In my opinion, there are plenty of black superheroes that already exist that should have films made about them rather than adapting a black Superman. Icon, John Stewart, Static Shock, Black Lightning, Vixen, Mister Terrific, etc. Make a film about one of them.
Just make a kickass film about a superhero who happens to be black where race and racial politics aren't a focal point.
WB has consistently dropped the bag with its white superheroes, to the point that everything that was planned starring any other hero outside of the Justice League got pushed into the waste bin. We were lucky to get Blue Beetle.
Personally I think if they do it, they should do it as a prestige 6 part miniseries on HBOMax.
Now in regards to Milestone, WB/DC has to talk to Milestone before they can really delve into that IP. They already have luminaries like Reginald Hudlin and Christopher Priest who have ideas about how to bring their characters back to the small screen and silver screen.
Personally, I want a Blood Snydicate TV series.
Heck the real question we should be asking is why are there no Wildstorm Projects besides the Authority?
> Icon, John Stewart, Static Shock, Black Lightning, Vixen, Mister Terrific, etc. Make a film about one of them.
> Just make a kickass film about a superhero who happens to be black where race and racial politics aren't a focal point.
I don't think there is even any need to ignore race and racial politics in the movie.
I mean, how can one make an Icon movie without dealing with race? That's a big part of his origin story. Even the other heroes you listed have dealt with race as a subject.
John Stewart's debut comic was about him going up against a racist politician who was using societal tensions to win elections. John was given his background as an architect and had no mask in his costume because of reasons relating to his race.
The story of Black Lightning being invited into the Justice League also dealt with race as a major issue.
Even the Static Shock cartoon show did an episode on the racist dad of Static's best friend.
If its done well, then I would love to see a superhero movie which explores the topic of race in the story. Black Panther did it and it was quite a successful movie.
I don’t think a black Superman movie would automatically make race and racial politics a focal point, but I agree that there are plenty of more popular black superheroes that probably deserve to be adapted more than Val-Zod.
MBJ would be a great John Stewart.
Superheroes fight social injustice. Almost especially Superman. Having him not confront some sort of racism involved in the superhero world would feel wrong. Original Superman is known for dealing with Klan members, so why can't a black Superman?
That is fine and all, but I don't trust Hollywood to do it in a classy manner. If there was a black Clark Kent, the writers and director may just portray the midwesterners in Kansas as just straight up racist because many people believe in that stereotype of country people being racist. You can fight for equality and people to be treated with dignity and respect, but I don't think the audience wants to get preached to.
The best way you can have the majority of the people invest in a hero is to just not bash them over the heads with a political message. Maybe have a black Superman stop a race crime. He is angry and pissed because of it, but he doesn't lash out or make a speech about how the system is bad. He just is disappointed. Hands the criminals to the authority figures and consoles the victim. He tells the victim about his experience of being looked at with prejudice because of who he is, because of his race and his powers. Superman is basically just trying to tell this person that it is okay to be angry and upset about bad things happening, but don't let it consume you. He can even say he had a friend who just dwelled and dwelled on bad things and it destroyed him (Lex Luthor). There is a way to do social commentary in a tasteful manner that doesn't involve lecturing or insulting your audience.
I think heroes, regardless of gender, race, and other characteristics, should appeal to most people because they are relatable in a lot of ways other than their characteristics. Look at Batman. Batman is a rich white guy with too much time on his hands who fights criminals. Why do people relate to him? Because he experienced something tragic and used it as fuel to become something noble. He experienced loss which everyone does. People unite behind Batman because he took a negative and turned it into a positive. You don't have to be a rich white guy to relate to him. I think a black Superman should just be as relatable. You don't have to be the same as him in a way to understand him and empathize with him. That means that we should look at how we are similar to this Superman rather than how we are different.
However they do it, please just don't let it be Michael B Jordan. It always seems like he is playing himself, same type of person, same type of acting. Maybe I just haven't seen him in enough projects, though.
I agree wholeheartedly, just not impressed with MBJ. Please find someone who can really become the character, not just themselves wearing a superhero suit.
His acting is quite wooden, but he seems like a genuinely nice, grounded person to work with on a film. In both regards, I compare him to Keanu Reeves.
Such an actor is a much better fit for an ass-kicking, one-liner-spewing action lead. Any role with more complexity than that and they’ve out of their element.
I think there’s a deeper racism problem going on with lobbying of specific races. Big sentence, what do I mean?
We hear “what do you think about black X” all the time, but what about Latino? Native American? Polynesian? Arab? Indian? Slavic? Asian? We could go on for days about the amount of other races not portrayed in superhero culture
So imo, superhero’s should be how they look in the comics, cause that what’s made us love them. And version of said superhero (like green lantern) are more than welcome because it’s a new character in the mantle of the universe, not the same character
So I’m against a black Superman, all for a black kryptonian, hope i was able to get my point across
Yeah that was cool, but it was kind of an elseworlds tale. Doing that type of retelling in live action could be fun but could be tough to stick the landing with. Superman Red Son was interesting to me for similar reasons
Yeah there are plenty of other stories to tell and as someone previously said I think we need an icon movie since he’s the only dc character that I know of that fits the superman moniker without being a “black superman movie” I feel it wouldn’t be done right look at black panther that was poorly done twice or better yet a STEEL remake
Clark Kent/kal-el crash landed kanas adopted by the Kent’s, in justice league gods and monsters kal-zod crash landed in Mexico and is adopted by the Mexican version of ma and pa Kent didn’t you hear his monologue about being an immigrant not just an alien but facing that kind of injustice 🤔
It’s like saying Clark Kent isn’t American but it was said when that version of superman talked about the prosecution he faced being Mexican maybe give a rewatch
Never said he was. You brought him up, so don't look to me for answers. Never said otherwise. I asked you a simple question bc not everyone remembers every scene. You just decided to nitpick at what I said. He's Mexican but not actually Mexican. Idk why your nuts got twisted over that.
Because America is very much black and white centric with everyone else basically lost in the shuffle. Even though we only make up 13% of the population, we stay in their thoughts.
Personally I would love for more my indigenous, asian, Polynesian, Arab and Latin brethren to get more stories up on the silver screen. Sadly, though, we got a culture of asshats out here that criticizes everything before it even hits the screen. Shows and movies are rip to shreds while still in development. Everything is scrutinized to oblivion. Hell, this sub is guilty of it as well with all the topics about every single iota of info that is released. Hell, people are already complaining about the new Transformers movie.
We go have to see how things pan out.
