Black Vulcan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Black Vulcan is a fictional African American superhero on the animated series Super Friends created by Hanna-Barbera. He was voiced by Buster Jones.
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[edit] Character history
Unlike most of the Super Friends, Black Vulcan was not a pre-existing DC Comics character. This is particularly notable since DC Comics' roster did include an African American superhero with electricity-based powers, Black Lightning. However, Black Lightning could not be used in the show due to disputes between DC Comics and Tony Isabella, the creator of the character.[1]
Originally introduced as a way to add more a culturally diverse roster to the team in the Challenge Of The SuperFriends series, Black Vulcan was the Super Friends' resident black superhero, although his character mostly refrains from being seen as a harsh stereotype.
His powers include the ability to emit electricity from his hands, as well as fly by charging his lower body with energy. On a few occasions he exhibited powers he hadn't before, such as the ability to assume a form of pure energy and travel at the speed of light (in an attempt to escape a black hole, which of course, is a feat not even light is able to accomplish). He was even able to travel back in time by fluctuating his body's energy in such a way that it opened a rift in space.
In the final incarnation of the series, Super Powers: Galactic Guardians, he was replaced with Cyborg, another black superhero that was already well established in the DC Comics lineup, and possessed a more developed personality.
[edit] In other media
Black Vulcan has made several appearances on the show Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, debuting in the season one episode, "Very Personal Injury". Since then he has had somewhat of a supporting role in the series if only to utter the prepositional phrase "...in your pants." or "...in my pants." He also gives advice to the character Peanut as he goes through superhero puberty and acquires his powers. In the episode "Booty Noir" he has a menage a trois with his ex-girlfriend Norlissa and Reducto. Apparently he used to go by the name of Super Volt before Aquaman suggested his present name, to which Black Vulcan responds that maybe they should just call Aquaman "White Fish". In this series he is voiced by Phil LaMarr.
[edit] Trivia
- The character Juice from Justice League Unlimited's The Ultimen is directly based on Black Vulcan.
- In the first episode of the series Static Shock, one of the outfits Virgil tries on when he's picking out his superhero costume is a copy of Black Vulcan's with pants.
- "Black Vulcan" is something of a misnomer. The character's mythological namesake, the Roman deity Vulcan, is a god of fire and volcanoes, not lightning or thunder.
