Black Panther: The Gathering of My Name by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Kev Walker, et al.

The Gathering of My Name is the second of four parts of The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda; Ta-Nehisi Coates continues as writer, of course, but Kev Walker takes over as illustrator; I know him best for his work on the surprisingly good Elsa Bloodstone tie-in to Battleworld. (He would go one, I believe, to do some acclaimed work on Marvel's Star Wars comics.) I found book 1 of Intergalactic Empire a bit inscrutable at times, and I think partially that was on purpose—Coates was clearly doing one of those stories where you start in a new context with no explanation—but not entirely so—I found it hard to keep track of all the characters, and Daniel Acuña's art was sometimes hard to follow.

from Black Panther vol. 7 #9

The basic premise was that T'Challa was a former slave in a space version of Wakanda, working with a group of rebels called the "maroons" to bring down the empire. Though many characters had familiar names but were not the familiar characters, it seemed like T'Challa was—but if so, he did not remember it. Stories in book 1 jumped around a lot, each focusing on some incident or battle for T'Challa and the maroons in their struggle against the empire.

Book 2 of Intergalactic Empire is easier to follow, for a number of reasons. Partially because, well, we read book 1 and so we have built up some context. Partially because the text pages at the ends of issues (in both books 1 and 2) have filled in some gaps for us. Partially because the last couple issues feature T'Challa regaining access to his memories, and thus fill in some key backstory for us. Partially because I think Coates lets us follow things more; it seemed to me that the plots of these issues were laid out more directly than those in book 1, Coates perhaps realizing you can only test an audience's patience for so long in an ongoing comic book. Partially because Walker has a more straightforward style and approach to the artwork than Acuña did.

The first two issues here are one-part stories, showing different missions of T'Challa and his rebel gang. These were the two that I enjoyed the most. The first is decent; the maroons decide to try to get hold of a guy who designs technology for the empire, and carry out an operation to abduct him from a pleasure cruiser. 

from Black Panther vol. 7 #8

The second was my favorite of all six parts of book 2. In this one, the rebels hit an imperial freighter for its cargo of raw vibranium only to discover that its cargo is also frozen prisoners—but the prisoners haven't had their memories removed yet. T'Challa, of course, wants to save the prisoners, but the rebel leadership wants him to focus on the mission. As T'Challa helps the prisoners, he bonds with a kid who is also a king. It's perhaps straightforward and cute stuff, but it's effectively done, exactly what you might want from a story about a former king trying to take down an intergalactic empire.

The last four issues here are one big story about a rebel operation on the planet Agwé, with some complexity deriving from the fact that different rebel factions are turning on each other; the hero Manifold, who accompanied T'Challa into space (as we found out in Shuri) is working for the empire. I did find some aspects of this story confusing, particularly revolving around the emperor and his daughter, but on the other hand, we are getting some answers.

from Black Panther vol. 7 #11

Overall, I have to say that I continue to enjoy The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda more than anything in Coates's run on Black Panther volume 6/volume 1. I do hope the end of this book represents a turning point, though. We are halfway through the story now, and I think it's time to move from "laying out a mystery" and even "solving a mystery" into "dealing with the interesting ideas." A story where T'Challa has to take down a Wakandan empire raises some interesting questions about power and violence; hopefully the story does something interesting with those questions in its thirteen remaining issues.

The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, Book 2: The Gathering of My Name originally appeared in issues #7-12 of Black Panther vol. 7 (Feb.-July 2019). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates; illustrated by Kev Walker (#7-11) and Jen Bartel (#12), with layouts by Kris Anka (#12); inked by Marc Deering (#11); colored by Stéphane Paitreau (#7-10), Java Tartaglia (#10-11), and Tríona Farrell (#12); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Black Panther: Avengers of the New World: Klaw Stands Supreme by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Leonard Kirk, et al.

