Random African American Comic Book Heroes Who Replaced White Ones (14 items)

(#12) Jason Rusch: Firestorm

The original Firestorm was a composite of two people fused into one powerful atomic powered body in some kind of nuclear incident gone awry. One part of the Firestorm matrix was teenager Ronnie Raymond, the other was the renowned scientist Martin Stein. Both were white.

In the last few years, though, DC has introduced a new Firestorm, an African-American teen, Jason Rusch, from Detroit.
(#2) John Henry Irons: Superman

Back in 1992, DC Comics "killed" Superman, and it made national headlines. Within four months of course, Superman was back… well, sort of. Four different characters laid claim to the name and legacy of Kal-El, and one of them was African-American steel worker John Henry Irons. Irons crafted an Iron Man like suit of armor with a big "S" shield on it, and declared himself the new Man of Steel.

It was only a few months before the real Superman returned from the grave of course, but John Henry Irons stuck around, and changed his name to Steel.

He has since become a mainstay of the DC Universe, and a member of the Justice League in good standing. The character was popular enough that he even got a movie starring Shaquille O’Neal back in 1997, but let’s not hold that travesty against him.
(#6) Beth Chapel: Doctor Mid-Nite

The 80’s DC Comics series Infinity, Inc was all about the children, grandchildren, and protégés of the 1940’s Justice Society of America forming their own team and legacy using their predecessors code names. Dr. Beth Chapel was introduced as the protégé of the original blind superhero, Dr. Midnight, who was also her mentor in the medical area, Dr. Charles McNider. After being blinded herself, she ended up taking over for him upon his death, although she spelled her name as Dr. Midnight.

Sadly, this character was littered with Southern Baptist clichés; for instance, she is the daughter of a pastor, and her mother sings in the church choir and crafts her daughter's hero costume from a choir robe. Chapel has four brothers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Yes, seriously. Apparently, God couldn't save her though, as she was killed off like a red-shirt on Star Trek in some early 90’s DC Crossover event for shock value.
(#8) Jackson Hyde: Aqualad

The orginal Aqualad was known simply as Garth, a teenager who was banished from his undersea kingdom in much the same way as Aquaman was as a child, and became his sidekick. Aqualad was a founding member of the Teen Titans, but was relegated to guest star role during the Titan’s most popular run in the 1980’s. He graduated to the role of Tempest in the 90’s, leaving a vacant slot for the name Aqualad that has only very recently been filled.

The first time any one saw an image for the new African-American Aqualad was in promotional materials for the then upcoming Cartoon Network animated "Young Justice" show in 2010. This led online fanboys to give him the name "Blaqualad." DC Comics then introduced the character in their Brightest Day series before his animated debut.
(#7) Bill Foster: Giant-Man

Bill Foster was created by Stan Lee in 1966, and eventually succeeded Henry Pym in the role of Giant Man. An associate of Dr. Pym's, he harnessed his "Pym Particles" and used them to grow to fifteen feet. Just like Pym, he used alternate code-names, and also used the previous Pym used name Goliath, and eventually, Black Goliath.

In fact, it was using the name Black Goliath that he earned his own short lived series in the 1970s, where he had a costume that had a square cut out in the center to show off his awesome abs.

Eventually, Bill Foster went into semi-retirement, just being trotted out for the occasional Marvel Crossover to fill background shots. He was then offed in the Marvel miniseries Civil War, making him the sacrificial lamb for yet another crossover event from one of the big two.
(#3) Spider-Man
- Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, Dying Wish, Ultimate Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Untold Tales of Spider-Man
After Peter Parker was wiped out in Marvel's sealed off Ultimate reboot continuity, the mantle of Spider-Man was taken up by Miles Morales, a teenager who received nearly identical powers from a spider bite. Many, including original Spidey co-creator Stan Lee, lauded the Black Hispanic character, who quickly grew in popularity.

His popularity grew so much, in fact, that when Marvel shut down its Ultimate imprint and universe, Miles Morales joined the primary 616 universe. So while he hasn't totally taken over the still-active Peter Parker in the main Marvel continuity, Morales now slings webs alongside the original wallcrawler.