On the Black Nerds Network group, Facebook was hot today with a discussion first brought up by our own Vince Moore. Who are the "prominent" Black super villains in "mainstream comics" (defined as Marvel/DC, who share 70+ percent of the market). It was also noted that the groundbreaking Milestone Comics would be left out of the discussion, not to slight the legacy of the company but to focus on what most of the market would see (and outside of Static Shock, not much of Dakota showed up). Here's what came up …

PROMINENT:

• Moses Magnum (Marvel, took on the Avengers)
• Turbine (DC, recently introduced foil for the Flash)
• Black Manta (DC, fights Aquaman, almost a demerit by itself)
• Ultimate Prowler (Marvel, uncle of the new Ultimate Spider-Man Miles Morales)
• Tombstone (Marvel, albino crime lord)
• Apocalypse (Marvel, born before the Hyksos invasion and ancient Egyptian, therefore Black, even as an albino with that weird lip thing)
• Infidel (DC through Wildstorm, fights Astro City's version of Superman)

NOT SO PROMINENT:

• Coldcast (DC, from The Elite, never really became anybody)
• Tobias Whale (DC, fat crime lord)
• Man-Ape (Marvel, Wakandan embarrassment)
• Frenzy (Marvel, mutant bad girl)
• Fatality (DC, killed Green Lanterns before becoming a Star Sapphire)

For a bigger list, this helps, but we do note that DC lags behind Marvel and that neither company does that great a job.

The ability to have shades and nuance, to be more than one monolithic image is crucial to securing equality in a society. Part of that is having fully realized villains and heroes. We've still got a long way to go …

[Source: Black Nerds Network on Facebook, Wonder Woman Wikia, Source]