Black Panther: Avengers of the New World, Part One by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Wilfredo Torres, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, et al.

After my side-steps into World of Wakanda and Black Panther & the Crew, I'm back to Ta-Nehisi Coates's main Black Panther series with the first half of its second storyline, Avengers of the New World. His first storyline, A Nation under Our Feet, had felt somewhat overextended at twelve issues... this one is thirteen!

from Black Panther vol. 6 #13

Despite the title, this has nothing to do with the "Avengers"; following Wakanda's transition into a constitutional monarchy, the traditional gods of Wakanda, including the panther god Bast, have vanished—and entities are flooding into Wakanda through mysterious portals, as new religions begin to spring up.

Mysticism in comics is always a hard sell for me, I'm afraid, and Coates doesn't sell it. The idea of the gods vanishing all seems very abstract as a central conflict goes. Why should I care about this? The gods don't really have much of a day-to-day impact on the storytelling of Black Panther to begin with. It seems to me that having set up a major status quo change at the end of the last story arc, this one should explore the implications of it, but Wakanda's democratization gets a few token references; key character Changamire puts in just one small appearance. You could have told this story during any other Panther run, and that's a pity.

There's a subplot I don't totally get the relevance of, with Queen Divine Justice (an American member of the Dora Milaje from Priest's run) getting kidnapped; she is written so utterly different from her original appearances that I would not have even realized who she was if her original name hadn't been mentioned in the letter columns. (And the beginning-of-issue recaps say she knows T'Challa from his days in New York, which I am pretty sure is just factually inaccurate.) I'm glad to see Coates pulling from previous runs in theory,* but I'm not sure why he is bothering.

from Black Panther vol. 6 #17

Like the first story arc, it just feels like somehow so many issues go by with little happening; by the end of part 6, all we really know is that something mysterious is afoot and longtime Black Panther foe Klaw is involved. Surely we could have done this in two parts!

As for the art... well, you know things are rough when the "next issue" box proudly announces the return of the guy (Chris Sprouse) who on the last story arc was the fill-in artist! I think Wilfredo Torres is supposed to be the arc's main artist, but he draws only one complete issue, needing assists on three more. I didn't care for his somewhat heavy style. Chris Sprouse is typically solid, but I found his work less good than normal; I presume he was rushed. The six issues here have four pencilers and seven inkers! It is always a shame when a run by a "star" writer has such little focus on matching them with a quality artist.

I guess we'll see where things go, but based on the arc so far and on the last one, I don't have high hopes for the last seven(!) parts. 

from Black Panther Prelude #2

I also read the two-issue Black Panther Prelude at this point; this was a Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-in that came out shortly before the 2018 film. It actually takes place ten years prior to the film, after the events of Iron Man, and as a result, it seemed to me that it didn't really set up anything interesting to do with the film. T'Challa has recently become Black Panther; his father T'Chaka sends him on a covert mission to rescue a couple Wakandan hostages, along with Okoye of the Dora Milaje; they do it. It's a pretty straightforward, pretty generic action-focused story that didn't really give any insight into the characters or world of the film it was setting up.

Parts 1-6 of Avengers of the New World originally appeared in issues #13-18 of Black Panther vol. 6 (June-Nov. 2017). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates; penciled by Wilfredo Torres (#13-15, 18), Jacen Burrows (#14), Adam Gorham (#15), and Chris Sprouse (#16-18); inked by Wilfredo Torres (#13, 18), Terry Pallot (#14-15), Jacen Burrows (#14), Adam Gorham (#15), Karl Story (#16-18), Walden Wong (#16), and Dexter Vines (#16-17); colored by Laura Martin (#13-18) & Andrew Crossley (#13, 16-17); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

The Panther and the People originally appeared in issues #1-2 of Black Panther Prelude (Dec. 2017–Jan. 2018). The story was written by Will Corona Pilgrim, illustrated by Annapaola Martello, colored by Jordan Boyd, lettered by Travis Lanham, and edited by Mark Basso.

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* The Marvel Chronology Project informs me that issue #14 of Black Panther volume 6 in July 2017 was her first appearance in any comic at all since issue #63 of volume 3 in September 2003... almost fourteen years!