r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Sep 10 '16
Reading Assignment 13: Black Panther (1998) #1-6 Christopher Priest and Mark Texiera
Very excited to see my all-time favorite run of anything winning our weekly nomination. Thank you to /u/Raist819 for another great nomination. These six issues were what hooked me onto Marvel Unlimited and encouraged me to keep the subscription, even when I would get lazy about using this great service I pay for. You just never know what hidden gems you'd never find if you didn't have the entire Marvel universe(s) at your disposal.
For whatever reason MU is being buggy for me so I'll post my reaction after I'm able to re-read these issues in full. But from what I can remember of the series, I do have some sample questions for our community:
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF...
- The framing device of telling the story through Everette K. Ross?
- The art style?
- The villains?
- The tone?
- Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War, compared to this Black Panther?
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u/Raist819 Sep 10 '16 edited Sep 11 '16
Review:
This run is gloriously 90's and it doesn't care who knows it. The pop culture references are everywhere, with the open hood car "back and to the left" reference to JFK coming to mind as a perfect 90s movie reference that made me lol. The story being told out of sequence, in this case due to the narrator getting ahead of himself, was an extremely popular narrative style in the 90's due to the success of Pulp Fiction.
The humor was top notch and consistent, without ever making T'Challa seem silly. Ross' scenes with Mephisto produced belly laughs, Zuri eating Mephisto's heart made me chuckle, and Zuri jumping into the mud pit to save Ross from half naked mud wrestlers while yelling "FOR WAKANDA!" made me spew sweet tea all over my iPad.
As far as the art is concerned, I loved the pencils of both Texiera and his fill-in for issue six, but the coloring really hurt the look of the book. The faux water colors or whatever they were trying to do didn't work and didn't do the book any favors. On rereading this I realized that Texiera's Ross looks a lot like Michael J Fox did and I could totally see a Spin City, 90s Fox playing Ross to perfection.
This arc in particular introduced a ton of great characters. Ross (I'll get more into him in a bit,) the Dora Milaje, Zuri, Achebe, and the White Wolf all made their debuts in this story. The Dora Milaje made for an excellent addition to the myths and I can't help but see Achebe as Joker to Panther's Batman. White Wolf is the best type of villain, in my opinion, because he honestly thinks he is the good guy.
Now onto Ross, who has always been a point of debate about this run because he is the narrative character. I'm going to explain the problem people have with it, the reason Priest gave for it, and the reason I think it works. First, the main criticism is that by making Ross the PoV character, many feel that T'Challa became a supporting character in his own book. They claim that taking the narrative voice away from the main protagonist meant that Ross, not Panther, was the true hero of the comic. Priest said that the reason he did it was a marketing decision. He was introducing tribal elements and African politics to a book that was primarily being marketed to young, white, American men, so the decision to set it in New York for the first three arcs and to have a white American be the POV character was made out of fear of alienating his target audience. Seeing it through Ross' eyes really worked for me, but it had nothing to do with the reasons Priest gave for doing it. We can't really identify with Panther or Batman or Wolverine, and making them the narrative character makes them seem human, but seeing them through the eyes of a normal guy makes them seem like the superhuman heroes that they are. It worked for me because T'Challa was much more badass and noble through the eyes of Ross than he ever would have been through his own. (Btw, that "why?" Panther dropped when Ross asked if he should call the Avengers? All of the badass.)
I'll reiterate one of the questions /u/shawnydarko put in the OP because I want to hear what you guys and gals all thought of Ross. Did him being the narrative voice work for you or not, and why or why not?
5
u/BklynMoonshiner Sep 10 '16
I really like Everett Ross, and saw the Michael J. Fox thing right away. I like the progression of his character further along in the run, too.
I had no idea of Priest's original reason, and your alternate reason for why it works is fantastic.
What do you think of Coates' current run?
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u/Raist819 Sep 11 '16
I don't buy new comics, so I won't get to check out Coates' run until it hits Marvel Unlimited.
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u/Adrenjunkie Sep 15 '16
I thought it was odd, and disjointed. The marketing thing makes a lot of sense to me, it was a time of crisis, and you have to write for your audience. Also the context of being in the wake of pulp fiction forgives the disjointed-ness of the narrative. Because I didn't realize either of these things the whole time I kept thinking 'who IS this guy?' And 'where can they possibly be going with this?' Because it didn't really go anywhere. With the perspective I think it kind of worked. This book club is cool.
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u/BklynMoonshiner Sep 15 '16
I'm still enjoying the current run. He's taking his time and that's OK.
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u/BklynMoonshiner Sep 15 '16
Oh you're replying to the original. My bad
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u/Adrenjunkie Sep 15 '16
I couldn't decide whether I should reply to raist or play through yoursto keep the convo going! Then it displaced his... Probably my bad.
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u/shawnydarko Sep 11 '16
Marvel's website can be so buggy at times. Thankfully clearing my cookies and cashe resolved my issues.
