I have a four-year-old son named James who loves the old Super Friends cartoons.  Like most comic book fans in their 30s and 40s, many grew up watching the Super Friends on Saturday mornings or weekday re-runs.  There were many versions of the Super Friends from episodes staring Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog to Gleek and the Wonder Twins.  However, I believe the best episodes were the episodes that did not have any of these sidekick characters as the best episodes were the ”Challenge of the Super Friends” where the Justice League battled the Legion of Doom.

Sometime ago I purchased these episodes on DVD for myself.  Of course, I hoped James would get into them and sure enough he did.  With Christmas around the corner, James is demanding various action figures.  He already has Superman, Batman, and Robin and he now wants Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and… Black Vulcan.

Unfortunately, since Black Vulcan was made specifically for the Super Friends, no mass market action figure currently exists.  According to Wikipedia, the character of Black Vulcan was created because the producers of the show wanted to show more ethnic diversity on the team and a deal could not be struck in time to use the DC character Black Lightning because of issues with his original creator Tony Isabella.  This resulted in the birth of Black Vulcan.

Conversely, Black Vulcan has never been incorporated into the DC Comics universe.  Other characters from DC’s past animated shows such as the Wonder Twins and Harley Quinn from Batman: The Animated Series have made their way into the regular DC universe.  What about Black Vulcan?

Since Black Lightning has made a resurgence recently in the pages of the Justice League, it seems redundant to introduce a new hero named Black Vulcan, but what if he was introduced as a villain? 

For years the comic book industry has wanted to showcase more characters that are non-white in the mainstream of their comics.  I think it would be great to see a character like Black Lightning have his own nemesis.  A reversal of himself like Captain Marvel and Black Adam, Flash and Zoom, and Spider-man and Venom – it could work.

So I’m now campaigning to see DC Comics bring in Black Vulcan as the main villain for Black Lightning.  Not only is it a great idea, but it would also mean my son will see his Black Vulcan action figure!