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Non-Aggressive Black Males (Black Manta) in This Watchmen Universe


Bass Reaves inspires a young Will through a silent film by seeing the Black Marshall of Oklahoma vowing: "There'll be no mob justice today. Trust in the law!" Meanwhile outside the theater he is in mob justice escalates into a massacre. OB Williams, not too long from WWI runs into the theater armed, scoops up his son to protect him. He hands his rifle to his wife and they try to escape the mayhem all around them. Seeing the face of a deputized KKK member his wife raises the rifle to shoot and OB pushes the gun down effectively sparing the Klansman. OB opts to try and get his son out of harms away by sending him on a journey alone but away from Tulsa.

Years later Cal is married to OB's great granddaughter Angela and it is Angela who is the protector of the family. Redfordations allows for Cal Abar to stay home and watch his adopted children while Angela vows to stay on the police force as a masked vigilante like her Great-Grandfather that she doesn't know she is modeled after.

During the events of "White Night" Cal is pushed aside by Angela while she takes on at least two of the 7th Kalvary and is wounded to the point of near death. We don't know who saves her but in the hospital it is Cal who after three days sitting by Angela's side is relieved by Judd. Cal goes home to "freshen up". Cal wasn't wounded and may or may not have even confronted the assailant.

Cal clearly supports Angela but did they have to write so, so, impotent? He's still sexualized but it is Angela who appears to be in control.

What the deuce is happening in the Watchmen world of 2019? How did a young Will who believed in the Law switch to lynching. Is Will really "Hooded Justice" hiding behind white makeup under his mask in order to dispense justice because as a child everything was taken from him? Why is Cal so neutered when it comes to revenge, violence or aggression?

Even Henry Louis Gates Jr sounds so accommodating and non-confrontational as the Secretary of the Treasury. That whole thing with Black Males being hostile, angry and animalistic is manufactured stereotypes to be sure but this portrayal of the few black males seen on screen gave me the chuckles.

For what it's worth the believers in the 7th Kalvary and the Anti--Vigilante movement seem only upset at the descendants of Tulsa because of money and nothing else. There are no epitaphs flying around between the two groups besides the label of "White Supremacists". No one is ever called a racist.

What am I missing?

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