In 1969, Sam Wilson Aka the Falcon the second black super hero and the first African American hero in comics. Remember, Black Panther is African.... The Falcon was introduced in Captain American #117 and joined Captain American in fighting the forces of evil. They even got to share titles; Captain American and the Falcon in a few issues in the seventies. Another break through that Sam Wilson aka the Falcon flew in with was that he was the first black superhero to not have the world "black" in his name. And if you have been keeping up in the comics, Sam took on the mantle of Captain American after the ol super soldier serum ran out for Steve Rogers making him an old man, but this marked another first as Sam was the first black person to take on the mantle of Captain American from Steve Rogers. I say that not to be confused with Isaiah Bradley; an early product of the United states Super Soldier program.
His story comes from real history where African Americans were experimented on, except in this story it was from scientist trying to recreate the super soldier serum in a project called rebirth. Out of 300 men, Isaiah was the sole survivor and he escapes stealing a spare Captain America suite and shield. He went on a suicide mission to take down the project rebirth killing the lead scientist, but he was captured by the Germans. The fuhrer wanted to dissect Bradley, reverse engineer the formula and send his parts back to America, but Bradley was rescued by German insurgent but was then court-martialed and held at Leavernworth. In 1960, Bradley was pardoned by President Eisenhower and released. Still alive in Marvel comics, Bradley is looked at as a legend among the other black heroes and even got cameo visits from Malcom X, Richard Pryor, Muhammad Ali, Agnela Davis, Alex Haley, Nelson Madela, and Colin Powell. Wow, he wasn't in my list, but I had to mention the "Black Captain America"
Next in 1972 came a bullet proof black man, Luke Cage aka Power man. A former convict who gained super-strength and unbreakable skin after being experimented on in prison. Luke started off as a character to represent blaxploitation films with the jive talk, afro, and some strange choice of wardrobe. As time went on that all changed and Luke changed his duds shaved his head and is known as a bad motha <Shut yo mouth> but I'm just talking about Luke Cage. Oh I have to mention the time Luke was hired by non other than Dr. Doom to find some of his rouge Robots which Luke did, but Dr. Doom left back for his home country without paying Luke. So what does Luke do? Well, he takes the Fantastic Fours flying car and flies to Dr. Dooms country of Latvira. Dr. Doom soon hears that a black man his beating everyone up looking for him. Long story short, Dr. Doom paid the man! Anyway, Luke is also now also a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe firs debuting on Netflix in Jessica Jones and then his own series (that came at a time that the world needed a bullet proof black man) and you can soon see him in the defenders.
In 1973, we got the half vampire half human known simply as Blade. He had all the strengths of the vampires but not their weakness to sunlight. Blade took it upon himself to hunt vampires who many knew as the Day Walker. In my opinion Blade can also be credited as being the first successful Marvel movie. The fight scenes and the portrayal by Wesley Snipes were lit :) On that note, in the movie blade was African American while in the comics his is black English.
In 1975 we got our first black female super hero with Ororo Munroe, the mutant known as Storm. Not only is she the first black super hero, but the first black member of the the mutant team known as the X-men. Storm is the daughter of a Kenyan princess and an american photographer. After her parents are killed in Caror Egypt she becomes an orphan and thief who is later discover by professor X. Known as the weather witch she can control the weather and is listed as one of the strongest mutants; some give her the hightest title of omega-level mutant. Storm has not only been an X-men but has also lead them. She hasn't gotten a true representation in the movies yet (sorry Halle, sorry Alexandra) but i am waiting to still see the true storm on the big screen. I hope we get the X-men back at Marvel and not another Fox debacle. 
In 1977, DC finally introduced their first black super hero, Jefferson Pierce aka Black Lightning. A meta-human with well the powers of lightning. He was a gold medal wining Olympic decathlete and a family man who decided to return to his old neighborhood in the southside of Metroplis with his wife and his daughter to become principle, a place where his father was murdered. The guilt brought him back where the 100, a shady corporation was tearing the city apart. Jefferson is a meta-human (DC's version of a mutant) so he had his powers at a young age where his family friend taught him how to control them and when he came back to the southside the same friend convinced him to use his powers to save the city. Bad thing is, he had a short lived title and mosstly cameos in other titles but good news is that he will soon be joing the likes of the Flash, Arrow, and super girl on the Cw and be a part of their universe! Oh, and being He told Mr. Terrific, another black hero from DC that he chose the name because he, "was the only one of us around" at the time, and he "wanted to make sure everyone knew who they were dealing with." 
Next in 1980 (a good year) DC introduced Victor Stone aka Cyborg and you can say is probably DC's more popular black hero besides maybe Green Lantern John Stewart. Cyborg story is a tragic one where he is ignored by his father who never attends his football games and on one night is severerly injured, most of his body destroyed, but he is saved by his father and depending on which origin story you read is saved by him and technology or alien technology giving him a cybernetic body. He offten struggles with what human parts of him are left. Cyborg has become even more popular thanks to popular cartoons like Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go, I miss the original Teen Titans :(, but Young Justice is coming back! Sorry, got off track. Anyway, Cyborg started off as being apart of the team of teens that was lead by Robin known as the Teen Titans, but for diversity sake he has been now promoted to one of the original members of the justice league, for the most part replacing Martian Manhunter. DC need to get they game up when it comes to black heroes; there are a few more I may mention later like Static and as I briefly mentioned Mr. Terrific ....
Now, with the state of the DC movie universe I am concerned for the character. Will he go from optimistic and cheery with the internal struggled with his humanity to a gloomy series character?This is something I want to talk about later when it comes to diversity in comics. Should new characters be created, or should old characters like cyborg take new roles, or should established white characters be replaced by minority?
Tune in again tomorrow for more!
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