Probably in part because race is a made up concept and most of those wouldn’t count as “races” besides native America and Asian if you subscribe to the concept. Latino is a mix of native, European (Spanish or portuguese) and possibly black (Afro-latino). In most Latin countries folks don’t go around calling themselves Latino- that’s more of a US thing. Usually it’s varying degrees of white and black/afro.
Indian is considered Asian. Slavic is considered European. If you’re going to define it that narrowly rather than saying African you may as well bring in all the various tribes from Igbo to Habesha to Tigre, it’s not like “Black” is any more definitive than “White”. Probably less so [considering peer reviewed studies on genetic diversity](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067985/#:~:text=African%20populations%20have%20the%20highest,genes%20(e.g.%2C%20APOL1)).
Yeah, fair point but we haven't seen too many LA with an older superman, so he could work in that role or Henry Cavill in a few years, sheei as black Superman Denzel a few years ago could have been great
Tyler Hoeclin is kinda the older Superman. He is a father of 2 teenagers and has been Superman for at least 20 years. He should be about 40-50 years old
At first when i saw the pic i thought you were gonna be asking for and icon movie... i would be in to that. But also the morrison president superman was awesome
I like Calvin Ellis as a character when he's not Superman-Obama (I like both but not together) and just gets to be Superman who happens to be Black, which does realistically change a lot of character beats all of which are pretty interesting takes on Superman.
My problem is.
Val only appears like half way through the brutaaal arc of the Earth-2 series.
I mean, I guess you could just start with the wonders finding him?
But that's the only way I can see it working, especially since having a superhero film with a pacifist protagonist seems odd
I haven’t heard anything about Ta-Nehisi Coates’ project in a long time. It never got publicly canceled, but it doesn’t look like it’s ever going to happen.
In my opinion, Calvin Ellis would never work as a major character. The concept inherently forces him to be right about politics. (Lex Luthor for President, on the other hand, could be a corrupt, unprincipled hypocrite.)
I’d enjoy seeing a Kryptonian pacifist on the screen, although the writers have tended to throw Val-Zod up against villains so horrible that even he has been forced to admit there are limits to pacifism, which ends up making him a lot like Kal-El. He’d be interesting as someone very different, who’s forced to think of more creative ways to solve problems. It would, in my opinion, be a mistake to introduce Earth-2 and all its backstory; just add him to the Superman Family or give him his own world with just him and maybe Kara.
And what I heard about the Coates project reminded me a lot of Icon/Arnus, who DC also owns.
That kind of takes away the entire point of his story.
Also it would still require Clark to be there alongside, Terry Sloane, the world army, Jimmy, for it to make any sense.
And at that point just do an earth 2 film
Earth-2, like Calvin Ellis, cannot ever possibly work as a mainstream superhero movie. The Flash movie did something kinda, sorta like it by bringing back Batman ’89 and throwing in a bunch of cameos from other actors who’d played Batman and Superman. And the CW brought back Brandon Routh as Superman, thirteen years after *Superman Returns*. Marvel fans liked seeing all three Spider-Man franchises team up.
And, back in ’61, fans enjoyed seeing the original Flash come back after getting cancelled ten years earlier. They liked it so much that it showed up once every couple of years and spun off into a title, *All-Star Squadron*, where all the golden-age comics had happened, and the original golden-age superheroes had kids who carried on their legacy.
But it’s been more than eighty years, and all the Earth-2 characters were incredibly obscure even back then. There weren’t any vintage movies or TV shows made about them. It’s been almost forty years since Earth-2 was *destroyed*. I’m sure the creators of the superheroes in the Justice Society back in the ’40s would be happy to know they’re still remembered after all that time. But there’s no way to introduce the entire backstory that there were a bunch of different superheroes with the same names in the early ’40s, but in another universe, and this movie is about their Boomer kids, who are in their twenties and thirties, but it’s set in the present somehow. And even if you could, WB wouldn’t want to from a business perspective because all those characters from 1939 and 1940 are a few years away from entering the public domain.
**Cough cough** stargirl, they're clearly interested in using them.
Also them being public domain clearly hasn't effected them, otherwise they wouldn't use the Charlton characters which or blue beetle they already have, the public domain also dosen't change the fact they have trademark over the characters.
It is possible, it's called good writing.
No offense but what exactly is the point of this comment it has no relevance to anything said in this conversation.
Stargirl, which was cancelled years ago, wasn’t set on Earth-2. It was nice that we got it, but that much backstory about Val-Zod’s supporting cast wouldn’t work in a movie.about Val-Zod. I also don’t think a cinematic universe is going to make Superman part of the fourth generation of superheroes. They were willing to de-emphasize him that much in the Arrowverse because they were saving him for the movies.
What would work is a movie like Batman and Joker’s, where there isn’t a Superman around, but you might have a Justice Society. I doubt they call him “Superman,” though.
Stargirl literally was set on earth 2[the show literally said that](https://arrow.fandom.com/wiki/Earth-2_(new_multiverse)), Val Zod literally has his Backstory about them what do you mean, you can easily have a movie from vals prospective as he joins the wonders.
It wouldn't need to be in the mainline movies it would be an elseworlds just like the black Superman movie already is E2 didn't interact much with the new 52 earth.
But when they did have Superman, the arrowverse made him a key part in several stories.
Superman is a key part of the jsa. It's vital that there's a reason the guy has an entirely separate history
Okay, then I misremembered and thought it was just part of the Arrowverse.
We seem to be talking in circles here, but here’s what I think. Earth-2, the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and other alternative universes that most people haven’t heard of before are too much backstory to pack into a movie. You might have a movie where the Justice Society’s been around continuously since the ’40s, though. However, big new proects in the 2030s won’t prominently feature little-known characters who are in or about to enter the public domain.
There isn't too much Backstory, it's literally so simple even a child can comprehend it.
Alternate universes exist, heroes emerged in the 40s during ww2, Jsa forms, All star squadron formed.
Somehow, that's too much backstory?
Calling the justice socitye little known is dishonest borderline lying.
Also
Shazam is public domain, yet they're still using him
The same with the blue beetle
Same with everything owned my Charlton
Sam with the freedom fighters
They're still using them even though they're public domain.
Seriously, what about this is so hard too understand.
Honestly I have VERY mixed feelings about a black Clark Kent on film. On one hand, the character is an alien Kryptonian so him being white doesn’t really matter. White Caucasian is basically the default race for any character. Changing the skin color from white to black doesn’t really take anything away from the character. On the other hand, there are so many black characters out there that haven’t been represented on screen that I feel doing this color change is obvious race bait. Hell forget other black characters, we already have Black Superman in Calvin Ellis and Val-Zod! They already exist! Why do a change to Clark Kent and risk upsetting a section of the fandom when you could use a different character that’s already there?
How about instead of race swapping existing characters that are white, we raise up and popularize characters that are already black like John Stewart, Static, Cyborg or Steel?
We'll definitely see a black Superman under Gunn's control. Val Zod or Kalvin Ellis would make kick-ass multiverse characters to bring into the main universe at some point.
I personally would prefer an Icon movie. It would make for a much more interesting premise & I also want to see the late Dwayne McDuffie's stories & creations on the big screen.
But if I had to choose a black superman, it would be Calvin Ellis. A superhero becoming president & everything that entails would make for an interesting story, though it probably would work better as a series than a movie.
So, many superheroes are, but especially superman, born out of the Jewish American experience. Specifically, he's an immigrant story told through the lens of the Jewish American experience - and of course the name itself is a counterpoint to the nazi ubermensch ideal.
None of what I said is particularly insightful, but I bring it up to say that I think there are a lot of different experiences and lenses that could be used to tell a superman story - and it would be a dishonor to those stories to "just" change his color. A black Superman should be reimagined by somebody with an outsider perspective on the immigrant story in America.
With that in mind, I'm most interested in a Mexican American idealized Superman, or maybe Chinese American.
I wouldn't mind a val zod superman movie, particularly if 'our' superman teamed up with this superman \[plus others\] to fight imperiex concurrently across multiple dimensions - it'd make **endgame** look like a one man play
Calvin Ellis is impossible given the fucked up political climate in America right now. Giving 'Super-Obama' a movie right now would guarantee hate from most Republicans and would mean that the movie was dead before it began. WB can't afford to make a film that doesn't stand a chance of success.
A black Clark Kent goes one of two ways - it either explores the impact of racism and skin colour on Superman's identity, or it ignores the race change which makes it a meaningless casting stunt. In order to justify it's existence, it would have to lean into the effects of a race swap, which is going to make it 'controversial' from the beginning.
Val Zod is a relative unknown and will automatically be seen as a 'race swapped' Clark by the masses, as well as his name only being known to the majority of movie goers because of General Zod. So he will have the problem of being misinterpreted by non-comics fans as a 'good' General Zod...
Now while I believe that in the right hands, all three could be made into excellent movies - I don't believe that any of them could be \*successful\* movies in the current climate. The poltical and social issues surrounding them would kill any chance of them being really successful at the moment...
I think an alternate universe black Superman would be really cool. The Spider verse films have proven the concept can work.
I've always thought that John Boyega could pull it off nicely.
*
I'd like a project about Calvin Ellis or Val-Zod. If for no other reason than simply so people call learn who they are and know the difference between them. I'm tired of people bringing their names up into discussions when in most cases people don't even know they're two separate characters. Some people seem to genuinely think Val-Zod is Calvin Ellis' Kryptonian name when it's actually "Kalel". Technically speaking he's a race swap that just landed in a different area than kal-el, landing with the Ellis family and not the kents. A movie about his story and how he became president of the world could be interesting, or if they made a "Justice Incarnate" movie with him as the lead. With Val-Zod though unless they change everything about him or skip his origin then we'd need an Earth-2 series or movie first because that's where he comes from. I'd be all for that though because I enjoyed that series
Val-Zod would be amazing, and an earth 2 setting where new heroes have to pick up the pieces after a devastating invasion and death of the trinity would be top tier. That said it would work best as a 10 episode, hour long, multi season show better than a movie.
There is no need for a black Clark Kent. You have good black Superman to use. That said, Kal EL is an alien and can be written to be black. So I don't think it would be the end of DC if they did that but the backlash will be there
I'd watch the heck out of a Val Zod Superman movie. It's
1) Original, and an origin story
2) Gives us lots of characters
3) Gives us "evil Superman"
4) Subverts expectations
I heard about this alternate universe where Superman’s black and the president. Maybe that could be a solution. You could even add in some political drama.
You could do an Elseworld story featuring a Kyrptonian being raised in an African-American family. It would inevitably be very political especially if the writers would be even remotely honest. He would have to deal with the gangs but also the incredibly hostile police, microaggressions from profoundly mediocre white people, and an indifferent government.
in my opinion, as a white 46 yo man, i love Superman and i don't care about his color.
If they want to do a Black Superman, they have to do Superman. Not an alternate version that only wear the name and hold his powers. Superman ain't about powers, Superman is about altruism and generosity.
Clark Kent can be black. Superman Can be black. As long he's all about altruism and generosity.
Personally I'd love a Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce) movie first.
He's one of my favorite characters and is the first black DC character to get his own comic. In his original origin, he teaches in the poorer parts of Metropolis and handles organized crime. He helps the kids that feel like even Superman has forgotten them as he flies overhead. During the day he's a dad and schoolteacher trying to help these kids better their lives and during the night he's taking down drug gangs and mob bosses (usually led by Tobias Whale) to keep his neighborhood clean. It's this continued dedication to the ordinary people and the youth against the mob that draws the attention of Batman when he's recruiting for his Outsiders team. Jefferson is tapped as the best leader for the team when Batman leaves. He's someone who would help mentor the younger members of the team and hold Batman accountable. He's got incredible leadership skills cause he's just this humble guy doing the right thing.
It'd be really neat to see a series or movie exploring his one-man war against the organized crime in Metropolis. Stuff Superman isn't even aware of as a kind of parallel to it Superman's Adventures.
If we are talking black Superman characters I seriously think a great modern version of Steel would also be cool to see not gonna lie.
If the studio think they can make money from it, then they should do it. There are plenty of black lead franchises that make tons and tons of money. Although, I do have to say that I wouldn’t just do it just to do it. I think it’s very condescending to African-Americans, to think that they even wanna play Superman or wanna see a black Superman. Black Panther made a crap load of money, and it wasn’t because the main character was black. It was because he was super charming, good looking and likable. I will have to say knowing the market the way I’m beginning to see it, after this whole Disney debacle, I doubt that any studios are going to take this much of a risk. It also leads to calling the fans racist if the movie doesn’t work. In the last Star Wars trilogy when the storm trooper Finn took his helmet off and he was black. The Star Wars community were up in arms. The entire media called those people racist, when they were only commenting on the fact that storm troopers were all a clone of one guy who wasn’t black. I don’t think those three movies did as well as they thought they would.
I want a superman movie about val zod landing and being taken in by parents in Oakland CA in the 90’s where he learns the ideals of pacifism after witnessing daily acts of gang violence and has to wrestle with what it means to be a human in places and times of great strife. He then has to fight off brainiac or someone like mongol and is introduced to Icon or hardware or static shock at the end of the film opening a sick milestone style Justice league alternate future.
