Raising Dion

When we came across this comic trailer, it left us with a very oddly warm feeling inside. And it’s about as epic as a comic trailer gets. Not withstanding Vandroid. But Raising Dion‘s comic trailer isn’t motion comic / animated but live action, and the VFX in it is pretty believable and awesome.

The trailer is produced by Dennis Liu and Jason Piperberg and the comic itself goes to tackle some of Comics last taboos in regards to race and gender.

The comic book series, written by Dennis Liu and illustrated by Jason Piperberg, takes a unique view on the superhero story, this time from the view of the matriarchal figure. So think Superman’s story, only through the eyes and voice of Martha Kent, or Spiderman’s through the experience of Aunt May. And as you can expect, our gifted Dion is a handful.

Raising Dion‘s synopsis reads:

Nicole, raises her 7 year old son, Dion, who has superpowers. Life was hard enough keeping up with the bills, let alone trying to keep track of her son’s invisibility, plasma powers, and telekinesis. In order to study his progress, Nicole films her son 24/7 with the help of her friend, Pat, who is an aspiring filmmaker.

But when Nicole starts to notice mysterious men tailing her, and with Dion’s developing abilities constantly changing and becoming more powerful, she must find the courage deep within herself that she can raise Dion on her own.

Check out the trailer below:

Liu spoke to the Today Show about his reasons for making a black matriarchal figure the centre of his comic series:

I did not want to play the race card, but honestly, as a member of the DGA EDSC [Directors Guild of America Eastern Diversity Steering Committee] Diversity council for several years, I felt like something had to be done about superhero diversity. I also felt the industry was simply answering the gender card by glorifying women as a war hero, like in The Hunger Games, or the new Wonder Woman film coming out. I think this [approach] works, but I wanted to point out that it doesn’t have to be the only solution.

 
Raising Dion, the indie comic hailing Indy Planet, has the first comic series available for download, with printed copies available for purchase.