With the recent rumors circulating the interwebs about Henry Cavill giving up his cape. More rumors began to spread about who would replace him. Well, after playing the enemy of the King, Erik Killmonger in Marvel's Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan seems to be the top trending candidate for the role.
Well, a recent rumor suggest DC is wanting to make Jordan the next Man of Steel. Yet, this makes me nervous. Don't get me wrong, Jordan is one of the best actors around and has proven to be a boss in action films. However, I am not seeing him as Superman. Yes, partly because he is black. The reason why this is an issue to the source material is that Superman was actually written as a jewish superhero. The original creator, Jerry Siegel, father was killed in a robbery in 1932. Shortly after Siegel created a comic book hero resembeling a jewish man, who was bullet proof and stopped crime.
I'm a firm believer that inclusion is so important but they have to tell stories that are relatable to those you are including. I feel like Jordan's role would be severely white washed and it wouldn't relate to those in the black community.
What I would like to see, is more black super heroes getting their own movies. Here are a few black super heroes that deserve the limelight and deserve their story to be told!
Steel
The most widely known Steel is a weapons engineer named John Henry Irons who became a super-hero to emulate Superman, fighting crime as a member of Team Superman. Designing an advanced exo-skeleton, he wields a number of technological gadgets including a Kinetic Hammer.
ICON
A being from another planet, he has taken on the form of an African American man, but has abilities such as flight, super-strength, and invulnerability. He uses these in partnership with Rocket, a human teenager using his alien technology, to protect the people of the fictional city of Dakota. Icon was featured in the animated series "Young Justice", where superman believes that Icon may also be Kryptonian.
VIXEN
Vixen is a female super-hero from Zambesi who adopts the abilities of animals. Using her Tantu Totem, she can channel the powers of the animal kingdom by tapping into the morphogenetic field. Even though she is currently apart of the Arrowverse on the CW, A solo movie would be great!
ROCKET
Rocket is a teenage super-hero in the Dakotaverse(A milestone comic series, that was purchased by DC and intergrated into the DC Universe). In her private life she is an amateur writer, a high school student, and a single mother. Her idealism inspired the super-hero Icon( as mentioned earlier) and he made her his sidekick. Icon gave her an Inertia Belt that allows her to manipulate kinetic energy. A young, black, high school student, single mom, with aspirations to be a famous writer, would make a much more compelling story than casting a black actor in a role that has been telling the same story for generations.
STATIC
If you are a 90s baby with a social life, then you remember Static Shock, The TV Show on Cartoon Network. He is a Bang Baby from Dakota City, Meta humans from Dakota City in South Dakota, who has immensely advanced powers of electromagnetism.
Instead of casting a black male lead as the role of Superman, can work, but I would much rather see, black actors being cast to tell black comic book story lines, to give representation and a voice to the communities these characters are based from.
What do you think? ?Should Michael B Jordan be the next Superman? Who should play the new Superman if Henry Cavill actually left?