Black Panther first appeared in a 1966 “Fantastic Four” anthology – making him the first black superhero in mainstream American comics. As is known, it would take more than fifty years before the King of Wakanda made his (extremely successful) film debut in 2018 – but Black Panther was not the first black superhero in cinema. Marvel itself had sent Wesley Snipes into the running twenty years earlier as vampire hunter ‘Blade’, and with ‘Spawn’ and ‘Steel’ there were even more superhero films with a black protagonist in the 1990s.
While “Spawn” was a moderate success and 2025 along for the ride Jamie Foxx would be reissued, ‘Steel’, based on the DC comic book character of the same name, is somewhat forgotten these days. Professional basketball player Shaquille O’Neal took on the role of weapons developer John Henry Irons, who designed a new type of high-tech weapon for the US military. During a demonstration, an accident occurs that kills a politician and paralyzes Irons’ partner Susan. Irons then decides to quit his job and return to his home country, but he finds no peace there either: the dangerous weapon has now fallen into the hands of a gang of gangsters – and to fight them Irons transforms himself into one with the help of homemade armor Avengers “Steel”…
It was legendary music producer Quincy Jones who, together with TV producer David Salzman, made the decision to bring Steel’s adventures to the screen. A director was quickly found in Kenneth Johnson, who already had superhero experience through ‘The Incredible Hulk’, which was made for television in 1977 – and after original favorite Wesley Snipes turned down the producers, Shaquille O’Neal also came on board. who was trying to gain a foothold in Hollywood in addition to his sports career.
But This dual commitment caused some problems: O’Neal had to stick to set training dates in preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics, leaving Johnson with just five weeksto get all the scenes with his lead actor in the box. Furthermore, the NBA player’s acting skills were limited, which created even more challenges for the director: “I realized early on that Shaq’s options were limited, but he was willing to try anything,” Johnson recalled in an interview of back. “My friend, who was his acting coach, was a godsend because he at least helped him with acting and how to present himself as an actor (…) But of course we always come back to the fact that he wasn’t an actor. Almost every other line took him several tries to get right.
‘Steel’ became an absolute blockbuster
It was not only O’Neal’s lack of acting talent that the reviews upon the film’s release were devastating. Due to budget cuts, the special effects were also mediocre and “Steel” was visually barely above TV level. But The film suffered the most at the box office: “Steel” only managed to gross $1.7 million at the box office – at an estimated cost of 16 million. A huge losing company!
After all, “Steel” set a dubious record: After grossing just $870,068 in its opening weekend, In the second weekend, a drop of 78 percent was recorded – a decline that was only later matched in the superhero genre.”The miracles“reaches.
The author of these lines, by the way, certainly enjoyed O’Neal’s touchingly awkward title performance – and would always prefer Johnson’s visible efforts to squeeze the minimum possible from his limited resources to most superhero spectacles of recent years. So it’s definitely worth taking a look almost three decades later!