Starred review from March 13, 2023
Jama-Everett (The Liminal People series) and Roach (the Spirit Bear series) reinvigorate Alexandre Dumas’s 1844 revenge tale with an Afro-futuristic slant in this masterful outing. Shackled to a breaking wheel and tortured with leeches, young sailor Quabbinah Dantes relives his recent past as first mate of the bonded ship Pharaon and fiancé to the winsome Jaya. Flashbacks reveal that jealousy caused Dantes’s former friends and crewmates to conspire against him, setting him up for a charge of sedition and imprisonment in Majumba Ya Yew, or “The Castle of Yew.” The core story follows the original’s plot: Dantes becomes proficient in mind, body, and spirit under the guidance of fellow prisoner and philosopher Mufti Hajim, then escapes and remakes himself as the Count of Monte Cristo, dead set on vengeance. Vibrant detailed sequences and dense backstory conjure an alluring world dominated by technology and plagued by ecological collapse. It’s an explosive, bewitching adaptation, layered with cunning plot twists and slick characterizations. Roach’s stylish artwork and sharp color choices build drama and flair, with scenes seeming to curl and ricochet off the page. This feels big-screen ready.
April 15, 2023
Jama-Everett reimagines Alexandre Dumas' classic revenge novel as an afrofuturist tale set hundreds of years in the future against a backdrop of ecological collapse. While in prison, Quabbinah Dantes, first mate of the Pharon, remembers his oncecarefree life: returning to port to marry his fianc�e, Jaya; being falsely accused of sedition against the Landed African Gentry; and being tricked into imprisonment by Regional Proctor Villefort. Dantes plots his escape, promising to "donat[e] the entire sum of my suffering to those responsible," with the tutelage of educated prisoner Mufti Hajim, who tells Dantes the location of the Monte Cristo, a ship lost over a century ago, carrying a host of visionaries and all the technologies they thought could save the world. Jama-Everett doesn't deviate from Dumas' story, instead using the retelling to underscore social issues affecting Black people, like the whitewashing of history, unjust imprisonment, and climate change. Roach brings to life this imaginative future setting in his artwork, featuring angular, dynamic lines and impeccable color choices, while populating the backgrounds with stylishly clothed characters, strange creatures, and unusual technology.
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