The main character in this story is based on a Champions™ character I
created in the early 1980s. Here is this
character's character sheet.
Stuff I intend to have happen in this story:
It's 1982 in Tennessee. The Imperial Wizard claims the authors of the
National Housing Act of 1934 did the right thing by excluding black people, but
now, thanks to that awful Fair Housing Act of 1968, those darned colored people
are beginning to encroach on innocent white neighborhoods. Steve Mendelsohn
eagerly eats it up.
After a bout with his even-more-racist father, whom Steve still lives with,
Steve goes into a barn at night to do farm work. But while in there, he is
bombarded by radioactive hay. This turns him into a black man. Terrified at
this transformation, he screams "Nooooo!" and yanks a hay bale with his right
hand in a fit of rage. The 800-pound hay bale flies across the room and knocks
down the far wall, leaving Steve to faint when he realizes how strong he now
is.
Steve quickly discovers that he can also fly, and seems immune to injury.
He covers his tightly-curled hair and his hands with a long-sleeved hoodie, and
picks up some "whiteface" makeup to hide his new complexion.
Keeping his head down, it's enough to fool his drunken father on his way into
his bedroom. He spends the next day secluded, sewing together a super-hero
costume with a big H on its chest.
Maybe it will be enough to let him infiltrate the black community and see
what those no-good uppity colored folks are up to.
Hay Man is flying over an urban area the next day, and sees a couple of
black teen-age boys harrassing a younger black kid. One has a gun pointed at
the kid. He flies down to interpose himself between the kid and the gun. The
gunman fires, but the bullet bounces off Hay Man's chest. Hay Man grabs the gun
and crushes it in his hand. The two teen-agers flee in terror. The kid
expresses his thanks, saying that those two were trying to rob him. He invites
Hay Man to come to his house for dinner. Hay Man mulls this over and accepts,
thinking this might give him the view he needs into the seedy lives of a black
family.
The kid's family is nothing at all like he expects.