DADDY LONG LEGS, Spider-Woman #47, 1982. 

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Would you sacrifice everything for 15 seconds of fame?  Ramsey Kole, a.k.a. Daddy Long Legs was a tiny brutha with a big complex. Always feeling like his dancing skills showed unmatchable prowess, he was a solid gold dancer but couldn’t get any respect because he didn’t fit the ideal dancers mold.

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Kole, desperate for an edge on his competition, drops his scenario on scientist Bill Foster, a.k.a. Giant-Man, a.k.a Black Goliath (get down with next weeks Dark Stars post for more on Black Goliath!). Unfortunately the big man isn’t ready to slide his untested formula over, so Kole sucker punches Foster and knocks him out.


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After straight bartending formula concoctions from Bill Foster’s lab hoping he got the right mix of giant-man serum, Kole hides out at a local junkyard and waits for the juice to kick in. Exhausted and high on his liquid mix, Kole starts to get his groove on in the middle of the junkyard..”even in exhaustion, he moves with a loose, lazy, adeptness to motion…for if he knows anything — he knows how to move. To Kole, there is the dance and only the dance…and the freedom it brings, the joy. But joy is fickle.”


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Now that Kole’s whole hustle and format is now elongated with his mentals as crooked as a question mark, he races the one place he’s most desired to be — the stage. Caught in the moment in an empty auditorium, Kole dances. On stage, his journey from a talented dancer with an overwhelming obsession to a towering madman stretched beyond sanity climaxes through violent realization as…Daddy Long Legs!


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The story of the madmans arrival wouldn’t be complete without revenge taking center stage. They say if one waits before taking vengeance, it makes it all the sweeter[page12]. Daddy Long Legs, longing for that R-E-S-P-E-C-T, bum rushes a show of a dancer who is said to be on the cutting edge, like nothing anyone has ever seen. Clearly he thinks they’ve got it twisted.

“CULTURE VULTURES! I can’t stand anymore of their bracker-barrel philosophy — the babble that is their consciousness! And here I am..such a freak no one even recognizes me as HUMAN anymore. Soon they will see I am so much more! Tonight, I am MAGIC. It’s all copasetic now. I’ll dance like an angel, dance like a devil. I’ll hypnotize…mesmerize. And they’ll all die, choking on their first taste of GREAT ART.”

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Clearly being taller didn’t help my man get any more respect as a great dancer. He did however get recognized as the minstrel show that he played himself out to be. When a mans passion to be great skews his perception of reality, no course of action can convince the outside world of the fire that burns within. In fact, even with the best intentions (i.e. to prove to the world his talents are worthy of their adoration), Daddy Long Legs is so gone that he can’t see being larger than life won’t help others recognize him for the talent he wants to unleash on the world.

“PHILISTINES! You can’t see what you don’t have the eyes for! You enshrine mediocrity — leaving no room for greatness! Mediocrity has mankind by the THROAT! You wouldn’t know greatness if it was forced on you!”

Spider-Woman has been tracking Daddy Long Legs ever since Bill Foster dropped science [note: on page8] that Kole had smacked the taste out his mouth. Finally catching up with Daddy Long Legs in the crowded theater, Spider-Woman confronts him on stage. She throws him some verbiage to set him off and then breaks out, with Daddy Long Legs in hot pursuit. Once outside, she tries to reason with my man, but, he’s not feeling it.

“Wait! I don’t want to fight you! I just couldn’t let you terrorize those people! I see you just want to dance…But you can’t force-feed your talent even if…”

What follows next is five solid pages of fisticuffs. Just like Anita Baker, Spider-Woman is giving Daddy Long Legs the best that she’s got! After pages of battle and both Spider-Woman and Daddy Long Legs breakin’ each other off eight ways from Sunday, she finally lands a crushing blow that lays stretch out.

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Despite a “W” in the win,lose, or draw hustle, Spider-Woman feels remorse. She hit him with a venom blast early in the battle that joined them in a neural sync and they were hooked, linked, sympatico.

“Hmm. Even though I’ve beaten him, I feel no sense of elation, of accomplishment. It must be that weird neural link we shared. I know it was just some bizarre biofeedback caused by my venom blast, but it felt like I was looking straight into his soul. What a tragic soul. I ssaw boundless creativity, but it was twisted, tied into knots…I feel almost…close to him now. We’re both somewhat spidery..and I certainly remember what it’s like to be an outcast from humanity. The question is now what do I do with him?”

