Playwright Howard L. Craft, whose Jade City Chronicles – Vol. 1 premieres this weekend at Manbites Dog Theater, knows all too well about the misuse and mistreatment of our illustrated black saviors. As a man who grew up reading comics as a kid, he recalls right when black superheroes like Cage and Lightning hit the scene.
'The black superheroes—the Luke Cages, the Black Panthers—they didn't, in my opinion, come as a result of [comic-book companies] saying, 'We need diversity in Marvel' [or] 'We need diversity in DC,' says the Durham-born-and-bred Craft, who is 40. 'They came as a result of the success of the blaxploitation film.'
