This Is What Happens When Superheroes Are Reimagined As Black Women

From Dragon Ball Z to the Powerpuff Girls, there was always one thing missing: people of color. Growing up, the iconic heroes that we watched on Saturday mornings didn't always reflect or celebrate the diversity of the real world. That's what the new sketchbook B.R.U.H. aims to change. B.R.U.H. (Black Renditions of Universal Heroes) is the brainchild of L.A.-based artist Markus Prime, who rose to Instagram fame thanks to his reimagined illustrations of pop culture characters as Black women. The 100-page sketchbook shows a collection of gender and race swaps of popular superheroes and anime characters, featuring Black women of all shades. "I feel like in the year 2016, there should be far more representation. This is not even just limited to Black people, but to people of color in general," Prime told Paper magazine about his inspiration.

B.R.U.H. features reimagined Powerpuff Girls in various shades with curly hair and a Black female version of Dragon Ball Z's Goku with an Afro. But the diversity isn't just reflected in skin tones and hair, there's also hints of Black culture embedded into each character. For example, Naruto has Bantu knots and Robin wears Nike Air Forces.

"I want to try and help instead of complaining, and use my gift to get that conversation going," Prime told Paper. "I try to work on original characters and things of that nature, too. But I feel like since it is a problem, I can also inspire more artists of color to draw things that they identify with. It'll slowly start helping."