Noir Quarterly (anthology, 1994–95)

In order to read one of the Maze Agency prose stories, I picked up the first and only issue of Noir: The Illustrated Crime Fiction Quarterly from Alpha Productions. This actually was not very easy to do: one of those old comics that not so much expensive as unavailable!Published at the comics size, it was mostly made up of detective prose stories with just one comics story, plus a couple nonfiction features. Despite the subtitle and the grand ambitions of editor Christopher Mills (who also edited The Detectives one-shot from Alpha, in which a short Maze Agency comics story appeared), it only lasted one issue. 

Mills later revived the concept under the slightly different title of Noir Quarterly at CFD... though as he admits in a retrospective on his blog, the publication frequency was "way-too-optimistic." There are no Maze Agency stories in those issues, but look—I like collecting interesting and unusual comics, and if tacking two more issues of something onto my order can get me a complete set, then I'll do it. Plus those two issues had beautiful femme fatale–themed covers! (They're both by Brian Stelfreeze, who much much later would be the first artist on Ta-Nehisi Coates's Black Panther run.)

All three issues have similar contents, though not always in the same proportions: predominantly, there are illustrated prose stories, with a couple comics. Most of the material is new, but sometimes there's archival material; one of the comics in Noir Quarterly #1 is from 1955, for example, and a few of the prose stories are reprints, though Mills says he prioritized reprinting stuff that was otherwise uncollected. There are also nonfiction features: book reviews, movie reviews, interviews, and retrospectives on some topic of interest to the audience, like old movies or comics.

from Noir Quarterly #1
(script by Ron Fortier, art by Gary Kato & Steve Crompton)

Like any anthology, the prose stories are hit-or-miss, but there definitely was enough good stuff here to make it all worth reading. Though I was drawn to the series by The Maze Agency, I would say the majority of the prose stories are not detective fiction. Ones I particularly liked included "Surrogate" by Ed Gorman (illustrated by Richard Pace, from Noir vol. 1 #1), where a lawyer confronts the teenager who might be responsible for the death of his own son; "The Love Rack" by Max Allan Collins (illustrated by Blackhawk's Rick Burchett, from Noir vol. 1 #1), a gritty story about a private eye who gets caught in political conspiracy; "A Fine Officer" by C. J. Henderson (illustrated by Michael Harris, from Noir Quarterly #1), where a detective becomes caught in a gang civil war; and "They're Gonna Kill You after a While" by Ron Goulart (from Noir #2), about a detective investigating the disappearance of an actor who once played a Saint-like character in a series of films. This last story was illustrated by Brian Michael Bendis of all people; I had no idea he was also an illustrator! Of the ones I liked, only this last one was a mystery.

I don't read much "noir"; having gotten this sampling, I think what I don't like are ones that seem a bit... gratuitous. I don't mind cynicism, but sometimes it moves over into crassness. I didn't care for "Fool's Gold" by William Marden (illustrated by Darren Goodhart, from Noir vol. 1 #1), which goes on a long time for a mediocre ending, during which you have to read a lot about men ogling a teenage girl. Particularly bad, I thought, were two stories from Noir #2: "Granny Gumption Solves a Murder" by C. J. Henderson & Charles Hoffman (illustrated by Michael Harris) and "The Wallow" by Ardath Mayhar (illustrated by Delfin Barral). The former has a decent joke at its core, about Miss Marple–type characters, but then gets nasty; the latter is pretty obvious from its very beginning but takes a long time to get there.

from Noir: The Illustrated Crime Fiction Quarterly #1
(script by Nicola Cuti, art by Joe Staton)

The amount of comics content varies heavily. Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton's Michael Mauser character appears in both Noir vol. 1 #1 and vol. 2 #2 (he also appeared in the Detectives one-shot). I like the Joe Staton art, of course, but I think the first story suffered from the fact that I have read no other stories about the character than these three: when his brother popped up as part of a solution to a mystery, it was a bit jarring as there was no previous hint he had a brother! But I would read more about this guy. That's the only comics story in vol. 1 #1, but Noir Quarterly #2 has two: a mediocre Johnny Dynamite reprint from 1955, plus a new story by Ron Fortier with art by Gary Kato & Steve Crompton. This same team also supply one of Noir #2's three comic stories, and Ron Fortier scripts another story for issue #2 with art by Randy Buccini & Byron Peneranda. I don't think any of these are high art, but I do think everyone involved very much understood the assignment, and I enjoyed all of them. My favorite was probably the one in Noir Quarterly #1, "Blood Red Lips," about a dangerous femme fatale with a twist.

