Blokhedz Vol. 1: Genesis

Written by Mark Davis, Mike Davis, and Brandon Schultz
Art by Mark Davis

I started picking up the Blokhedz mini-series when it debuted back in 2004.  I've long felt that there is nowhere near enough hip-hop in comics (and no, I'm not counting the garbage put out under Wu-Tang Clan's imprimatur) and I wanted to support this book.  The only problem was that it was hella difficult to find, and I never did get a hold of the final issue.  Even though this trade was published a while ago, I only just found it recently, and was happy to finally take this book off my list.

Blokhedz is about Blak, a teenager with lyrical skills, who is growing up in Empire City.  Picture Gotham City, if the entire place was housing projects, and you'd get an idea of what Empire looks like.  He wants to become a famous rapper, and struggles with wanting to remain true to his conscious roots, and taking the commercial route and glorifying his brother Konzaquence's past misdeeds.  Blak gets into conflict with Vulture, the local king of hip-hop (who looks a lot like Ja Rule), his brother is killed, and the story starts meandering all over the place, involving some super abilities, a lion medallion, and the spiritual influence of Empire City's projects being built over Aboriginal graves.

In other words, the book suffers from too many ideas being crammed into too short a space.  The first issue is terrific at establishing Blak's character and his inner conflict, but from there, the trio of writers lose focus.  There are too many elements introduced that don't really work - the police officer with a cyborg arm, the motorized tricycle chase scene, and the demonic record company executive just get in the way of what could have been a very good little comic.

I don't know if the Davis brothers have written any other comics since Blokhedz.  If they have, I've never laid eyes on it, which is too bad, because they are very talented.  With a strong editor, this could have been a very good book.