The Crew (comics)

Fictional gospel rapper

The Crew is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics featuring teams of superheroes primarily of African descent banding together in New York City to fight injustice. The first series was published in 2003 and ran for seven issues. The series was written by Christopher Priest and illustrated by Joe Bennett. The second series, a revival known as Black Panther and the Crew, was published in 2017 and ran for six issues. It was written by Ta Nehisi Coates and illustrated by Butch Guice.

According to writer Christopher Priest's pitch, The Crew was about four hardened heroes who had all lost their families and came together initially out of self interest, but would soon discover their commonality of loss. The Crew consisted of orphans. These men were dedicated to their respective goals, but each had a hole in his center. The seven stories released prior to cancellation were introductory pieces. If the series had continued, it would have highlighted each man's personal evolution.

After the success of his run on Black Panther, Coates launched the spin off title Black Panther and the Crew, a revival of the 2003 series. Coates originally wanted to use the same characters from the 2003 series, but found that a number of them weren't available.

The Crew takes place in the No man's land between the streets of the fictional "Little Mogadishu" and those of the fictional exclusive gated community of "Princeton Walk" in Brooklyn, New York. Princeton Walk was developed by Grace & Tumbalt, a largely black owned corporation, who cleaned up a section of Brooklyn and moved the criminal element and the poverty line residents out. Little Mogadishu is a side effect of the gentrification process so that displaced criminal and poverty elements are now concentrated in a war zone outside Princeton Walk's walls.

Black Panther and the Crew takes place in the context of All New, All Different Marvel. Following Black Panther's evidence of outside influences fueling dissent in Wakanda, T'Challa calls on Luke Cage, Misty Knight, Storm, and Eden Fesi. Luke Cage describes the group as "The Crew". The series is set in Harlem and the plot is set into motion by an episode of police brutality.