Almost on queue, Daddy Long Legs comes to…

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With Daddy Long Legs tied up, Spider-Woman goes off to see if she can get him some help. As Daddy Long Legs considers the heart-to-heart that Spider-Woman has had with him, she also considers his scenario. She walks away, steeped in thought. Yes, the world seems full of creeps. But if one takes a hard look into any ravaged soul, one may find a good reason what made it that way…She suddenly stops. Intuition prickles at the back of her mind, telling her to turn around. Then…She searches the rain-drenched lot, looking for a footprint, any sign of the thin man. There is none. The din of the rain drowns out the sound of nearby laughter.

Spider-Woman #47 takes a hard look at the tragic nature of a villian who really just wants some props for his true talents. It’s the age old hustle & flow of all villians. I dug the fact that Daddy Long Legs was no exception. We can all relate to the desire to be accepted. We all want to be great. We all, however, won’t drink a mixed-blend straight up! to get what we want. Ramsey Kole was willing to stretch and take it to the limit for his obsession. He lost touch with reality and the obsession escalated when hittin’ the juice turned his whole format sour. Even when he had achieved a bastardization of his ultimate goal, to simply be taller he still was the crux of the joke. He turned out to be comedic relief in the end and no matter what he did, up was down and left was right. Daddy Long Legs tried to turn that potential energy into something fantastically kinetic and got burned in the process because he tried to cut corners. In the end, if you truly believe and put in some forreal due diligence, it no longer becomes impossible to achieve your goal. 15 seconds of fame could be a lifetime if you really want it. Lean wit it, ROCK wit it. There is no shortcut to greatness.

Bahlactus has spoken.

JOHN STEWART, Green Lantern #182 and #183 (first appearance as Earths 3rd Green Lantern), 1984. Given the column headline, Dark Stars, named after the intergalactic police force Darkstars where he was the field leader, it makes sense the first official column focus on my man John Stewart — the first Black member of the Lantern Corps, policing sector 2814.

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I’ve got major beef with the lack of Black surrounding John Stewart and his perceived character. First of all, his verbiage was busted forreal. He came off more like OJ (i.e. black on the outside, white on the inside) and his essence as a Black man didn’t ring true. The issues were written and published in 1984. Way Black then, Black people were doing things that set off a cultural tidal wave that still impacts us today. Black in the day, 1984 was about breakdancin’. This is the same year we got schooled by Turbo and Ozone in Breakin’.

Black in the day, we were using words like FRESH!, WORD!, and Ain’t No Stoppin’ was blazin’ your boombox on the corner while you rocked that headspin on your cardboard mat. My point isn’t to say that John Stewart should be all shuk-n-jive (and it’s clear he was a seriously intelligent type brutha), but, I am saying that in 1984 no Black man worth his weight dropped lyrical bombs like oh, swell [page 17], or callin’ another man pond scum [#182,page 8] or even fella [#182,page 12,17]. It’s not realistic and as a Black man, I can’t relate. Especially with a flagrant foul like nutty as a case of cashews! [#183,page 15]:

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John Stewart was basically written like your everyday white man, but, rocked the afro and Black face. He wasn’t acknowledged by anyone as being Green Lantern even though he had the outfit. I’m tempted to put it out there that a lot of Black men aren’t taken seriously until they do something that allows the masses to perceive them as an exception to the rule. John Stewart as Green Lantern head-butted with this rule scenario throughout both issues — But you’re BLACK! and it’s impossible you are Green Lantern. He had to get down with proving his position even though he had the suit and the ring (and also despite the fact that when he arrived on the scene, my man flew in).

There was a whole lot of haterade drinkin’ going around in issue #182 and #183. It’s an understatement to say that John Stewart is up against some adversity — new Green Lantern, new Foe, old Green Lantern is hatin’, and on top of all that my man has to deal with the Black thing too. I can’t relate to the John Stewart as a Black Man, but, I can appreciate him as a hero fighting to do what’s right even though everyone (including the bad guy) is wishin’ for the white guy.

Major Disaster:

“I know Green Lantern! I HATE Green Lantern! And you’re not him! Either you bring me the REAL Green Lantern — NOW! or we’ll all go to glory together!!”

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The REAL Green Lantern? It’s some strange ish when a supervillian doesnt even take you at face value! Major Disaster expected Hal Jordan, the white guy. This did fry his frontal lobe later on and cause him to pause on whether or not he truly hated Green Lantern, or was he really hatin’ on Hal Jordan himself.

