Batman Has Billions. Tia Has a Very Angry Supernatural Mama.
Tia Jackson is a Black woman superhero vigilante in Alicia McCalla's Sentinel Universe. Unlike billionaire superhero Bruce Wayne, Tia faces institutional racism, corruption, and a powerful criminal empire with supernatural gifts from Oya, the Yoruba Orisha of storms and transformation. Here's why I gave Tia a very different kind of power.
Why This Black Woman Superhero Needed a Different Kind of Power
Saturday was Batman Day. So naturally, I celebrated.
I shared a picture of myself standing in front of the Bat-Signal, and then I shared my dear sweet hubby living his absolute best life in front of a green screen at Warner Bros., starring in his own little Batman movie trailer.
It was a lot of fun.
But somewhere between the Bat-Signal and watching my husband become Batman, my author brain kicked in.
I started thinking about Batman and my own superhero vigilante, Tia Jackson.
They're both shaped by devastating loss. Both become vigilantes and look at systems that fail to deliver justice and decide they're going to do something about it.
But then I thought about what each of them actually has to work with.
And that's when it hit me:
Batman has billions. Tia has Oya.
Basically, the white man gets billions and the sista gets a very angry supernatural Black Mama handing out gifts.
And listen...
I laughed HARD when I thought about it.
Because Bruce Wayne gets a Batcave, develop weapons, buy vehicles, fund whatever he needs, and use the enormous resources to accomplish whatever he wants to do.
Tia Jackson?
Baby girl got a goddess.
But once I stopped laughing, I realized that comparison actually says something important about the superhero I created.
Because I made a very specific choice about the kind of power this Black woman inherited.
Bruce Wayne's devastating childhood loss leaves him with an inheritance of enormous material power.
Tia's loss doesn't leave her an empire. It leaves her with grief, institutional racism, and corruption. And then this extremely angry supernatural Mama looks at the situation and essentially says:
Fine. Here. You're gonna need these.
That's funny when I say it like that. But mythically?
That's strong as hell.
Essentially, Bruce Wayne inherits generational wealth. Tia Jackson inherits a fight she didn't create and the ancestral/divine power to help her survive it. And both use what they've inherited to respond to injustice.
But they aren't starting from the same place. Not even close.
Tia Jackson Can't Buy Metronix City
That's the dividing line for me.
Bruce Wayne inherits power that already exists inside the social order.
Tia is given power to challenge a social order that has already harmed her.
She can't buy Metronix City, throw billions of dollars at its problems, purchase her way into every room where power operates or build an unlimited arsenal/construct an entire technological infrastructure around herself. And she certainly can't overpower the system from above.
Tia is standing inside the consequences of that system with everybody else.
She's a Black woman and a legal aid criminal defense attorney.
And long before Oya chooses her to become the Sentinel, Tia already knows what happens when the justice system decides some people are more expendable than others.
Her Aunt Jackie was wrongfully executed.
Ten years later, Tia is still fighting the kind of corruption that killed her. That's where The Sentinel begins: with a woman who has spent a decade trying to make the law deliver the justice it denied her own family.
She believed in evidence, due process and courts. The possibility that if she worked hard enough and fought well enough, she could use the system to protect people like her aunt.
Then she keeps encountering the rot. And eventually she discovers the Iron Talon, an old criminal empire with money, connections, technology, institutional power, people willing to kill for it, and access to supernatural corruption.
So I created a Black woman trying to fight something with vastly more structural power than she possesses.
What could I possibly give her to make that fight survivable?
Apparently, my answer was: A storm goddess.
Tia Gets Oya.
Oya doesn't make Tia wealthy but Oya equips Tia with everything she needs to be successful like her Insight, Shadow, Fury, and Healing.
Enough supernatural power to see what she's facing, survive it, and fight back.
But the truth IS Tia can still be hurt, lose, and make the wrong decision.
And none of Oya's gifts can make the moral choices for her.
As the author, I didn't give Tia a goddess who promised to make everything easy. I gave her a goddess of storms and transformation.
Tia still has to decide what justice means and become the Sentinel.
No One's Coming. So She Did.
There's a line at the center of The Sentinel that keeps coming back to me: No one's coming. So I did.
That's Tia.
Oya can choose her and equip her. But Oya doesn't make Tia become the Sentinel.
Tia still has to look at something bigger than herself and say:
No! You don't get to keep doing this.
That's why I don't think Tia needed Bruce Wayne's billions. She needed enough power to stand her ground.
And one very angry supernatural Mama standing behind her, essentially saying:
Baby, I can't fix these people for you. But I can make damn sure you're equipped to handle your business.
Batman can keep his billions. Tia has Oya.
Ready to Meet the Sentinel?
Tia Jackson is a criminal defense attorney who spent years trying to deliver justice through the system. Then Oya chose her.
Now she's becoming the supernatural vigilante Metronix City never saw coming.
LEARN MORE→ Enter The Sentinel Superhero Vigilante Universe
Want to Go Deeper: The Sentinel's Creed
Read The Sentinel’s Creed and discover the code Tia Jackson is building as she decides what justice means when the system itself is corrupt and listen to “No One’s Coming. So I Did.,” her official theme song.
