Blue Marvel is THE FIRST Black Superhero in the Marvel Universe

The other day a friend of mine called me out because, “You have let me down. Blue Marvel is tough as Superman and the Hulk”. I looked at the text like, “How you figure???”. Now, mind you…in my defense, I’d sent the brother the screenshots & a link or 2 about Blue Marvel, but that was MONTHS ago. BUT….

I had NO idea just how interesting the history of Blue Marvel was. NO CLUE whatsoever. I’d made a wallpaper pic on the pc at home, & on my phone’s lockscreen but hadn’t read up on the brother. SHAME. Blue Marvel is THE FIRST Black Superhero in the Marvel Universe; preceding even the Black Panther. The reason most of us have never heard of him is also the reason for this post: S — — got real in the comics AND in real life. In other words, the world isn’t ready for a person of color to have THAT much power and intelligence.

Trust me, the background regarding the creation of the hero is just as interesting as the hero himself. As most people know, the other Marvel heroes Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage & the Falcon were not created by black people. As groundbreaking and as interesting as these heroes have been, even as a child I felt there was something missing. After asking my friend how/why/what regarding Blue Marvel, he sent me the youtube links detailing the history/creation of the character. Howard grad, screenwriter, producer, comic book writer, & former football player Kevin Grevioux is the mastermind behind one of Marvel comics most powerful beings.

• HOW powerful, you ask?? Check this out and try to wrap your mind around THIS……* scroll down to “Powers & abilities”
• Example-Strength level

“Class 100+, Adam is capable of lifting far in excess of 100 tons easily. He is stated to be in the same league as the Sentry, Hulk, and Thor [26]. Namor also stated that the only other who have hit him as hard as Blue Marvel were Hulk and Thor.[4]” (source- marvel.wikia.com)

Dr. Adam Bernard Brashear/Blue Marvel is a genius-level engineer & physicist with Superman, Hulk level power. A veteran of the Korean war, Dr. Brashear preceded even the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Universe, being one the first super powered beings in the history of their continuum. Like Superman was THE hero for the DC comics Universe, Blue Marvel was recognized as the go-to hero when things went “left”. So far, this isn’t a big deal, right? “Cool.” you say. The difference is this: Blue Marvel wore a mask to not only protect his identity but to also avoid the controversy of being a black man in 1950s and 1960s America.

Per Wikipedia and Youtube-” In 1962, Adam received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President John F. Kennedy on the day the President asked him to retire, since it had been discovered by the public that he is an African-American.”

“WHAT???-asked to retire?? WTF?? They should be glad a brother was saving their racist, no-good asses. F — them! Brother should have been preventing lynchings, assassinations, and church bombings” was my reaction.

I read more into the story and saw that the reason he retired was to avoid a possible race war if the white masses decided to attack black people nationwide. Realizing he couldn’t be everywhere at once, to avoid bloodshed, & stay off the Most Wanted list of the U.S. Government, Brashear reluctantly retired.

I had to stop and put down my “I woulda/coulda/shoulda privileged post 1960s armchair activist Adebayo” attitude down for a second and ask myself, “What would you have done???”. Granted, I’d probably be living on the moon somewhere, swooping down to do all kinds of damage to the drug & gun trade-racism in the world….yet, still I have to see it from the Kevin Grevioux/Blue Marvel point of view. The world was an extremely dangerous place for black people & people of color (still is), but then there were even less legal, government protections and almost no public outcry against the domestic terrorism we experienced. Despite his obvious power and history as a war hero (AND superhero), government officials still referred to Marvel as a “porch monkey” (direct quote from the comic.)

There’s obviously more to the Blue Marvel story; he’s now come out of retirement and is an integral part of Marvel. He’s not only one of the most powerful beings physically, but also one of the top minds in the world; rivaling Reed Richards, T’Challa (The Black Panther), and Tony Stark.

I have to say this: as geeks of color….hell, as PEOPLE of color, we constantly suspend our beliefs when reading/watching whatever anime, film, or comic that routinely denies our existence. And I don’t mean the “token friend”, I mean even the strollingdownbusystreetpersoninthegalacticcrowd exclusion. It can piss you the hell off sometimes. SO, HOW this hero can sleep at night, knowing he could have possibly prevented the deaths of thousands of people, specifically Martin, Malcom, Lumumba, AND Biko bothers the sh– out of me.

WHY Marvel hasn’t given the character the exposure he definitely deserves is beyond me. WELL, actually it really isn’t surprising. Blue Marvel IS a genius, incredibly powerful Black man. We see how people reacted to John Boyega being part of the Force Awakens cast. But again, this is how real life permeates even the “safe, fantasy world” of comics. When it comes to black people/people of color, nothing is as simple and safe as we’d sometimes like it to be.

*Disclaimer: For NUMEROUS reasons/excuses I haven’t posted a thing in YEARS. There have been so many reasons to post; from Outkast’s tour to the current racial climate, but it was my brother who inspired me to get back on the grind & post for myself and other like-minded people.*

**PLEASE check out Youtube link 1, Youtube 2, wikipedia, and IMDB for more details about this powerful,yet complicated hero**

Originally published at hip-hoppop.tumblr.com.