Genius #1 Review

writers: Marc Bernadin & Adam Freeman / artist: Afua Richardson If you have been keeping up with the criticisms of the new James Brown bio film Get on Up, you’ll know that there is a growing awareness around the way stories concerning people of color are funneled through the vision of people NOT of color and the complications that can bring. This is definitely not the case with the first issue of Genius, a new book with a predominantly Black creative team. That in itself should make you sit up and pay attention, in addition to the fact that it’s also an interesting book in its first effort. Which doesn’t mean that it’s an easy book to get through either.

The story revolves around a 17 year old African-American girl woman named Destiny in Los Angeles who is, you guessed it a genius, that has been able to unite all the L.A. Gangs under one unbroken army as they wage war against the LAPD. The timing of the release is interesting given the headlines of the Eric Garner murder in New York City at the hands of the NYPD, but then again, I guess we’re never that far away from such a story involving police and violence involving black people. Nonetheless, the narrative is challenging. Can you like Destiny and not subscribe wholesale to her methodology? Can you invest in this book without subscribing to unquestioned violence and killing of police officers? I think you can answer yes to both of those questions in some capacity, but more work is going to need to be done on the creative t…