There was a Legion Outpost book published a couple of years ago that interviewed everyone that had worked on the title worth getting if your a fan. From my recollection Grell pushed for more black characters to appear in the book. It might seem a bizarre notion these days that would be a problem but apparently he ran into resistence. One character in a story was actually switched to caucasion. He didn't care for the "all the black people live on an island" concept behind Tryoc & gave him a stupid costume. Personally I liked the costume & thought Tryoc had some pretty strong voice powers. He also designed Dawnstar's costume which I also really liked.
I though Tyroc was an interesting character. But I have to agree that his origin left something to be desired, insofar as it postulated that, in the 30th Century, the world was SO segregated that all black people lived on an island someplace. Not exactly a rosey future for race relations that.
Of course, on the other hand, I suppose its sadly possible that people might decide one day to self-segregate. Look at the places today where African Americans have demanded "black dormitories" and "black schools". Not to mention whites that would only too gladly give them to them (sometimes whether they want them or not).
