Day 6 in Black History: First Black Comic Book Characters...

Spider-man, Spider-man does what ever a spider can... Ok, anyone who knows me, knows that my favorite comic book character is Spider-man.  I think Peter Parker is ever Nerd/Geek's dream.  A skinny nerd who is bullied, life changes by one bite from a spider.  He gains great power which comes with... great responsibility.

Now you may be asking, what does this have to do with black history.  Well, we all know that most main stream heroes are white.  The first was the Phantom in 1936 followed by Superman in 1938.  So as with all media, most main characters and heroes were white, but who was the first Black Super hero or the first black character in a comic?


The first black comic-book main character was Lion Man who debut in 1945 in the one-shot Negro Comics #1.  You may think, he had some resemblance or powers of a lion, but no, he was more like Batman; he was a man that was at the peak of human strength, speed, agility, and athleticism; who was American born.  He was also a genius when it came to physics, biology, and engineering.

He was Sent by the Untied Nations to watch over the Magic Mountain of the African Gold Cost which housed the world's largest deposit of Uranium.  So, Lion Man was to protect it and report back of anyone trying to get it.  His name came from being a member of the Zulu tribe; Lion Man aka the Lion.



You may know the first regular black character in a super hero comic; Gabriel "Gabe" Jones.  Debuted by Marvel in 1963 as a member of the Howling Commandos who fought in the fictional World War 2. He was also the first African American member of the group.  In the comics he followed Nick Fury who was the leader and like Nick he ages slow and later joins Shield in modern times.

Gabe

Now in the Marvel Cinematic Universe the Howling Commandos were lead by Captain America and as far as we know he served the Howling Commandos and then went on to have a family as we see in the show Agents of Shield, it is assumed that Agent Antoine "Trip" Triplett is the grandson of Gabe.  He even uses some of his old gadgets to help the team.  It was good to see Gabe's legacy live on in the Cinematic Universe, but it was not to be as Trip was hit with the Terrigen Mist.  Ah, the Mist which creates In-Humans (humans experimented on by the aliens known as the Cree that if the human has the genetic marker will gain abilities).  I was like ok, Trip bout to get him some powers... but no, he just a regular human so while Sky became Daisy aka Quake, Trip became dead aka not on the show anymore, legacy gone...

Trip

Now the first black character with super powers was known as Lothar.  He was Mandrake the Magicians sidekick in the first Mandrake story in 1934.  He was described as the Strongest Man in the World... Hmmmmmmmm.....








In 1966, one of the baddest of the bad debuted with his own title.  A man, no a king of an African nation known as Wakanda.  A skilled hunter, tracker, strategist, politician, inventor, and scientist.  Trained gymnast, acrobat, and a master of various African, contemporary martial arts.  A king with the connection to the Wakandian Panther god giving him superhuman senses, enhanced strength, speed, agility, stamina, durability, healing, and reflexes.  Who would later be crowned as King of the Dead, able to control them and have the knowledge of all past kings before him.  I am talking about none other than T'Challa, the Black Panther who was also the first black super hero in mainstream comics.


Black Panther would enter the Marvel Cinematic universe with a bang, showing that he was nothing to mess with by going toe to toe with the Avengers.  Played by, Tech's hometown of Anderson own Chadwick Boseman.  And in 2018 we will get his solo movie!  I for one can not wait for this movie; which I think will hold a place in black history!


This movie is going to be lit!  Yea I said it, can't wait, 2018.

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To be continued tomorrow in Day 7 in Black History with other African American Super Heroes!

Check them out for more!

Day 5 in Black History: The Diva who Claims to be Humble

They say behind every great man is a great woman.  Behind the five guys of CNT there is one; the Diva who is humble. She has supported us since day 1 and CNT needed a female voice voice and perspective.  So on today February 5, we would like to wish our own Humble Diva aka Mrs. Barz a Happy and Blessed birthday.

Humble Diva❤ (Kourtney Barmore) is the newest member of CNT Nation. She is married to Barz (Chris Barmore). They have three beautiful children, two girls and one boy. Humble Diva❤ gave her life to Christ at an early age. She grew up in a Christian family with a musical background. She loves the Lord and strives daily to please Him! She has a heart for women and wants to live her life as an example of God's grace through faith in Christ Jesus. She wants the CNT platform to give women hope that you can have it all, Faith in Christ Jesus, A Loving Husband and Family, and an Effective Ministry. Humble Diva❤ knows that you first must,  "Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

 

Ah Ha what's that Fuss? Day 4 in Black History

Rosa Parks

Busy day for Tech, so I couldn't do my Comic right up, but I couldn't let the day pass without saying a bit about Rosa Parks whose birthday is today February 4th.

