Review: BLACK PANTHER: The Sound and the Fury #1

BLACK PANTHER: THE SOUND AND THE FURY No. 1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Ralph Macchio
ART: Andrea Di Vito
COLORS: Laura Villari
LETTERS: VC's Travis Lanham
COVER: Andrea Di Vito with Laura Villari
VARIANT COVERS: Ron Lim with Rachelle Rosenberg
44pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (April 2018)

Rated “T+”

Black Panther created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Black Panther is a Marvel Comics superhero.  He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 (cover dated: July 1966).  Black Panther is T'Challa, the king and protector of the (fictional) African nation of Wakanda.  Black Panther was also the first Black superhero in mainstream American comic books.

Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury #1 is a one-shot Black Panther comic book that is kind of a tie-in to the recent Marvel Studios record-setting film, Black Panther.  One of the film's villains is the mercenary Ulysses Klaue, known as “Klaw” in Marvel Comics.  Both Klaue and Klaw covet vibranium, the powerful metal that is only found in Wakanda.

Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury #1 features a new one-off story featuring Klaw.  It is written by longtime Marvel Comics editor, Ralph Macchio; drawn by Andrea Di Vito; colored by Laura Villari; and lettered by Travis Lanham.  This comic book also includes a reprint of the story “The Way It Began..!” from Fantastic Four #53 (with a reprint of the cover included), which told the origin of the enmity between the Black Panther and Klaw.

Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury #1 finds T'Cahlla the Black Panther holding court in the Wakandan embassy in the city of Dubai.  Suddenly, a shockingly strong earthquake strikes the city, immediately followed by a video broadcast from Ulysses Klaw.  He reveals that he has caused the earthquake, and he promises to destroy the city unless he is paid a five billion dollar ransom.  Of course, Black Panther plans to stop his arch-nemesis, but he does not realize that Klaw has brought help for this fight.

If not for the modern coloring and production touches, Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury #1 would seem indistinguishable from a Black Panther comic book published in the 1970s or 1980s.  It is a straight-forward comic book story that is not great or even particularly memorable.  “The Sound and the Fury” does not have the Afro-Futurist sensibilities of the last 20 years worth of Black Panther comic books.  However, Macchio has fashioned a comic book that is timeless in a way that makes it appropriate and enjoyable for anyone that is capable of reading a comic book.

The illustrations and graphical storytelling by Andrea Di Vito are solid, but Laura Villari's coloring is a bit overbearing.  Travis Lanham's lettering is also solid, if not spectacular.

“The Way It Began..!” (from Fantastic Four #53)
STORYTELLERS: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
STORY: Stan Lee
PENCILS: Jack Kirby
INKS: Joe Sinnott
LETTERS: Art Simek
EDITOR: Stan Lee

The real treat in this comic book is the reprint of the story from Fantastic Four #53.  The story is scripted by Stan Lee; drawn by Jack Kirby (pencils) and Joe Sinnott (inks); and lettered by Artie Simek.  Stan Lee offers his usual snappy banter and far-out storytelling.  Jack Kirby turns in a splendid vista of dynamic compositions and weird, wild, and wonderful characters.  There is nothing like a Kirby monster and this story offers three muscular monster-animals that the pages of this comic book can barely contain.  Inker Joe Sinnott gives Kirby's epic storytelling and brawny compositions an elastic quality.

Artie Simek may be the greatest letterer of all time, and I am continually amazed by his ability to find a place for all of Lee's exposition and dialogue and still add to the power of the graphical presentation.  Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four is one of the best superhero comic books of all time, if not the best, and Sinnott and Simek contributed a lot to that.

“The Way It Began..!” is simply an imaginative and inventive tale of juvenile adventure, weird science-fantasy, and classic Marvel Comics superhero storytelling.  Reprinting it is a reminder that Black Panther, the star of a mega-hit film, was born in the lowly pages of a comic book, the creation of two of America's greatest storytellers.  I will give Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury #1 a high grade because it includes this classic Lee-Kirby comic book.

8 out of 10

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


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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I Reads You Review: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #2

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS #2
IDW PUBLISHING – @IDWPublishing

WRITER:  Phil Hester
ARTIST: Andrea Di Vito
COLORS: Rom Fajardo
LETTERS: Shawn Lee
COVER: Phil Hester and Eric Gapstur with David Baron
COVER RIA: The Sharp Brothers
COVER RIB: Dave Sim
SUBSCRIPTION VARIANT COVER: Dave Sim with David Baron
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (September 2013)

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was a team of superheroes that appeared in comic books originally published by Tower Comics from 1965 to 1969.  The original T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were an arm of the United Nations.  Their name, T.H.U.N.D.E.R., is an acronym for “The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves.”

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents the comic book series ran for 20 issues.  Two of the most popular T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Dynamo and NoMan, had short lived series.  After the demise of Tower Comics, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents characters did not appear in new comic book stories until 1983.  For the next four or five years, five different entities published T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comics.  Except for a brief appearance in the 1990s, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents did not appear in new stories until DC Comics published a short-lived ongoing series and a miniseries beginning in 2010.

Now, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents are at IDW Publishing.  The creative team of the 2013-launched T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic book series is writer Phil Hester (Godzilla, Wonder Woman) and artist Andrea Di Vito (Dungeons & Dragons).

The first issue of IDW’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents had sold out by the time I made it to a comic book shop.  From the information I’ve gathered from the Web, IDW’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is a reinvention of the concept and characters, to one extent or another.  I have grown weary of the term, “re-imagination,” because pop culture concepts and franchises that are re-imagined often seem as if they are not really the result of imagination.  It is as if the people behind some of these new versions just make arbitrary changes and tweek some things for the sake of “modernization.”

Thus, far I can’t really tell how much T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents has been changed.  Apparently the new series begins like this:  The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents are dead, or will soon be.  It is up to new recruit Dynamo to master the incredible but lethal power of the Thunderbelt (which gives him his power) in time to rescue his teammates from the mysterious Iron Maiden, a classic T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents adversary.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #2 (The Judgment Tower, Part Two: “Embrace of the Iron Maiden”) opens as Dynamo makes his landing in “the disputed territory of Kashmir” (a sort of barren, rocky landscape that resembles parts of Pakistan or Afghanistan).  He must rescue Agents NoMan and Lightning from a secret T.H.U.N.D.E.R. station that is now under the control of the Iron Maiden.  Dynamo immediately meets someone who is supposed to be an ally, but seems too suspicious to trust.

There are only 20 pages of story in this 28-page comic book.  Dynamo lands in Kashmir, meets someone, penetrates his target, and gets captured.  Plus, some people talk and scheme.  What it took writer Phil Hester fifteen pages to do with Dynamo, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko would have done in three pages – tops, and with more imagination.

This comic book is not awful; it is just a story stretched too far.  It is a short story padded to be graphic novel-like.  It is boring.  T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is supposed to be a superhero action comic book, but this is stiff and phony.  Andrea Di Vito’s art is rigid, awkward, and clunky.  I must admit, however, that I do like the art Phil Hester drew for the cover.  In fact, Di Vito should go away.  Hester should become at least the pencil artist and give up the writing to someone else.

I think I may try another issue of this series.  I hope that IDW does not turn this T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents comic book into a B.L.U.N.D.E.R.

C-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.