“What Happens to a Dream Deferred?”

During the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. saw protracted ground battles for civil liberties, heroic movements often reflected in the mainstream comic publications of Marvel. Many of Marvel's classic publications introduced African American characters whose attempts to improve their socioeconomic prospects and to achieve social integration were—in the world of their comic books—thwarted. These villains, as a result, turned to crime. The Prowler in The Amazing Spider-Man, Deadly Nightshade in Captain America and the Falcon, and Diamondback in Luke Cage serve as strong character antagonists to their title's respective heroes. The dreams of these young villains, survivors of repeated socioeconomic crises, were, in Marvel Universe, deferred indefinitely. Through this exploration of the characteristics, origins, and evolution of these specific Marvel villains and the comic series in which they appear, the chapter analyzes the ways in which popular comics of the 1960s and 1970s sought—albeit with varying degrees of artistic success—to reflect the real-world challenges faced by marginalized communities.