ABSTRACT
The comic series Bitch Planet follows Kamau Kogo as she is expelled to a dystopian prison planet and framed for the murder of a fellow inmate. Kamau is pressured by the guards to take a plea deal rather than await further sentencing, with this deal requiring that she use her athletic skills to recruit other inmates and form a team to compete in the televised Megaton games. This chapter explores how Kamau’s identities as a Black woman, an incarcerated person of color, and a former professional athlete inform both why she is offered a plea deal in the prison and why she is penalized within the speculative storyworld of Bitch Planet for showing anger toward the system. In particular, this chapter proposes that Kamau can be read as a Black feminist superhero whose superpower is reclaiming anger from the confines of the angry black woman stereotype in the U.S. imaginary.
