I cannot wait to read Black Vol. 1! This book began as a red hot Kickstarter project before Black Mask smartly picked up the series. The book has a fantastic premise, and while you might want to dismiss the messaging, you shouldn’t. Whether you like or you don’t like it, that’s less important. What’s important is to be informed and to try out new books with buzz that offer a winning alternative to the constantly complained about superhero books from Marvel and, at times, DC. You want something fresh? To support an indie book? How about something self-contained and topical and in touch? Check, check, check, and check!
What if only Black people had superpowers? Let’s not be subtle about the premise because based on all the reviews and commentary I’ve read, this book isn’t about subtlety. And it doesn’t have to be. Read Captain America #695 this week and you won’t find anything subtle about Steve Rogers dealing with white supremacists. Read the “Oz Effect” in Action Comics and you won’t find much subtlety about mass shootings. So, subtle isn’t a prerequisite to a great story and this might just be a damn great story. Let’s find out together!
After a case of mistaken identity and a tragic police shooting that will remind you of too many in recent years, one young man survives learning he has superpowers but the two other victims don’t. Now, he’ll have to deal with looking at the world in a completely new way and discovering he might be part of the biggest lie in history. Will he keep his secret or will the truth set him free?
I don’t know if this is going to be a great, good, or bad series. I didn’t when I first picked up Saga because I trusted Brian K. Vaughan, Scott Snyder’s first issue of Batman to see if it’d live up to Grant Morrison’s epic run before him, or if the hype was overdone on a series like Transmetropolitan (another series that ain’t subtle dealing with political and social commentary). But I gave them all a chance and love them for different reasons. I’m going to give Black Vol. 1 a chance as I did with all of them.
And if you don’t like politics or social commentary mixed with your comics then why read any stories dealing with the X-Men (uh, arguably a MLK stand-in a.k.a. Professor X and a Holocaust survivor in Magneto), Hulk (who literally is on the run from the out of control military industrial complex President Eisenhower warned the nation about), Captain America (name kind of says it all), Superman (the ultimate immigrant with clear allusions to the story of Moses AND whose first adventures were fighting for the middle class against corporate greed), the masterpieces that are The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Preacher, and many others. Give Black Vol. 1 the same chance you have so many others. Because it deserves it.
Collects Black #1-6.
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