Wrapped Up in Cloak

Marvel’s Newest Home Run in Promoting Original Black Superheroes

On the heels of the phenomenal box office success of the Black Panther character, Marvel has hit the mark again with the new retelling of Cloak and Dagger on Freeform. Brilliantly written, based on the first two episodes that aired last night, Cloak proves once again that existing black Marvel heroes had the ability to succeed on their own all along, if only they were properly handled.

Listen, Michael B. Jordan is a great actor, and he deserves not only all the success he’s earned so far, but all that is coming to him. That being said, the 2015 version of the Fantastic Four story in which Jordan played Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) should have never been made. The movie was an unnecessary and catastrophic failure that raked in Golden Raspberry awards for the worst work in an alarming number of categories.

The original Johnny Storm character was not only one of the most widely recognized white characters in the Marvel universe, he was supposed to be the brother of Sue Storm, who remained white in the retelling. This was lazily explained in the movie by adoption, but was vehemently rejected by fans.

The movie was a reboot of a franchise that didn’t need to be rebooted in the first place, and it was painfully clear to many that…