Our sister company, Shadow & Act reported that Nnedi Okorafor's Afro-futuristic novel, Who Fears Death will be produced as a series for HBO.

Now, the Nigerian-American author is blessing readers with an, even more, epic story titled "Blessing in Disguise" that tells the triumphs of Ngozi, an unlikely Nigerian super heroine which was published by Marvel on Wednesday.

"Blessing in Disguise" is the first Marvel story to be set in a non-fictional African country, unlike Wakanda, and is inspired by Nigeria's kidnapped Chibok girls who fight evil in Lagos. Real life superheroes.

“It was an important decision for me to base Ngozi on one of the Chibok girls,” said Nnedi Okorafor per Reuters.

So what is the story behind the Chibok girls?

In 2014, 220 schoolgirls in Chibok, northeast Nigeria, were abducted by Boko Haram, a militant group. The Islamist Boko Haram group has killed 20,000 people and uprooted at least 2 million in the last eight years, in addition to the abduction.

Photo: Afolabi Sotunde

“They were normal girls who suddenly had to deal with a huge change in their lives … and their story of perseverance is so powerful,” said Okorafor. “Like many Nigerian girls, Ngozi comes in a small package but is strong-willed and determined.”

Though Okorafor is a Wonder Woman fan, she said that her desire to write the adventures of Ngozi is to add to the diversity drought in superhero comics.

“I‘m a huge Wonder Woman fan, but we can really push it further when it comes to diversity,” said Okorafor, who is also an English professor at the University at Buffalo in New York. “I‘m not just talking about race and sexual orientation, but about having a range of personalities with different desires, dreams, and flaws,” she added. “I don’t only want to see badass female characters, I want to see much less predictable ones.”

Ngozi even has connections with fan-favorite Black Panther.

A preview page of my 8 -page short, "Blessing in Disguise". pic.twitter.com/CN49zqRKyq

— Nnedi Okorafor, PhD (@Nnedi) September 6, 2017

In the eight-page short story as a part of Marvel's "Venomverse", Ngozi makes her appearance alongside several popular characters such as Black Panther and Venom.

While it is unclear if Ngozi will make it to the silver screen, we can only hope to at least catch a glimpse of her in the Black Panther flick out next year or future Marvel movies to come.

Blessing in Disguise

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