The summer’s blockbuster superhero movies have meant super times for black folks who are comic book fans.

Actor Terrence Howard, playing Tony Stark’s military buddy in “Iron Man,” enviously looks at a model of Stark’s high-tech armor and says, “Next time,” a strong hint of things to come in the sequel.

Super-cool Samuel L. Jackson checks in at the end of “Iron Man” as the eye-patched Nick Fury, head of the super-secret S.H.I.E.L.D., a white man in the Marvel Comics traditional character universe. But the black Fury came as no surprise to readers of Marvel’s “The Ultimates” comic series which dealt in an alternate universe and had a black Nick Fury who looked like he was modeled after Jackson.

Even the gamma-ray green Incredible Hulk goes black -- well, sort of -- taking his climactic battle with his radiated rival, the Abomination, uptown across 110th Street to Harlem.

And this week, Will Smith literally takes flight as “Hancock,” a super-strong black superhero, albeit a homeless and hard-drinking one.

“These are interesting times for black comic book characters in some movies,” Yumy Odom, founder of the East Coast Black Age of Comics convention, told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

This year’s crop of superhero flicks are continuing a slow trend of more blacks being seen -- and heard -- onscreen as costumed crime-fighters and as the villains who hate them.

In addition to Howard’s and Jackson’s turns in “Iron Man,” Laurence Fishburne -- a comic book/sci-fi veteran from “The Matrix” films -- was the voice of the Silver Surfer in last year’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.”

Actress Kerry Washington reprised her role as Alicia Masters, the blind girlfriend of the rock-bodied Thing, in the film. In the comic book pages, Masters is white. Marvel crossed the casting color line in 2003’s “Daredevil” by having massive Michael Clark Duncan play the evil Kingpin, a sumo-sized white character in the Daredevil and Spider-Man comics.

Ironically, there were rumblings that the movie’s makers rebuffed lobbying efforts by Cuba Gooding to play Daredevil and his white alter ego, blind attorney Matt Murdoch in the film. They chose Ben Affleck instead. Actress Halle Berry’s camera time and responsibilities as the mutant weather-controlling Storm in the “X-Men” movies increased in each of the three films.

Marvel isn’t the only company that’s bringing more black characters to the forefront. DC Comics has done it on the small screen with a black Green Lantern in the “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited” series on television’s Cartoon Network and with the black half human/half machine Cyborg on the network’s “Teen Titans” series.

Why the increased attention paid to blacks in comic book movies? Money, according to Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of black popular culture at Duke University.

“Companies like Marvel are recognizing that there is a larger (black) audience than they knew,” Neal told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “They recognize that there is a black audience, young and old, that wants to see people like them on the screen and in comic books.”

The portrayal of blacks in superhero comic books and movies has come a long way since the 1940s when “Whitewash” Jones, a big-lipped, Sambo-like character, appeared in Marvel’s “Young Allies” comic book.

Marvel began atoning “Whitewash” in the 1960s and 70s with the debuts of the Black Panther -- an African prince when not combating crime -- and the Falcon, a black man with a psychic link with birds. Black Entertainment Television plans to air an animated Black Panther series in its 2008-2009 season.

“Obviously the civil rights movement, the awakening of multiculturalism, blaxploitation (movies) played a role,” Bradford Wright, author of "Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America,” told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “The black heroes appeared to be modeled after Muhammad Ali and Shaft. They were trying, but remember, a lot of comic book writers then were still white.”

The Black Panther and the Falcon were heroes, but not super. It wasn’t until Marvel rolled out Luke Cage in the 1970 that a black character had super powers. Cage, also known as Hero for Hire and Power Man, was an ex-con from the ‘hood with invulnerable skin, super strength, fast healing power and attitude. He wore a big-collared yellow shirt and a fat chain belt that would do Isaac Hayes proud.

There have been plans in Hollywood for years for a live-action Luke Cage movie. John Singleton of “Boyz n the Hood” fame has been tapped to direct the film.

The Panther, Falcon and Power Man helped spawn more powerful heroes in the Marvel and DC universe as well as from minority-oriented companies like Milestone Media, which created black superheroes like Hardware and Static.

While the attention given recently to black heroes and characters has been good, it’s not substantial enough for hardcore comic book aficionados like Odom. He said Terrence Howard’s portrayal of Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes in the “Iron Man” film lacked the depth the character has in the comic books. He expects to improvement in the next “Iron Man” flick.

“It’s like he’s Tony Stark’s babysitter,” Odom said. “Either they’re going to have to send him (Howard) to military school or get another actor for the part.”

Even some blacks working in the comic book industry believe black superheroes and characters still have a ways to go to catch up with their white -- or green -- counterparts in the pages and on the screen.

“There’s still an enormous amount of work to be done,” Dwayne McDuffie, who has worked with Marvel and DC Comics and a co-founded Milestone Media, told Publishers Weekly last year. “The world of comics should look a lot like the world we live in, albeit with more capes and flying. We’re not there yet.”