In an interview author Octavia Butler discussed how she placed her 1979 novel ‘Kindred’ in Baltimore, Maryland instead of the deep-south to emphasize that freedom was a breath, yet a world away. ‘Kindred’ involves the complex legacy of slavery, its psychological breakdown of the enslaved, and a form of terrorism that the United States has yet to have a nationwide conversation about. Harriet Tubman, a woman whose life needs no embellishment escaped Maryland to freedom in 1849 only to return several more times and free scores of people, including several of her family members. During her lifetime Tubman was an abolitionist, became a spy for the union army, a crack shot with a rifle and a major conductor of the Underground Railroad. It’s not surprising that there are several books both fiction and biography, films and other forms of works depicting her legendary exploits. But what about Harriet Tubman fighting demons?
Think about slavery as an insidious evil. People who actively subjugate other human beings through ownership. Then you have a system in place where you have them hunted down for escaping an oppressive, unstable way of life. Then it’s not an impossible to consider Harriet Tubman battling malevolent forces. David Crownson has created and written an historical figure into a plausible situation. With her skillset you can believe that the evil Tubman is fighting can be supernatural. The artwork of Joey Vazquez, with colorist Josh Burcham and letterer Courtland Ellis heightens the realness of the dangers when you’re on the run from slave-catchers. The black characters don’t all look generically the same. Even the horde of demons that are fought off with various weapons have their own look. It’s not like that scene in the animation ‘Vampire Hunter D’ where you see the main character continuously cutting through the same set of figures as if on a continuous loop. No, the danger in ‘Harriet Tubman: Demon Slayer’ feels real.
Tubman is drawn and inked not in the photographs we see of her in later years. Instead we see a younger Harriet where she has a quiver of arrows, a rifle and a red bandana covering her head. Her sinewy, athletic body leaps in the air, carries people twice her size and appears to be capable of anything. One exaggerated claim is that the real Tubman had a bounty on her of approximately 40, 000 when in reality it was closer to 100 and that was when she had first attempted to escape with her two brothers. Harriet Tubman is the epitome of legend being easily believed.
This fantastical, probable world Crownson creates shows that Harriet Tubman is necessary. Her ability to physically fight in this comic-book is the equivalent to the real life black woman who used her intuition, wits, bribery, disguising herself in order to do her part is no small feat. What’s more historical fiction with a supernatural bent makes for a lot to look forward to in the new year.
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