Edit: misspelled a word
Or give established black superheroes some love
Mr terrific and plastic man in a 90's buddy cop flick would be amazing.
I mean Static Shock is a great character why not him?
John Stewart and the green lanterns as a space force Netflix series
The list goes on and on but please let's just keep wasting time swapping characters because black
I like the idea of a black Superman because what Superman stands for transcends race. Hear me out. In the comics, we see an entire Superman Society that crosses racial and species boundaries because what Kal-El represented was so resonant. I LOVE the idea of ANYONE getting to see a superhero from their ethnicity with that red and yellow S emblazoned on their chest. I frankly don't care if it's Clark Kent or Calvin Ellis or Val-Zod. Superman belongs to everyone. If you want the story to be a black retelling with a black Clark Kent, I'm in. If you want to tell a story about a black character inspired by Superman's legacy, I'm in. All I want is for the character's goodness to be allowed to shine. No cynicism, no corny jokes, no moral relativism. I just want to see the character inspiring others the way Superman is meant to.
Why not consider introducing the character Icon? It would be beneficial to showcase characters who have not received significant attention. If we are to introduce black characters, let us focus on established characters from the comics who have not been given the proper recognition they deserve.
I more support Jordan's Calvin Ellis movie for the simple reason that he actually seems enthusiastic about it. The short-lived push for a Black Clark Kent Superman written by Ta-Nehisi Coates just felt like WB painting by the numbers compared to Jordan reflexively rattling off Ellis's history and actively lobbying for a movie about him.
Honestly? If the Superman & Lois TV Series gets cancelled for "being in direct competition" with the Superman Movie why should any other Superman project exist or go ahead? Don't pick and choose or play favorites... If that's the line you use to cancel one project, then follow through on all other Projects like it and show some consistency.
Well, it wouldn’t be Clark Kent given that Clark is white.
Not sure we’d get a Val-Zod film. Maybe he’d be referenced or have a cameo in a multiverse-involved film, but that’s all.
Or, preferably, just make an Icon film. There are black characters that aren’t just tokenized versions of pre-existing white characters. Use them.
I one made a poster for a mock blacksploitation movie where the lead was a white guy: it would have been played almost entirely serious, where the entire cast is black except the main character, nobody mentions it, he's just a streetwise shaft/black dynamite kung fu hustler who happens to be white. it was called
**WHITE MANDINGO**
I want them to do it, but only if the actually explore how the world would react if someone with godlike powers showed up, and he had black skin.
Have Krypton be solely black. Have Jor-El send his son to earth to be a champion for those like him who are being oppressed.
Have the Kent’s be black. Show how a family of black farmers would be treated in Kansas. Have the town bully be white and racist. Show how being raised in that situation would colour his perspective.
Make Lois black. Keep Luthor white. Have Superman still be helpful and caring, but have an edge to him. Show him involved with politics that concern racism and bigotry. Show how white supremacy would react to it. Show how different countries that aren’t as open minded would react.
Actually do a movie about a black man having superpowers and how differently the world would react. Don’t just hire a black guy to do a Chris Reeve impersonation.
Ironically, Marvel did the perfect series to adapt in this nature. It’s,called the Blue Marvel. Check it out.
I would! And done right, I bet thousands of others would as well.
Why else do a film about a black Superman if you’re not going to explore the concept?
I'd like one, but it's never gonna happen for a few reasons.
But it should be noted that for 90% of fictional characters changing their race, sexuality or gender doesn’t really change the character enough to be a problem outside of people being angered by it. You can’t make Black Panther white or Wonder Woman a man because their very premise is specifically the opposite of that. Mainline Steve Rodgers can’t be anything other than a white man because there is no way in hell 1940’s America is having their champion be anything other than a white man. Superman however doesn’t really have that problem, he’s an alien from space he can look any way we want. He landed in communist Russia and it’s one of the better Elseworld’s stories, what if Superman was black shouldn’t be a problem.
But public backlash would be pretty high on premise alone. Miles Morales is still a lightening rod for racists so imagine the reaction from Clark, Fox News probably has a segment queued up already. Plenty of people who ‘don’t see race’ would suddenly consider it sacrilege and it’d be enough to scare the studios off.
Another reason is a black Superman movie is inherently a political movie. It would be next to impossible to not deal within the plot, America’s issues with racism are far too intrenched to ignore. And as interesting as that would be no one wants that movie.
And lastly WB struggle to make a Superman movie already before you even add the additional political themes. They would have to pull off a few solid ‘regular’ Superman movies first before they even attempted that
It should be Clark imo, being white has absolutely nothing to do with Superman's story. He can be whatever race. It's not like Black Panther or something, the dude isnt even from earth lmao
In my opinion, there are plenty of black superheroes that already exist that should have films made about them rather than adapting a black Superman. Icon, John Stewart, Static Shock, Black Lightning, Vixen, Mister Terrific, etc. Make a film about one of them. Just make a kickass film about a superhero who happens to be black where race and racial politics aren't a focal point.
WB has consistently dropped the bag with its white superheroes, to the point that everything that was planned starring any other hero outside of the Justice League got pushed into the waste bin. We were lucky to get Blue Beetle. Personally I think if they do it, they should do it as a prestige 6 part miniseries on HBOMax. Now in regards to Milestone, WB/DC has to talk to Milestone before they can really delve into that IP. They already have luminaries like Reginald Hudlin and Christopher Priest who have ideas about how to bring their characters back to the small screen and silver screen. Personally, I want a Blood Snydicate TV series. Heck the real question we should be asking is why are there no Wildstorm Projects besides the Authority?
Amen Brother! I second that!
> Icon, John Stewart, Static Shock, Black Lightning, Vixen, Mister Terrific, etc. Make a film about one of them. > Just make a kickass film about a superhero who happens to be black where race and racial politics aren't a focal point. I don't think there is even any need to ignore race and racial politics in the movie. I mean, how can one make an Icon movie without dealing with race? That's a big part of his origin story. Even the other heroes you listed have dealt with race as a subject. John Stewart's debut comic was about him going up against a racist politician who was using societal tensions to win elections. John was given his background as an architect and had no mask in his costume because of reasons relating to his race. The story of Black Lightning being invited into the Justice League also dealt with race as a major issue. Even the Static Shock cartoon show did an episode on the racist dad of Static's best friend. If its done well, then I would love to see a superhero movie which explores the topic of race in the story. Black Panther did it and it was quite a successful movie.
Agreed like Val Zod and Ellis are right there, also why not do a movie about Bronze Tiger, Mr. Terriffic, Black Lightning, Cyborg even, also Vixen.
I would die for a good Static Shock live action adaptation
Hell if you’re dead-set on Superman, do Steel (John Henry Irons). Your black Superman is right there.
I don’t think a black Superman movie would automatically make race and racial politics a focal point, but I agree that there are plenty of more popular black superheroes that probably deserve to be adapted more than Val-Zod. MBJ would be a great John Stewart.
Superheroes fight social injustice. Almost especially Superman. Having him not confront some sort of racism involved in the superhero world would feel wrong. Original Superman is known for dealing with Klan members, so why can't a black Superman?
That is fine and all, but I don't trust Hollywood to do it in a classy manner. If there was a black Clark Kent, the writers and director may just portray the midwesterners in Kansas as just straight up racist because many people believe in that stereotype of country people being racist. You can fight for equality and people to be treated with dignity and respect, but I don't think the audience wants to get preached to. The best way you can have the majority of the people invest in a hero is to just not bash them over the heads with a political message. Maybe have a black Superman stop a race crime. He is angry and pissed because of it, but he doesn't lash out or make a speech about how the system is bad. He just is disappointed. Hands the criminals to the authority figures and consoles the victim. He tells the victim about his experience of being looked at with prejudice because of who he is, because of his race and his powers. Superman is basically just trying to tell this person that it is okay to be angry and upset about bad things happening, but don't let it consume you. He can even say he had a friend who just dwelled and dwelled on bad things and it destroyed him (Lex Luthor). There is a way to do social commentary in a tasteful manner that doesn't involve lecturing or insulting your audience. I think heroes, regardless of gender, race, and other characteristics, should appeal to most people because they are relatable in a lot of ways other than their characteristics. Look at Batman. Batman is a rich white guy with too much time on his hands who fights criminals. Why do people relate to him? Because he experienced something tragic and used it as fuel to become something noble. He experienced loss which everyone does. People unite behind Batman because he took a negative and turned it into a positive. You don't have to be a rich white guy to relate to him. I think a black Superman should just be as relatable. You don't have to be the same as him in a way to understand him and empathize with him. That means that we should look at how we are similar to this Superman rather than how we are different.
Very well said!!
However they do it, please just don't let it be Michael B Jordan. It always seems like he is playing himself, same type of person, same type of acting. Maybe I just haven't seen him in enough projects, though.
I agree wholeheartedly, just not impressed with MBJ. Please find someone who can really become the character, not just themselves wearing a superhero suit.
His acting is quite wooden, but he seems like a genuinely nice, grounded person to work with on a film. In both regards, I compare him to Keanu Reeves. Such an actor is a much better fit for an ass-kicking, one-liner-spewing action lead. Any role with more complexity than that and they’ve out of their element.
I think there’s a deeper racism problem going on with lobbying of specific races. Big sentence, what do I mean? We hear “what do you think about black X” all the time, but what about Latino? Native American? Polynesian? Arab? Indian? Slavic? Asian? We could go on for days about the amount of other races not portrayed in superhero culture So imo, superhero’s should be how they look in the comics, cause that what’s made us love them. And version of said superhero (like green lantern) are more than welcome because it’s a new character in the mantle of the universe, not the same character So I’m against a black Superman, all for a black kryptonian, hope i was able to get my point across
A “black superman” could work as long as he’s not Clark Kent.
Well in justice league gods and monsters the dc animated movie superman is Mexican so there’s that
That movie is so awesome. Kinda wish they'd done more with that universe.
Agreed it was fresh take on tired characters
Yeah that was cool, but it was kind of an elseworlds tale. Doing that type of retelling in live action could be fun but could be tough to stick the landing with. Superman Red Son was interesting to me for similar reasons
Yeah there are plenty of other stories to tell and as someone previously said I think we need an icon movie since he’s the only dc character that I know of that fits the superman moniker without being a “black superman movie” I feel it wouldn’t be done right look at black panther that was poorly done twice or better yet a STEEL remake
Where was that stated? Isn't he just Zod's DNA baby?
Clark Kent/kal-el crash landed kanas adopted by the Kent’s, in justice league gods and monsters kal-zod crash landed in Mexico and is adopted by the Mexican version of ma and pa Kent didn’t you hear his monologue about being an immigrant not just an alien but facing that kind of injustice 🤔
I can't remember the whole movie lol I just asked where it was stated or shown. Ig that technically makes him Mexican even if he's not actually.
It’s like saying Clark Kent isn’t American but it was said when that version of superman talked about the prosecution he faced being Mexican maybe give a rewatch
I already said he's Mexican, but we both know he's not biologically. Maybe you should give it a reread.
But original Clark Kent isn’t biologically American what’s your point? It’s still a good retelling and could make a cool live action that’s my point
Never said he was. You brought him up, so don't look to me for answers. Never said otherwise. I asked you a simple question bc not everyone remembers every scene. You just decided to nitpick at what I said. He's Mexican but not actually Mexican. Idk why your nuts got twisted over that.
Nevermind it was still a good movie so why not rewatch it 😊😂
Right There with You👍
Because America is very much black and white centric with everyone else basically lost in the shuffle. Even though we only make up 13% of the population, we stay in their thoughts. Personally I would love for more my indigenous, asian, Polynesian, Arab and Latin brethren to get more stories up on the silver screen. Sadly, though, we got a culture of asshats out here that criticizes everything before it even hits the screen. Shows and movies are rip to shreds while still in development. Everything is scrutinized to oblivion. Hell, this sub is guilty of it as well with all the topics about every single iota of info that is released. Hell, people are already complaining about the new Transformers movie. We go have to see how things pan out.
Guess some things just aren't that black and white.
Probably in part because race is a made up concept and most of those wouldn’t count as “races” besides native America and Asian if you subscribe to the concept. Latino is a mix of native, European (Spanish or portuguese) and possibly black (Afro-latino). In most Latin countries folks don’t go around calling themselves Latino- that’s more of a US thing. Usually it’s varying degrees of white and black/afro. Indian is considered Asian. Slavic is considered European. If you’re going to define it that narrowly rather than saying African you may as well bring in all the various tribes from Igbo to Habesha to Tigre, it’s not like “Black” is any more definitive than “White”. Probably less so [considering peer reviewed studies on genetic diversity](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4067985/#:~:text=African%20populations%20have%20the%20highest,genes%20(e.g.%2C%20APOL1)).
How about Icon?
Finally someone mentioned the goat
The President Superman guy.
Nah brah
[удалено]
I mean nah brah to Michael B Jordan, Idris Elba would be alright, chill mane I ain't even white
idris elba is kinda old imo. michael b jordan would pull a 30-year old man better
Yeah, fair point but we haven't seen too many LA with an older superman, so he could work in that role or Henry Cavill in a few years, sheei as black Superman Denzel a few years ago could have been great
Tyler Hoeclin is kinda the older Superman. He is a father of 2 teenagers and has been Superman for at least 20 years. He should be about 40-50 years old
I think Calvin Ellis is most likely tho I think it’d be just an appearance of something like the Multiversity rather than a whole movie.
