and being able to see African-American characters show up more and more in 70's stories also probably helps from my perspective (speaking of "Though I can see Linda Danvers with a black boyfriend. She seems like the type.", I'd imagine Linda wouldn't care about her boyfriend's ethnicity; just as long as he's "dreamy"... :-) ).
Heh! I was being facetious there about Supergirl, but it does bring up one interesting aspect about Superman (and Supergirl's) heroism: he is an alien, he is not from the earth. As a result of this, he does not see the differences that human beings make amongst ourselves to be truly meaningful. Anybody that says Superman's heroism is cookie-cutter doesn't get the character.
As for the black characters of the 1970s, I would consider them more an embarassment than a sign of social progress. Black superheroes in the 1970s came in two varieties:
1) the sidekick of a white superhero (Black Goliath to Giant-Man, the Falcon to Captain America),
2) A street-level guy with a gigantic afro who fights crime in discos (Luke Cage: Power Man, Black Lightning)
The obvious, and perhaps only exception, was the Black Panther, who broke nearly every stereotype: he didn't talk jive, he didn't have an afro, and he prefered Mozart and Bizet over KC and the Sunshine Band. What is it about the Black Panther that his solo efforts always get the best writers? His 1970s Silver Age JUNGLE ACTION series by Don MacGregor was one of the highlights of that decade, and his BLACK PANTHER series by Christopher Priest is one of the few diamonds in the coal of the creative desert that was the 1990s.
There also was the confident, assertive, and devoted to family Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel, but she was created by Roger Stern at the beginning of the 1980s, not the 1970s.
A fun comic for long-term teen and adult fans (I read some issues I bought at a garage sale), but basically points to what is wrong with the last 30-odd years of superhero/adventure comics writing: insularity, continuity obsessions, nerdish nostalgia. Could someone who had never read Avengers appreciate it at all?
Well, as much as I wish that my comics collection could help me score with chicks, alas! There is something inherently nerdy about science fiction and superheroes and that isn't likely to change no matter how they're written.
And I don't see what you're talking about as a drawback at all. It's a PLUS, not a minus that this story, and many like it, exist in an engrossing, detailed, rich world. Yes, a "new reader" would not know who everyone is at least right away, but the fact that there is so much there to know, the fact there is so much
there there is enough to arouse curiosity and fascination: the Forever Crystal, the Immortus/Kang/Rama-Tut dynamic, the android Human Torch, Rick Jones and the Destiny force. It's the greatest hypocrisy that the same fans that praise Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS for his detailed worldbuilding (even down to creating languages!) and rich backdrop of historical events and personalities, excoriate and flay Kurt Busiek and others like him for
DOING THE EXACT SAME THING: using well-defined world bursting at the seams with history and depth (except it's one the creators work with and contribute to instead of creating whole cloth like Tolkien did).
One of my ex-girlfriends, when I mentioned how convoluted Avengers history is, only laughed.
"Boy, you only think it's complicated because you don't watch soap operas." Seriously, nothing irks me more than the bleating, goggle-vision whining of illiterate anti-history fanboys nodding like bobbleheads when some hack creator like Morrison or Ellis complain that they
shouldn't have to have a character behave as they have been shown as behaving. And if "continuity" is killing comics, then MELROSE PLACE, THE O.C., BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, SMALLVILLE, and DAYS OF OUR LIVES ought to be the least successful shows ever.
Most of my friends that are atheists deny not the fact that God exists, but the various stupid ways of thinking about God: God as a ruthless, nationalistic General that is on the side of one nation or race over another; God as a "Little Mary Sunshine" that never condemns, and so forth. In the same way, the people that honestly don't like what is termed as "continuity" only dislike its incorrect applications at the hand of bad writers. Continuity, at its heart, is a tool for characterization and a history that can be used to create and tell new stories.
