10 Most Inappropriate Superman Storylines
6. The Lack Of Diversity In The 31st Century
The Legion of Super-Heroes was open to teens of any species that had a unique singular power that would be useful on the team. They had the blue-skinned Shadow Lass, the orange-skinned Chameleon Boy, the green-skinned Brainiac-5, and any number of white-skinned members, but there seemed to be a lack of black-skinned Legionnaires.
Legion artist Mike Grell stated that he had tried many times to introduce a dignified black character to the team, but the powers-that-be kept pushing back. What was finally presented in 1976 became Tyroc, a hero from a land called Marzal. It was an island that was settled by escaped slaves from Africa that regularly shifted into another dimension. It had become highly technologically advanced but isolationist by the 31st Century. Grell was offended by this idea and gave Tyroc a “silly” costume to go along with his odd powers of a reality-altering scream.
In addition to essentially segregating the black people by story mandate, there wasn’t another black Legionnaire until the second Invisible Kid was forced to stop his sister from becoming Computo seven years later. After that, DC retconned Kid Quantum into the first team of Legionaries after one of the many rewrites of their history.