17 Days To Go: Project Preservation VS Supacell

Discussing The Similarities Between Both Worlds

Michael From Supacell and Naye From Project Preservation

Having written and finished the first draft of Project Preservation around three years ago, it was fascinating to see the excitement of Supacell when it debuted on Netflix last month. Black superheroes and everyone loves them! This was something I had dreamed about since I was a young child. I speak more about this here.

Supacell was a great show, absolutely brilliant. It made me think about Ezinne, the main character in my book. While she discovers she has powers that are in another league altogether than the heroes in Supacell (she can potentially destroy an entire planet with the omitted power from both hands) in many portions of the book, she is still struggling to control these said powers.

The heroes in Supacell master their powers either instantly or within a few hours or days. Naye, even after a year of using them, still discovers she is far from mastering them. Sometimes, when she needs them most, they completely fail.

I thought about the two worlds. Supacell being based in North London with a gritty view of the underworld, (albeit displaying some potentially problematic tropes of black people). Project Preservation, mostly being based around a high-tech city with an affluent population, is a completely different feel. The planet is a tropical paradise planet. Rich lush jungles and glistening seas.

There’s no “ghetto” or “hood” stereotypes in the book. Naye, the main character in the book, is an upper class highly educated Android engineer. This was deliberate. Black people involved in criminal activities are sexy to a wider audience, however I purposefully avoided this stereotype for my book.

There are no gangs, there are no ghettos, just an all black planet with all different shades and tones of black people. There is a class of people called the Zumiens, who are the closest you would get to a “ghetto” class of people. If you’re neither Golkann nor Osihlian, you’re Zumien. Like Ad, another one of the main characters.

The last thing Naye wants to do is display or impress with her powers. She doesn’t want her newfound abilities. Especially when she discovers how destructive they are.

Some of her abilities I will keep for the book, so you the reader can discover them for yourselves, but they include almost all the characters in Supacell’s abilities in one. Almost all of their powers at least once, she displays throughout various points in the book.

As I and many others eagerly await Supacell season 2 I hope the interest in black superheroes continues! It would be my ultimate dream for Naye to be involved in that mix.

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