Gain Black Panther By Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection, Vol. 2 Constructed By Christopher J. Priest Print
Priest's run on the Black Panther continues to be one of my favorite Marvel stories ever written, From engaging postcolonial struggles to identity politics and patriarchal structures, the second volume of Black Panther builds upon the Marvel mythos, but then it calls it into question, meditating upon how perception shapes reality.
I'm intrigued if any elements from this run will make it into the film that will come out in, I certainly hope that Kevin Fiege and his team do so, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Moon Knight, Deadpool, the Avengers, frigging aliens, . . yes, this was interesting, but I don't know if I should say this as a compliment, Comic Books in thes were quite something, and Marvel is no exception the stories were tremendously saturated with many characters and several sideplots that affected the development towards the original story meant to be told.
Like a tvshow, for all that matters, Black Panther was a comic book Ive always been eager to check, and thes run was particularly well received, but I think it was severally overlooked, considering the currents hero popularity nowadays,years ago this seemed to be just one more of the regular Marvel issues, and I can figure why.
For me, the only Marvel comics to genuinely look forward back in the day were the Xmen and Spiderman, and I think the rest of the Marvel catalogue remained pretty much lowkey to the eyes of mainstream readers.
I find myself admiring plenty of Black Panthers take, and the mythology surrounding the hero himself is pretty interesting, since it combine mysticism and technology, and once in a while a grandeurroyal extravaganza, as well as some streetalley tone like the one given to the Marvel Knights I think this is also part of the “Knights” catalogue, so it is interesting when it comes to that: style and tone.
When it comes to pacing, by god, these comic books were filled with several elements its almost exhausting to read them in a row, especially considering how overwhelmingly aggressive the art was, and while I love the esthetics of the old school comic books of my early daysss, I do admit, its easier when the title has a more defined and subtle art.
This collection reunites the story in which Killmonger revives and tries to claim the throne of Wakanda, which will lead to an inevitable combat with TChalla, wholl look for the aids of Brother Voodoo to uncover the secret behind NJadakas resurrection, at the same time, TChalla will crash the economy of Wakanda in order to provoke Killmonger and the results of the encounter will lead to an “afterlife” adventure by the side of Moon Knight, which also will lead to Killmonger attempting to unite with the Avengers and duel Deadpool who kidnapped Ericks leopard, Preyy, as a bounty, and which will lead to Black Panther recovering and facing Malice, his former lover, and yeah, theres plenty left until issueand, yeah, again, is exhausting since this is a collection of regular issues, in which each one felt as their own thing, with follow ups ofor more issues thatll stick together as a solid story.
I love comic books and there was a time in which I didnt have any problems reading a regular story, but I think I crave for a different kind of narrative and structure, perhaps, the main reason why I do enjoy the hell out of volumes and graphic novels the most.
This isnt a bad series though, and Im only reviewingissues of this whole series, the story is also told from the perspective of Everett Ross TChallas American representative in Wakanda, and for a personal matter I wouldve preferred to read these stories from the kings point of view.
There is a particular issue, I believe In which theres a political meeting between Black Panther, Namor, Dr, Doom and Magneto, dealing with an alien threat, conducted by Ghaur, the priestlord of the Deviant Lemurians, that entirely depends on Wakandas decision to protect a foreign alien child, and the whole leadership behind those pages is something I found myself interested as well as intrigued, but thats pretty much everything I genuinely loved in the series.
I guess this will do fine for hardcore fans of the character, but I think there are plenty of more solid stories of him better condensed and better constructed to understand the characters mythos and background, for this one I guess a regular reader will find it quite uneven or dense, especially since theres plenty of previous stories to catch up with.
When I read Vol, I found it very frustrating, but starting to get interesting at the end, I wasn't tempted to continue, but with the Black Panther movie coming, and remembering that I was interested with what was happening with Nakia at the end, I went for it.
Still frustrating. Also, still getting more interesting toward the end with Queen Divine Justice, whom I like, Perhaps at the end of Volit will look like something interesting is going to happen with Okoye,
Mainly, though, it's frustrating,
A lot of the frustration last time was that the comic was ultimately more about Ross than T'Challa, That is still pretty true, I suspected it was two things: that the perfection imposed on T'Challa makes him hard to relate to, so the person always out of his league becomes the portal to understanding for the reader, but also because there is a reluctance to focus on a Black man.
Some reading on writer Christopher Priest revealed it is more the second one, which I don't like as much,
It also revealed that Ross is modeled on Chandler Bing, and with his name also being a Friends' reference, some understanding of how annoying the character can be starts to fall into place.
It becomes even worse because Ross gets so pumped up, T'Challa trusts him and considers Ross a friend because Nikki could only love a pure soul, That might work if it wasn't a mystery what Nikki saw in him, and if Nikki hadn't been sacrificed to a stupid death, killed by one woman who loved T'Challa who was aiming at another woman who loved T'Challa, all to give Ross motivation to act stupidly and feel bad.
And no matter how recurrent a theme being brought back to life is in the Black Panther series, for Nikki it doesn't happen she is staying in that refrigerator,
And that is the thing that made it more frustrating, was a theme of casual cruelty and indifference, Nikki can be sacrificed, Preyy can be dead after a lot of attempts at rescue, Williams can be stuffed in a water heater having a city crammed with heroes doesn't matter because they don't matter.
