JPJOURNEY PLANET // THE FUTURE OF POLICING 53 3 Cover Artist AFUA RICHARDSON 38 The Post-Watchmen World 3 Introduction ERIN UNDERWOOD Flavio Pessanha 4 Suspension of Disbelief and 43 Tulsa PD: Behind The Masks Policing in SF Helena Nash Christopher Golden 46 The Algorithms of Policing 7 Tony Chu & the Fallacy of A Few Anton Marks Bad Apples 49 Considering the Vietnam Brenda Noiseux Equation in Watchmen 8 The Tears of A Policeman James Bacon Brendan DuBois 54 Thoughts on Policing 10 Minority Report Pádraig Ó Méalóid Kenesha Williams 57 Black & Blue Lives Matter 13 Tank Police Mark Slater Chris Irvin & Chris Robinson 59 The Legend of Luthor Arkwright 16 Wrong is Wrong No Matter Who comic panel Does It Bryan Talbot Bracken MacLeod 60 INSTANT FANZINE! Contents 19 The Policing of Existence in Noelle Ameijenda Science Fiction Regina Kanyu Wang Peter Schulte Angel Luis Colón 21 Problematica: The End of the Michelle R. Lane White Hero Jeannette Ng Gerald L. Coleman 69 Editorial Epilogue 24 Who Watches the Watchmen ERRICK NUNNALLY and Who Puts the ‘Supe’ in Superhero? Lisa Macklem 26 Police-For-Hire: Doctor Who’s Judoon David Ferguson 28 Heading Forward, Headlessly Tobias Reckermann 30 The (Police) Man Who Saved My Life and What Came Afterwards Chris M. Barkley 35 The Future Is Now Nicole Givens Kurtz JOURNEY PLANET 53 2 THE FUTURE OF POLICING Cover Artist Introduction AFUA RICHARDSON ERIN UNDERWOOD Afua Richardson is known for her work FOR THIS ISSUE OF JOURNEY Planet, The Future of Policing, we asked contributors on Lovecraft Country and the World of for their thoughts on how police are portrayed in speculative fiction, and how police are Wakanda comic. Her work across viewed by speculative fiction fans and professionals as they reflect upon the events of many other stories includes drawing 2020 — and there was a lot to reflect upon. for X-Men 92, Captain Marvel, To that end, we welcomed personal essays that turned a critical eye toward today’s Captain America, and the Mighty policing issues and how those issues intersect with current and past depictions of law Avengers for Marvel Comics; Wonder enforcement officers. We also invited people to share their thoughts on the newWatchmen Woman Warbringer and All-Star series, and we also asked them to respond to a few Instant Fanzine questions (a Journey Batman for DC Comics; and Mad Planet favorite!). We were specifically looking for areas in which speculative fiction and Max. Her work includes the variant today’s world intersect, where speculative fiction’s premonitions for the future are starting cover for Shuri #2, the Wakanda- to unfold, and where seeds of hope for a better tomorrow might be planted either in real based series written by Nnedi Okorafor life, media, or speculative fiction itself. We were looking for impressions from our community within fandom and that is exactly what we received. Afua also worked with U.S. This edition of Journey Planet is powerful. I think that may unsettle some people. Some Representative and civil rights leader may even argue that it has an anti-police feel because of the unvarnished truths that this John Lewis to illustrate Run, a volume fanzine shares. However, taking the long view, these pieces speak to something larger in his autobiographical comic series and braver than anything Journey Planet has attempted in the past. This is a community co-written with Andrew Aydin. turning its great unblinking eye back upon itself to see what rests within. I had hoped to see more constructive critique on “the future of policing,” but what I learned through In the HBO TV series Lovecraft Country, this process is that you cannot hope to fix something if you are not willing to understand the artist Hippolyta Freeman played it first. by Aunjanue Ellis referenced Afua in This issue of the fanzine is a critical, evaluative look at who we are today through the the season finale when she said that lens of where we’ve been in the media universe of speculative fiction. It astutely captures ‘An artist named Afua taught me’ and the social sentiment of 2020, by communicating the pain, analysis, and anthems for this links beautifully as the art that change emblazoned during the longest year many of us have ever experienced. I am Diana Freeman played by Jada Harris certain that essays of constructive critique alone would have been disingenuous, given draws is actually by Afua Richardson. our world’s events today. I am at peace with what we produced here, and I am inspired by the need to do more. Afua’s first full-length graphic novel Therefore, I hope that this edition of Journey Planet can serve as a jumping-off point for was the award-winning Genius