Rosa Parks aka the first lady of civil rights aka the mother of the freedom movement was an American civil Rights activist. She is most famous for refusing to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger after the white section was filled on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery Alabama.

It's Morphin Time!! Black History Day 3

When it comes to comics, T.V, and movies for years the cast, the characters, the heroes have been portrayed and dominated by Caucasians; white people.  If an African American, black person, or any other minority was in it they would be delegated to side kick or background character.

It's Morphin Time!

When i was 12 years old, 1993, Power Rangers was introduced to the world.  A show that was brought over from Japan and Westernized for the American Audience.  As I watched, it didn't bother me that the black ranger Zack was African American or that his form of martial arts was hip hop kido ( a fighting style that Incorporated dance moves) and that when he started to fight a hip hop beat would play.  Yes, he was my favorite; the man had an ax that could turn into a gun and he was the defacto second in command!  

Ok, this was considered stereotypical and on top of that the Asian ranger Trini was the yellow ranger.  Saban brand caught a lot of flack for this, so it wasn't until 15 years later that another African American would be the black ranger, Will in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.  It seems with the new movie, they have chosen to not go that route again.  The new movie has the original ranger characters, but now Zack is Asian, Billy is African American, and Trini is Mexican...

Power Rangers is known to always have a diverse team, but the leader would usually be the all american white male, while their would always be one Asian and one African American making up the team with two other Caucasians.  This was the formula for five years until half way through Power Rangers Turbo a new team was formed when Tommy the former green, white, then red ranger and probably most popular ranger of all time passed his powers on to T.J, the first Black red ranger and leader.  He lead the Turbo team, but he is most famously known for the destruction of two megazords, the loss of the turbo powers and kidnapping of Zordon....Dang T.J!  He would later become the blue space ranger.  Ok now it may sound like he got demoted, but if you watch the series T.J still lead the team.  The red Ranger Andros was an alien who knew nothing about Earth and was reluctant to take the turbo rangers and turn them to space rangers.  T.J went on to lead the other Space rangers and the citizens of Angel Grove in taking down the Alliance of Evil.  There we go T.J!

Anyway others would follow in his footsteps.  In 2011 the thirteenth year Power Rangers SPD burst on the scene, a series based on a police force in the future of 2025.  Jack an orphan living in the streets using his power to phase through things to survive with his friend Z.  Yea, he was basically Aladdin a lovable street rat with dreams, except instead of a blue genie he met a blue dog who gave him the power to become the Red SPD ranger.  He was a reluctant leader at first who didn't have the respect of his team.  Even his friend Z who became the Yellow ranger doubted him, but he soon grew into a capable leader and fighter.  In the end he quit wanting to help take care of those less fortunate... and he met a girl who was doing the same thing.... I was like come on man you could have kept the powers and still got the girl and helped people...

Moving on, one of my favorite seasons of Power Rangers, RPM.  A darker series that took place in a parallel dimension where the apocalypse came after a computer virus went rouge and killed most of humanity!  One dome city city survived and was protected by the Power Rangers.  We meet Scott Trueman, the second son of military leader Colone Mason Trueman who lead the army that protected the Dome city of Corinth.  Mason Trueman loved and was proud of his oldest son, with Scott being in his shadow, but on a mission to protect Corinth, Scott watched his brother die, exploding in his plane.  Yes, this is how power rangers rpm started.  A year after his brother's death Scott became the leader and Red RPM ranger set to protect Corinth and avenge his brother.  The whole season we see Scott try and gain the approval and trust of his father.  He always put himself in danger to protect others and lead his team as a modeled soldier.  He went on to defeat the computer virus that ended the world known as Venjix and earn the respect and love of his father.  Yea, you can him (Eka Darville) now in Jessica Jones :)

These are all the African American's who have lead the power rangers.  Other minorities would take the lead as well paving the way for others.  Now, even though they were not leaders there have been other African Americans that have fought as rangers though the years.  After Trini departed she was succeeded by Aiesha the first African American Ranger and Yellow Ranger and my new ranger crush :), I was so upset when she decided to stay in Africa and was replaced by Tanya who i guess you could say character wise was the first African Ranger; even thought as the season went on her African accent left, think it had to do with the time changes and what not... anyway....

