Black Cotton #1 is an interesting concept of a comic. The world is similar to ours but the dynamics of race are switched. Whites are the minority in this world. The story dives into race relations and power when a Black police officer from a wealthy family shoots a White woman he thought was armed. It’s a story that plays our far too often in our world with the races reversed. I was hoping Black Cotton would have something intriguing to say on the subject, unfortunately, the debut issue doesn’t seem to.

Entertainment can be a powerful way to explore our world and discuss issues that society must deal with. The exploration of race relations and power dynamics is nothing new and something that has been well done in comics in recent years. Black took us to a world where only Black individuals had superpowers. It showed how that impacted race relations and exacerbated the issues that we deal with in the real world. I was hoping Black Cotton #1 would give us something else to really think about but the story just delivers a similar world where just the skin color of the individuals has changed.

The rich are still rich trying to by silence and skirt justice. The minorities are up in protest over the abuses of the rich and powerful. It’s our real world story just the races of the perpetrators and victim have changed. There’s nothing very new or interesting in that so far. About all that stands out is some scenes of protests where signs are emblazoned with slogans about “white lives”. This could be intriguing is “white lives matter” wasn’t so politically charged as is. Creators Patrick Foreman and Brian Hawkins aren’t delivering anything thought provoking yet. The story they present seems to be making the argument that race is the corruption, money and power are the corruption. It throws out race dynamics as an underlying issue squarely focused on the economic division. It’s a real world debate but as presented is a bit clunky.

The art by Marco Preugini is good. The character designs and world feel realistic and lived in. The characters deliver a lot of emotion in their frustrations, guilt, sadness, and more. The emoting is the highlight of the art and the comic. The comic is in black and white and while interesting in a meta sort of way it hurts the comic a bit as the difference between races isn’t as clear as it would be in color. There’s a lessoning of the impact of the point of the comic.

Black Cotton #1 has potential. It could be a hell of an exploration of race relations. But, the first issue delivers a familiar story with the only difference being the color of the skin. It doesn’t provide anything new or interesting to chew on. In fact, it feels like it distills our real world ills to economic disparity and that’s it. It’s simplistic in its approach. Hopefully future issues deliver a bit more to chew on and contemplate as the story progresses.

Story: Patrick Foreman, Brian Hawkins Script: Brian Hawkins
Art: Marco Perugini Letterer: Francisco Zamora
Story: 6.0 Art: 6.75 Overall: 6.0 Recommendation: Pass

Scout Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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Purchase: Scout Comics