4. DC Fumble Their First Black Character With Tyroc
Where Marvel had introduced their first black major character way back in 1969 (although it did take them less than a decade to screw him up), it took until 1977 for DC to do the same with Black Lightning, who had a handy reminder of his race right there in his superhero handle. A whole year before that, though, their first major black character - either a villain or an anti-hero, depending on your point of view - debuted in the pages of Legion of Super-Heroes. And God do we wish he hadn't. Tyroc is so racist that the people who created him have criticised the character for being such a poorly handled depiction of a black man. Artist Jim Shooter called him "pathetic and appalling," while writer/artist Mike Grell called the character's backstory "possibly the most racist concept I've ever heard in my life." A reminder that these are the co-creators speaking right here. The backstory in question, mind you, is pretty terrible. To explain the fact that, despite living in a utopian 31t century, there have previously been no black characters in the Legion's adventures, we are told that Tyroc and his people, having escaped from the horrors of slavery, lived on a magical African island that only appeared once every 200 years. And by "his people" we mean all black people. DC shunted all black people off to an island so nobody ever saw them. That's...that's pretty racist, you guys.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