I did find the nonfiction features pretty interesting, though there were too many of them in Noir #2. This is a whole world I don't know very much, and since I will probably never have enough time in my life to delve into more deeply, I appreciate how other people can give me access. The book reviews were usually interesting enough, but things I particularly enjoyed included the interview with Mickey Spillane by Mills from Noir Quarterly #1 (I've never read any of his work, but he seems fascinating) and the overview of The Saint and Falcon films by Ed Gorman from Noir #2 (what a weird production history... though my guess more interesting to read about than to watch the actual films).

Overall, this was a decent package, though I did find Mills's editorial voice a bit grating at times. Not always great work here, but distinctive and interesting, a nice teaser into a wider world I am unlikely to delve more into, to be honest, but I am glad I tracked down and read it all!

Noir: The Illustrated Crime Fiction Quarterly vol. 1 originally appeared in one issue (Winter 1994). The stories were written Ed Gorman, Wendi Lee, Mike W. Barr, Nicola Cuti, William Marden, and Max Allan Collins, and illustrated by Richard Pace, Terry Beatty, Rick Magyar, Joe Staton, Darren Goodhart, and Rick Burchett, with nonfiction features by Jeff Gelb, Eric Davidson, and Christopher Mills. The series was edited by Christopher Mills.

Noir [Quarterly] vol. 2* originally appeared in two issues (Apr.-Fall 1995). The stories were written by Joe Gill,† William F. Nolan, Robert J. Randisi, William Marden, Ron Fortier, C. J. Henderson (with Charles Hoffman), Nicola Cuti, Ardath Mayhar, and Ron Goulart, and illustrated by Bill Molno & Vince Alascia,† Rick Burchett, Flint Henry, Bob Cram, Jr., Gary Kato & Steve Crompton, Michael Harris, Joe Staton, Mike Harris, Delfin Barral, Brian Michael Bendis, and Randy Buccini & Byron Peneranda, with nonfiction features by Ron Fortier, Christopher Mills, Eric Davidson, Jonathan Anger, Bill Spangler, James Chambers, and Ed Gorman. The series was edited by Christopher Mills. 

* The first issue was titled Noir Quarterly, the second just Noir.

† The Johnny Dynamite story "The Fixer's Mob" (a reprint from 1955) is not credited in the issue; credits courtesy the Grand Comics Database.

Black Panther: Wakanda Unbound by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daniel Acuña, et al.

Black Panther: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, Part Four

Collection published: 2021
Contents originally published: 2020-21
Read: October 2025

I finally made it to the end of all the Black Panther comics I got in a comiXology sale to commemorate the death of Chadwick Boseman, but those only go up to 2020... and obviously there are five more years of Black Panther comics after that! So I'll be continuing to discuss them, switching from single issues on comiXology to collected editions on Hoopla. That begins with the fourth and final part of The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, branded as "Wakanda Unbound" on the original issues, though not in the trade.

Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Artists: Ryan Bodenheim, Daniel Acuña & Brian Stelfreeze*

Color Artists: Michael Garland, Daniel Acuña, Chris O'Halloran & Laura Martin

Letterer: Joe Sabino

Anyone who's followed my reviews of Ta-Nehisi Coates's Black Panther run will not be surprised to hear that it fizzles out instead of coming to any kind of interesting climax. Part one of this storyline was gripping if confusing, part two raised lots of interesting ideas, part three returned to the meandering slow style that is Coates's typical approach... and then part four throws away any interesting ideas in favor of endless superhero punchups. I think the idea of Wakanda as an empire in itself is one that could have really had T'Challa questioning his own principles, but we just get a big battle here. Wakanda is a byword for freedom across the galaxy now! But how can it be that easy? Can a formerly oppressive regime just become a force for good? Interesting questions that a writer could ask, but this story just dodges them all in favor of a totally unearned Big Win.

For some reason, a bunch of non-Wakandan superheroes show up for the final battle, but I think only Black ones.
from Black Panther vol. 7 #24 (art by Daniel Acuña)

In the end, I think Coates bit off more than he could chew time and time again. These are superhero comics, fundamentally they must be about punching bad guys in the face, but the very best superhero comics manage to do more than that. Coates was interested in Big Ideas, which I appreciate, but his run consistently failed to marry those Big Ideas to the conventions of the superhero genre, meaning almost every arc had Big Ideas that were discussed a bit but went nowhere, and boring, tacked on action. (Particularly tedious here is the largely dialogue-less, all-action issue.)