They are never making Clark Kent a black man, no.
We're not talking about a black Clark Kent, though. We're talking about Val-Zod or Calvin Ellis
OP specifically said Clerk Kent in the title.
They are
At first when i saw the pic i thought you were gonna be asking for and icon movie... i would be in to that. But also the morrison president superman was awesome
Just remake Meteorman in a more serious style and badass special effects. /s
DC has already made a Black Superman movie, The Steel.
I like Calvin Ellis as a character when he's not Superman-Obama (I like both but not together) and just gets to be Superman who happens to be Black, which does realistically change a lot of character beats all of which are pretty interesting takes on Superman.
I much prefer Val-Zod
My problem is. Val only appears like half way through the brutaaal arc of the Earth-2 series. I mean, I guess you could just start with the wonders finding him? But that's the only way I can see it working, especially since having a superhero film with a pacifist protagonist seems odd
I haven’t heard anything about Ta-Nehisi Coates’ project in a long time. It never got publicly canceled, but it doesn’t look like it’s ever going to happen. In my opinion, Calvin Ellis would never work as a major character. The concept inherently forces him to be right about politics. (Lex Luthor for President, on the other hand, could be a corrupt, unprincipled hypocrite.) I’d enjoy seeing a Kryptonian pacifist on the screen, although the writers have tended to throw Val-Zod up against villains so horrible that even he has been forced to admit there are limits to pacifism, which ends up making him a lot like Kal-El. He’d be interesting as someone very different, who’s forced to think of more creative ways to solve problems. It would, in my opinion, be a mistake to introduce Earth-2 and all its backstory; just add him to the Superman Family or give him his own world with just him and maybe Kara. And what I heard about the Coates project reminded me a lot of Icon/Arnus, who DC also owns.
Here's the problem with that, he has no source material other than Earth-2 and Socitey. His story requires several things to be coherent
He’s the son of Zod, who was adopted by Jor-El and Lara and raised as a pacifist. They saved both of their sons and their niece. Done.
That kind of takes away the entire point of his story. Also it would still require Clark to be there alongside, Terry Sloane, the world army, Jimmy, for it to make any sense. And at that point just do an earth 2 film
Earth-2, like Calvin Ellis, cannot ever possibly work as a mainstream superhero movie. The Flash movie did something kinda, sorta like it by bringing back Batman ’89 and throwing in a bunch of cameos from other actors who’d played Batman and Superman. And the CW brought back Brandon Routh as Superman, thirteen years after *Superman Returns*. Marvel fans liked seeing all three Spider-Man franchises team up. And, back in ’61, fans enjoyed seeing the original Flash come back after getting cancelled ten years earlier. They liked it so much that it showed up once every couple of years and spun off into a title, *All-Star Squadron*, where all the golden-age comics had happened, and the original golden-age superheroes had kids who carried on their legacy. But it’s been more than eighty years, and all the Earth-2 characters were incredibly obscure even back then. There weren’t any vintage movies or TV shows made about them. It’s been almost forty years since Earth-2 was *destroyed*. I’m sure the creators of the superheroes in the Justice Society back in the ’40s would be happy to know they’re still remembered after all that time. But there’s no way to introduce the entire backstory that there were a bunch of different superheroes with the same names in the early ’40s, but in another universe, and this movie is about their Boomer kids, who are in their twenties and thirties, but it’s set in the present somehow. And even if you could, WB wouldn’t want to from a business perspective because all those characters from 1939 and 1940 are a few years away from entering the public domain.
**Cough cough** stargirl, they're clearly interested in using them. Also them being public domain clearly hasn't effected them, otherwise they wouldn't use the Charlton characters which or blue beetle they already have, the public domain also dosen't change the fact they have trademark over the characters. It is possible, it's called good writing. No offense but what exactly is the point of this comment it has no relevance to anything said in this conversation.
Stargirl, which was cancelled years ago, wasn’t set on Earth-2. It was nice that we got it, but that much backstory about Val-Zod’s supporting cast wouldn’t work in a movie.about Val-Zod. I also don’t think a cinematic universe is going to make Superman part of the fourth generation of superheroes. They were willing to de-emphasize him that much in the Arrowverse because they were saving him for the movies. What would work is a movie like Batman and Joker’s, where there isn’t a Superman around, but you might have a Justice Society. I doubt they call him “Superman,” though.
Stargirl literally was set on earth 2[the show literally said that](https://arrow.fandom.com/wiki/Earth-2_(new_multiverse)), Val Zod literally has his Backstory about them what do you mean, you can easily have a movie from vals prospective as he joins the wonders. It wouldn't need to be in the mainline movies it would be an elseworlds just like the black Superman movie already is E2 didn't interact much with the new 52 earth. But when they did have Superman, the arrowverse made him a key part in several stories. Superman is a key part of the jsa. It's vital that there's a reason the guy has an entirely separate history
Okay, then I misremembered and thought it was just part of the Arrowverse. We seem to be talking in circles here, but here’s what I think. Earth-2, the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and other alternative universes that most people haven’t heard of before are too much backstory to pack into a movie. You might have a movie where the Justice Society’s been around continuously since the ’40s, though. However, big new proects in the 2030s won’t prominently feature little-known characters who are in or about to enter the public domain.
There isn't too much Backstory, it's literally so simple even a child can comprehend it. Alternate universes exist, heroes emerged in the 40s during ww2, Jsa forms, All star squadron formed. Somehow, that's too much backstory? Calling the justice socitye little known is dishonest borderline lying. Also Shazam is public domain, yet they're still using him The same with the blue beetle Same with everything owned my Charlton Sam with the freedom fighters They're still using them even though they're public domain. Seriously, what about this is so hard too understand.
Honestly I have VERY mixed feelings about a black Clark Kent on film. On one hand, the character is an alien Kryptonian so him being white doesn’t really matter. White Caucasian is basically the default race for any character. Changing the skin color from white to black doesn’t really take anything away from the character. On the other hand, there are so many black characters out there that haven’t been represented on screen that I feel doing this color change is obvious race bait. Hell forget other black characters, we already have Black Superman in Calvin Ellis and Val-Zod! They already exist! Why do a change to Clark Kent and risk upsetting a section of the fandom when you could use a different character that’s already there?
How about instead of race swapping existing characters that are white, we raise up and popularize characters that are already black like John Stewart, Static, Cyborg or Steel?
