Editor's Note: Check out Part 1 here. Barret Wallace from Final Fantasy VII. 5. Barret Wallace Original Game: Final Fantasy VII (1997) Even if you’ve never played a Japanese RPG, if you’ve been in gaming long enough, there is no denying the ubiquitous knowledge of the unequivocal juggernaut that is Final Fantasy VII. The game is a critically acclaimed, ground-breaking, and record-breaking game...
Fabian Wood
Fabian Wood
Hailing from the eastern-most Caribbean island of Barbados, Fabian Wood has long since been fascinated by the power of storytelling to inspire and invoke emotions – whether in film, comics or videogames. No longer content to be just an avid comic book reader and videogamer, he’s eager to exercise his literary acumen as an aspiring writer and reviewer.
Top Ten Most Popular Playable Black Characters in Video Games, Part 1
With the recent release of Deathloop, a AAA first-person shooter that – as of writing – sits at an 89 on Metacritic, it’s fair to say that this next generation videogame by Bethesda is a success. I was more invested than most gamers, mainly because it starred not one,...
Beyond Publishing – A Caribbean Milestone
Founded in 2011 on the sunbathed tropical island of Barbados, Beyond Publishing Caribbean was created by a coalition of passionate Caribbean artists and writers, themselves fans of comics, movies, anime, and books. It was established to be a platform for local and...
The Changing Tide – The Importance of Legacy Characters
DC Comics has recently announced that Jackson Hyde (aka Kaldur’ahm) will graduate from his status as the current “Aqualad” to that of fully fledged “Aquaman” in the aptly titled upcoming six-issue mini-series “Aquaman: The Becoming” this September; written by Brandon...
Review-‘Love, Death & Robots’ : Season 2
After watching the first season of Love, Death & Robots, I was enthralled by the diversity of animation styles, selection of genres, and innovative stories that made up a cornucopia of enjoyable and entertaining vignettes. It offered so many memorable moments and...
Black Lightning: Season 4 / Series Review – Shattered Lightning
No pun intended, Black Lightning was the “black sheep” of the CW superhero macrocosm known as the “Arrowverse” that premiered in January 2018. Starring an All-Black cast (save James Remar’s character Peter Gambi) series’ developer Salim Akil had the audacious ambition...
Black Lightning Season 4 – Book of Reconstruction
Set one year after the events of last season, the police state created by the corrupt ASA, the Markovia debacle, and the green light babies/meta-human subplot have all petered out and become just a memory. Aptly dubbed “Book of Reconstruction”, the first four episodes...
The Future Looks Black – DC Comics’ 10 year Stride Towards New Black Superheroes
“Inclusivity” and “diversity” have been buzz words that have dominated the discourse in all forms of media for the last decade at least. To that end, for the past few years, the Big Two have been attempting, to varying degrees, to expand their offerings by creating...
Review: Future State- The Next Batman #3
Writer: John Ridley Artist: Laura Braga Colorist: Arif Prianto Publisher: DC Comics Picking up right where we left off, our nascent Dark Knight winds up the shepherd for the murdering couple from the previous issue, not after quickly dispensing with a dogged,...
REVIEW: The Other History of the DC Universe #2
The Other History of the DC Universe #2 Writer: John Ridley Pencils: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Inks: Andrea Cucchi Colors: Jose Villarrubia Letters: Steve Wands Publisher: DC Comics Issue #2 focuses on Malcolm “Mal” Duncan and Karen Beecher-Duncan, an African-American...
Review: Future State- The Next Batman #2
Writer: John Ridley Artist: Laura Braga Publisher: DC Comics I am pleased to report that issue #2 seems to have right the wrongs of the debut issue in virtually every way. It opens up like something you would expect from a “Year One” or “Year Two” graphic novel....
Review: Future State- Green Lantern
Publisher: DC Comics The biggest problem with the “Green Lantern” mythos overall is that they just have too many concurrent members. At last count there are nine active human Green Lanterns. As such, unless you are in the Hal Jordan or John Stewart fan club, odds are...
Review: Future State- The Next Batman #1
Future State: The Next Batman Written by: John Ridley Art: Nick Derington Color: Tamra Bonvillain Publisher: DC Comics As previously addressed in my article “The Black Knight Rises”, there have been a few Black men (and just recently one woman for Batwoman) who have...
REVIEW: The Other History of the DC Universe #1
The Other History of the DC Universe #1 Writer: John Ridley Pencils/ Inks/ Colors: Alex Dos Diaz Letters: Steve Wands Publisher: DC Comics Written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Let It Fall, American Crime) with art courtesy of...
Michael B. Jordan to Produce Movie Adaptation of ‘Static Shock’
First announced in August’s fan-centric “DC Fandome” event during the Milestone Media segment, the confirmation of African-American actor and producer Michael B Jordan’s [Fantastic Four, Creed, Black Panther, Creed 2, Just Mercy] involvement as a producer was recently...
DC Comics Doubles Down on Black Representation in Early 2021
With the Milestone universe set to make its long-awaited return to the DC landscape in February 2021, DC has recently announced a two-month event in January and February next year called “Future State”. The synopsis given by DC reads: “In DC Future State, the...
Author N. K. Jemisin joins MacArthur Fellowship
Acclaimed sci-fi and fantasy author N. K. Jemisin, known for The Fifth Season and its sequels The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky, has joined the auspicious and esteemed company of the MacArthur Fellows Program. For the uninitiated, the MacArthur Fellows Program awards...
Review: Superman Smashes The Klan
Writer: Gene Luen Yang Artist: Gurihiru Letterer: Janice Chiang Publisher: DC Comics Running from February 1940 to February 1951, “The Adventures of Superman” (sponsored by cereal tycoon Kellogg’s Products) was America’s #1 serialized radio program at the time, having...
Review: Project Power
The premise of “Project Power” is nothing new. We’ve seen similar concepts in “Limitless” (2011), the short-lived streaming series “Powers” (2015-2016) and even “Lucy” (2014). Fortunately enough, “Project Power” does enough to set itself apart and not come off as...
“Arrow-versity”- A Look at Inclusivity & Diversity in the CW Superhero TV Shows: Part 2
Check out Part 1 here. Part 2: The Blue and The Gold SUPERGIRL Jumping straight in, “Supergirl” became the third series in the ever-expanding “Arrowverse” that debuted on CBS (then on CW from season 2 onward) in October of 2015, starring the perpetually delightful...
The Black Knight Rises
After exploring the world’s first, and oldest, superhero who has had quite a surprising amount of Nubian variations in my article “Reign of the Black Supermen”, I figured I’d look at the other half of that world’s finest pair, Batman. Now Batman is by no means the...