Story: Who Is the Black Panther: Part Five
Reviewer: Paul Sebert
Writer: Reginald Hudlin
Pencils: John Romita Jr.
Inker: Klaus Janson
Colorist: Dean White
Letters: VC’s Randy Gentile
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: A Marvel Pop-Art Production!
You heard me right. @$%& Continuity! @$%& it in the Ear! You know why?
Because this is one of the best drawn, lusciously illustrated, snappily written, fast paced books on the market and you just know that continuity Gestapo are going to hate this book. Why? Because it contradicts Christopher Priest’s book from the Marvel Knights line, which itself contradicts Jack Kirby’s series from the 1970s. Never mind the fact that Christopher Priest congratulated Hudlin on this series in his blog. Never mind the fact Kirby frequently ok’ed drastic re-imaginings of classic characters during his life-time.
You see none of this matters, because the continuity elites seem to honestly believe that a typical comics fan really wants to do something stupid like go digging through long out of print Mark Gruenwald-era Captain America issues just to go looking for errors in this month’s New Avengers. See, continuity Gestapo fans irk me for the same reason those skuzzy indy elitists who insist that Fantagraphics is the most important publisher today irritate me. They tend to think being extremely fussy is the same thing as having a functioning brain, or at least having good taste.
What we have here in this story arch is a completely accessible little thrill ride in the vein of Jeff Loeb’s Batman/Superman… only a lot more coherent. As we reach into the penultimate chapter of the “Who Is the Black Panther” arc, King T’Challa has ascended to his rightful thrown in Wakanda just to face the harshest of trials by fire as Wakanda is facing invasion from all sides. Not only has Klaw convinced M’Butu the corrupt head of a neighboring country into helping him, he’s also recruited an all-star lineup of super villains. He’s got Rhino, the hardest working muscle in the Marvel Universe. He’s got future New Thunderbolt the Radioactive Man (no relationship to Bart Simpson’s Favorite Superhero.) He’s got the original Black Knight, who has found religion in a cult dedicated to starting a holy war in Africa. He’s even got Batroc, strait from his guest appearance on “Queer Eye for the Bad Guy” and looking sharp in his new threads.
Oh and just if you happen to think this combined truckload of Supervillain might was too much for even the might of Wakanda to contain, some nogoodnics in the US Government are planning to send some Black Ops agents to invader… er… aid the potentially rogue African nation. Oh and these just aren’t normal black-op types. These are the top-secret Deathlok-esque zombie cyborgs of doom. But don’t think that the most bad-ass king of Wakanda is going to take this invasion sitting down. Here he decides to confront the problem head on, plotting a brilliant plan to take down the Rhino, before deciding to cut off the problem of his neighboring country at its head. But are the dastardly Klaw and zee oh so menacing Batroc zee Leaper one step ahead of our hero?
If comics were music Black Panther would be a freakin’ metal. It’s loud! It’s vibrant! It’s got a solid anti-authority feel to it. But continuity purists are going to hate it.
Solely because no one can hate a good comic like a hardcore comics fan.
But really, we don’t need iron clad continuity. Continuity gave us this…
See Black Panther 1, Continuity Cops, 0.