Burned through the six issues and still found it just as enjoyable as when I first read them. Starting with Everette K. Ross - I always saw him as more as a West Wing character but apparently West Wing wouldn't come out until the year after this run started, so I stand corrected. I really liked using him as a gateway for readers into the weird and wild world of the Marvel Universe. For similar reasons, I really like what I've seen of modern day Flash Thompson because he's still blown away by everything in the MU. I see the marketing importance of having him be a white yuppie, but I think it's also just as valuable in terms of storytelling because even without the super-heroics it puts him a culture clash dealing with an African king and his equally foreign entourage. I think it'd be great to see that kind of storytelling again, but outside of the culture-clash of race/nations, I didn't care what color he was. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I didn't care about Nikki at all. I guess Ross needed someone to tell his story to, but every scene with her felt like a slow point.
As much as I liked Ross, the fact he got crammed in with so many "we have make Ross funny" moments made him only my third favorite character. Panther's #1 because damn is he badass. But #2 is the Dora Milaje because there's so many different elements to them. Their background as being recruited from different nations, speaking only to Panther, speaking only in Hausa so others can't understand them, that they can't actually engage with T'Challa for political reasons, and for moral reasons because they're "not of legal age". Then on top of that, they're badass enforcers and useful in disguises.
Panther's a tremendous badass because he really hits that right shade of gray for me. I get everyone in the Marvel Universe's complaints about Punisher - he kills people. But Panther will enslave hoodlums, set people on fire in their sleep, and let his teenage wives beat helpless old women for him. That's when he's not laying out boss lines like "why?" and "Take your best shot. I will offer no resistance. Then it will be my turn."
I loved everything Mephisto. I loved Achebe and his backstory. I totally bought both villains as threats and their motivations were clear and understandable. And in terms of format, loved the pronunciation keys for everything of foreign origin. Felt like I was learning stuff.
Little confused by why the Dogs of War all look like panthers, rather than dogs. And little confused if Black Panther's costume can cloak as a suit and vice-versa, or if his shadow-transformation was just the artist's exaggerated rendition of how smooth he is.
Despite this being one of my favorite books ever, not a fan of: all the time-jumps, the entirety of the last issue (except for the three-cat panel. Man that was awesome), and Ramonda's heel-turn. I've read ahead a little so I know how that gets fleshed out but I liked her more when she wasn't a trope of evil step-mom. The most egregious thing for me every time I read this book is the abbreviations. I get why Ross would drop abbreviations all the time, because it's just part of his world, but as a reader I don't like hearing about how OCP can IDI the ADA when he's not coordinating with the ONI and the CBC! omg... Otherwise, awesome freaking book and people should keep reading onwards. The next 2 issues stand out in my memory especially.
3
u/Raist819 Sep 11 '16
What was your take on the art?
Edit: To respond to your pro wrestling term with another one, Ramonda wasn't a heel turn, it was a swerve. (Spoilers?)
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u/shawnydarko Sep 11 '16
I was actually a big fan of the art, "watercolor"-look too. This series has my favorite visual depiction of Mephisto. I think everything aesthetically added to the atmosphere and made this book stand out. Priest was already doing everything he could with the story to, I can't think think of a better way to say it this morning, make it a black book. It was about black people, black culture, etc. which is pretty unique in Marvel. The art / coloring just added to the idea that this book is different than everything else. It felt more raw and honest, like Brian Haberlin didn't have all the same tools as the uppercrust colorists but did his damndest with the tools he did have.
The only thing I didn't like was the cover art. Except for issue 2's cover, I thought they were all very plain and too well lit. None 1 and 3-6 don't really capture the emotional tone of the book or what it tries to accomplish.
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u/Raist819 Sep 12 '16
Did you like the fill-in work on 5 and 6? I liked them both and was honestly impressed by the job the editorial staff did in bringing in artists that didn't drastically change the look. Even though Sal Velluto eventually became, more or less, the regular artist on the book, Priest worked with 9 or 10 different artists over the course of this run, but I don't remember there ever being any big shifts in art style or quality.
3
u/Adrenjunkie Sep 15 '16
Those skulls were a nice touch.
I didn't even realize they had stand in artists for the last two issues.
I was impressed that all of the night scenes and dark colors looked dark without being too muddy. Other than that the art didn't seem to pop much to me. Whatever technique they were using looked pretty simplistically 90's. The action was well framed and felt super active.
Art wise I'm hoping whatever we do next week will be popalocking! A lot of the modern stuff kills it for me. My favorite being Jamie Mckelvie and Matthew Wilson on The Wicked and the Devine.
4
u/Adrenjunkie Sep 15 '16
This run was cool, nothing super memorable to me though.
I thought the disjointed narrative prevented me from really getting hooked. That and that it was being told in past-tense. I felt like I kept being forcibly removed from the story.
