What If Superman was Black?

I mean I was rewatching black lightning again after just recently finishing the show Smallville and as much as the plot – AKA Tom Welling caught my eye - *laughs*, there was an interview in the news in the first episode of black lightning where the interviewer asked a question as to why black heroes are a menace rather than accepted immediately as heroes. Then it got me thinking of how the black heroes in DC and Marvel are not very many.

Let’s look at the 2013 Superman movie: “Man of Steel” look at how afraid the military was of him when he revealed himself just because he was the most powerful being on the planet and then let’s not forget the fact that he is an alien….

Okay, there is the case of the 2021 “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier”. See how scared Sam was to take on the mantle of Captain America. He said that it felt like it belonged to someone else which I believe was a matter of programming like: A BLACK CAPTAIN AMERICA? I mean the time when Steve Rogers became Cap was in the early 90’s and we all know how dreadful those times were for anyone with even remotely darker skin than the default White (Black slaves and suppression were still so active then). Do you then think people would just accept a black man? The programming was in Sam Wilson's mind so deeply ingrained that he could not see himself as a hero of such proportions (or maybe it's just how big the shoes Steve left to fill were). Then there was Isaiah, the poor black Super Soldier used and abused by His country and presumed dead without any form of compensation or even the mere recognition of his existence!

I mean recently things are looking up for black heroes with our very own T’challa AKA Black Panther, Storm, Black Lightning, Impulse (according to CW’s The Flash), Sam Wilson AKA Captain America, Martian Man Hunter and so on. But I cannot help but wonder if Superman was black, would he have been accepted? Would things have turned out differently? Would we even know he existed? Would the black community accept him if he turned out to fall in love with Lois Lane? Would he have married a black woman? What if his spaceship landed in Africa?

Honestly, I would love to read a fan fiction about it or even co – write one. Now there’s a lovely idea!

While we muse on this, try to head to Netflix and watch Black Lightning… It’s very real and beautiful to watch…

What do you think?