I’m definitely putting it on Front St. that Hal Jordan, former Green Lantern, is a hater. In Green Lantern #182, he gives up his post serving the Guardians of the Universe as a member of Lantern Corps so he can be with his woman. He steps off so that he can get his swerve on with Carol Ferris of Ferris Aircraft where he is a test pilot. Nothing wrong with that, for the love of your woman, you know?

“I had dreams I had to put aside..dreams that mattered to me…a woman that mattered to me…Maybe now that I’ve resigned from the Green Lantern Corps because that woman…because of Carol…I can finally get on with those dreams…”

It’s evident to me after reading issue #182 that Hal Jordan is quite possibly a straight up racist on the downlow.

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Then, in issue #183 Hal Jordan tries to convince one of his friends that the sole reason for him trippin’ is because the Guardians of the Universe gave the ring…TO A COWORKER! If that doesn’t sound like some ish, then pull my card. On the last page of #183 we get another taste of Jordan hatin & regrettin’. The real scoop is that Hal Jordan is not only a hater, but he is also nothing without the ring. He’s got the woman and that’s not enough. Questioning the decision of the Guardians for his successor? That’s just a punk move. Frontin’ a whole emo format in front of his lady because he’s not a ring slinger?? C’MON BRUH!.

“..if you don’t mind, Carol, i’d rather not hear about Green Lantern right now! why do I feel like someone just stuck a dagger in my gut? What in God’s name have I done to myself? Lord, waht have I done?”

Although I wasn’t down with the premiere of John Stewart as Green Lantern, in the end he breaks through and lays the pimp hand down on Major Disaster. We know that based on DC mainstream history John Stewart evolves into a major JLA powerhouse and reads much more true to his game than he did back in the 80’s. Finally, as it should be, at the end of issue #183 he also gets the girl (field reporter Tawny Young who has been feeling his mode since he touched down to fight Major Disaster). Sadly, the only thing I could relate to was the fact that John Stewarts game was strong:

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Bahlactus has spoken.

In Comicazi Issue #0 we break it down that DC is seriously non-brutha friendly, but when you dig deep in the long-boxes of Marvel and DC’s mainstream history, there is a pretty solid line of Black heroes and supervillians:

• Black Panther
• Falcon
• Luke Cage
• Storm
• Blade
• Isaiah Bradley
• Patriot
• James Rhodes
• Monica Rambeau (Captain Marvel)
• Bishop
• Cyborg
• Black Lightning
• Mr. Terrific 2
• Bill Foster (Giant Man)
• Vixen
• John Stewart
• Thunder
• Steel
• Misty Knight
• Brother Voodoo
• Black Manta
• Firestorm
• Moses Magnum
• Derek Khanata
• Deathlok
• Kasper Cole
• Vibraxas
• Thunderball
• Cloak
• Black Racer
• Maggott
• Bronze Tiger
• Silhouette
• Rage
• Night Thrasher
• Prowler
• Rocket Racer
• BattleStar
• Alex Wilder
• Crispus Allen
• Killmonger
• Nekra
• Windshear
• Cardinal
• Cardiac
• Angel
• Tempest
• Doorman
• Natasha Irons
• Bushman
• Slyde
• Calypso
• Manslaughter
• Cottonmouth
• Amanda Waller
• Man-Ape
• Tyroc
• Black Mask
• Mandrill
• Bloodsport
• Maxim
• Triathlon
• Black Talon
• Anarchist
• Axum
• Bandit
• Joanna Cargill
• Rem-Ram
• Hammer/Anvil
• Aegis
• Amazing Man
• Daddy Long Legs
• Talisman

How many did we clock up to? 73? Believe it or not, there’s more! It’s clear that Marvel is tryin’ to win the war on diversity in Comics since 90% of the heroes and villians in the list are from the house of M (but is slippin’ when it comes to prominent Black characters having their own line — Black Panther and Blade being the only ones with a regular monthly feature).

Each week in the Dark Stars column, I’ll take look at a different Black character in Marvel and DC Comics ( get down with some Comics clue on Darkstars and why the column is tagged with a similar Comics headline).

The list is organic and will grow over time. I am only taking into consideration mainstream history from both houses, excluding joints like Ultimates, or any other Elseworlds style flavor. Rock with me as I build this collection and in the meantime drop a comment, slide me some email, or hit me via instant messenger if you want to suggest more Black characters to add to the list.