All in all, Ta-Nehisi Coates's second Black Panther story, Avengers of the New World, runs thirteen issues. Here, I am reviewing the second half of the story (which appeared in Black Panther #166-72, even though the first half appeared in Black Panther #13-18... comics, everybody!). The first three installments are called "Klaw Stands Supreme" on the cover, but inside are still titled "Avengers of the New World." I am rapidly coming to the unfortunate conclusion that of all the extended runs on Black Panther I've read, Coates's might be the worst. I loved Priest's run for the most part, Don McGregor never fails to be interesting, Kirby's is nuts but it's still Jack Kirby, and though I never really clicked with Reggie Hudlin's, it was never boring.

This is. 

from Black Panther vol. 1 #166
(script by Ta-Nehisi Coates, art by Leonard Kirk & Marc Deering)

How is this story thirteen issues? Either characters are having long, boring conversations, or they are having long boring action scenes. Coates doesn't seem to know how to integrate these two things, and especially doesn't seem to know how to use either to reveal character in interesting ways. Again and again, creatures come through a gate to another dimension. There is a whole group of villains here, of which Klaw is just one, but I don't know why because mostly they just stand around. Does anything noteworthy come out of T'Challa confronting the man who killed his father? Not really, when they finally meet up it's all over in a second.

Then we learn someone called the "Adversary" is responsible for it all. Who's the Adversary? Don't worry, the book literally never tells you. Not what his powers are, not what he wants, not why you should care. If you want to know any of that, you need to go read an X-Men comic! For real! There's just a footnote, but the book acts like you should be excited when this guy I literally never heard of pops up. Wasn't this book drawing in new Marvel readers who were intrigued by Coates as scripter and/or what they saw in the then-recently released film? It's a baffling creative decision that undermines what little of interest was going on in this story.

Plus Queen Divine Justice is in this, but she could literally be anyone for all it matters; none of her personality carries over.

I guess Coates was trying to say something about godhood? I don't really know but at the end Black Panther and everyone else suddenly becomes their own gods and then they win??? Why??????

I got all these comics for free so I will continue to read them but man, I am dreading that there are twenty-five more issues of Coates's run to go. They keep pairing him with good artists, but it doesn't do any good to hire Leonard Kirk if you don't give him something worth drawing.

from Black Panther Annual vol. 1 #1
(script by Don McGregor, art by Daniel Acuña)

The book invites comparison to those previous runs because it was during this span that there was also Black Panther Annual #1, which had three short stories written by Priest, McGregor, and Hudlin. Priest tells a story of Everett K. Ross, of course, who despite being promoted out of field work finds himself drawn into a new escapade with T'Challa, with hilarious results of course. It's abbreviated but fun, and I enjoyed that Priest poked a bit of fun at what later writers did with his concepts; Ross is very confused that the Dora Milaje can speak to people who aren't T'Challa, in English.

McGregor's story is set in a world where T'Challa and Monica Lynne never split up... and she dies of cancer. I appreciated how well McGregor could still evoke his old style, twenty-five years after he last worked on the character; it's a perfect pastiche of his own work. I didn't know he was even still writing comics! It was neat to see all the old characters rendered in the old style once again. The Hudlin one continues a story from the previous Black Panther Annual #1 (comics, everybody!) set in a dystopian future where Wakanda conquered the world. It's mostly just exposition. But I was much happier to read this than whatever it is Coates is up to.

Lastly, one issue has a three-page origin recap for the Black Panther. It's fine.

Parts 7-13 of Avengers of the New World originally appeared in issues #166-72 of Black Panther vol. 1 (Dec. 2017–June 2018). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates; penciled by Leonard Kirk (#166-67, 169-72) and Chris Sprouse (#168); inked by Leonard Kirk (#166, 169-71), Marc Deering (#166-67, 172), and Karl Story (#168), with Walden Wong (#168, 172); colored by Laura Martin (#166-67, 169-72) and Matt Milla (#167-68, 172), with Chris Sotomayor (#168); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

Marvel Legacy: "The Black Panther" originally appeared in issue #166 of Black Panther vol. 1 (Dec. 2017). The story was written by Robbie Thompson, illustrated by Wilfredo Torres, colored by Dan Brown, lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Darren Shan.