series future discussions on policing, race, and speculative fiction. I also hope that readers will (Image Comics/Top Cow). Written by take what is written here and truly, quietly, and with deep thought listen to what is being Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman, said and hear the stories that lie within these pages. Because they are important. They and drawn by Afua, it tells the story of are the voices of today’s people who are sharing their truths, who are peacefully calling an urban liberation movement led by out for others to hear the crescendo of their call that change is not only needed — it is a strategically gifted 17 year-old girl past due. It is time for these voices and these messages to be heard within our community (topcow.com/genius). Afua did a and within the pages of our fiction in the future. montage of some art from this comic Together, let’s carry these messages forward into 2021, and in the process, let’s give for our cover, and we are very light and life to these seeds and look for ways to be the change agents that our world grateful. needs. After all, what better way to ignite change than in the hearts and minds of the people who imagine and craft the future itself ? www.afuarichardson.com On behalf of the Journey Planet team, we hope you read these stories, hear these messages, and help us to answer the call for change. Editors James Bacon Chris Garcia Guest Editors Erin Underwood Errick Nunnally Design Errick Nunnally JOURNEY PLANET 53 3 THE FUTURE OF POLICING Suspension of Disbelief and Policing in SF Christopher Golden Likewise, I don’t envy any science fiction creator the task of presenting a futuristic vision of policing now that we, the audience, THE MOMENT A PIECE OF science-fiction is created, it will have to work much harder to suspend our disbelief. begins to age, and as the years pass, such fictions begin to trend American pop culture has long accepted the existence of dirty toward absurdity. The further an SF story strays from plausibility, cops, bad cops, killer cops, but even when a cop has “dirty” in his the more it challenges our suspension of disbelief. With love, we name — like Clint Eastwood’s series of films about Dirty Harry embrace it, and in the case of works of high quality or great Callahan — that doesn’t preclude him (nearly always “him”) from nostalgia, our willingness to suspend disbelief is near infinite. In being heroic. I love the early Dirty Harry films, and the second watching Forbidden Planet or reading one — Magnum Force — is about Vonnegut’s Player Piano, some may Callahan taking down a gang of be put off by the trappings of the homicidal cops operating at all story and the sociological context How many times have we seen ranks of the police department. of the era in which they first this character on screen? The They’ve taken the law into their appeared, but others will allow maverick cop who breaks all the own hands, murdering criminals themselves to be swept up in the they believe have gotten away with story, appreciating context but not rules to get results and root out significant crimes. The film is a allowing it to interfere in their the bad guy? favorite of mine, or it was, but when enjoyment. I look at these films in hindsight it’s Watch virtually any SF film or difficult not to begin to sift through TV series made in the past but set them. Harry Callahan is presented in the future and try not to be thrown off when a character uses a to us as a racist, misogynistic, even misanthropic cop, but one whose computer or virtually any kind of technology. Look no further than heart is apparently in the right place. It’s a weird juggling act, Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien and the rudimentary computer watching Magnum Force now. Callahan may not be a murderer, but screens of “Mother” — the look of which is far more 1979 than like the “bad guys,” he’s happy to take the law into his own hands. 2079, the year the film is intended to be set. For further amusement, And he’s just one of so many examples. How many times have we watch an episode of virtually any Star Trek series. The current Star seen this character on screen? The maverick cop who breaks all the Trek: Discovery faces the unique challenge of attempting to look rules to get results and root out the bad guy? realistically futuristic to today’s audience while struggling to maintain I know, I know, these aren’t science fiction films, but bearwith me. the illusion that it is set in the same continuity as the original series, I grew up in a pop culture environment that painted the adven- but a decade before Kirk and Spock set off on their five-year mission.