DC *has* done attempts at "race-lifting" a major character into a black hero, without calling him "Black *other word here*" ... He was just a character they owned but really didn't want to do anything with: The "I am not Shazam... okay, dammit, you're gonna call me that, anyway" Captain Marvel.
Essentially, before they went ahead and dragged CC Beck out of retirement for a run of "The Power of Shazam," they tried reviving the big red Cheese as a black kid, and because the name "Captain Marvel" had been used in the intervening years by Quality and Marvel, they had to call him Captain Thunder.
This was ALMOST what made it into the comics:
![[Image: CaptainThunderIII_stand.gif]](http://www.marvelfamily.com/images/whoswho/CaptainThunderIII/CaptainThunderIII_stand.gif)
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Essentially, before they went ahead and dragged CC Beck out of retirement for a run of "The Power of Shazam," they tried reviving the big red Cheese as a black kid, and because the name "Captain Marvel" had been used in the intervening years by Quality and Marvel, they had to call him Captain Thunder.
This was ALMOST what made it into the comics:
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll