#IReadsYou Review: BLACK PANTHER Volume 2 #2

BLACK PANTHER, VOL. 2 No. 2
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Christopher Priest with Joe Quesada
ARTIST: Mark Texeira with Alitha Martinez
COLORS: Avalon Color
LETTERS: Rich S and Comicraft’s Siobhan Hanna
COVER: Mark Texeira
VARIANT COVER: Bruce Timm
EDITORS: Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti
EIC: Bob Harras
32pp, Color, $2.50 US, $3.50 CAN (December 1998)

“Invasion”

When I learned that former Marvel Comics editor and writer, Christopher Priest (once known as Jim Owsley), was returning to comic books, I was excited.  Priest has been announced as the new writer of DC Comics' Deathstroke comic book series, beginning some time later this year.  The news started me thinking about one of Priest's more notable runs in comic books.

Beginning in 1998, Joe Quesada and his partners at Event Comics (including inker Jimmy Palmiotti) oversaw a Marvel Comics imprint dubbed “Marvel Knights.”  One of the characters that received the “Marvel Knights” treatment was Black Panther.  Christopher Priest wrote this new Black Panther series (Volume 2) with story contributions from Quesada.  Artist Mark Texeira drew the first four issues of Priest's run.

Marvel Comics' the Black Panther, also known as T’Challa, is the first black superhero to appear in mainstream American comic books.  Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the Black Panther first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 (cover dated: July 1966).

For Black Panther Vol. 2, Priest used characters from the 1990-91 miniseries, Black Panther: Panther’s Rage.  He also introduced new characters, in particularly Everett K. Ross, an attorney in the Office of the Chief of Protocol at the U.S. State Department.  Priest's story revolves around Black Panther's trip to the United States to investigate “The Tomorrow Fund,” a charity he established.  There has not only been financial irregularity at the charity, but there has also been a death related to the charity, that of a young girl who was the face of The Tomorrow Fun.  The story of Black Panther Vol. 2 is narrated via flashback by Everett K. Ross to his State Department boss, Nikki Adams.

Black Panther Vol. 2 #2 (“Invasion”) opens in an apartment in the Leslie N. Hill Housing Project, where Black Panther and his entourage has decided to make their base of operations while in New York City.  Ross, the State Department's liaison to T'Challa, is still without his pants and has found himself in the company of Mephisto.  Meanwhile, Black Panther is beating and intimidating his way through the city in order to find out how a child connected to his charity ended up dead.  The answer is a lot closer to home than T'Challa realizes.

Christopher Priest has stated that he used Everett K. Ross to bridge a gap between the African culture in which much of the Black Panther mythos is based and Marvel Comics’ predominantly white readership.  I don't need that bridge, neither as a longtime comic book reader nor as an African-American.  As I have previously stated, I think comic books have maintained a “predominantly white readership” for a number of reasons.  That includes substandard marketing, advertising, and public relations, to say nothing of the publishing and editorial policies regarding who is hired and assigned to create comics.  However, I have encountered many comic book readers who are predominantly of European extraction i.e. “white boys,” who really liked Priest's Black Panther and still fondly remember the series.

I think Priest's decision to tell the story via Ross is a kind of genius move.  He uses Ross to bring levity to the series, and in Ross, Priest has fashioned a funny guy and a truly likable character.  His misadventures are a kind of after-dinner mint to the main story, Black Panther's quest for answers regarding The Tomorrow Fund, which Priest tells in the spirit of blaxploitation movies.

It is a tale of woe and urban decay and of crime and betrayal.  Priest depicts Black people hurting other people for money and power, and “the Man” is not to blame.  Also, the trouble of Mother Africa, in this case, Black Panther's home country of Wakanda, are intimately connected to the scandal of The Tomorrow Fun.

It is odd that I am not that crazy about the style of Mark Texeira's art for Black Panther Vol. 2.  Still, his graphical storytelling is picture perfect for Priest's multifaceted script.  It even works in the comic scenes featuring Ross.  Texeira's art works in spite of itself; at least, it seems that way to me...

After reading Black Panther Vol. 2 #2, I am ready to read Priest's Deathstroke.  I am also anxious to read more of this series.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

The text is copyright © 2016 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: 300 #1

300 #1
DARK HORSE COMICS

STORY/ART: Frank Miller
COLORS: Lynn Varley
EDITOR: Diana Schutz
32pp, Color, $2.95 U.S., $4.15 CAN (May 1998)

Chapter One: Honor

With the recent release of the new film, 300: Rise of an Empire, the sequel to the worldwide smash hit film, 300.  I decided to re-read the comic book upon which 300 is based.  That would be 300, a 1998 five-issue, full-color comic book written and illustrated by Frank Miller with painted colors by Lynn Varley.  300 was initially published as a monthly comic book, cover dated from May 1998 to September 1998.

Historically inspired, 300 is Frank Miller’s fictional retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae and the events leading up to it.  Miller tells the story from the perspective of Leonidas of Sparta, but a fictional version of this king.

300 #1 (Chapter One: “Honor”) opens in 480 B.C. in the middle of a march by a group of Spartans.  We learn that King Leonidas of Sparta gathered 300 of his best men and marched them towards what is likely a suicide mission.  King Xerxes leads a Persian invasion towards tiny Greece, and Leonidas may have provoked Xerxes.  Now, Leonidas and his 300 march towards the “Hot Gates.”