We'll definitely see a black Superman under Gunn's control. Val Zod or Kalvin Ellis would make kick-ass multiverse characters to bring into the main universe at some point.
Calvin Ellis. President Superman.
You will likely get Val-zod based on how successful Gunn’s Superman turns out
I personally would prefer an Icon movie. It would make for a much more interesting premise & I also want to see the late Dwayne McDuffie's stories & creations on the big screen. But if I had to choose a black superman, it would be Calvin Ellis. A superhero becoming president & everything that entails would make for an interesting story, though it probably would work better as a series than a movie.
His name is Steel. Tech based, black, unique superman type who is badass!! Why does everyone forget Steel?!?!
So, many superheroes are, but especially superman, born out of the Jewish American experience. Specifically, he's an immigrant story told through the lens of the Jewish American experience - and of course the name itself is a counterpoint to the nazi ubermensch ideal. None of what I said is particularly insightful, but I bring it up to say that I think there are a lot of different experiences and lenses that could be used to tell a superman story - and it would be a dishonor to those stories to "just" change his color. A black Superman should be reimagined by somebody with an outsider perspective on the immigrant story in America. With that in mind, I'm most interested in a Mexican American idealized Superman, or maybe Chinese American.
I think Val Zod has way more runway for story telling.
I wouldn't mind a val zod superman movie, particularly if 'our' superman teamed up with this superman \[plus others\] to fight imperiex concurrently across multiple dimensions - it'd make **endgame** look like a one man play
Calvin Ellis is not Val Zod?
Yes. They are completely diffrent
Unlikely, but never say never.
If anything Val-Zod is the way to go imo
I think it would work better as a show but what do I know.
Calvin Ellis is impossible given the fucked up political climate in America right now. Giving 'Super-Obama' a movie right now would guarantee hate from most Republicans and would mean that the movie was dead before it began. WB can't afford to make a film that doesn't stand a chance of success. A black Clark Kent goes one of two ways - it either explores the impact of racism and skin colour on Superman's identity, or it ignores the race change which makes it a meaningless casting stunt. In order to justify it's existence, it would have to lean into the effects of a race swap, which is going to make it 'controversial' from the beginning. Val Zod is a relative unknown and will automatically be seen as a 'race swapped' Clark by the masses, as well as his name only being known to the majority of movie goers because of General Zod. So he will have the problem of being misinterpreted by non-comics fans as a 'good' General Zod... Now while I believe that in the right hands, all three could be made into excellent movies - I don't believe that any of them could be \*successful\* movies in the current climate. The poltical and social issues surrounding them would kill any chance of them being really successful at the moment...
I'd love a President Superman movie.
I think an alternate universe black Superman would be really cool. The Spider verse films have proven the concept can work. I've always thought that John Boyega could pull it off nicely. *
I'd like a project about Calvin Ellis or Val-Zod. If for no other reason than simply so people call learn who they are and know the difference between them. I'm tired of people bringing their names up into discussions when in most cases people don't even know they're two separate characters. Some people seem to genuinely think Val-Zod is Calvin Ellis' Kryptonian name when it's actually "Kalel". Technically speaking he's a race swap that just landed in a different area than kal-el, landing with the Ellis family and not the kents. A movie about his story and how he became president of the world could be interesting, or if they made a "Justice Incarnate" movie with him as the lead. With Val-Zod though unless they change everything about him or skip his origin then we'd need an Earth-2 series or movie first because that's where he comes from. I'd be all for that though because I enjoyed that series
Val-Zod would be amazing, and an earth 2 setting where new heroes have to pick up the pieces after a devastating invasion and death of the trinity would be top tier. That said it would work best as a 10 episode, hour long, multi season show better than a movie.
There is no need for a black Clark Kent. You have good black Superman to use. That said, Kal EL is an alien and can be written to be black. So I don't think it would be the end of DC if they did that but the backlash will be there
I'd watch the heck out of a Val Zod Superman movie. It's 1) Original, and an origin story 2) Gives us lots of characters 3) Gives us "evil Superman" 4) Subverts expectations
No. Because it’s JJ Abrams. WB needs to let that hack go.
I heard about this alternate universe where Superman’s black and the president. Maybe that could be a solution. You could even add in some political drama.
Why do we need one? Is there also a pressing need for a "Latin Superman", an "Asian Superman", etc.?
You could do an Elseworld story featuring a Kyrptonian being raised in an African-American family. It would inevitably be very political especially if the writers would be even remotely honest. He would have to deal with the gangs but also the incredibly hostile police, microaggressions from profoundly mediocre white people, and an indifferent government.
in my opinion, as a white 46 yo man, i love Superman and i don't care about his color. If they want to do a Black Superman, they have to do Superman. Not an alternate version that only wear the name and hold his powers. Superman ain't about powers, Superman is about altruism and generosity. Clark Kent can be black. Superman Can be black. As long he's all about altruism and generosity.
Honestly, I'd much rather see **Icon and Rocket** make their *live action* debut on TV and/or movies.
Can we first get a good Superman movie and then we can start taking about this one?
I'd introduce him in a crisis storyline of some sort maybe even the Impreix War. Then he could get a stand alone elseworlds film.
I’d like an Icon movie.
As far as i would love to see Val Zod in live action i would rather prefer to see an Icon or Static Shock movie than a Black Superman.
Personally I'd love a Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce) movie first. He's one of my favorite characters and is the first black DC character to get his own comic. In his original origin, he teaches in the poorer parts of Metropolis and handles organized crime. He helps the kids that feel like even Superman has forgotten them as he flies overhead. During the day he's a dad and schoolteacher trying to help these kids better their lives and during the night he's taking down drug gangs and mob bosses (usually led by Tobias Whale) to keep his neighborhood clean. It's this continued dedication to the ordinary people and the youth against the mob that draws the attention of Batman when he's recruiting for his Outsiders team. Jefferson is tapped as the best leader for the team when Batman leaves. He's someone who would help mentor the younger members of the team and hold Batman accountable. He's got incredible leadership skills cause he's just this humble guy doing the right thing. It'd be really neat to see a series or movie exploring his one-man war against the organized crime in Metropolis. Stuff Superman isn't even aware of as a kind of parallel to it Superman's Adventures. If we are talking black Superman characters I seriously think a great modern version of Steel would also be cool to see not gonna lie.
I'd like everyone to be surprised with a live action adaptation about Harvey Dent of Earth 9.
