Posted in: Boom, Comics | Tagged: boom studios, dark blood, jj abrams, LaToya Morgan

JJ Abrams' Co-Writer LaToya Morgan's Dark Blood, Boom's Next Big Hit?

As we mentioned earlier this week, one of Boom Studios' bigger creator-owned series' launches for 2021 is up for Final Order Cutoff today. Dark Blood by screenwriter LaToya Morgan and up-and-coming artist Walt Barna was first announced by Boom at this year's ComicsPRO Annual Conference, usually a clear signal that it's an important launch title for the publisher as they've demonstrated in the past with series like Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora's Once & Future, Tom Taylor and Daniele Di Nicuolo's Seven Secrets, and Al Ewing and Simone Di Meo's We Only Find Them When They're Dead. All of those series have gone on to be anchors for Boom's publishing line and we imagine they have the same hopes for Dark Blood. 

And one can see why, as Morgan is currently in an overall deal with DC parent company, Warner Brothers, that includes her co-writing a series with J.J. Abrams and starring Lost heartthrob Josh Holloway for HBO Max called Duster. With her past credits writing on fan-favourite shows like The Walking Dead and Into The Badlands giving her much-needed authenticity and her current heat in Hollywood, it's not difficult to understand why Boom bet on a new series with Morgan. I'd be interested to know who's first-look deal – Boom's at Netflix or Morgan's at WB – will take precedence when it comes time to shop Dark Blood for the seemingly inevitable media option.

But before that happens, Boom is throwing everything they have at the series including using their one Diamond Previews catalogue cover this year to spotlight the main cover by Bitch Planet's Valentine De Landro. They've also tapped cover artist Juni Ba, best known for his covers on Excellence, and brought in Mora for 1-in-25 and 1-in-50 incentive covers whose profile continues to rise thanks to his run on Detective Comics. I'm hearing that those efforts, along with Boom's general heat when it comes to creator-owned series this year, seems to have caught retailers' attention resulting in nine exclusive variant covers getting snatched up. What's more, I'm hearing that initial orders for the series are on par with Cullen Bunn and Jonas Scharf's Basilisk which thus far has been Boom's second-biggest launch this year after Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, and Ron Garney's BRZRKR.

It's a bold move, and not without risk, as the series tackles the long, dark history of racism and violence against Black people, particularly Black men, in America head on… albeit through a superheroic sci-fi lense. From what I've seen and read, Dark Blood could be a modern Truth: Red, White, & Black, which recently came back in the spotlight thanks to Isaiah Bradley's role in Falcon & Winter Soldier. It's also not a world away from the use of alternate history to tackle race relations as HBO did in Watchmen.  Dark Blood takes place in 1955 in Alabama where the Montgomery bus boycott began at the end of the same year, which hardly seems like an accident. Add in main character Avery Aldridge's past as a World War II pilot in the same state that was home to the Tuskegee Airman and the infamous experiments perpetrated on them and it's clear that Dark Blood will be tackling the ugly parts of America's history as text rather than subtext. Dark Blood #1 FOCs this coming Monday, June 28th.

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