Second Female African American Ranger or first African Ranger?

First Female African American Ranger

First African American Green Ranger

First African American Pink Ranger

I want to end this with the current season of Power Rangers, Power Rangers Ninja steal.  The reason being is that this team was almost the first team to be all minorities!  I was surprised when the original cast was introduced because it almost had another first.  That two black people would be on the same team and they were to be brother and sister.  Some would argue that the actors or what they call ambiguous black, but we know power rangers... Any-who, They were joined by a Brazilian pink ranger, an Asian blue ranger and a Latino(?) red ranger.  This also marks the first African American white ranger.



I am not sure what happened, but the yellow ranger was replaced with a white actor and now he and the white ranger are boyfriend and girlfriend.  Yes, many have joked that producers saw that cast and was like uh one of them has to be white.  I also red that the original actor had to go back to the states for an unknown reason. (Power Rangers is filmed in New Zealand)

Mystic Force

 Even so, this is still one of the most diverse teams since Mystic Force, and as I mentioned earlier, the movie cast is pretty diverse with all minorities except for the Red Ranger Jason....

Mighty Morphin Movie Power Rangers 2017

Yes, I have watched every season and plan to see the new movie; Don't judge Tech.  Tune in tomorrow when i talk about comics  and how known characters are race swapped or how a minority takes on the mantle of a well known white character...

Black.... No, African American History Month? Day 2 President Trump

Day 2 and I want to talk about our president Donald J. Trump.  Now before you cast stones, hear me out.  As you may have seen in the news, on Wednesday February 1, 2017, President Trump met with several African-American leaders for a listening session to kick off Black History Month.  Well the leaders from the NAACP or the National Urban League were left out, but Ben Carson and Omarosa was at his side.  Here, Trump took this opportunity to again attack the media saying they lied about him getting rid of the statue of Martin Luther King Jr's statue.  He then went on to speak on Frederick Douglass saying this:

"Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I noticed," Trump said. "Harriett Tubman, Rosa Parks and millions more black Americans that made America what it is today. Big impact. I'm proud to honor this heritage and will be honoring it more and more."

And in a surprise move the Press Secretary announces that president Donald Trump has named Frederick Douglass to the National Security council!

Ok, ok, no that was a from a twitter account created solely to troll the president. So, did the president just mess up with his words or did he not really know who Frederick Douglass was?

Frederick Douglas, A self taught escaped slave who went on to be a renowned abolitionist, writer, and African American leader during the 19th century who spoke out on slavery and racism. A man who died in 1895.

Yes, the internet had a ball picking on the president for speaking on Frederick Douglas as if he was still alive and not really knowing who he was. Yes, some call this a publicity stunt, while others say the president is taking great strides to help the African American community.

The family of Frederick Douglas took the opportunity to say that they too speak of him in present tense when talking about his accomplishments because his spirit and legacy or still very much alive. They went on to say"

". . . We believe, if he had more time to elaborate, the President would have mentioned the following: Frederick Douglas has done an amazing job . . ."

They went on to list Several things that Douglas has indeed done a great job at. Like:

"Enduring the inhumanity of slavery after being born heir to anguish and exploitation but still managing to become a force for solace and liberty when America needed it most."

"Teaching himself to read and write and becoming one of the country's most eloquent spokespersons."


For more visit the Chicago Tribune Article by clicking here.

One thing I want to point out from this meeting is Rev. Darrel Scott (No relation) said that he talked to the gang leaders in Chicago.

Chicago’s "top gang thugs" wanted him to pass along a sensational offer. “They're going to commit that if they lower the body count, we come and do some social programs,” Scott said.


So, later FOX 32 asked: So, there are no gang leaders offering to reduce the body count in exchange for federal funds?

“No! I mean, c'mon now! (laughs) No!” Pastor Darrell Scott said.

Anyway, now, on to today's news, with TMZ reporting that Donald Trump officially changes Black History Month to National African American History Month. Trump stated that after the meeting he felt the term was outdated... As usually this article spread across social media and even I was like say whaaaat, but as i have stated in my Tech Tips, social media should not be your source of news. TMZ has now removed the original story...


The fact remains that this proclamation was also made by President Obama, Clinton and all modern presidents. So, this is not major news or nothing new. Whatever you choose to call it, February is the month we set aside to celebrate the history, the culture, and the achievements of African Americans.









Alright, just had to write this one for day 2. Sorry it's late but Tech was held hostage for about 12 hours. Tune in tomorrow for Day 3 of Black History Month!