Indigenous superheroes take on colonialism and saving the planet in new graphic novel

Imagine a network of Indigenous superhero operatives who battle colonialism, threats to the environment and reclaim stolen Indigenous artifacts around the world.

That's the premise of the upcoming graphic novel KABOOM! Volume 1: Blast Off! by Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg writer and artist Jay Odjick.

“We're building a whole world of interconnected Indigenous people working together and trying to present heroic depictions,” he said.

KABOOM! Volume 1: Blast Off! is the first of a three-part series from Scholastic Canada, set to be released Feb 3.

Odjick, whose Algonquin community is in Quebec about 150 kilometres north of Ottawa, said he and illustrator KC Oster are just two rez kids who love comics, telling stories today’s youth can identify with.

He describes the graphic novel as a “sci-fi infused/high action/comedy/summer blockbuster-style book." 

Odjick said he grew up with comic books and learned to read by looking at them. He says Indigenous storytelling has always been more than an oral culture.

He said comics are “just stories being told with pictures in a sequence” not unlike petroglyphs or wampum belts, which use symbols to tell a story.

He said the stories he watched growing up, like the Indiana Jones movies, resonate differently for him now as an adult. 

“As a kid I was like, 'I love Indiana Jones. This is fun,'" he said.

"As an adult I'm like, 'He's kind of a thief.'”

In KABOOM! Volume 1: Blast Off!, Odjick said, the narrative is flipped.

The antagonist is an archaeologist named Montana Johnson who believes he’s discovered an artifact but from the perspective of the local Indigenous people, it's always belonged to them.

The main character and his parents, who are superheroes, are Anishinabe and part of a group called FUSION (First Universal Secret Indigenous Operatives Network) — a global network of Indigenous operatives.

Oster, who is Ojibway Anishinaabe from Rainy River First Nation in northwestern Ontario, said it was an easy novel to illustrate, bringing characters to life based on the manuscript.

"A lot of these characters are people that I know," Oster said.

"Like, these are my cousins and my aunties and my uncles — the kind of humour, the way that they talk, the way that they kind of navigate the world."

So far, Kaboom! Volume One: Blast Off! will be released in English and French in Canada, and in Denmark, India and Israel. 

“We're going to have these Indigenous heroes available on a mass-market scale, which I think is pretty unprecedented,” Odjick said.