A Much Needed History Lesson and Vivid Reimagination – ‘The Adventures of Lion Man’ Review

Creators: John Jennings, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Bill Campbell, Damian Duffy, David Brame / Rosarium Publishing Last week, we here at Black Nerd Problems got to present an exclusive about the latest project from Jennings, Ndlovu, Campbell, Duffy, and Brame: The Adventures of Lion Man. If you missed the exclusive, we’ll quickly recap some of the historical context that also lives within the book proper. Back in 1947, Orrin C. Evans created one of the world’s first Black superheroes: Lion Man, whose singular appearance was in the singular issue of All Negro Comics. As you can imagine, the late 1940’s weren’t particularly kind to the publication and the ANC team couldn’t find a distributor, so the character faded into obscurity. But as luck would have it, Lion Man re-entered the public domain in a post-Black Panther world and now the character created by Orrin C. Evans and George J. Evans Jr. gets a second life in 2025. The Adventures of Lion Man is a fascinating cross section of anthology, celebration, and reinvention. After the opening remarks from Michael Dando about the history of the book, we immediately transition to the original Lion Man story by Evans and Evans. The foreword is short and succinct: Lion Man is American-born, college educated and has been sent to guard the “Magi Mountain” of the African Gold Coast as it contains far too much uranium. Getting to the original story imparts a true sense of gravitas to the collection, as we get to see the precursor to so much medi…