Inspired by Race + Comics: DC Comics Monkeys Around Yet Again

I haven’t read any Flashpoint comics yet but the fact that Gorilla Grodd runs the entire continent and that Africa is being treated as a big Dark Continent mono-culture are insulting details.  At first I thought that my main critique of that move is that it shows the lack of depth in DC’s African heroes and villains.

I love some talking non-human primates, Grodd included, but if that is all that is going on in DC’s version of Africa, that is troubling.  There was a tickle in the back of my brain, the part used for geek storage, the part that still can remember passages of Who’s Who in the DC Universe.  The Global Guardians…they had heroes from all over the world, they could be used to flesh out DC’s anemic Africa.

Right?  Off to wikipedia!

There’s Dr. Mist!  He was cool.

He was killed after being thrown into a pool of acid by the evil Mordru.

Oh.

Impala, a super-powered Zulu warrior!

After coming to his senses and being rescued by other former Global Guardians, Impala lost his powers to Fain Y’onia, and he later died at Roulette‘s house of games. His successor, Kid Impala joined the Ultramarines.

Shit.

There’s a whole list, it turns out, of African characters in DC comics.

The good news is that Flashpoint is an alternate reality, maybe in this reality these African heroes are alive, fighting against Grodd’s oppression.  Maybe in the Flashpoint universe, an African hero’s role in comics won’t be dying in order to make blond-haired, blue-eyed super-heroes fights seem more heroic.