Bringing the Awe of Her 10-Year Old Self to the Page: Talking with L.L. McKinney about ‘Power Rangers Unlimited: Heir to Darkness’

L.L. McKinney certainly needs no introduction. The acclaimed author and advocate for equality and inclusion in publishing is a known gamer, Blerd, and just released Nubia: Real One earlier this year. And we were lucky enough to talk with her about her latest work with Power Rangers Unlimited: Heir to Darkness.

BlackNerdProblems: Let’s get started with a question I’ve been wondering, but did you ever imagine your career’s trajectory would take shape like it has over the last few years when you were tweeting about writing Young Justice to taking iconic characters from beloved IPs like Nubia and Astronema? L.L. McKinney: No… No, I did not. *laughter* I literally thought I was just screaming into the void, which is a thing that you do, you know. Just saying stuff that I wanted to do as a fan and for it to end like this still blows me. I honestly don’t feel like it’s real sometimes, even after holding the thing in my hands or seeing it in a PDF or whatever. I’m still just blown away by it.

BNP: So, it’s both constantly impressive and exhausting, but you’re the first Black woman author to write a Power Rangers book. How does that feel, knowing… *that*? L.L.: Well, ’cause it was brought to my attention by someone else who was like “I think you’re the first Black woman to write Power Rangers.” And I was like “oh, huh.” And I was like first, the comics have been around for a little while, so it really wasn’t… none of it’s ever surprising. It’s just disappointing. But it wa…