by
thedarkroome.com contributors
Vince Moore and Kimberly Moore
Bang The Drumm: An Appreciation of Brother Voodoo.
If none of you readers out there have never heard of Brother Voodoo before, don’t worry. He is one of many black superheroes created by Marvel Comics as their reaction to the politics and cultural changes in America during the 1960s and 1970s. As America marched and burned and struggled to become a more perfect union, Marvel Comics tried to reach new readers by offering different characters than usual for American comics.
Characters like Black Panther, the king of Wakanda, an African nation. The Falcon, partner to Captain America. Luke Cage also known as Power Man, the Hero For Hire cut from the same cloth as Shaft. Storm, member of the X-Men.
And Brother Voodoo, the Man Who Lived Twice.
Created by Roy Thomas, Len Wein (the same gentleman who would go on to create Wolverine), and John Romita Sr., Brother Voodoo made his debut in the then newly revived Strange Tales # 169. Strange Tales being the anthology title where Dr. Strange made his debut. Brother Voodoo was designed from the very beginning to follow that same mold of a mystic, magical superhero. Dr. Jericho Drumm, returning to his native Haiti and learning that his twin brother Daniel was dying due to a curse, would take up his brother’s mantle as houngan or priest and fight to defend his people as Brother Voodoo.
The 1970s were a time where magic and mysticism, Satanism, and the occult occupied the imagination of many people. Books like The Devil Rides Out, movies like The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, et cetera filled the marketplace of ideas. People ate it up. There was no reason for the same not to apply to comics. Marvel decided to capitalize on this cultural wave with a slate of black and white horror magazines at first and then with characters like Brother Voodoo.
Brother Voodoo enjoyed a short but memorable run of stories in Strange Tales by Len Wein and Gene Colan before moving on to other areas of the wider Marvel Universe.
Over the years, the character would appear sporadically. Recently Brother Voodoo enjoyed a resurgence by taking the place of Dr. Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Universe and a promotion disguised as a name change, becoming Doctor Voodoo. Again, he enjoyed a short run both in his own book and in the New Avengers title as a member until he seemingly died saving the world from a mystical threat.
However, given the impermanent nature of death to those who ply the superhero trade and the powers of magic, one may hear the drums beat again, a fog appearing out of nowhere on a clear night, and see Dr. Jericho Drumm, Brother Voodoo stalk the night and shadows once again.
Vince Moore and Kimberly Moore
are contributors to thedarkroome.com
and Comic Book aficionados/wranglers @
Comics Ink, Culver City, CA.
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