Superman addressing the situation at hand.
Image: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Eber Ferreira, Jaime Mendoza, Dan Brown, Jason Wright, Blond, Todd Klein/DC Comics
As long as the original Superman has had counterparts like Steel and, more recently,
Final Crisis’ Calvin Ellis of Earth-23, there have been comics fans who struggled to comprehend—and often pushed back against—the idea of a Black Superman.
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This small-minded and particularly pervasive quirk of the larger Superman fandom isn’t unique to Superman or DC Comics. The reluctance some people have to consider the idea of a Black Superman comes from a similar place as the hostile reactions to Marvel Comics’ Miles Morales and Sam Wilson becoming Spider-Man and Captain America, respectively. It’s not just that people don’t like change, but rather that change in the context of legacy characters’ mantles being passed on is often interpreted as