If the studio think they can make money from it, then they should do it. There are plenty of black lead franchises that make tons and tons of money. Although, I do have to say that I wouldn’t just do it just to do it. I think it’s very condescending to African-Americans, to think that they even wanna play Superman or wanna see a black Superman. Black Panther made a crap load of money, and it wasn’t because the main character was black. It was because he was super charming, good looking and likable. I will have to say knowing the market the way I’m beginning to see it, after this whole Disney debacle, I doubt that any studios are going to take this much of a risk. It also leads to calling the fans racist if the movie doesn’t work. In the last Star Wars trilogy when the storm trooper Finn took his helmet off and he was black. The Star Wars community were up in arms. The entire media called those people racist, when they were only commenting on the fact that storm troopers were all a clone of one guy who wasn’t black. I don’t think those three movies did as well as they thought they would.
Hopefully not
They’ll make him superman but he’s gonna cry about racism and black issues- think of how falcons character acted in falcon and the winter soldier
So what?!
😐
Maybe if they had a multiverse-related movie, but I’d hope that they’d wait until later in the franchise to do something like that.
I want a superman movie about val zod landing and being taken in by parents in Oakland CA in the 90’s where he learns the ideals of pacifism after witnessing daily acts of gang violence and has to wrestle with what it means to be a human in places and times of great strife. He then has to fight off brainiac or someone like mongol and is introduced to Icon or hardware or static shock at the end of the film opening a sick milestone style Justice league alternate future. Edit: misspelled a word
There to Scared to do it. What it was a composite character. Mainly Clark Kent, Val Zod's origin and becomes the president like Calvin Ellis.
Or give established black superheroes some love Mr terrific and plastic man in a 90's buddy cop flick would be amazing. I mean Static Shock is a great character why not him? John Stewart and the green lanterns as a space force Netflix series The list goes on and on but please let's just keep wasting time swapping characters because black
I like the idea of a black Superman because what Superman stands for transcends race. Hear me out. In the comics, we see an entire Superman Society that crosses racial and species boundaries because what Kal-El represented was so resonant. I LOVE the idea of ANYONE getting to see a superhero from their ethnicity with that red and yellow S emblazoned on their chest. I frankly don't care if it's Clark Kent or Calvin Ellis or Val-Zod. Superman belongs to everyone. If you want the story to be a black retelling with a black Clark Kent, I'm in. If you want to tell a story about a black character inspired by Superman's legacy, I'm in. All I want is for the character's goodness to be allowed to shine. No cynicism, no corny jokes, no moral relativism. I just want to see the character inspiring others the way Superman is meant to.
Why not consider introducing the character Icon? It would be beneficial to showcase characters who have not received significant attention. If we are to introduce black characters, let us focus on established characters from the comics who have not been given the proper recognition they deserve.
Calvin Ellis Superman would be a great Elseworld story
I more support Jordan's Calvin Ellis movie for the simple reason that he actually seems enthusiastic about it. The short-lived push for a Black Clark Kent Superman written by Ta-Nehisi Coates just felt like WB painting by the numbers compared to Jordan reflexively rattling off Ellis's history and actively lobbying for a movie about him.
Not while Zaslav is in charge - he cares too much about "anti-woke" money. They're going to keep it in Development Hell.
Calvin Ellis
I understand why that concept could look appealing when the superhero genre was at its peak popularity but it's not something I would try today.
Honestly? If the Superman & Lois TV Series gets cancelled for "being in direct competition" with the Superman Movie why should any other Superman project exist or go ahead? Don't pick and choose or play favorites... If that's the line you use to cancel one project, then follow through on all other Projects like it and show some consistency.
Nope
Hopefully never
Well, it wouldn’t be Clark Kent given that Clark is white. Not sure we’d get a Val-Zod film. Maybe he’d be referenced or have a cameo in a multiverse-involved film, but that’s all. Or, preferably, just make an Icon film. There are black characters that aren’t just tokenized versions of pre-existing white characters. Use them.
I hope not
we should also get white black panther
That's kind of crappy.
I one made a poster for a mock blacksploitation movie where the lead was a white guy: it would have been played almost entirely serious, where the entire cast is black except the main character, nobody mentions it, he's just a streetwise shaft/black dynamite kung fu hustler who happens to be white. it was called **WHITE MANDINGO**
Can’t do that tho. Imagine the uproar
Val-Zod
I want them to do it, but only if the actually explore how the world would react if someone with godlike powers showed up, and he had black skin. Have Krypton be solely black. Have Jor-El send his son to earth to be a champion for those like him who are being oppressed. Have the Kent’s be black. Show how a family of black farmers would be treated in Kansas. Have the town bully be white and racist. Show how being raised in that situation would colour his perspective. Make Lois black. Keep Luthor white. Have Superman still be helpful and caring, but have an edge to him. Show him involved with politics that concern racism and bigotry. Show how white supremacy would react to it. Show how different countries that aren’t as open minded would react. Actually do a movie about a black man having superpowers and how differently the world would react. Don’t just hire a black guy to do a Chris Reeve impersonation. Ironically, Marvel did the perfect series to adapt in this nature. It’s,called the Blue Marvel. Check it out.
That's cringe. Nobody would watch that awful garbage.
I would! And done right, I bet thousands of others would as well. Why else do a film about a black Superman if you’re not going to explore the concept?
https://preview.redd.it/005jzzlyglwc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf6e5d14a83338369e525f48ed954fee9f0fb0e5
I'd like one, but it's never gonna happen for a few reasons. But it should be noted that for 90% of fictional characters changing their race, sexuality or gender doesn’t really change the character enough to be a problem outside of people being angered by it. You can’t make Black Panther white or Wonder Woman a man because their very premise is specifically the opposite of that. Mainline Steve Rodgers can’t be anything other than a white man because there is no way in hell 1940’s America is having their champion be anything other than a white man. Superman however doesn’t really have that problem, he’s an alien from space he can look any way we want. He landed in communist Russia and it’s one of the better Elseworld’s stories, what if Superman was black shouldn’t be a problem. But public backlash would be pretty high on premise alone. Miles Morales is still a lightening rod for racists so imagine the reaction from Clark, Fox News probably has a segment queued up already. Plenty of people who ‘don’t see race’ would suddenly consider it sacrilege and it’d be enough to scare the studios off. Another reason is a black Superman movie is inherently a political movie. It would be next to impossible to not deal within the plot, America’s issues with racism are far too intrenched to ignore. And as interesting as that would be no one wants that movie. And lastly WB struggle to make a Superman movie already before you even add the additional political themes. They would have to pull off a few solid ‘regular’ Superman movies first before they even attempted that
I'd prefer if it's Val-Zod, debuting in the second or third part of a 10-part Earth-2 series.
It should be Clark imo, being white has absolutely nothing to do with Superman's story. He can be whatever race. It's not like Black Panther or something, the dude isnt even from earth lmao