Abbott: 1973 #1
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
In a new series for fans of Something is Killing the Children and Bitter Root, Saladin Ahmed, the visionary writer behind Miles Morales: Spider-Man, and Sami Kivelä, the acclaimed artist behind Machine Gun Wizards, reunite for this Must Read supernatural thriller. Detroit’s hardest hitting journalist, Elena Abbott, is trying to make a fresh start at a new newspaper...but her deadly past isn’t ready to let go. The city is days away from the historic election of a Black candidate as their new Mayor, but a vicious new group has emerged to destroy him, targeting anyone who supports his campaign or the change he represents. That means Abbott, who discovers the group’s connection to a dangerous dark magic, has been targeted for certain death - unless she embraces her true power as the Lightbringer to save her city.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ahmed follows up an Eisner Award–winning run on Marvel's Black Bolt series by bringing back his spooky-sexy urban horror-fantasy that merges newsreel details with Saturday morning fun and features a 1970s-era queer African American crusading reporter named Elena Abbott. Ahmed, a Detroit native, deconstructs his hometown's complicated political and social history as he frames battles between the demons of the city's past and hopeful warriors of the still-revolutionary period. A ghastly cabal broods over the city and wields deadly, body-snatching sorcery that can only be extinguished by the mystical glow emanating from Abbott, "the Lightbringer," whose powers include shooting rays of light and summoning helpful spirit guides. The hotly anticipated election of the city's first Black mayor (unnamed but assumed to be Coleman Young, who took office in 1974) gives way to intimidation from racists and organized crime. Meanwhile, lingering tensions simmer between Abbott and her lover and family, as well as the chauvinistic boss of her Black-owned newspaper. Kivelä stacks close-up mini-panels of heated conversations and renders spirited action, detailed landscapes, and visceral monsters (though some of the hairdos and fashion appear to reference later eras). Pulp and politics mix in this relatively straightforward supernatural tale; though it doesn't elevate the genre, it satisfies its goals and does so with a refreshingly diverse cast.
