With Ta Nehisi-Coates joining JJ Abrams by creating a new Superman movie for Warner Bros, The Hollywood Reporter was able to confirm that the project would feature a Black Superman. Now, this is not new to comics. Through a variety of Elseworlds, parallel dimensions and companions, there have been black Supermen before. Most of them were created by Grant Morrison and your ex-partner Mark Millar. And eBay is exploding with some of them as a result.
Final Crisis # 7 presented the first appearance of Calvin Ellis, created by Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke, who in his own world is a black superman, president of the United States. Final Crisis # 7 CGC 9.8 sold for $ 600, or gross $ 157, a comic that was selling for $ 3 a week ago. Action Comics # 9, which features the character on the cover, sold CGC 9.8 for $ 200 or $ 99 gross.
It will also be showing up this week Infinite frontier # 0 from DC Comics, which is a good time.
While Val-Zod is Superman’s Earth-2, created by Tom Taylor, Nicola Scott and Robson Rocha. His first appearance in Earth 2 # 19 was sold for $ 200 CGC 9.8 and $ 30 gross. Its complete appearance (and on the cover) in Earth 2 # 25 sold CGC 9.8 for $ 200 or $ 25 gross.
A third candidate is Tangent Superman, the Superman from another dimension, originally a man named Harvey Dent. Created by Jupiter’s legacyin Mark Millar and Jackson Guice. He became dark and vindictive, taking over the world, allowing no freedom of thought. Tangent: Superman # 1 is selling for about $ 2 if you’re lucky.
There’s also Marv Wolfman and Paul Ryan’s Superman of Earth D’s Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis in the Infinite Lands, where Superman and Supergirl are black.
And, well, this Superman died. Not that it means much today. And the copies have been sold for about $ 20 on eBay in the past few days.
And then there was Grant Morrison’s first attempt at Chas Doug in Animal Man # 23, for the Silver Age pastiche character, Sunshine Superman – along with others.
It just sold for … three dollars. As for black Kryptonians, there is also the famous misstep. When DC Comics decided to become a little more aware of racial concerns in the 1970s, they wanted to explain why no one had seen a black Kryptonian. And then he invented the tale of an isolated island called Valtho Island in Krypton, where all Kryptonians lived. Yes. So, most people tried to ignore it.
An impromptu reference to the island was made in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Superman story with dream rich in continuity For the man who has everything, at the Superman Annual # 11, on “racial problems with immigrants from Vathlo Island”. Currently $ 195 CGC 9.8 and $ 45 gross.
A black Kryptonian named Iph-Ro de Vathlo appeared in Superman: the man of steel # 111 (less than $ 3). Recently, DC has just shown black Kyrptonians integrated with the rest of the world that look like humanity. And Calvin Ellis, President Superman, was said to be from Krypton’s Vathlo Island of his reality.
But I also remembered something that Marlon Brando once said when approached to work on the original Superman: the movie. Richard Donner remembered;
Brando lived in LA and I had to go meet him. I called Jay Kanter, who was a very powerful agent and studio executive, and said, “Can you give me any tips?” And he said, “He will want to play like a green suitcase.” I said, “What does that mean?” “It means that he hates to work and loves money, so if he can convince him of the fact that people in Krypton look like green suitcases and you only photograph green suitcases, he’ll be paid just to do the narration. That’s how your mind works. “I said,” F- “, and then I called Francis Coppola. He said, “He’s brilliant. He has a brilliant mind. But he loves to talk. Keep him talking and he’ll get rid of any problems.”
And then on meeting Brando.
He said, “Why don’t I play like a bagel?” I was ready for him to say “a green suitcase” and he said “bagel”. He said, “How do we know what people were like in Krypton?” He had good logic. He said, “Maybe they looked like bagels there in those days?” I said, “Come on, Marlon, let me say something.” He had just told us the story of a child [and how smart he was] and I said, “It’s 1939. There isn’t a child in the world who doesn’t know what Jor-El looks like, and he looks like Marlon Brando.” And he looked at me and smiled [and said], “I talk too much, don’t I?” He said, “OK. Show me the wardrobe.”
So, why does Superman look like humans? In DC Comics, there is a theory that Thanagarians and Kryptonians are descended from Atlanteans traveling through space. In Elliot S! Maggin’s novelization of Superman: the man of steel, there is a suggestion that the people of Earth, Krypton and others are descended from a common ancient race.
But DC Comics has already published another comic with an archetype of the “black Superman”, the Icon, part of the Milestone line. He is an alien who originally looked very different from humans, but his escape pod that landed on Earth was programmed to turn him into a kind of first sentient being who found him. The cocoon landed in the southern United States in 1839.
And by the way, Icon has just been sold on eBay CGC 9.8 for $ 250 and $ 50 gross.
Could the new movie steal some of the icon for its new icon? What if Kryptonians look like bagels or green bags? What if the form chosen by Superbaby is that of the person who finds them? What if it’s not Jonathan and Martha Kent, but someone else?
The mother’s name must remain Martha, however, obviously. You can’t mess with that.