Black Panther v3 #1 review

[dvandom]

Dave's Preview Rant Special

     Black Panther v3 #1

     Looking at my weekend schedule, I'm not sure I'll be taking the time to
sit down with the First Looks pile.  And having looked at the online preview
of this comic, I'm not sure I'll be buying it.  So, just in case, I figured
I'd put down my thoughts.  Besides, I have more to say than I'd be able to
fit into a Capsule anyway.

     Given the comments I've seen about the preview for this book, my review
will neither be the most positive nor the most negative...but I think it may
be at the high end.  And that's known as damning with faint praise.

     In lieu of spoiler space, I'm going to start with some comments on the
creative team.

     John Romita Jr. is drawing it, and he's pretty much a known quantity.
Pretty good, but his way of drawing faces can be offputting to some, and he
doesn't have the best track record in terms of matching the way someone's
face has looked in the past.

     Reginald Hudlin is the writer.  His pedigree is movies, generally
hip-hop and urban stuff, which I'll freely admit I don't watch.  However, I'd
heard some good things about his writing from people who do, so I came into
this willing to give him a chance.

     Okay, now to the meat of things.

     I'll get the art out of the way first.  JRjr doesn't seem to be at his
best, and as others have pointed out, his Ross looks totally wrong.  Even
compensating for his style, it's wrong.  But that's about all I have to say
about the art...it's otherwise pretty normal JRjr stuff.

     The plot is...not horrible.  Or, at least, it isn't automatically
broken.  It's nice that Hudlin acknowledges a bunch of continuity (like
reminding the reader that T'Challa defeated the entire FF once), but on the
other hand, he seems to ignore a lot of other continuity just for the sake of
setting up the opening two scenes.  He seems to want to write a political
thriller where the U.S. is after Wakanda's oil (not its Vibranium, for
reasons known only to Hudlin), but a really dumbed down thriller.  Complete
with lots of one-dimensional motivations and set pieces ripped off from
movies.
     One thing I won't fault Hudlin on, though, is the "small scale" pacing.
The actual main plotline may be Marvel-Mandated Molasses, but at least things
happen every few pages.  It's not all talking heads, there's three fight
scenes in the issue, and while they may all be deep background instead of
advancing the plot, they are at least *present*.

     The scripting, however, either shows that Hudlin doesn't give a damn, or
he assumes the readers are all stupid.  Warriors in 5th Century Africa, even
allowing for loose translation, should NOT talk like characters in a Vietnam
War movie.  Just for instance.  And having a cabinet member named Dondi Reese
makes me wonder if this was supposed to be printed in MAD Magazine instead.
     In general, this reads like someone took the preliminary rough notes and
gave 'em to the letterer, instead of the final script (which would have had
better speech patterns, less hamfisted political commentary, etc).

     http://milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/blackpanth1/ is the link to
the preview pages I read, in case you want to check for yourself.  It's the
complete comic.

   Overall recommendation? Leave it on the rack.

   Dave Van Domelen, would put in a quote, but even the "good bits" aren't good enough to bother.

Comments

[scavgraphics.livejournal.com]

Pretty much in agreement...IF Preist had been given a calibur artist like JRjr...sigh...