Black Panther Annual vol. 1 originally appeared in one issue (Apr. 2018). The stories were written by Priest, Don McGregor, and Reggie Hudlin; illustrated by Mike Perkins, Daniel Acuña, and Ken Lashley; colored by Andy Troy and Matt Milla; lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Early Years by Paul Levitz, Kevin Sharpe, et al.

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Early Years

Collection published: 2011
Contents originally published: 2010
Acquired: May 2019
Read: August 2022

Writer: Paul Levitz

Pencillers: Kevin Sharpe, Eduardo Pansica
Inkers: Marlo Alquiza, Marc Deering, Eber Ferreira
Colorist: Blond

Letterers: Sal Cipriano, Travis Lanham, Steve Wands

I am working my way forward chronologically through all the Legion of Super-Heroes collections I own but have not read; that brings me to this, which (mostly) takes place during the Legion's early years (duh) but was written much later, during the so-called "deboot" era, when the continuity of the Legion was reset to circa 1989. (As Mark Waid once said, the creative impetus here seems to be, "Why can't comics be good the way they were when Mommy was still alive?") This collects five issues of Adventure Comics vol. 1, which jump around a bit chronologically. This is the order they are actually set in:

• Legion Year One
  
• #517: "Saturn Rising" (shortly after the foundation of the Legion, during events chronicled in Legion: Secret Origin #1)
  
• #515*: "Playing Hooky" (young Clark Kent's second trip to the future, shortly after the Legion's original appearance in Adventure Comics #247)
• Legion Year Two
  
• #518: "Whispers of Doom" (some time before Adventure #300)
  
• #519: "Playing Hooky II" (shortly after #518, still before #300, I think)
  
• Legion Year Three
  
• #520: "Tragedy: The Death of Lightning Lad" (immediately after Adventure #304, the story where Lightning Lad dies)
• Legion Year Fifteen (?)
  
• #516: "Brande Speaks" (the frame is set during what was the Legion's present day as of 2010, though most of the story is a flashback to the Legion's early years; Superboy appears in the frame, but he's out of his normal sequence relative to the Legion)
  

(Thanks to Cosmic Teams for helping me figure this out; it's the only website that cares about this miserable period of Legion history enough to do a detailed breakdown for it. Once I have every Legion comic, I plan to read them all in order; maybe I'll go a little nuts and read these where they take place, not where they were published.)

I'm a big fan of Dream Girl... but was her appearance here in any way meaningful except to foreshadow something that happened in a comic from 1964?
from Adventure Comics vol. 1 #518 (art by Kevin Sharpe & Marlo Alquiza)

Like a lot of stuff from this era of the Legion, I have to wonder who it's really for. Part of the marketing makes it seems like a way for new readers to get caught up (the back cover calls it "The Secret Origin of Superboy and the Legion!") but it also really requires you to already know your Legion history to comprehend it. I was very confused about the chronological placement of issue #516, for example, and only looking the book up on Cosmic Teams explained it was set much, much later than everything else here. There are bits of the stories that don't seem to go anywhere (a mysterious ghost in Legion HQ in #518, for example), and only by looking them up on-line did I realize they're there to foreshadow things that happened in comics published fifty years prior (the ghost is Mon-El, trapped in the Phantom Zone). In a lot of the stories, the Legion is after someone called Zaryan, and I didn't realize he was the guy who killed Lightning Lad until I got to the last issue; that would have made the foreshadowing work better, to be honest, because I couldn't figure out why we were so focused on this seeming non-story. I know my Legion history pretty well, but my earliest Legion of Super-Heroes Archive is volume 3, meaning my knowledge really begins with Adventure #318, and so all this mucking about with the Legion's early days is pretty confusing.

I would have liked more culture clash, to be honest. Cut the Brainiac Zero stuff.
from Adventure Comics vol. 1 #519 (art by Eduardo Pansica & Eber Ferreira)

Which is a shame, because there is some good stuff here: young Clark getting a time and place where he can just cut loose and have fun and not hide himself, but which also contains dark hints of his own future; the Legion coming back to Superboy's own time and having to goof around. 

I like a bit of Brainiac Five being awkward...
from Adventure Comics vol. 1 #519 (art by Eduardo Pansica & Eber Ferreira)

On the other hand, most of what is here is fragmentary and uninteresting, or plain misguided. I don't think adding a secret Saturn Girl/Cosmic Boy one-night stand is a very good idea; it all comes across as slightly skeevy. #518 isn't really a story, just hints at other stories, and thus provides no reward to the reader. #520's impact is muted by the fact it needs to be told as flashbacks in order to fit continuity. The story of R. J. Brande given here totally contradicts the history the character received in L.E.G.I.O.N. and the "Five Years Later" era of the Legion... which is totally fine, retcon away, but my rule of retcons is the new version must be at least as interesting as the old one, if not more... and this is considerably less interesting. The old Brande was fascinating; this one is a generic inspirational guy.

Is this supposed to vaguely justify why this isn't consistent with previous accounts?
from Adventure Comics vol. 1 #516 (art by Kevin Sharpe & Marlo Alquiza)

So, alas. Thankfully this and Secret Origin are all I have to catch up on from this era from now; I'm next jumping ahead a bit to read a new collection of a classic Legion story...

I read a Legion of Super-Heroes collection every six months. Next up in sequence: Legion of Super-Heroes: The Millennium Massacre

* Technically, this is Adventure Comics vol. 3 #12. In 2009, DC relaunched Adventure Comics with a new #1, but each issue also had a secondary number, continuing the numbering of Adventure Comics vol. 1 from where it had left off in 1983, #503. So, this issue was both Adventure Comics vol. 1 #515 and Adventure Comics vol. 3 #12. But with #516, they dropped the vol. 3 numbering, and used only the vol. 1 numbering. Totally straightforward. (The intervening vol. 2 was a one-issue revival in 1999, part of The Justice Society Returns, fact fans!)

Legion: Secret Origin by Paul Levitz, Chris Batista, and Marc Deering

Legion: Secret Origin

Collection published: 2012
Contents originally published: 2011-12
Acquired: May 2019
Read: October 2021

Writer: Paul Levitz

Penciller: Chris Batista
Inker: Marc Deering
Colorist: Wes Hartman

Letterer: Dezi Sienty

I haven't read much of the so-called "deboot" era of Legion of Super-Heroes, when the continuity was reset to be as it was in the 1980s because nothing screams "teenagers of the future" like "making it like it was thirty years ago." Whenever I do read something from this era, I am kinda baffled. Never bad... but always pointless.

This, I think, is supposed to recap the Legion's origin for new readers but also fill in some background for old readers. Unfortunately, none of it is interesting. The origin we've seen a million times by now, and Levitz tries to make it interesting by putting it in the background while putting the machinations of the United Planets' secret police and the Time Trapper in the foreground. It doesn't work. The origin is such a background element that one doesn't really get a sense of why anyone would care about the Legion; it has nice roles for Phantom Girl and (less so) Brainiac Five, but the rest of the characters feel like they are barely there.

What is put into the foreground is even less interesting; I never cared about any of the new(?) characters, and there's less a plot and more bits of a plot arbitrarily strung together with some foreshadowing. It's deadly dull stuff, and the story never takes off.

The idea of this kind of way of doing a Legion origin is okay—the Bierbaums, Giffen, and Al Gordon did a great one during the "Five Years Later" era by focusing on Marla Latham—but the execution makes it clear that these were "secrets" no one needed to know about.

The best part of the book is the damning-with-faint-praise back cover blurb someone at DC picked for the back cover:

It explicitly says it doesn't give good background to the characters, but they slapped it on the cover anyway! Note that in the actual review, the first sentence is "I'm not 100% convinced 'Legion: Secret Origin' would be the perfect introduction to the 'Legion of Super-Heroes' in general." so it's a pretty unethical use of ellipses as well. But given the quality of the book, this is probably the best blurb they could find. It's not even so bad it's good, it's the kind of thing you'll forget about a few days after reading it.

I read a Legion of Super-Heroes collection every six months. Next up in sequence: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes: The Early Years