In his foreword to Messenger, the new graphic biography of Muhammad Ali from First Second Books, author Marc Bernardin makes it clear that he’s taken some liberties with the facts. “Maybe some lines are smushed together,” he writes. “Maybe meetings and conversations are taking place in the “wrong” places. Maybe no one ever said these things in exactly these ways. Maybe some chapters are completely made up…. In other words, you are 100 percent going to fail a test on Muhammad Ali if this is your only resource.”
To his credit, Bernardin takes time to list many of the sources he used in a separate bibliography at the back of the book. Skimming through the list, it’s easy to see how the articles cited line up with the various chapters. Even so, as with any legendary, larger-than-life character, “Some of what you’re about to read in these [twelve] rounds, or chapters, is absolutely, verifiably true. But other parts…feel true.”
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Indeed, the passion Bernardin feels for his subject proves to be a double-edged sword. If you come to Messenger with a high level of familiarity with and admiration for its protagonist, you will surely welcome the book as a dynamic, nuanced, and impressive addition to the Muhammad Ali biographic canon. If, on the other hand, you are less familiar with the book’s subject and the socio-political context in which it unfolds, it may feel episodic, somewhat disjointed, and incomplete.
Within the first two chapters, for example, we jump from Ali’s “origin story” as a boxer in 1954 (having his bicycle stolen and subsequently meeting his first boxing coach, police officer Joe Martin) all the way to 1960 when Ali won Olympic gold in Rome. While I understand the decision to cut out filler that isn’t germane to the story Bernardin wants to tell, jumping from boyhood to the Olympics feels like a pretty big leap. Consequently we learn nothing nothing about his journey from being some random kid who wandered in gym to a celebrity amateur boxer who went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles and two national Golden Gloves titles.
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To be clear, the Olympic montage is stellar. The clever juxtaposition of illustrator Ron Salas’s kinetic, action-packed grayscale drawings with the contemporary media’s transparently biased critique of Ali’s style is a brilliant example “show, don’t tell.” We can’t help but cheer for Ali and empathize with unenviable role of being an international Black superstar who can’t eat at a white lunch counter or drink from a white water fountain.
Ultimately, the twelve episodes, or “rounds,” that Bernardin depicts are wonderfully told and beautifully rendered. Each chapter, in its own way, is informative, inspirational, revealing, and poignant—a dazzling microcosm of the world heavyweight champion’s life in a highly racialized country that won’t give him the respect he deserves because of his skin color.
First Second
It’s impossible for any biography in any medium to fully capture the life of someone like Muhammad Ali. Rather than taking us through his protagonist’s complex life point by point from beginning to end, author Marc Bernardin takes a different tack. Bookended by Ali lighting the Olympic torch in 1996, Messenger explores 12 key moments in the life of one of the 20th century’s most iconic and controversial figures. Ali’s deeply held convictions, political activism, and larger-the-life persona may be deeply rooted in the Civil Rights era. His message, however, is timeless.
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