Today, I learned that Marvel thought about making the Black Avengers. Seriously? The BLACK Avengers? Yes, honey and it was brought a couple of times.
Marvel SVP of Publishing Tom Brevoort reveals the idea:
The third one I can remember — and at least two different people pitched this at two different times — was an idea that never got as far as an official title, but it was essentially “Black Avengers.” It was “Let’s put all the African or African-American heroes together on a team for an adventure,” and in those cases too, there was nothing about the idea beyond “It’s a bunch of super heroes together” that said “Avengers” beyond the fact that “Avengers” is a term that’s salable. I think there’s something very specific about what “Avengers” means to the Marvel Universe. They’re the varsity. They’re the A-list. They’re the Man. They’re not about being super heroes because of demographics or ethnicity. They stand for something specific and occupy a certain role. If you don’t have some degree of that, then it doesn’t feel like Avengers.
I wonder why The Black Avengers was even thought of or what did they hoped to accomplish. What was next, the Asian Avengers the Gay Avengers? Thank Hera they passed on this, because I think it would have caused a huge backlash.
While I would enjoy seeing more Black characters in comics, I wouldn't want see this team like this formed out of some form guilt or a misunderstanding. I very glad they passed on this concept.
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