300 was controversial upon its release and seems to remain so.  It was criticized for being historically inaccurate (by Alan Moore, among others), racist, and homophobic, to name a few.  I found it chauvinistic and a bit xenophobic, and perhaps a little racist.  However, I think the 2007 film adaptation is shamefully and gleefully racist, and it makes a sham of history simply to be racist.  I have decided to reread the comic book series, but to put some space between reading each issue – perhaps a month or two.  The reason is that I want to see how I feel about and what I think of each issue individually.

If anything, I think 300 is more about personal expression of ideas and of art than it is a political, ideological, and social statement, although I think that the series does all three to one extent or another.  Miller has apparently said that the 1962 film The 300 Spartans inspired 300, which he saw as a young boy.  I cannot help but wonder to what extent did it affect and shape his ideas and also his relationship to the world as a cartoonist, artist, and a creator in a medium that the wider American public views as children’s entertainment.  That was true even more so when Miller became a professional comic book artist in the late 1970s.

I think back to the early to mid-1980s.  Frank and few daring (or at least they think they’re daring) creators take a low brow, outsider art form viewed as pabulum for children.  They bring in ideas from other low brow or outsider genres (crime fiction) and creators (Mickey Spillane).  They introduce concepts from movies, television, and comics produced outside of America (samurai films, manga).  They take on the style and storytelling structure and arrangements of classic comic book creators (Will Eisner, Steve Ditko).  Suddenly, Frank Miller is producing the kind of comic books that have not been seen in the states, and his new comics are more explicitly violent, with stylish and striking graphics and visuals.

Suddenly, the big bad system, the media, and those concerned people, parents, citizens, etc. are against complaining about Miller’s work.  So I wonder if 300 is also about Frank Miller the artist and free speech advocate (absolutist?) versus all the people that want popular culture and, in Miller’s case, comics to stay the same.  Hmmm?

Anyway, 300 had some of the most beautiful art seen in comic books at the time of its initial release, and that art remains impressive 16 years later.  Until I read it at Wikipedia, I did not realize that every page of 300 is composed as a two-page spread.  Frank Miller’s graphic style in 300 is similar to what he used in his 1990s series of comic book miniseries, Sin City.  However, this two-page spread format really shows off Lynn Varley’s lush and sumptuous colors.  I don’t know how she did muted and opulent at the same time, but she does.  Honestly, Varley’s colors are what really bring this story to life with a sense of passion, turning Miller’s personal/ideological/historical screed into a story that resonates.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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#IReadsYou Review: BLACK PANTHER #1

BLACK PANTHER (1998), VOL. 2 #1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

WRITER: Christopher Priest with Joe Quesada
ARTIST: Mark Texeira with Alitha Martinez
COLORS: Brian Haberlin
LETTERS: RS, Comicraft’s Siobhan Hanna
COVER: Mark Texeira
EDITORS: Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti
EiC: Bob Harras
32pp, Color, $2.50 US, $3.50 CAN (November 1998)

The Black Panther, also known as T’Challa, is a Marvel Comics character and was the first black superhero in mainstream American comics.  Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the Black Panther first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 (cover dated July 1966).

The Black Panther received his first starring feature in the comic book series, Jungle Action, beginning with #5 (cover dated July 1973).  The character would eventually star in an eponymous series, Black Panther, which ran for 15 issues in the late 1970s.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were two Black Panther miniseries and a feature in the anthology series, Marvel Comics Presents.

Changes at Marvel Comics brought on by the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy gave Black Panther new life and his longest running series to date.  In 1998, Marvel Comics asked Joe Quesada to work for Marvel in an exclusive capacity.  Marvel contracted Quesada and his partners at Event Comics, including inker, Jimmy Palmiotti, to produce a line of Marvel comic books dubbed “Marvel Knights.”  Quesada edited the Marvel Knights line and worked on a number of low-profile characters, which included Black Panther.

Writer Christopher Priest and penciller Mark Texeira helped launch Marvel Knight’s Black Panther Vol. 2.  Priest used characters from the 1990-91 miniseries, Black Panther: Panther’s Rage, and introduced new characters, in particularly Everett K. Ross, an attorney in the Office of the Chief of Protocol at the U.S. State Department.

Black Panther Vol. 2 #1 opens with Ross, dressed only in his underwear and holding a pistol, perched atop a toilet.  How did he get there?  It’s a long story, and we get to read about it as he explains how he ended up in that predicament to his boss.

Ross is assigned by the State Department to keep an eye on T’Challa a/k/a The Black Panther, the king of the African nation of Wakanda.  The Black Panther is also an Avenger, and he is in the United States to investigate The Tomorrow Fund.  This is a program funded with money from Wakanda to help inner city American youth, but now the fund is tied to the death of a child.

For Ross, it is a misadventure that begins in the Leslie N. Hill Housing Project where he is to meet a king.  It hits a high low point when Ross meets the devil.

Writer Christopher Priest stated that he used the character Everett K. Ross to bridge a gap between the African culture in which much of the Black Panther mythos is based and Marvel Comics’ predominantly white readership.  I can’t speak to that.  I think comic books have maintained a “predominantly white readership” for a number of reasons.  That includes substandard marketing, advertising, and public relations, to say nothing of the publishing and editorial policies regarding who is hired and assigned to create comics.

I think that Black Panther Vol. 2 #1 is a good comic book because Priest simply delivers some exceptional character writing with Everett K. Ross.  He uses Ross both as the point of view and as the character through which Black Panther’s background and activities are seen and filtered.  It is a fresh and novel way of conveying the weird fiction that is superhero adventure comics.

I am currently rereading Priest’s Black Panther from the beginning.  I don’t know how long he maintains Ross as a storytelling vehicle, nor do I remember if this story maintains the level quality with which it begins.  But Black Panther Vol. 2 #1 remains one of the more unique re-launches that I have ever read.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.