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

* Note that the cover gives credit to Chris Sprouse and Karl Story, but they have no work collected in the volume. I'm assuming someone copied over the cover template of part three, which they did contribute to, and failed to change the names.

Black Panther: A Nation under Our Feet by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, et al.

In my ongoing Black Panther readthrough (see link below), there have been a few gaps where there were no Black Panther comics being published: 1980-87 and 1992-97 are probably the two longest ones. There was another one from 2013 to 2015, the gap between The Most Dangerous Man Alive! and Black Panther volume 6. It's comparatively short, but on the other hand, it's the first time that a number of significant events have apparently transpired between Black Panther runs... they just happened to Black Panther in other comic books. Since we last saw T'Challa, he's become king of Wakanda again, his sister (queen of Wakanda on her last appearance) is dead, he and Storm have gotten divorced, and Wakanda has been invaded by both Namor and Thanos. It's quite a lot!

from Black Panther vol. 6 #5

The first twelve issues of volume 6 make up a single story arc, A Nation under Our Feet, which chronicles a populist uprising in Wakanda that causes T'Challa to grapple with the meaning of kingship as he also sets out on a quest to resurrect Shuri... who despite being dead is on her own quest. I'd actually read some of this before; the collection of the first four issues were a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story in 2017. I ranked it sixth, finding it incomplete and impenetrable. Having now read the whole arc with the context of earlier Black Panther comics, I'm pretty baffled that issues #1-4 were collected on their own; the story hasn't even come to a stopping point, it just stops. At the time, I assumed what confused me was from earlier Black Panther comics, but that wasn't the case—annoyingly, it mostly happened in Avengers, I think. Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates fills you in a little, but often not enough; in issue #12, for example, T'Challa apologizes to the way he deserted Shuri before she died, but because I didn't know he did that until the apology, the moment falls flat.

from Black Panther vol. 6 #1

Overall, I felt like this arc had some interesting ideas but Coates didn't know how to pace a comics story; at twelve issues, it feels like the whole thing goes in circles a bit too much. Again and again, T'Challa agonizes over what to do about this revolution; again and again, the two different rebel factions bicker; again and again, Shuri talks to someone in the afterlife. It rarely felt like anything was moving forward, like the state of play was changing. In a twelve-issue arc, I think you need to have clear moments of energy and upset, but this story didn't have that.

I did, however, very much enjoy issue #10, which is where I felt Coates finally nailed what he was going for—and the majority of the issue is a conversation between T'Challa and a political science professor! But in this conversation, I felt there was a lot more dynamism than in the story's endless series of action sequences that didn't actually move the story forward. The idea of T'Challa grappling with kingship finally pays off here, and though the idea of a T'Challa who'd rather be a hero than a king doesn't accord with how I see the character (I prefer Priest's take), it works well enough on its own terms.

from Black Panther vol. 6 #12

Unfortunately, the climax in #11 is a bit disappointing. After all the stuff about returning power to the people, moving away from a system of "one man" having a "nation under his feet"... the way T'Challa defeats the rebel army is by summoning spirits of all the previous Black Panthers? Why? I didn't see how it paid off anything from the previous issue or story as a whole. And I'm curious how the new government promised in #12 is different from the old one, but I guess that's an issue for stories going forward. I am also curious to see more of some of the supporting cast, such as the politics professor and the two rogue lesbian Dora Milajae.

Brian Stelfreeze is pretty good on art, but like a lot of superstar artists on high-profile runs, he draws fewer issues than the fill-in artists do!

A Nation under Our Feet originally appeared in issues #1-12 of Black Panther vol. 6 (June 2016–May 2017). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates; illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze (#1-4, 9, 12) and Chris Sprouse & Karl Story (#5-8, 10-12), with finishes by Goran Sudžuka (#11), Walden Wong (#8, 11), Roberto Poggi (#11), and Scott Hanna (#12); colored by Laura Martin (#1-12), with Matt Milla (#4, 11-12), Larry Molinar (#11), Rachelle Rosenberg (#11), and Paul Mounts (#11); lettered by Joe Sabino (#1-7, 9-12) and Clayton Cowles (#8); and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE