Art Imitates Life: Who’s Playing Bree Newsome in the Comic???

After a hugely dramatic week stretch that included Marriage Equality becoming the law of the land, Supreme Justice Kennedy dropping the hottest mixtape verse of the year, it all came after the renewed debate over the confederate flag and its place in American symbolism and public representation. While South Carolina began to bury the nine innocent bodies of those killed in Charleston, SC on June 17th, the confederate flag, long a symbol of not only the South but it’s lost rebellion (and you know racism according to the man that created the flag in the first place) flew over Statehouse. Well, it didn’t for a short while at least.

Your newest superhero has presented herself, and if it surprises you that a Black woman climbed a 30 foot metal pole and took down Confederate Flag, then you haven’t been paying attention to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Sorry, I might have buried the lead; Brittany Ann Byuarium Newsome or Bree when she’s donning her cape and climbing gear, pulled herself up a damn 30 FOOT POLE. Retrieved the flag, detached it from it’s Cat’s Bird Seat, climbed back down and returned that shit to the Earth. Bruh…How am I supposed to watch quarterfinals for American Ninja Warrior after this when their biggest achievement after accomplishing a similar feat is promoting their own gym at the end of an obstacle course.

Art by @Niall_JayDub
Art by @Niall_JayDub

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Captain Newsome’s origin story is different from your standard superhero because it didn’t have some hugely traumatic event to trigger her heroism, she’s just knows her activism was the right thing to do. So where are we going to see Newsome’s story manifest itself in the comics? There are a few likely candidates:

Storm (Marvel)

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way because Storm still is the most popular Black Woman character in comics by a wide margin. She’s also a fighter for the people and for human rights everywhere, especially if you’ve been reading Greg Pak’s run of Storm. Storm can fly, so she probably ain’t climbing any flag poles, but it would be baddass to see her swoop in over Charleston, conjure a thunderstorm and have lightning strike down the Confederacy. Again. Because they lost before.

Monica Rambeau (Marvel)

Look, Monica aka Spectrum aka about 7 other different names is made of pure light. Nuff Said. She’s also a natural leader, doesn’t do well with a challenge with her authority and ain’t scared to put folks on notice when they are messing up. Sounds like our newest hero to me. How would Monica deal with taking down the flag? She would probably absorb all the light on the Statehouse grounds until the flag was completely devoid of color and only a white flag remained. As in surrender. As in something the Confederacy has done already. And then she would probably vaporize the whole damn spot and tell the lawmakers to start over.

Penny Rolle (Image)

Ayo, you don’t end up being one of the most notrious inmates on Bitch Planet unless everybody in the spot knows you ain’t one to fuck with. I think everybody knows by now that Captain Newsome ain’t one to fuck with. Like Newsome, Penny is unapologetically Black, even when she knows that means the authorities will take that out on you. Climbing poles though, sheeyet, that ain’t how Penny gets down. She would’ bend that joint in half, rip the flag off the pole and then use beat up on the 10 or so State Troopers that THOUGHT they were going to come collect her fade.

We may not need a comic book, because what Captain Newsome pulled off on Saturday morning is some real “…comes great responsibility” shit on its own without being restricted to panels. Plus, we already got the movie rights below.

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  • William is the Editor-In-Chief, leader of the Black Knights and father of the Avatar. With Korra's attitude, not the other one.

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