Look, plenty of celebrities get involved in making comic books. Quite often they are incredibly forgetful books, or the celebrity has basically zero involvement besides licensing their name and likeness to be used in the comic. Exceptions to this, "Rule," exist, of course, because Gerard Way (of My Chemical Romance) and his, "Umbrella Academy," comics remain an utter delight (which also received a Netflix adaptation that varied in quality from amazing and imaginative to uninspiring and tepid). Hence, when I saw a headline declaring Shaquille O’Neal was involved in creating a comic, I assumed it would be something about basketball. That, or involve someone who looks like him that also happens to named Shaq before becoming a superhero, or something. Instead, it is a historical fiction piece on, "...the West African pirate known as Black Caesar, who was active in the Caribbean during the early 1700s." That sounds pretty cool, actually.
"Vengeance Unchained: The Legend of Black Caesar," is the full title of this five-issue mini-series. Shaq isn't super involved in the comic as far as I can tell, with writer Stephanie Williams, and artist Ray-Anthony Height (and his team at Studio Skye-Tiger) doing much of the comic creation, but it is still something that says Shaq, "Presents," so I suppose without his involvement this wouldn't get made. This is the first-ever comic Shaq has been involved with, and I'm not sure if he brought the idea of the book to Archie or they asked him about it, but he discussed in a press release about the book, “Growing up, I always loved stories about warriors who refused to quit. 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.”
The real Black Caesar doesn't have a ton of documentation, but enough is out there to confirm he did exist. He was (apparently) a war chief who became enslaved before joining in piracy and serving under Blackbeard up until that infamous pirate was killed. Black Caesar was arrested and faced trial, but he was acquitted, and then what happened to him next remains a bit of a mystery. I just think it is cool to see a celebrity known for a variety of other things (basketball, sports commentary, a tiny bit of acting, a short rap career) engaging in a comic about a random-but-quite-interesting subject. I'll check out the first issue this October!
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