Archie Comics and basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal are teaming up….but not how you think. The publisher is the home for VENGEANCE UNCHAINED: THE LEGEND OF BLACK CAESAR, a new adventure series developed by O’Neal, with creative team Stephanie Williams and Ray-Anthony Height, as a serious but freewheeling story. Described as a grounded, character-driven pirate epic, thestory follows the transformation of an African king from royalty to slavery to a feared outlaw of the Caribbean.
Williams is on an unprecedented hot streak as the first Black woman writer to even get an Eisner nomination for Best Writer for her work on Street Sharks (IDW), Roots of Madness (Ignition Press), and Temporal (Mad Cave Studios). She’s joined on VENGEANCE UNCHAINED: THE LEGEND OF BLACK CAESAR by Height, Studio Skye-Tiger with Colin Smeeton, Mike Parris, and Matthew Gross from O’Neal’s Jersey Legends Productions/Authentic Studios overseeing the project.
The story is a natural for O’Neal, he said in a statement. “Growing up, I always loved stories about warriors who refused to quit,” O’Neal said. “Black Caesar starts as a king, loses everything, and takes his freedom back on his own terms. That’s the kind of story I want to help tell. We built something that’s going to entertain you and make you think. I’m ready for the world to see what we created with Archie Comics, an iconic brand I have been a big fan of for many years. Archie has such an incredible legacy of storytelling, and being able to collaborate with a brand that has meant so much to generations of fans made this project even more exciting for me.”
With a “GLADIATOR on the high seas” vibe, the book is a new direction for Archie, as they move beyond Riverdale for a book that would be right at home alongside Vikings and other adventure filled streamers. As CEO John Goldwater put it, “A partnership between two pop culture icons like Shaq and Archie is one for the ages.”
VENGEANCE UNCHAINED: THE LEGEND OF BLACK CAESAR is slated for release this year, with additional details to be announced at a later date.
The one sad thing in all this? No artwork accompanied the press release, so we’ll just have to imagine it while we watch the Knicks conquer Wemby in tonight’s NBA finals.
Update; The original headline for this story omitted the name of artist Ray-Anthony Height. The Beat regrets the error.
HELL YEAH! I’m so stoked to see what Ray, Steph, and the crew do with this.