Death can be meaningful, but only if you value the life, Too many characters here are only sacrificial, and I hate that,
I like that they are starting to get to how much of a sucky honor being Dora Milaje is, and maybe they can go somewhere interesting with it, but how much irritation would there be along the way, and how much hope is there for a good solution when you can tell people don't matter that much from the rest of the writing Collects Black Pantherissuesand Deadpoolissue
I still appreciate the originality of the storytelling in these Black Panther issues, but for some reason the story itself didn't hold my attention as well as Volume.
There are tons of cameos by other Marvel superheroes if you happen to like that sort of thing, I found this volume to be much better than the first, Now that Priest has developed the supporting characters, there are a number of subplots that are happening now, The plots weave in and out together although sometimes a little bit too much back and forth, with abrupt transitions all of which are genuinely interesting, Storytelling became more linear, with fewer captions and more dialogue, although slightly less humor,
The best story was a global, political story featuring the other monarchs of the Marvel Universe, The back and forth with Namor was spectacular, Priest has the Panther's personality firmly defined: the ultimate strategist, multiple steps in front of everyone, Not an easy book to read, keeps his cards close to his, . . costume. But he's also willing to do pretty much anything to save his country and people, including jeopardize friendships and incite war with other countries in the process,
While the art at least stabilized, it was still not my preference, Not sure if it was the writing or the art, but there were some moments where the story jumps and the reader is left not knowing exactly what happened,
Regardless, the book is excellent and an intriguing read, Priest has developed a complex, unique character in the Marvel Universe,
Serious lull in the middle of this, The love triangle with Monica and Storm rings completely hollow, Several shouldbesignificant events fall completely flat and some of the webs built up around T'Challa to show him as the chess master supreme don't even merit figuring out, Just shut the door on them, I still had to give it four though because, in fairness the last few issues are really, REALLY compelling reading, This really isn't some sort of amazing story, but it's a fun Black Panther title with lots of cameos from other Marvel superheroes,
Captain America, Namor, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, Magneto, Iron Man and the rest of the then Avengers to name a few, Not to mention, everyone's favorite, . . Storm.
Could this be the start of something special
Ross plays a smaller role, but he's still there as the main narrator and he isn't quite so overpowering anymore.
ltwhich is a good thing!
The main plot is still mostly political intrigue, but there's also a nice peek into the Wakandian culture, as well, The country itself is interesting to me because of the way they hold to seemingly backward traditions the restrictions on the Dora Milaje while at the same time having this technologically advanced city.
I'm interested to see if Priest has T'Challa change up any of this stuff now that he's the king, . .
Like the last Collection, this one ends on a cliffhanger, ltdamn it!
At any rate, I'm enjoying Priest's take on this character enough to keep going with this title, Wow, the stuff these male writers and artists could get away with and still do actually just amazes me, Like seriously, some of these storylines could NOT be made today i would like to think, And the graphics . . ok seriously there is no reason a woman needs to wear a loincloth in the middle of Manhattan, Like never.
Anyway, enjoyed seeing the interactions of all the different characters, Enjoyed seeing Storm. I heard they had a prior relationship so it was cool seeing her here,
Man, BP really is a bad fighter, Why does he loose so much Is this normal I guess he can't ALWAYS win, but like dude, why is he always getting is butt kicked
I do wish the layout of the books weren't so confusing.
But I am getting a better grasp on this comic thing, so that makes me happy! In between,andfor me. I was really interested in reading this volume as I missed out on Christopher Priests run the first time, The good thing about this collection is that, not only does it include hard to find Black Panther back issues, but also the tieins from other titles so that the story makes sense.
I guess I should get my grouses out of the way first, I didnt care for the multitudinous footnotes at all, They were excessive. I know that its due to editorial edicts and the fact that it was initially a monthly publication, but it annoyed the hell out of me to see the same footnotes explaining the same thing that was previously explained two pages ago pop up again and again and again and again.
Im really glad we are now in the age where having to explain continuity is no longer required, Also, the constantly changing art team had a detrimental effect on the first half of the volume, Some of the forced crossover tieins were really intrusive and didnt do much for me, although I did like the Deadpool story,
However, once they started using a regular art team, cut down on the narration, and stopped the outofsequence storytelling, the book really picked up for me, You start to get a better insight into the personality of Black Panther, something thats really hard to do in other ensemble books he appears in, and understand his underlying motivations.
Characters that didnt do it for me at all started gaining some depth and every new change felt organic and logical, The “Sturm Und Drang” and “Seduction” storylines were great, both excellent noirish thrillers with lots of action and intrigue, Christopher Priest is definitely an old school comic book writer, perhaps an acquired taste for new readers including myself, but I personally enjoyed his portrayal of Black Panther, Funny, sharp with a good exploration of universal themes without a didactic or condescending tone, I think people who are looking for an interesting story told from a different perspective will enjoy this collection.
Black Panther continues to impress me on the many topics that are touched throughout the graphic novel, To begin I love how the African culture is intertwined with the storyline, like all the women that Black Panther has just waiting around to see if they are the one he chooses to be the Queen.
All these women are being used by him and his enemies to gain power or get a step closer toward their ultimate goal, It is like this in real life were people, many times women, are used as pawns for an overarching scheme of gaining power, It seems like Black Panther knows this and uses it to expose his enemies but at the same time makes intricate risk
analysis to see if putting one of his women in danger is ok.
Next would be all the politics in the storyline, which is fascinating as well and in particular, the moves Black Panther made to devalue his country's currency as a political move.
Over and over in this issue, politics is a central theme with all the procedures that are taken tribal societies that have kings, It must be crazy living in a society were formalities, traditions, and procedures that precedence over everything else, but it does seem that Black Panther is different and a journey of changing that.
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