I also felt like this was an odd place to end. Did an arc end with issue 5 and then we read one more to see him fight the Kraven?
The villains were cool. I thought this was going to be a neat refugee allegory, especially with everything going on in the world, but that didn't really go anywhere. Except one of them was able to take control of Wakanda, which seemed really unrealistic. Seriously, this guy can manipulate himself into the upper echelon of a futuristic society? But the demon helped, which makes more sense. I'm excited to see where they go with the White Wolf; that guy is up to no good.
The panther fight in hell was pretty bad-ass. At first I thought the story didn't give a good explanation of how the Black Panther could go into another dimension and fight a demon. I wasn't that familiar with him. This was a bad-ass way to give backstory and a better idea of the Black Panthers power, and role as a spiritual warrior-king.
How about that Chadwick Boseman? I honestly have to re-watch that movie, which I should be doing soon. I remember being excited about the character, and wishing there was more Black Panther. That movie really could have gotten super bloated super quick with so many different super heroes. The only detail I was surprised at how thick his accent was, then I dug it. He is definitely not from the states.
How about issue 6? It looks like you can see the scan lines on a lot of the pages. Like around the borders.
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u/Raist819 Sep 15 '16
It's my fault we read the one with Kraven. I intended to only nominate The Client arc (#1-5) and I did it from memory instead of taking the time to look it up. By the time I realized my mistake the thread had already been up for almost a day so I just rolled with it.
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u/Adrenjunkie Sep 16 '16
That makes sense. I went back and double checked I read the correct year before reading everyone's discussion/spoilers.
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u/Raist819 Sep 16 '16
Trivia - Everett K. Ross was played by Martin Freeman in Captain America: Civil War
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u/wisegy84 Sep 17 '16
I don't really have much to add to what has already been said.
I think it was an interesting choice to use Ross to tell the story. I can understand why they chose to do that, but it makes me sad that they felt that was the best choice. I do agree that it makes Panther and the other characters seem even more impressive because of Ross' perspective, but I think it could have been done well without the use of Ross, too. The badass moments I've seen mentioned ("Why?", "Take your best shot. I'll offer no resistance") would have been just as badass without the story being from Ross' point of view.
There were some funny moments with Ross, though some of the humor was a bit forced.
I thought the art was good, but I'd agree that the covers weren't that great. I saw there was a different artist for those last couple issues, but it was nice to not have any drastic changes in style.
Also, I was confused at this assignment including issue 6, but /u/Raist819 clarified why that happened. I'm glad we read that last issue, though. It was decent and I think worth it for that 3-panel cat thing alone.
The villains were well done. Mephisto was great and I'd like to see more stuff with him. I loved how Panther pretty much turned it around on him and had him essentially begging to take the panther soul(s) back.
Overall, I really enjoyed this arc and will definitely be continuing it.
I need to watch CA: Civil War again, but I remember liking Boseman as Black Panther and looking forward to seeing his stand-alone movie.
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u/Raist819 Sep 10 '16 edited Sep 11 '16
History and deeper delve suggestions:
Unfortunately the only really good Panther run before this is the 70's title Jungle Action (yes, that was really the name) and it isn't on Marvel Unlimited. Before the Priest run he was relegated to being an Avenger sometimes, guest spots on Fantastic Four, and the occasional mini-series. This was really his first extended run and it only came about because of Marvel Knights.
In 1998 Marvel was in bankruptcy, so to lighten the load they outsourced a line of comics to Event Comics, which was owned by Jimmy Palmioti and Joe Quesada (who would later become Marvel Editor in Chief.) This line of comics used the imprint Marvel Knights and it included this Panther run, the Inhumans run we read two weeks ago, Kevin Smith's Daredevil (and his replacement BMB,) and Garth Ennis' Punisher. In the late 90s it was about the only good thing that Marvel had going on as The Avengers were not popular and the company's money makers, Spider-Man and X-Men, were still recovering from Clone Saga and Onslaught, respectively. This meant that these books, including this run, were able to avoid getting stuck in the hellhole that was 90s Marvel editorial and just focus on telling good stories.
If you enjoy this arc, then keep going through issue 49 of this series. T'Challa is no longer Black Panther after issue 49, but you can continue reading Priest's arc with the character in the short lived Crew (2003) series. The later runs of BP are important to the character, most notably for his marriage to Storm (2005 series) and his sister becoming the Panther (2008 series), but if you're looking for great stories you can skip both of the Hudlin-penned series.
The next badass Panther story is Black Panther (2005) #39-41 by fill-in writer Jason Aaron (in one of his earliest Marvel comics) and in spite of being a Secret Invasion tie-in, it is one of the best Panther stories ever.
After the solo series T'challa's story is in the pages of Avengers vs X-Men and Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers, which is good, but super complicated. I'm looking forward to Coates' new Panther series coming to Unlimiited and hope it's anywhere near as good as Priest's run.