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SCENE : SPOTLIGHT<br />
OUT OF<br />
THIS<br />
WORLD<br />
It’s no longer<br />
a fantasy—these<br />
Black actresses<br />
are taking sci-fi<br />
from the page<br />
to the screen<br />
BY JAMIE<br />
BROADNAX<br />
DANAI<br />
GURIRA<br />
LUPITA<br />
NYONG’O<br />
FLORENCE<br />
KASUMBA<br />
THUNDER<br />
aka Anissa Pierce<br />
Black Lightning<br />
The CW, premieres January 16<br />
MISTY KNIGHT<br />
aka Mercedes Knight<br />
Marvel’s Luke Cage<br />
Netflix, season two this year<br />
THE DORA MILAJE<br />
aka Okoye, Nakia and Ayo<br />
Black Panther<br />
in theaters <strong>February</strong> 16<br />
Welcome to Wakanda, the<br />
ancestral home of King<br />
T’Challa, alias Black Panther,<br />
and where fierce female warriors<br />
are sworn to protect him.<br />
The Dora Milaje—translation:<br />
the “adored ones”—will be portrayed<br />
on-screen by Danai<br />
Gurira (Okoye), Lupita Nyong’o<br />
(Nakia) and Florence Kasumba<br />
(Ayo). Letitia Wright plays<br />
T’Challa’s sister, Shuri.<br />
BACKSTORY: The Dora<br />
Milaje made its first comic<br />
book appearance in Black<br />
Panther, Vol. 3 #1 (1998). The<br />
women are typically bald<br />
with tribal markings and<br />
wear suited armor (so<br />
they’re ready for battle at all<br />
times). In the comics there<br />
have been some dramatic<br />
moments between Nakia<br />
and T’Challa when she falls in<br />
love with him. But once she<br />
realizes the feeling is not<br />
mutual, she turns on him<br />
and ends up becoming the<br />
villain Malice.<br />
What comes after lightning?<br />
Thunder! In the new CW series<br />
Black Lightning, created and<br />
executive-produced by Salim<br />
and Mara Brock Akil, we’ll meet<br />
Anissa Pierce, Black Lightning’s<br />
oldest daughter (played by<br />
Nafessa Williams). Early in the<br />
TV show, Anissa reveals her<br />
superpowers and her alter ego,<br />
Thunder. BACKSTORY: The<br />
character debuted in the DC<br />
comic Outsiders, Vol. 3 #1<br />
(2003). In it she’s a graduate<br />
school student. Her powers<br />
emerge when she discovers<br />
her community is in deep<br />
trouble. Anissa later joins the<br />
Outsiders and meets Grace<br />
Choi, whom she begins dating.<br />
The relationship between<br />
Thunder and her father grows<br />
contentious after he learns<br />
about his daughter’s sexuality.<br />
NAFESSA<br />
WILLIAMS<br />
JANELLE<br />
MONÁE<br />
ALEXIS<br />
from the episode “Autofac”<br />
Philip K. Dick’s<br />
Electric Dreams<br />
Amazon Prime, streaming now<br />
It seems like a dream come<br />
true when our Electric Lady,<br />
actress and musician Janelle<br />
Monáe, stars in one of the ten<br />
episodes of the sci-fi series<br />
Philip K. Dick’s Electric<br />
Dreams. In “Autofac” Monáe<br />
plays a representative of a<br />
manufacturing company that<br />
believes humans consume<br />
products to be happy, and for<br />
consumption to be continuous<br />
they must be denied freedom<br />
of choice and free will. Black<br />
Girl Magic bonus: Mudbound’s<br />
Dee Rees directs the timely<br />
episode “Kill All Others,” featuring<br />
Vera Farmiga.<br />
BACKSTORY: Penned by<br />
prolific sci-fi writer, the late<br />
Philip K. Dick, Dreams joins an<br />
impressive list of his work that<br />
has lived on such as Blade<br />
Runner, Total Recall and<br />
Minority Report.<br />
Jamie Broadnax (@JamieBroadnax) is the creator of Black Girl Nerds<br />
and Misty Knight’s Uninformed Afro podcast.<br />
Mercedes “Misty” Knight,<br />
played by Simone Missick,<br />
is the heart and soul of<br />
Marvel’s Luke Cage, the<br />
Netflix series that stars Mike<br />
Colter and is executiveproduced<br />
by Cheo Hodari<br />
Coker. The show unpacks<br />
more about Misty’s origin<br />
and history than the comic<br />
book canon ever did.<br />
BACKSTORY: Misty first<br />
appeared in Marvel<br />
Team-Up, #1 (1972), but<br />
has mostly been featured<br />
either in an ensemble or<br />
alongside Colleen Wing as<br />
a part of the private<br />
investigative duo in the<br />
Daughters of the Dragon<br />
comics. She’s known for<br />
wearing a bionic arm<br />
composed of vibranium<br />
(a natural resource of<br />
Wakanda, which is also in<br />
Captain America’s shield).<br />
Misty’s arm is also technopathic,<br />
which gives her the<br />
ability to manipulate robots.<br />
SIMONE<br />
MISSICK<br />
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: COURTESY OF AMAZON PRIME VIDEO/SONY PICTURES TELEVISION; COURTESY OF NETFLIX;<br />
CARIN BAER/THE CW NETWORK ©2017; MATT KENNEDY ©MARVEL STUDIOS <strong>2018</strong>. BROADNAX, COURTESY OF SUBJECT.<br />
56 ESSENCE.COM FEBRUARY <strong>2018</strong>
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