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the title character T'Challa, the King of Wakanda has not really gotten a whole lot of love from Marvel; he's even been replaced by his sister Shuri and has not really had the high profile relaunches that many Marvel books have gotten in the last five years, though he did replace Daredevil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
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