12 African American Heroes Who Replaced White Ones By Eric Diaz  [10 more lists]

Bill Foster was created by Stan Lee in 1966, and eventually succeeded Henry Pym in the role of Giant Man. An associate of Dr. Pym's, he harnessed his "Pym Particles" and used them to grow fifteen stories in size. Just like Pym, he used alternate code-names, and also used the previous Pym used name Goliath and eventually,Black Goliath. This was the 70's guys, PC wasn't a thing yet, ok?

In fact, it was using the name Black Goliath that he earned his own short lived series in the 1970’s, where he had this awesome costume that had a square cut out in the center to show off his awesome abs.

Eventually, Bill Foster went into semi retirement, just being trotted out for the occasional Marvel Crossover to fill background shots. He was then killed off in the Marvel mini series Civil War, making him the sacrificial lamb for yet another crossover event from one of the big two.

The orginal Aqualad was known simply as Garth, a teenager who was banished from his undersea kingdom in much the same way as Aquaman was as a child, and became his sidekick. Aqualad was a founding member of the Teen Titans, but was relegated to guest star role during the Titan’s most popular run in the 1980’s. He graduated to the role of Tempest in the 90’s, leaving a vacant slot for the name Aqualad that has only very recently been filled.

The first time any one saw an image for the new African American Aqualad was in promotional materials for the then upcoming Cartoon Network animated Young Justice show in early 2010. This led online fanboys to give him the name “Blaqualad”. DC Comics then introduced the character in their Brightest Day series before his animated debut in the Fall on 2010, but he was originally conceived for animation.

This echoes the creation of the Barbara Gordon Batgirl, who was created for the 60’s Batman tv series, but technically debuted in the comics a few months beforehand.

There are some differences between both versions though; the comic book character, Jackson Hyde, was not raised Atlantean like the cartoon show version, and only goes by the name Kal'durham .He is also not wearing a short blonde buzz. Both versions though, are the son of Aquaman arch nemesis Black Manta.

From about 1940 to 1996, The Spectre was the angry ghost of detective Jim Corrigan, kept in the earthly realm as the instrument of God’s Wrath. He was then replaced (in a bone-headed move from DC Comics editorial that no one liked) with the then dead former Green Lantern Hal Jordan. But with Hal now back alive and a Green Lantern again in recent years, The Spectre needed a human host, and it chose African American detective Crispus Allen.

Allen was first introduced in the pages of Detective Comics, and became a main character in the Gotham Central series about the Gotham police force.

After being murdered, his spirit is now bonded with that of the Spectre, and it seems this version is much more liked by fans and bound to stick around for awhile. Still, he really is one pasty black guy isn't he? One would think he was the vengeful spirit of Michael Jackson, out to wreak bloody vengeance on the makers of propofol.

After one of his many temper tantrums against the United States government, original Captain America Steve Rogers quit his role as the Star Spangled Avenger sometime in the late 80's. Desperate to save face, the government installed a new Captain America, an uber conservative southerner named Johnny Walker. Yes, like the drink. *Sigh*

Of course, a new Cap needs a new Bucky, and that task fell to Lemar Hoskins, a super powered wrestler from Chicago, who along with three other similary powered friends formed the Bold Urban Commandos, or the BUCkies. (I know, it sucks) Eventually. Steve Rogers returned as Captain America, and John Walker created a new identity, the U.S.Agent.

Lemar then dropped the Bucky name and changed his code name to Battlestar, and has continued to pop up in the Marvel Universe on occasion, most recently haveing been seen on the anti-registration side during the super hero Civil War.

The original Invisible Kid was lily white Lyle Norg, All American teenager from the future who developed an invisibility serum an joined the Legion of Super-Heroes around 1960 (or, 2960 in the comics) He was a stalwart member until his death in 1974 at the hands of the Fatal Five.

Then in the early 80’s, at the peak of the Legion’s popularity, a replacement for Norg was found in French-African teenager Jacques Foccart. His invisibility was better than Norg’s, as he was undetectable by any known means and found he could shift between dimensions as well.

The Legion underwent a reboot in the 90’s the restored the once dead Lyle Norg, as well as a “threeboot” in 2003 that also used the white version, but recently the classic Legion continuity has been restored and Foccart is once again Invisible Kid and Lyle Norg is taking a dirt nap.

The original Firestorm was a composite of two people fused into one powerful atomic powered body in some kind of nuclear incident gone awry. One part of the Firestorm matrix was teenager Ronny Raymond, the other old fuddy duddy scientist guy Martin Stein. Both were white.

In the last few years though, DC has introduced a new Firestorm, who is a fusion of African American teen Jason Rusch with various other people, including former hosts Ronny Raymond and Martin Stein, as well as Jason's girlfriend Gehenna (also African American.)

Despite all the changes being made to who makes up the Firestorm matrix, he continues to visually appear as a young black man. The most recent animated versions, both in the Justice League animated movie Crisis on 2 Earths as well as Batman: The Brave and the Bold, have been the Jason Rusch version.

The original Johnny Thunder was created in 1940 and looked like a variation on Jimmy Olsen; another dorky white boy with a bow tie. He was the seventh son of a seventh son, born at 7 a.m. on Saturday, July 7, the seventh day of the week, the seventh day of the seventh month in 1917. For some reason, all this meant he came into possession of the Thunderbolt, a powerful genie who only followed his orders.

Eventually Johnny got Alzheimer’s, and the Thunderbolt needed a new master. It found one in Jakeem “J.J" Thunder, a young African American kid who grew up as a latchkey kid. Originally written as a stereotypical "street kid", more recent writers like Geoff Johns have mellowed out that aspect and have written him more like a real human being.

He would eventually take his predecessor’s place in the Justice Society of America. Despite his appearance, Jakeem Thunder was never a member of early 90’s hip hop group Kris Kross.