Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking
madness made the United States Supreme Court stand up for free
speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This
week, Luke is mad that there were no black super heroes in The
Avengers movie.
Over the weekend, I finally took my son
to watch the Avengers. It was definitely a block buster, but where
the heck was the Black Panther? All the super heroes were white. You
had Thor, the blonde, blue eyed Norse god; the Incredible Hulk, the
smart white scientist turned raging monster; Iron Man, the handsome
slick alien-busting version of Bill Gates; and Captain America, the
hill billy super soldier.
Samuel L. Jackson's character Nick Fury doesn't count. He was just playing the role of the figurehead, he didn't have any super powers, and in the comic books Fury is white. Jackson was more like President Obama calling in Seal Team Six to take out Osama Bin Ladin. He gave the orders, but he didn't do the job.
Instead, the biggest blockbuster of the summer sent out a subliminal message that Latinos and Blacks can't be counted on to save the world. Heck, the producers couldn't even squeeze a little screen time for Don Cheadle to play Iron Man's sidekick, War Machine. That makes me very upset.
The movie should have included the Black Panther, who was the first black hero in modern day comic books when he made his debut fighting alongside the Fantastic Four in 1966. According to his origin, the Black Panther's real identity is T'Challa, the chief of the Panther tribe from the fictional African nation of Wakanda. He had to earn his title by fighting other champions from the tribe and his job was to protect his country from exploitation. He has genius level intellect and his senses and physical attributes have been enhanced to near-superhuman levels.
The Black Panther joined the Avengers in 1968. Eight years later, he starred in his own comic book, in which he took out the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia. And he could charm the ladies too. His first girlfriend was Storm, the mutant leader of the X-Men.
So why can't Hollywood bring him to the big screen? The only black actor who gets to dress up in tights these days is Tyler Perry - and he is not making super hero movies.
I really hope the Black Panther makes it into the Avengers sequel because my son deserves a super hero that looks like him.
Follow Luke on Twitter @unclelukereal1.
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