Jillian Marie Browning

In this presentation, I interrogate the representation of black hair within the realm of superheroes in comic books, film, and television series. Taking into consideration the time period and political climate which they were created I analyze black characters like Misty Knight, Storm, Black Lighting, and others. In particular, I analyze illustrative changes to their hair and hypothesize how this impacts the character with regard to the way he or she is perceived.

I am focusing on the visual elements that have proven to be common in the design of African American superheroes in the DC and Marvel universes and how those elements function as signs with larger symbolic meanings and cultural significance. Since readers can differ when it comes to gender, age, cultural background, etc images and symbols can have different meanings. A symbol can stand for something different depending on who interprets it. Because of this, certain signs can become complex sites of meaning, when the writer doesn’t poses the cultural knowledge of the subject.

The superhero Black Lightning was DC’s first African American character to get his own solo title. This did not happen until 1977 and like most minority characters in media his existence was quite political. Black Lightning’s civilian identity is an Olympic decathlete turned school principle named Jefferson Pierce.  

The original artist for Black Lightning was Trevor Von Eeden, a young black illustrator who was brought in to offer some insight into this new black character. He designed the look of Black Lightning, including his outfit, except for one very important detail.

Black Lightning’s most distinctive characteristic is that he wears a white mask to shield his identity. That mask is also somehow attached to an afro wig. Now, Jefferson Pierce himself has short hair but when he dons the identity of Black Lightning the act of augmenting his already existing hair to make it longer can be read as a radical act. In an interview Von Eden said “I did NOT design the afromask! I say this because in the 70s, when he was created, the afro was a black man’s symbol of pride, and self-respect, his singular identity. For a black superhero to remove his hair (or… put ON his hair) as part of his identity was certainly… odd. For a black man to do so was, shall we say, tellingly symbolic. And definitely NOT my idea.”

Within the black community, hair has always been at odds with societal conventions. In a society that values westernized beauty standards, closely cropped, “neat”, and straight styles are often considered more professional and safe. Thus, choosing to wear black hair the way it naturally grows out of one’s head can be considered a political statement. During the 1960s afros were worn by black political figures of the Civil Rights Movement and became not only a fashion statement but more importantly a signifier of political expression and pride. Pierce’s, professional job as a school principle would never have allowed him to have a large afro in civilian life so his use of this afro-wig as part of his superhero costume serves as a perfect disguise to make him completely unrecognizable.

Scholars have claimed that this costume serves a purpose of making an ethnic minority character “more ethnic” as if adding bigger hair will get the point across that Black Lightning is indeed black or proud of his blackness. He is often shown in many individual panels putting on and removing the afro-mask or holding it under one arm like some odd trophy.  The comics make sure to show the reader that his mask is indeed a mask. Pierce’s ability to add and remove his afro at will shows a contradicting acceptance and rejection of his afros meaning. During the Civil Right Movement the afro became a signifier of strength and perseverance, striving to be a symbol of justice and power and rightness in his neighborhood it’s often disappointing to see his disembodied afro-mask sitting silently on a shelf while Jefferson Peirce teaches the children of his neighborhood during the day.

Around that same time, Marvel introduced its first black female superhero. Our first introduction to Ororo Munroe is in the 1975 issue of Giant Sized X-Men #1 where she is introduced not as a mutant but as a self-proclaimed goddess in Kenya. She is using her powers of weather control to aid a local village suffering from a drought.

She is shown standing in front of a large stone altar as villagers cry “Ororo, great goddess of the storm come ease us of our burden!” She is only wearing a skirt and headdress, everything else covered by long flowing white hair. Each panel after uses her hair to illustrate movement but also as a demonstration of her power. We know that she is manipulating wind and weather because of the different sweeps of her hair in each panel. It also conveniently covers her chest no matter which way her body is contorted.

The comics also use her hair as a physical reminder of her goddess like powers. Having this unreal long, straight, stark white hair visually separates her from the villagers and indicates a person who doesn’t have the concerns a regular woman would about having hair. She doesn’t have to keep it a manageable length or styled, she’s a goddess! It can also be argued that the length and texture of Storm’s hair reflects an idea that she is better than other people. She refers to herself as a goddess, her first introduction into the comic we see her on a pedestal, long hair flowing around her. Historically a women’s worth was often defined by the length and quality of her hair, so illustrating Storm in this manner could function as a signifier of her status.

