DC Comics’ original candidate for its first headlining black superhero was the Black Bomber, a white racist who would turn into a black superhero under stress. Comics historian Don Markstein called it “an insult to practically everybody with any point of view at all.”
In each of the two completed Black Bomber scripts, the white bigot risks his own life to save another person whom he can’t see clearly (in one case, a baby in a stroller) and then reacts in racial slur disgust when he discovers that he risked his life to save a black person. He wasn’t aware that he had two identities, but each identity had a girlfriend and the ladies were aware of the change. To add final insult, the Bomber’s costume was little more than a glorified basketball uniform.
