written by Ta Nehisi Coates
drawn by Brian Stelfreeze
colored by Laura Martin
The last time I picked up a Black Panther comic book it was being written by filmmaker Reginald Hudlin. I stopped collecting after two issues, even though it was drawn by one of my favorite artists, John Romita Jr., because I honestly couldn't get past how badly written it was. Since then, the title character T'Challa, the King of Wakanda has not really gotten a whole lot of love from Marvel; he's even been replaced by his sister Shuri and has not really had the high profile relaunches that many Marvel books have gotten in the last five years, though he did replace Daredevil as the guardian of Hell's Kitchen a few months before Mark Waid relaunched that particular character.
This new series by renowned reparations activist Ta-Nehisi Coates and acclaimed artist Brian Stelfreeze is probably the most attention they've given the character in a while, undoubtedly in preparation for the character's eventual film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
T'Challa returns to the throne of Wakanda and his role as the Black Panther after a long absence, and in troubled times. He reclaims the mantle from his sister, Shuri who had ruled Wakanda as the Black Panther until her death during the country's invasion by Thanos. Wakanda, in fact, is no longer the indomitable power it once was, having been ravaged by a series of threats from both without and within its borders, and T'Challa himself can feel his people's discontent as he tries to engage in dialogue with Vibranium miners. A riot is ignited, and T'Challa tries in vain to capture the mysterious instigator of all this, a telepath named Zenzi, who eludes his grasp. Meanwhile, one of his elite female royal guard, the Dora Milaje, faces the death penalty for murder. This does not sit well with her fellow guardswoman and lover who goes to extreme measures to save her. Meanwhile, even as he seeks to find and eliminate the threat to Wakanda, T'Challa has another secret mission...
The first thing that struck me about this issue was the dialogue; Coates has quite a gift for it. I had no knowledge of his work before this comic book so I went and read an article of his in The Atlantic about Bernie Sanders' stand on reparation for slavery, and I have to say he brings an intelligence to this book that I don't think it's seen since the acclaimed run of Christopher Priest. Reading this issue I was struck by how far we've come from the days when Marvel was obsessed with hiring Hollywood hacks like Ron Zimmerman and, well, Reginald Hudlin.
As a human rights lawyer I was quite intrigued by the elements touched on its this first issue, such as T'Challa having to combat and subdue dissenters, the existence of the death penalty in a supposedly advanced society like Wakanda and its application to a woman who was basically defending other women from a sexual predator. I perceived a disconnect between the notion of Wakanda being an extremely sophisticated society and the idea that they could still be so out-of-touch with human rights and women's rights in particular, even though they actually had a queen ruling them for some time. For that matter, the notion of a monarchy instead of a constitutional democracy ruling such an advanced country feels like another oddity. Coates doesn't hesitate to point out some of these inconsistencies in his dialogue, and I am intrigued to see how they will play out over time. It may seem like low-key storytelling due to the absence of a world-destroying villain or any significant action sequences, but I'm extremely interested by the political landscape Coates is establishing here. His narrative feels a little disjointed though; while I like the concepts he's playing with here, I feel his storytelling could be little smoother. Still, he clearly has very interesting plans for this series and I'm quite excited to see how events will unfold.
This is my first exposure to Brian Stelfreeze's sequential art; I've only ever seen his work on covers or the "Heroes" one-shot Marvel published right after 9/11. It's definitely not the flashiest I've seen, but it's a perfect complement to Coates' subdued narrative. With the exception of the opening splash, which was pretty powerful as it showed a bowed, wounded T'Challa apparently contemplating on his failings, Stelfreeze's art is mostly a restrained affair. As with Coates' writing though, there's clearly so much just bubbling under the surface.
Not bad for a self-confessed first-time comic book writer; not bad at all.
