By Jonita Davis
With all the press about the new Miles Morales Spiderman series, the blerd world carries a soft spot for a live-action black teen hero. Keloid could fill that space. In fact, after watching the first episode of the new superhero webseries, I can safely say that the makers of Keloid are certainly giving a good try at filling that hole. Â
The series opens up with mom (Aba Woodruff) checking on her son, Keloid (David Nixon). There’s spark, a big one that makes mom wake up her boy. What we expect to follow is a mom checking her son to be sure that he is okay, to ensure that the bright blue spark caused little to no damage. However, you will find that nothing about Keloid works like we would expect. Mom wakes up the son, Keloid, and tells him to get in a chair. But she doesn’t want him to walk over. No, mom wants her baby boy to teleport…
Yes, you heard right.
This is where Keloid starts going off the normalcy rails and into the realm science fiction that we love so much. Apparently, mom explains after realizing Key can’t jump/teleport, that the entire family has abilities. These abilities appear on a schedule, an important schedule that the mom was very worried about. Key is missing steps. Something must be wrong.
This web series is an independent offering, but the story works to make you forget that part as it moves along. There is action and drama enough to maintain a good pace. Things do tend to slow down when the mom and Key are having their heart to hearts, but this is also the time when some of the show’s more important information is being offered. The lulls in action thus became moments of knowledge for the audience. Fortunately, they do not overrun the show.
Overall in the series, the mother-son dynamic is culturally unique and shows a real understanding of the nuances in having a black superhero beyond the color of his skin. This family is special, haunted by past deeds, and being hunted for their potential. Watching how they deal with this, in addition to their blackness is interesting to watch.
Keloid is filmed in NYC and is like a Luke Cage for the teen audiences; a Spiderman: Homecoming for black nerds. If showrunner Huriyyah Muhammed, founder of the Black TV and Film Collective, can keep the action and suspense up from week to week, then Keloid will definitely be the next great superhero show.
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