Wednesday 17 February 2016

S̶u̶p̶e̶r̶ Black Superheroes: Rising from the Underground

     Guess who? This black superhero has been around for 50 years, but only 3 black men have ever written him. Give up? The answer is...Black Panther. The point is, there is lack of genuine input from people of colour in writing about...well, POC in comics.


      In comes former DC editor Kwanza Osajyefo and artist/designer Tim Smith III with their new series; Black, which will be a six-issue series beginning later this year, illustrated by Jamal Igle with covers by Khary Randolph. They are currently crowdfunding the series on Kickstarter, and with two weeks still remaining they have doubled(and surpassing) their goal of $29,999.

      The tagline for the book? (According to their Kickstarter page) "In a world that already fears and hates them – what if only Black people had superpowers?" A compelling and intriguing logline, especially in the wake of recent events and happenings involving young(and old) black men and women. In that same vein, the main premise is as follows; "After miraculously surviving being gunned down by police, a young man (Kareem Jenkins) learns that he is part of the biggest lie in history. Now he must decide whether it's safer to keep it a secret or if the truth will set him free."

      When recently asked the following question by Newsarama, "So in this world, only black people are superheroes -- is that in terms of superpowers, or even broader in terms of non-powered superheroes like Batman not being permitted to exist?"; Osajyefo replied; "See, implications! You’re already working to grasp in your mind how the concept would play out. I consider Black sci-fi  before superhero. The capes and tights are done to death in comics. That isn’t to say such characters are off the table, but I think this story is grounded in a reality where someone swinging around on a wire might seem odd. But it is fiction, so anything is possible." (see full story on Newsarama)

       There seems to be a shift in awareness, acceptance and a call for diversity in everything from music to comic books to movies (*cough* #Oscarsowhite) and I am loving it. It means that now people are being forced to consider others, be it women or men of colour, for roles solely considered to be stereotypically white male. This change would be more aligned with today's world and generation, where people from different cultures are mixing and the force that is social media has made that even more possible and brought us even closer.

      I think the world is more than ready for this shift in paradigm and with the Black Panther movie coming in 2018, I am ecstatic for more projects of this caliber to start seeing the light of day. Cheers to b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ Black.

Signed,
T.O

No comments:

Post a Comment

Labels

Blerds WeAreFranklinArmstrong GeektastiqCypha CJLO Radio #DTD Podcast Montreal Marvel Comics Netflix Pop Culture Deadpool DCU MCU DC Daredevil Batman WarnerBros #XMen #Apocalypse Binge watching Civil War II Comiccon FOX Superheroes Captain America Disney Flash Hip Hop Luke Cage Wonder Woman X-Men Agents of Shield Civil War Jessica Jones Netflix and Chill Star Wars Superman Zack Snyder Apocalypse Archangel BLACK Cable Falcon Goku Guardians of the Galaxy Iron Man J Dilla Justice League Logan Magneto Mariam Khan Moving Mind Studio Nightwing Perfect Strangers MTL Punisher Quicksilver Riverdale Rogue One Storm Suicide Squad Supervillains The Hand Wolverine Young Justice American Gods Arrow Black Lightning Cyclops Dave Chappelle Dilla Dr. Strange Dragonball Elektra Han Solo I Hate Summer Kickstarter Kwanza Osajyefo Legion Leonardo Michelle Franklin Misty Knight Moira MacTaggert Music Mystique Nightcrawler Piccolo Professor X Psylocke Sadgalcece Star-Lord Thor Vegeta View The Right Thing Virtual Reality Youtube iBoy #ATCQ #VTRT 13 Reasons Why ?uestlove ABC Actionfigy Alex Kingston Alice America #1 Aqualad Attack The Block Autobots Avengers Baba Connridh Baloo Bandcamp Beast Black Adam Black Panther BlerdCon Blue Beetle Blue Marvel CBS Candyman Captain Marvel Carrie Fisher Chris Rock Chucky Crash Bandicoot Curb Your Enthusiasm Darth Maul Darth Vader Deathstroke Debbie Reynolds Dimension 404 Doctor Manhattan Doctor Who Don Cheadle Donald Glover Drake Drax E3 Eddie Murphy Fanexpo Fences Firestorm Flying Lotus Freddy Krueger Friday The 13th Furious 7 G.I.Joe GTA Get Out Ghetto Glee Gladiator Groot HBO HTC Vive Halloween Happy Havok Hela Hickman Hidden Fences Hidden Figures Hilton George Hit-Girl Hooked on Sonics Hope Summers Hulk Hyperion Ice Cube Inhumans Iron Fist Jason Jean Grey John Legend Jon Bernthal Jubilee Just For Laughs Jyn Kingpin Kon El Kree Kurt Russell Kylo Ren Kyris Marie LL Cool J Lateef Martin Legend of Korrah Leia Loki Lucasfilms M.A.S.K. Mario Mark Jordan Masters of the Universe Matrix Mephisto Miss Martian NBC Nathan Fillion Nintendo Oculus Olaf One Punch Man Optimus Padme Patois Peanuts Pierce Brosnon Playstation Playstation VR Ragnarok Resident Evil Retro Expo MTL Rhianna Rodimus SDCC Sabertooth Sailor Moon Scott Hall Sebatien Secret Empire Secret Wars Sega Selene Sh'iar Shazam Shocker Silver Samurai Skrull Sky High Sonic The Hedgehog Spider-Man Starfire Starz Stick Stranger Things T-1000 TFCon TMNT Taskmaster Terminator Tessa Thompson Thanos The CW The Foot The Haanta Series The Killing Joke The Maker The Selection EP The Wait for Eight Tinkerer Tombstone Toronto Trailer Transformers Ultimate Marvel Ultra Magnus Underworld Upfronts Val Kilmer Valentine Day Venturebeat Vin Diesel Vulture Waahli WeAreKareenJenkins Will Smith Work X-23 Xander Cage Z'Isle Zendaya dublab vagina spliters xXx