Black Panther: Long Live the King by Nnedi Okorafor, André Lima Araújo, et al.

Long Live the King is another miniseries that ran alongside Ta-Nehisi Coates's main Black Panther ongoing; similar to World of Wakanda, it tells smaller stories, though T'Challa is the protagonist in most of these, unlike the ones in World. I had actually read it before, as it was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story back in 2019.

from Black Panther: Long Live the King #2

There are three stories here; the first, by Nnedi Okorafor and André Lima Araújo, appears in issues #1, 2, and, oddly, 5, and is about T'Challa investigating a monster that's causing earthquakes in Wakanda. It didn't really hang together for me; everyone acts like T'Challa is crazy when he says he can see a monster but no one else can. Like, c'mon, you guys live in the Marvel universe, stuff like this happens all the time! The story tries to explore a subgroups of Wakandans who live without technology, but doesn't really go anywhere interesting with that, and I found making a new character an old childhood friend of T'Challa was not actually an effective way to get me to care. I also don't care for how recent Black Panther comics have watered down Christopher Priest's Hatute Zeraze from feared Wakandan secret police to generic guards. (I feel like the rough edges of his conception of Wakanda are being sanded off.) I often find Okorador's dialogue stilted in her novels, and that's true of her comics as well. Araújo's artwork is technically competent but rarely interesting to look at.

from Black Panther: Long Live the King #3

The second story, by Aaron Covington and Mario Del Pennino, appears in issues #3-4. I just reread my notes on it and I still don't remember what it's about, except it once again depends on a previously unmentioned childhood friend of T'Challa's to generate drama, so... 

The last story, by Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford, I remember confused me when I read it originally because it takes place in an alternate universe, but the trade paperback it was collected in completely failed to mention that. Thankfully, reading in single issues, you get an explanatory text page that does give some context for why the Black Panther is suddenly a wheelchair-using Nigerian woman bonded to the Venom symbiote... but not why anyone might think this worth telling stories about. 

Back when I read these for the Hugos, I ranked them below No Award. I stand by that. This is generic superhero stuff, not the best of the genre or the character. Presumably churned out to make sure there was lots of Black Panther content on the shelves when the film was released.

from Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury #1

That's probably also true of Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury, a one-shot about T'Challa battling Klaw. It's written by Ralph Macchio, who previously wrote Black Panther way back in 1982... and if you told me this was an inventory script hanging out in his drawer since 1982, I would believe you. Macchio was a prolific comics writer back in the 1980s, and his style doesn't seem to have moved on since then. Overly wordy, very simple characterization. Actually, that's not fair to the actual comics of the 1980s, which were usually better than this. If this was a new story put out to tie into the film, I'm not sure what anyone involved was thinking.

Black Panther: Long Live the King originally appeared in six issues (Feb.-Apr. 2018). The stories were written by Nnedi Okorafor (#1-2, 5-6) and Aaron Covington (#3-4); illustrated by André Lima Araújo (#1-2, 5), Mario Del Pennino (#3-4), and Tana Ford (#6); inked by Terry Pallot & Scott Hanna (#6); colored by Chris O'Halloran (#1-5) and Ian Herring & Irma Kniivila (#6); lettered by Richard Starkings (#4) and Jimmy Betancourt (#1-6); and edited by Devin Lewis.

"The Sound and the Fury!" originally appeared in issue #1 of Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury (Apr. 2018). The story was written by Ralph Macchio, illustrated by Andrea Di Vito, colored by Laura Villari, lettered by Travis Lanham, and edited by Mark Basso.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

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.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

* 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!

Review: Star Trek: First Contact by John Vornholt, Terry Pallot, et al.

Perfect-bound comic, 48 pages
Published 1996
Acquired June 2019
Read October 2019

Star Trek: First Contact

Adapted by John Vornholt
Art by Terry Pallot (pages 1-36 & 40-48)
Layouts by Rod Whigham
Pencils by Rod Whigham (pages 37-39)
Inks by Philip Moy
Color Design by Shannon Blanchard

Lettered by Edd Fear

In my review of the Generations adaptation, I said the First Contact adaptation from Marvel (the last-ever adaptation of a Prime Universe Star Trek film) hadn't been collected. I tracked it down to read it and discovered that even though it's a one-shot comic... it has an ISBN for some reason. Which under my personal rules means I can count it as a book. I don't know why, but I'll take it.

If you haven't seen the film or Voyager, it's not even clear this guy is a hologram! What's an "EMH"? (art by Terry Pallot, Rod Whigham, & Philip Moy)

John Vornholt scripts; I didn't know he did any comics work, actually, as I primarily know him as a prolific Star Trek novelist in the 1990s, including the YA novels of all four Next Generation films, meaning this is one of two adaptations of First Contact that he wrote. It's an okay script. The first half captures the film well, but something is off with the pacing, and the second half gets very choppy, with a lot of the movie's great scenes cut down so much they lose their impact. The argument between Picard and Lily where he breaks his ships becomes a calm conversation; the great bit about Moby-Dick literally becomes: "You're like Captain Ahab." "Have you read Moby Dick?" "Actually, no." Zefram Cochrane is a particular victim of the condensation; the values conflict between him and the Enterprise crew doesn't come off at all.

The thing about Cochrane's music also doesn't come off in a medium that can only represent "Ooby Dooby" and "Magic Carpet Ride" with "TWANG-DA-DA-TWANG!" (art by Terry Pallot, Rod Whigham, & Philip Moy)

The art by Terry Pallot, Rod Whigham, and Philip Moy looks nice; it has that nice 1990s pre-computers style that I like, reminding me of people like Mike Collins or Matt Haley. (Which I guess makes sense, because Mike Collins worked on Marvel's 1990s Star Trek comics.) The action is often confusing, though, especially the shipboard fights against the Borg. I'm not sure a reader could follow the Dixon Hill scene if they didn't see the film. But then, who is reading this who didn't see the film? Like most film-to-comics adaptations, I'm discovering, it's serviceable, but adds little to your experience.

Next Week: From the 24th century to the 30th: I revisit Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes!