Shonen Manga’s First Black Girl Protagonist Returns With a Bang!

Warning: this manga may make you question why the hell no one has done this before. When we originally wrote our list of the Five Blackest Manga People Should Be Reading, I have to admit that I was floored that Clock Striker didn’t yet have a viral fanbase like many of the other comics. Anybody who grew up with any of the fast-paced, thrilling adventures of the Shonen Jump family are familiar with the determined and lovable main characters that comprise “boys'” manga, and this comic hardly seems out of place in this genre. Thankfully, after a nearly year-long hiatus, we can finally find out what happened to the badass inventor of Black Girl Science.

Written by Saturday AM magazine founder Frederick L. Jones and drawn by artist Rekse, Clock Striker stars 12-year-old Cast, a girl with the flyest of locs training to be a Forgemaster, fighters that are “part ninja, part engineers.” Smiths were established after humanity was endangered due to the Technos Wars, and to help keep balance they teach apprentices called Strikers (Cast’s mentor is a legend named Philomena Clock, thus Clock Striker). In a world where your wits are your weapon, it’s neither size nor strength that garners respect but your imagination and the ability to bring your ideas to life. Like shonen hit Naruto, Clock Striker’s environment exists in a pleasantly gray space between our reality and a parallel steampunk-esque dimension, so you’re never quite sure what’s already been invented or what clever solutions wil…