written by Ta Nehisi Coates
drawn by Chris Sprouse, Brian Stelfreeze
For the most part I genuinely enjoyed Ta Nehisi Coates' overtly political take on the Black Panther series, largely because of Brian Stelfreeze's distinctive art, and also because of Coates' discussion of government and of the deceptiveness of revolutionary movements. It felt like heady stuff for a comic book, and even though the discourse often got in the way of effective story pacing, I was willing to see the arc through.
Well, with issues 11 and 12 the revolution comes to a head as T'Challa and his allies, who include his newly-resurrected sister Shuri, Australian ex-Avenger Manifold, and Stateside recruits Storm, Luke Cage and Misty Knight, go head to head with insurgents Tetu and Zenzi and their army of insurgents. T'Challa has also won over, through the intervention of Shuri, his two rogue Dora Milaje Aneka and Ayo. Issue #11 presents the climactic confrontation, and in issue #12 the characters take stock of how it all went wrong in the first place, and what needs to be done from here. Some loose ends are left hanging, clearly baiting readers for the next story line.
I have to say, for a series that started with such promise and which contained genuinely interesting ideas, the climax it presented disappointed me quite a bit, both visually and thematically. The normally talented Chris Sprouse presented a rather subdued set of action sequences, and even Coates didn't bother to stage anything particularly dramatic, which is the sort of thing that would certainly be appropriate to close out a year's worth of stories with.
Issue #12 fares somewhat better than issue #11, as Brian Stelfreeze returns to help tie up the series' first "season," but I really couldn't help but feel a little underwhelmed by such a muted conclusion to something that started with much fanfare. Still, even though Coates action narrative falters, his commitment to the conversation he started stays the course, and for that he deserves some credit, even though I, as a reader, have pretty much shown myself the door as far as collecting this series on a monthly basis is concerned. Maybe I'll come back for the trades, but for now, I'm done with this book.
6/10 issue #11
7/10 issue #12
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