The complicated case for a black Superman

The Man of Steel can leap tall buildings in a single bound, stop powerful locomotives and catch speeding bullets, but can he be Black?

Henry Cavill has stepped down from his turbulent tenure as Superman, and left a hole in the DC cinematic universe. In the rush to replace Cavill as the Man of Steel in Warner’s deeply mediocre franchise, Michael B. Jordan has emerged as a potential candidate. It would be an interesting and dramatic recasting, that would almost certainly break the internet, but would casting a black actor as one of the most famous, most iconic and, noticeably, white characters be a good idea?

The idea of a black Superman isn’t new. There have already been black Supermen and Superman stand-ins in comic’s history. In Reign of the Supermen from the early 90s, John Henry Adams as Steel took over from Superman, after his death. Superman of Earth-Two (one of the many, many earths in the DC multi-verse) is Val Zod and is black, and the controversial book Strange Fruits asks the question: “What happens if a black Superman crash landed in Jim Crow’s Mississippi?”

Potentially, Jordan could be playing one of these characters. Much like the potential that Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson could — nay, should! — take over from Chris Evans…