8/10
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Quick Looks: A Review of Spider-Man #3
written by Brian Michael Bendis
drawn by Sara Pichelli
colored by Justin Ponsor
After the punch-up between Miles Morales, a.ka. Spider-Man and Blackheart that basically spanned two issues, this is exclusively a talking-heads affair, with Miles' parents and grandmother confronting him about his bad grades, with a brief cameo by none other than Kamala Khan herself, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel. More interesting, however, is the meeting at the end of the issue between new crime boss Black Cat and old crime boss Hammerhead, in which they hatch somewhat sinister plans against the new Spidey, which will come to a head next issue, if the tease is to be believed.
Few people do talking heads issues quite as well as Bendis does; he's one of the few writers who is actually able to make these appear to be little more than filler, and this issue is no exception; its message is basically about the importance of staying in school, which is something Miles bitterly reconsiders after a scolding by his grandmother. It's a nice, compact little issue, aimed squarely at younger readers (and certainly not the 20 and 30 somethings who have either graduated or don't intend to go back to school), and I wonder if Bendis didn't have a little spat with his son about going to school before he wrote this.
Pichelli's art is incredible as always, but what's really worth noting here is her smoking hot Black Cat. I quite liked the foreshadowing that took place here and am interested to see how Miles will fare against a heavy hitter Black Cat, who has been a pretty nasty thorn in Peter Parker's side since she decided to go bad. Miles has had it easy so far, but maybe that's about to change.
7.5/10
drawn by Sara Pichelli
colored by Justin Ponsor
After the punch-up between Miles Morales, a.ka. Spider-Man and Blackheart that basically spanned two issues, this is exclusively a talking-heads affair, with Miles' parents and grandmother confronting him about his bad grades, with a brief cameo by none other than Kamala Khan herself, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel. More interesting, however, is the meeting at the end of the issue between new crime boss Black Cat and old crime boss Hammerhead, in which they hatch somewhat sinister plans against the new Spidey, which will come to a head next issue, if the tease is to be believed.
Few people do talking heads issues quite as well as Bendis does; he's one of the few writers who is actually able to make these appear to be little more than filler, and this issue is no exception; its message is basically about the importance of staying in school, which is something Miles bitterly reconsiders after a scolding by his grandmother. It's a nice, compact little issue, aimed squarely at younger readers (and certainly not the 20 and 30 somethings who have either graduated or don't intend to go back to school), and I wonder if Bendis didn't have a little spat with his son about going to school before he wrote this.
Pichelli's art is incredible as always, but what's really worth noting here is her smoking hot Black Cat. I quite liked the foreshadowing that took place here and am interested to see how Miles will fare against a heavy hitter Black Cat, who has been a pretty nasty thorn in Peter Parker's side since she decided to go bad. Miles has had it easy so far, but maybe that's about to change.
7.5/10
Quick Looks: A Review of Daredevil #5
written by Charles Soule
drawn by Ron Garney
colored by Matt Milla
The first arc of the new creative team of Daredevil comes to an end. The Hand have come for Billy Tenfingers, who stole their power, and this time they are not content to send a few dozen ninja; this time they send a giant corpse warrior, who in the course of his attack actually worse than kill Tenfingers; he exposes him to his followers as the coward that he is. Ruined, Tenfingers plans to kill his followers and start over, but Daredevil's new sidekick Blindspot might have something to say about that, so he calls out to Daredevil through a somewhat imaginative use of social networking, and in short order the man without fear is on the scene.
I approached this title with tempered expectations, considering my great affection for the creators that preceded Soule and Garney, and I have to say, while I still found this story all right, it really felt like a let down after the standard of quality that Waid and Samnee set for this title. I would have been more interested, truth be told, to see Soule explain what's been going on in Matt's life since this radical new status quo, but I suppose it'll sell more comic books to to reveal things a little bit at a time. As action-packed stories go, it was all right, it really didn't have anything I hadn't seen before, for all of the hype that's been made about Soule's being a lawyer and Garney's being a martial artist, neither of the creators' talents really contributed anything to the story.
I'm sticking around for Elektra's appearance next issue, and I sincerely hope things start to pick up from this point onwards. The previews for the issue look promising, and I still want to know just what happened to Matt.
6.5/10
drawn by Ron Garney
colored by Matt Milla
The first arc of the new creative team of Daredevil comes to an end. The Hand have come for Billy Tenfingers, who stole their power, and this time they are not content to send a few dozen ninja; this time they send a giant corpse warrior, who in the course of his attack actually worse than kill Tenfingers; he exposes him to his followers as the coward that he is. Ruined, Tenfingers plans to kill his followers and start over, but Daredevil's new sidekick Blindspot might have something to say about that, so he calls out to Daredevil through a somewhat imaginative use of social networking, and in short order the man without fear is on the scene.
I approached this title with tempered expectations, considering my great affection for the creators that preceded Soule and Garney, and I have to say, while I still found this story all right, it really felt like a let down after the standard of quality that Waid and Samnee set for this title. I would have been more interested, truth be told, to see Soule explain what's been going on in Matt's life since this radical new status quo, but I suppose it'll sell more comic books to to reveal things a little bit at a time. As action-packed stories go, it was all right, it really didn't have anything I hadn't seen before, for all of the hype that's been made about Soule's being a lawyer and Garney's being a martial artist, neither of the creators' talents really contributed anything to the story.
I'm sticking around for Elektra's appearance next issue, and I sincerely hope things start to pick up from this point onwards. The previews for the issue look promising, and I still want to know just what happened to Matt.
6.5/10
Saturday, April 9, 2016
"Last Day On Earth" Indeed; A Review of the Walking Dead Season 6 Finale (Spoilers)
directed by Greg Nicotero
written by Scott Gimple and Matthew Negrete
When "The Walking Dead" comic book reached its 100th issue, writer Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Aldard marked the occasion by killing off a major character in one of the most brutal ways imaginable; having that character beaten to death with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. That was a momentous occasion given that the character killed had been with the book almost from the very beginning and was a main fixture in the television series as well.
As a result, this particular event got fans of the television series talking about when and how this particular story would unfold in the show.
And unfold it did last Monday (with several replays throughout the week) in the Season 6 finale. I have to say...I'm a tad disappointed.
I have noted, as of my last post, how I find the quality of this show to be declining and how I am taking issue with how the only challenge that seems to be facing the writers is how else to strip away all moral compunctions of the main characters as they make increasingly extreme decisions to ensure their own survival. I suppose Negan, played in the series by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and his Saviors are being set up as a way to show Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) how far they've fallen and how to rediscover their humanity.
Indeed, in this episode, the Saviors basically trap Rick's group, blocking their every attempt to escape the wide cordon they have established, and at the end, when Rick's group abandon their vehicle and attempt to escape the Saviors on foot, they are captured and the dreaded confrontation takes place, only not quite as we expect it to happen.
Elsewhere, Carol (Melissa McBride), who has left the group following her and Maggie's (Lauren Cohan) harrowing capture by and escape from several Saviors, which resulted in brutally killing their captors, is on her own, but is being pursued by avowed pacifist Morgan (Lennie James) who wants to convince her to return to the group. She is assaulted and overpowered by a wayward Savior, and Morgan must now decide just how important it is to him not to kill anyone, with Carol's life in the balance.
But to get back to the moment this entire season 6 has been building up to: Negan shows up, gives a chilling monologue, parts of which are lifted right out of the comic book, and beats one of the characters to death, but no one, knows who it is, and by no one I mean the camera switches to the point of view of the victim at the moment the beating occurs, so no one knows who got it, and the choices range from leader characters like Rick, Glenn (Steven Yeun), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Carl (Chandler Rigg) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) to perpetual wallflowers like Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt) to relative newbies like Aaron (Ross Marquand), so it's pretty tough to narrow down. Not only that, but apparently when that scene was being filmed, none of the lead actors was present (with Dean Morgan basically just hitting in the direction of the camera) and none of the actors had been told who would die. I suppose that has since been remedied, but it doesn't change the fact that as cliff hangers go, this one felt somewhat mean-spirited.
This wasn't just another season-ender; this was meant to mark a huge milestone for the show. The entire season 6 has come and gone without a major character death, (though they had Glenn's "fake out" death during the first half of the season) and I figured they were "saving up" for this. What viewers got instead was a major cop-out, preceded by one of the most monotonous episodes I have ever seen in six years of viewing this series (with the Grimes' groups foiled attempts to escape getting tiresome pretty quickly). The sub plot with Carol and Morgan was utterly tepid. The only bright spot in the episode was Dean Morgan as Negan, and the performances of Lincoln and the rest of the principal cast as they contemplated their fate.
Such a waste...
4/10
written by Scott Gimple and Matthew Negrete
When "The Walking Dead" comic book reached its 100th issue, writer Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Aldard marked the occasion by killing off a major character in one of the most brutal ways imaginable; having that character beaten to death with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. That was a momentous occasion given that the character killed had been with the book almost from the very beginning and was a main fixture in the television series as well.
As a result, this particular event got fans of the television series talking about when and how this particular story would unfold in the show.
And unfold it did last Monday (with several replays throughout the week) in the Season 6 finale. I have to say...I'm a tad disappointed.
I have noted, as of my last post, how I find the quality of this show to be declining and how I am taking issue with how the only challenge that seems to be facing the writers is how else to strip away all moral compunctions of the main characters as they make increasingly extreme decisions to ensure their own survival. I suppose Negan, played in the series by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and his Saviors are being set up as a way to show Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) how far they've fallen and how to rediscover their humanity.
Indeed, in this episode, the Saviors basically trap Rick's group, blocking their every attempt to escape the wide cordon they have established, and at the end, when Rick's group abandon their vehicle and attempt to escape the Saviors on foot, they are captured and the dreaded confrontation takes place, only not quite as we expect it to happen.
Elsewhere, Carol (Melissa McBride), who has left the group following her and Maggie's (Lauren Cohan) harrowing capture by and escape from several Saviors, which resulted in brutally killing their captors, is on her own, but is being pursued by avowed pacifist Morgan (Lennie James) who wants to convince her to return to the group. She is assaulted and overpowered by a wayward Savior, and Morgan must now decide just how important it is to him not to kill anyone, with Carol's life in the balance.
But to get back to the moment this entire season 6 has been building up to: Negan shows up, gives a chilling monologue, parts of which are lifted right out of the comic book, and beats one of the characters to death, but no one, knows who it is, and by no one I mean the camera switches to the point of view of the victim at the moment the beating occurs, so no one knows who got it, and the choices range from leader characters like Rick, Glenn (Steven Yeun), Michonne (Danai Gurira), Carl (Chandler Rigg) and Daryl (Norman Reedus) to perpetual wallflowers like Rosita (Christian Serratos) and Eugene (Josh McDermitt) to relative newbies like Aaron (Ross Marquand), so it's pretty tough to narrow down. Not only that, but apparently when that scene was being filmed, none of the lead actors was present (with Dean Morgan basically just hitting in the direction of the camera) and none of the actors had been told who would die. I suppose that has since been remedied, but it doesn't change the fact that as cliff hangers go, this one felt somewhat mean-spirited.
This wasn't just another season-ender; this was meant to mark a huge milestone for the show. The entire season 6 has come and gone without a major character death, (though they had Glenn's "fake out" death during the first half of the season) and I figured they were "saving up" for this. What viewers got instead was a major cop-out, preceded by one of the most monotonous episodes I have ever seen in six years of viewing this series (with the Grimes' groups foiled attempts to escape getting tiresome pretty quickly). The sub plot with Carol and Morgan was utterly tepid. The only bright spot in the episode was Dean Morgan as Negan, and the performances of Lincoln and the rest of the principal cast as they contemplated their fate.
Such a waste...
4/10
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)