If you think this is going to be some scholarly report on blacks in comic books, forget it! If you know the first time a black person appeared in a comic book, let me know in the discussion below. I haven't got a clue. Instead I will write my personal comments and remembrances.
I first remember blacks in comics in the late 1960's. In Marvel comics, Sam Wilson, a black man code-named the Falcon teamed up with Captain America for some patriotic and socially conscious comic book super-heroing. This is the first significant black comic book character I can remember. I never thought of the Falcon as a second-tier character (unlike Robin to Batman), because the characterization was full. The man had a complete life as a teacher to (paraphrasing) give something back to the community — to help young people. He also had a real pet falcon whom he trained. Very cool.
Marvel had a number of other black comic book heroes. For example, there was the Black Panther, who also was King of an African Nation. This nation had extremely valuable (fictitious) natural resources that were used in high tech industry. In return, the Black Panther's nation had access to high technology. But the Black Panther's natural ability came from a centuries-old tradition. So the character is an interesting mix of tradition, business economics and high technology.
The first black man (I remember) to have a successful solo comic book series was Luke Cage, Power Man. Power Man came out as a solo monthly comic in the early 1970's. Unlike most (Marvel) super-heroes who worked for free, Luke decided that he would hire out his services to those who needed help. Of course, many times he ended up working for free to help people; he had a crummy office, and he always had a stack of bills.
I recently picked up Power Man #27 and #45 to read them for this article. The thing that struck me most is that the same writers who did other comics and art in the 1970's (Bill Mantlo, George Perez, and Marv Wolfman), also wrote these issues. And they are similar in tone and style to the other comics of that time period. Yeah, it's set in a black community with a mostly black supporting cast. The art accurately depicts the physical appearance. Yet something is lacking. If you changes the character to another racial or ethnic origin, change the location to an appropriate venue, and rewrote the slang in the dialogue, the story would be similar to any of a hundred other stories written during that time. The other thing to note about Power Man is that by issue #50 they teamed him up with a white, blond man who was a Kung Fu expert. (Anyone remember the "Kung Fu" craze of the late 1970s?) Now the title covered numerous ethic origins!
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