While I haven’t actually purchased comics in a 4 years, Image comics will always hold a special place for me due to it being the home of my favorite character ‘Spawn’. Before Black Panther gained mainstream name recognition, Black protagonist Al Simmons (Spawn) was the necrotic face of Image comics. He was a Black hero with his own stand alone popular series back when BP was a D-lister at Marvel. 

Pushing the envelope again Image has a new comic coming soon titled ‘Excellence’ whose creative team is entirely Black. The new action – fantasy comic from Khary Randolph, Brandon Thomas and Emilio Lopez; follows protagonist Spencer Dales and his involvement in Aegis, a secret society of magicians. Check out the press release from the creators and trailer below. 

In the press release, Brandon Thomas describes the series as:

“Excellence is all about contrasts—characters that are capable of doing these impossible things, but whose abilities are largely defined by others. This conflict explodes within a relationship between a father and son that have very different ideas about who should benefit from this power, and how long they’re supposed to wait around for things to get ‘better.’ Like most popular genres, fantasy is in desperate need of expansion, and we’re excited and honored to fill that void with this action-packed series, as we agree with our protagonist…it’s now or never.”

Khary Randolph adds:

“One of the major themes of this book was generational rifts, so from every aspect of the world building, I tried to mash up the old with the new. Taking visual cues from artists like Jim Steranko, Hitchcock, and Saul Bass and remixing them with anime, hip-hop, and video game influences. At the end of the day, we’re just trying to create a world that is beautiful to look at but also resonates on a deeper emotional level.”

If the series is good and BLERDS make it a hit, here’s to hoping that creators, producers and networks (OWN, Netflix, Jordan Peele, Michael B Jordan or Ryan Coogler) with millions under their belts can make it a live action show. I mean OWN is due for a supernatural science fiction show right?

Excellence #1 will hit comic shelves on Wednesday, May 8.