In Uncanny X-Men #173 which was published in 1983 and the year we get Mohawk Storm. We see an entirely new Storm here. She reveals this new look at Wolverine’s wedding, honestly for the drama of it all, her long flowing strands cut into a Mohawk while also wearing an entirely new outfit made of leather. Her new look is so shocking Kitty Pride cries and runs away. Storm’s response to Scott asking her why she changed her look is, “I had my reasons, Scott. Am I not allowed?!” In many cultures the act of cutting off a woman’s hair can be used as a punishment or humiliation or even to show a change in status, again, as an act of taking away a woman’s worth or beauty. But Storm, especially being labeled a goddess cutting off her own hair is an act of demonstrating her own body autonomy. She no longer feels the need to keep the hair of her old self. Or her X-Men costume for that matter.

We see a contemporary version of this Storm as actress Alexandra Shipp portrays the young orphan in X-Men Apocalypse.

Possibly the most famous iterations of Storm are when she is played by actress Halle Berry in the X-Men movies. Over the course of 14 years and four movies this version of Storm has had four different hair styles and colors, none of which are canon to any of her comic book styles. In contrast to the comic book illustrations, these shorter, stiff, stick straight synthetic wigs do nothing to indicate her powerful wind-controlling abilities, nor do they function in the same way to symbolize her status as a goddess.

Like Storm, Misty Knight’s hair has gone through a few journeys since her introduction. Her questionable hair choices have been a prominent discussion among fans for years.

Misty first appeared in 1975 in Marvel Premiere issue #21. Misty has a smaller tapered afro fairly common of the female fashions of this time frame. She continues with this hair style through the 1980s until she was reimaged in 2006 in Heroes for Hire.

In this book she seems to change hair styles throughout panels, something I have noticed is a common treatment for Misty. In issue 1 alone she goes from having braided hair in the front to having it gelled down straight. She also has a stylized dent in top of her hair giving her something reminiscent of what I like to call “wolverine points”.

During the 2011 run of Heroes for Hire we are introduced to Misty Knights infamous and confusing straight bangs which she continues to have during the 2013 Fearless Defenders run. The bangs are an issue for multiple reasons. As a woman of color who has at least a minor understanding of my own natural hair the process in which Misty would have to go through to straighten her bangs while still wearing the rest of hair natural is a laborious task. She is either flat ironing them every day (multiple times a day?) but if she used that process whenever her hair got wet it would curl back up again, something simple like working up a sweat while fighting would return her bangs to their natural texture.

In this panel, we see her swimming in the ocean and after she comes up her bangs are still straight. Her afro is also the same round shape while she is submerged in the water and when she surfaces. This signifies the creators of this comic don’t understand basic hair physics, regardless of hair texture. Her other option would be using a chemical relaxer. A chemical relaxer is the process of using a strong and damaging chemical paste to straighten curly or afro textured hair. This process is not reversible. Relaxers are a huge discussion within the natural hair community. A lot of us are coming up from a lifestyle of relaxing our hair and removing that damage involves cutting off the relaxed hair and letting the natural hair grow out. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that Misty would relax the front of her hair no matter how fashion forward. Having natural hair and bangs isn’t impossible but the way Misty’s are drawn are not achievable unless she is doing something to alter the texture of them, which they never show us.

In issue 4 of the 2011 run of Heroes for Hire shows my biggest grievance with Misty’s hair. It shows that the illustrator does not understand the basic science of natural black hair AT ALL. Misty’s hair is drawn reminiscent of a large pom pom with a static electricity issue. The ends of her hair are straight, almost as if the hair that grows out of her head is actually straight and just stands up on end to make her afro.

In this hospital scene, Misty is dealing with the aftermath of her phantom pregnancy by Danny Rand which made her very sick, she is laying in a hospital bed with her neck completely off the pillow here as if her afro is solid and propping her head up.

In 2014 we start seeing some versions of Misty where she has a more realistic and contemporary take on her hair. In the Daredevil Dark Night series we see her still with her red headband but we also see her afro in a more curl defined modern shape. It isn’t really fashionable for black women to wear their natural hair completely picked out and round. We normally go for a more curl defined look which also causes the hair to lay a little flatter than picking it out would. She still has her bangs here but they have a curlier texture.

In 2015 we get Secret Love which is part of the Secret Wars anthology. It’s a book of one shot love stories from a different universe including platonic as well as romantic love. For Misty, we get a glimpse of what her relationship with Danny would be like if they were married and had a child, possibly the one from her phantom pregnancy. Her hair here is the same type of contemporary style, more defined curls, even a rounder shape but still not the picked out cotton ball of her pervious hair.

