The Unbelievable Story of Lion-Man, the First and Forgotten Black Superhero
Sometimes it feels like the only things new in life are the things slowly being forgotten by new generations. Most young people don’t play instruments or drive. How can a young population imagine a pre-Internet world when independence and learning facts manually were a requisite for adulthood? A lot of history is being forgotten by the world. The first and forgotten black superhero, Lion-Man, is one of those things.
T’Challa, the Black Panther, and the Kingdom of Wakanda made their debuts in Fantastic Four #52 in 1966. Black Panther is generally considered to be the world’s first black superhero. Marvel Comics published this issue one year after the repeal of Jim Crow. The creation of Black Panther is an historic event.
However, Black Panther is technically not the world’s first black superhero. Lion-Man, the forgotten black superhero, claims that title. Lion-Man, an African superhero, made his debut in 1947 in All-Negro Comics #1, over 20 years earlier.
Here is the unbelievable story of Lion-Man, the forgotten black superhero, and his forgotten influence on modern comic book culture.
Lion-Man’s Creator
The story of Lion-Man, the forgotten Black superhero, starts with his creator, Orrin Cromwell Evans. Evans was a black journalist working for an all-white newspaper in 1947, the Philadelphia Record. The newspaper closes, and Evans decides he wants to use his talents to create a black superhero to relate the black experience to readers.
Evans would join forces with two former black editors from the paper, Harry T. Saylor and Bill Driscoll, to found their own comic book company. They would hire an all-black creative staff and publish All-Negro Comics #1 in June 1947. It is an understatement to say that the publication of All-Negro Comics #1 was an historic event.
Evans and his staff are technically the first black comic book creators in American history. They published a comic during Jim Crow. Plus, they created the world’s first and forgotten black superhero, Lion-Man.
However, there would never be an All-Negro Comics #2. Vendors and distributors would stop selling him paper and the raw materials to print comics. All-Negro Comics #1, and Evans’ bold contributions to comic book history have since been forgotten by history.
Lion-Man
The character is American-born, but is never given a name in the comic. He is known as Lion-Man and operates out of the African Gold Coast, or modern-day Ghana. Since All-Negro Comics #1 was published two years after the U.S. dropped atomic weapons on Japan, the comic is political.
Lion-Man defends Magic Mountain, a mountain range full of raw uranium ore. He wants to prevent villains from getting the ore and making new nuclear weapons. Additionally, Lion-Man wants to defend Magic Mountain from colonizers and intruders.
Lion-Man wore a loincloth and resembled a black Tarzan-type character. “Jungle Action” comics and themes were very popular in that era. But the themes of Lion-Man were very political, topical, and forward-thinking for its time. The character was an agent of the United Nations, but was still loyal to his homeland.
The Forgotten Black Superhero
If the themes in the first Lion-Man comic kind of resemble Black Panther, you would not be wrong for noticing. Both characters are of African royalty, protect a mountain of priceless ore, and want to protect their countries from the outside world. However, the world remembers the first appearance of Black Panther; no one knows about Lion-Man or Orin Cromwell Evans.
John Jennings, a professor and graphic novelist, would publish his own Lion-Man comic in 2025. The character is in the public domain, so anyone can use Lion-Man creatively. Jennings wants to make sure no one forgets Lion-Man or the historic legacy of Orrin Cromwell Evans as a pioneer of Black comics.
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Allen Francis is a full-time writer, prolific comic book investor and author of The Casual’s Guide: Why You Should Get Into Comic Book Investing. Allen holds a BA degree from Marymount Manhattan College and has decades of experience in comic investing and personal finance. Before becoming a writer Allen was an academic advisor, librarian, and college adjunct for many years. Allen now focuses on comic book reviews, collectible investments, and helping others collect and enjoy comics.