lol.
I think it's just because he left the company after his run on the comic.
It wasn't just him; the Big 2 routinely screwed their creatives sideways for decades. Siegel & Schuster, Jack Kirby, Bill Finger, Stan Lee (yes _that_ Stan Lee) and pretty much anyone who worked for them before the Modern Age.
It's a common thing in the comics industry. That's how/why Image become a thing.
Isabella is one of the few creators who is particularly contentious/litigious about this character was not created specifically as “work-for-hire” and that he still has some degree of stake in the character’s use and publication. DC claims that it was work-for-hire. But they know that if they use Black Lightning (like they claim they can) that he’ll call his lawyers and bring about another lawsuit. Which they find annoying if not unwinnable.
Say it with me, now. THEY. LIKE. MONEY. And they're unoriginal, they need their creators but they do not want to pay them. They are a BUSINESS.
Its not just that they didnt wanna pay him though... its because the character was actually popular and would force open MANY doors that were still closed then.
I saw a video of an artist showing proof that DC had used one of his designs as a side character but they never got permission nor did they try to compensate him. I think he ended up pursuing legal action.
He promised and delivered.
Also, this may be influenced by simply design and color theory. Lightning is depicted either yellow or neon blue/purple that slowly turns white. Bright colours contrast pretty nicely with dark browns and blacks.
It happened constantly with DC. Animal/shape shifting characters, nuclear characters. Always avoided paying creators of characters that didnt sell enough. It even took almost 50 years to pay the creators of Superman.
I have actually wondered this. Interesting breakdown!
Honestly I thought it was just bc darker skin looks cool with lightning 😭
it does but at some point you just gotta stop...
I cringe just remembering that young justice line "but you never had the black lightning before" like is that supossed to pander to black community ?? just so cringy
@@charko4191 all I see that came out of that scene were s@xual jokes lmao
@@ammagon4519sure cringe sexual jokes
Yeah,just ask LowTierGod 😂
@charko4191 That's yall problem anything that has something to do wit black people yall call it pandering or woke, chill out wit all that bruh
Me, writing a fantasy story set in a world where people wield magical elements similar to Avatar: the Last Airbender, whose protagonist is black male with lightning powers: "Wait, what? That's a trope?"
The second I saw the red heads, i already knew what was happening
Another reason why Marvel is King!
Was there some kinda beef with D.C. that made them hate the idea of paying him, or is this just regular greed?
Well DC was about to make a white racist who tranforms into a black person for a superhero story and Iglesias had to tell them it was a horroble idea when they hired him. That could be related.
@@namename2040 on the other hand this isn't the first case of DC not wanting to pay their writers.
Most of the other heroes they had at the time were work-for-hire creations where the creators gave up their rights to the character. Isabella claims that Black Lightning is not, though DC says he is. But they still avoided using him. Either because 1) They’re lying, 2). They somehow “misplaced” the legal paperwork that would back up their claim or 3) They just don’t want to bother with the inevitable lawsuit.
Standard practice for the Big Two. This shady mess is the reason for Image Comics and Milestone Media being a legit thing
People will mention Miles, and while, sortof, I think Miles getting the venom blast has more to do with Bendis just really liking Jessica Drew and giving him one of her unique powers.
Jessica Drew succumbed to the trope in spider verse so I think they're just doing it cuz it's funny now.
Funny how it's almost always corporate greed.
21:48
I lost my fucking shit at the fart sounds here! 🤣💀
Why do they always have to race swap the gingers bro?? I love diversity but I also love my redhead representation :'(
it's interesting (read: weird) to me that they almost never seem to keep the ginger hair when they change the skin color. anyone can have natural ginger hair, and they can certainly have the character dye their hair. they have the potential to rep the brown skin-ginger hair community and they fail to almost every time smh
Static shock was the goat though.
*is
There's also a weird fun fact that I learned about juice. Apparently him and his team were acting as parodies of the superfriends cartoon original characters down to the same powers Also neat fact they end up facing off against Aquaman Superman Wonder Woman and Batman aka the original four leads of the Super Friends cartoon.
Wind Dragon /Samurai = Air manipulation
Juice/Black Vulcan = Electricity manipulation
Long Shadow /Apache Chief = Self-magnification
Downpour and Shifter/Zan and Jayna (The Wonder Twins)
Assume and control any form of water (Zan/Downpour)
Assume any animal form (Jayna/Shifter)
you can level with SRS to get over the hump until act 3. Doesn't need minion damage on the tree, just minion damage support, melee splash/infernal legion based on socket colors.
I’m just wishing my race wouldn’t complain. That’s one of the best powers to have I’ll take it!
I don't think black people complain that its bad (from what i can see). I think its just fun to observe and comment on.
It’s just cliche
Especially if you can power your house. Off the grid? I AM THE GRID!
No one is complaining about it, where are you seeing that?
Nobody's complaining, we love black characters with lightning powers. It's just... a lot.
"And I said 'Maybe we should just call you White Fish'"
Ive always been a fan of electrically powered heroes. Always cool to see how they use it.
I know DC was being shady here but Soul Power is such a clean name for a lighting based hero.
We need a Petition to bring back Static Shock !!
It literally went past DC with Raising Dion😭
And Static. At this point, a lot of it is paying homage to Black Lightning who was a trailblazer in his own right.
Doesn't Dion just have every power the writers can think of?
No wonder all my past therapists haven’t worked, they never made me do a cheerleading routine
Fun Fact: Black Vulcan wanted to be called Supervolt but Aquaman suggested Black Vulcan and the rest of the Super Friends liked it and they just called him that.
Nobody ever mentions the fact that Marvel made a black Spider-Man and have him electric powers too, even though he already had spider powers.
Damn Lightning Lad got de-gingered?
anagramed
Black superheroes never get enough recognition at all.
I like how this just stems from the same guy being cloned like 3 times and people thinking there were 4 different black superheroes with lightning powers, that's like the biggest gas-light ever
Twinky prettyboys with glasses can't have super strength and usually have psychic powers trope
They RACE SWAPPED LIGHTNING LAD?!
How is that somehow more surprising than them making a whole trope to not pay ONE GUY?
Thanks for this quick history lesson for comic fans
Their origin starts off doing the Electric Slide at their Local Church Barbecue.
They called a black hero juice? The late 1900s were a lawless time in the superhero space
Are we ignoring "soul power"
I don’t know what’s better, the fact that I had the exact same thought or that you called them “the late 1900s.”
Everybody was a kung-fu fighting.
Those cats were fast as lightning.
Don't forget Cardiac from Spiderman. I feel like most people don't even know who he was but as a kid I had the comic books he was in and thought he was awesome.
Just realized Japan jumped on this in Naruto..where the only black ppl in the show comes from the cloud village...and their techniques are for the most part lightning based...the technique they're most famous for is covering themselves in a lightning shield..and moving as fast as lightning.
The leader of this village is called the Raikage...which in Japanese literally means " lightning shadow"
That's all great, but can you rate their armor by protection on scale 1 to 10?
😂
Armor protection should be judged on the Rogue Scale.
How it Works:
Can Rogue steal your powers by touching you? Then you need to wear more armor!
wooah
The static shock part was threw milestone who had their own issues with DC watch the milestone initiative.
I actually always wondered this. Thanks!
Wow, thank you for this. I genuinely did not know there were so many black superheroes with lightning powers.