The most important part of this comic for me is the last panel. Here we see Misty and Danny sharing a very intimate moment. Misty has her prosthetic arm off, in relaxed clothes and asking Danny to do her hair. Hair within the black community is ritual. Misty trusting Danny enough for him to be doing her batu knots or even the fact that he knows how to do them is almost unheard of. I don’t know any women, with a black husband or not, that would trust them enough to do their hair. To have Misty sharing this moment of intimacy and culture with Danny is extremely powerful.

Like previous writers of Misty, Jeremy Whitley is also a white man, but he wrote the comic as a reflection of his life. Jeremy’s wife is African American and he made sure to consult her throughout the story. In an interview he did with BlackGirlNerds.com he said “I originally had written microbraids into the last page.  However, my wife read the story and her first questions was “How long is this last scene?”  I said, based on the length of the two movies they watch that it was between 4-6 hours.  I was informed that not only was this an unlikely amount of time for this, but that it was unrealistic.  Having waited most of a day while my wife got microbraids in the past, I realized she was correct and decided to go with bantu knots instead.” Misty’s bantu knots are also a look into what goes into the texture of her hair in this comic. Bantu knots are often used as a form of “twist out” or protective style that also helps define the curls in natural hair. Misty may wear these knots as a hair style for a day or two and then take them out, or just sleep in them and undo them in the morning. The result will be larger defined curls and volume.

A real life example of that is Simone Missick’s hair in the Netflix Luke Cage series. Much to my excitement they also went with a more contemporary take on Misty’s hair for this iteration. I know I personally was so excited to see her hair represented this was and I wasn’t the only one.

Essence magazine wrote an entire article about what products Simone uses on her hair to achieve her Misty Knight curls.

She even gets asked on twitter by fans.

Representation is important and Simone knows that. Simone was asked in an interview what she thought the most important thing playing Misty for her was. She said “To be able to have my natural hair on TV, that will encourage so many more women who wear their hair natural who are told it’s not professional enough. I think it’s encouraging to all women to be who you are.” This is a powerful and relevant statement in our current political climate. So many women are not allowed to wear their natural hair to work for fear of being fired or not taken seriously. Girls are getting kicked out of school for having braids or are being told their afro is “too distracting”. The hair of black women has become a subject of political discussion but having positive, powerful role models in media is assuring.

This brings us to the two newest black female superheroes, Riri Williams and Lunella Lafyette aka Iron Heart and Moon Girl. I was ecstatic when these two girls were introduced because not only were they young and smart and black but they also wore their hair naturally curly. It would have been very easy for Marvel to just draw these girls with straight hair. Nothing about the character inherently warrants them to have natural hair but they still do and that is important especially in a world where natural hair is becoming more common, especially in the younger generation. I’ve met teenaged girls who have never had their hair relaxed before, which was unheard of when I was growing up. The choice to give these two new young characters natural hair affects not only society’s expectation and value of women with natural hair but also how the representation of that hair affects young women of color and their relationship with their hair. But even me, a 28-year-old professional woman, saw these little girls and I got excited. I myself have only been natural for a little over a decade. That representation is important for everyone.

In issue number 15 of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur we see a crossover with Riri Williams. We get a great interaction with these characters and even a moment where Riri stops herself from thinking she can tell Lunella what to do and makes the connection that Lunella is a smart and capable girl that can make decisions for herself.  However, a big problem I had in this issue is a scene between Lunella and her mother.

We get visuals here, Lunella sitting between her mother’s legs while she braids her hair. Lunella looks mad, like most little girls are when they are getting their hair done but the dialogue here has some issues. Lunella doesn’t think having her hair done is necessary right now. She say “Its ok if I need to mess up my hair when saving the world.” And her mother responds to that with “You need to look respectable, Lunella.” “Respectable” is in bold type. The writers of this comic did not see an issue with this wording and have said they didn’t mean anything by it but using the word “respectable” in regards to black hair is not something to take lightly.

When writer Brandon Montclare, was asked about this on Twitter his response was “And certainly not saying you have to like it or cant find it problematic! But that criticism extends beyond the writer.” This implies the reader is to blame for being offended by this panel instead of the writer understanding that his words, especially words said by a black character being written by a white male, may have a stronger implication than intended. They are implying that Lunella, or by extension little curly haired girls everywhere, need to have combed, styled, or neat hair to be seen as “respectable”. A sentiment black people have been fighting against since the Civil Rights Movement. To have this mentioned in this comic, marketed towards children, and have it not be a source of commentary but stated as nonchalant fact is alarming. This book and these characters can be used celebrate black culture and black girl genius, not teaching girls to police their hair and conform to white western standards of beauty to be taken seriously.