X-Men / Black Panther: Wild Kingdom by Peter Milligan, Reginald Hudlin, Salvador Larroca, David Yardin, Jay Leisten, et al.

from Black Panther vol. 4 #9

After its opening story arc, Black Panther vol. 4 was immediately involved in a crossover with X-Men. In this project, I've mostly stayed away from crossovers—but in the comiXology sale where I got all these Black Panther issues to begin with, they considerately put the relevant X-Men issues on sale as well. 

Wild Kingdom sees Black Panther and the X-Men responding to the same crisis in the African nation of Niganda. After Niganda's abortive attempt to invade Wakanda, a number of genetically altered animals end up on the loose, attracting the attention of Black Panther because of the danger to Wakanda and the X-Men because they show up on Cerebro (in this story called "Cerebra" for some reason). Some third-rate supervillains called Dr. Paine and the Red Ghost are trying to use enhanced primates to take over Niganda... and then, of course, the world!

from Black Panther vol. 4 #8

I like a few of the X-Men movies (i.e., X-Men, X2, First Class), but I don't think I've ever actually enjoyed an X-Men comic, and this didn't change my mind. There's not much for them in this story, just people with phonetically rendered accents bickering a bit. The only exception is Storm, as Wild Kingdom's purpose mostly seems to be to delve a bit into the T'Challa/Ororo relationship. Coming off the back of Priest's run (which is where we first learned they had a thing), I didn't find this totally convincing; I don't think Priest's Black Panther was incapable of being awkward, but I do think he would be much better at confining and controlling his awkwardness than this stammering schoolboy.

I do think David Yardin and Jay Leisten did some solid work art-wise on the two Black Panther issues; hopefully they do more work on the series. But the story here is pretty goofy on the whole, and it feels weird to go from the entire history and an invasion of Wakanda being told in six issues to this mediocre threat being stretched out to four. I'll be curious to see how Hudlin's Black Panther develops when he just gets to do his own thing.

from Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #10

I also read "Law of the Jungle," a one-part story from Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four, which retells the story of the FF's first meeting with Black Panther. In this version, Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four are taking receipt of a shipment of vibranium for science purposes—but what they don't know is that this isn't a legitimate export, but smuggled out of Wakanda. Black Panther attacks them, but the FF soon realizes what's up and travels to Wakanda to make amends and help defeat the smugglers. I haven't read much of Jeff Parker's comics work, but I always enjoy what I read; this has a good sense of fun to it, lots of little touches in terms of characterization and comedy that really elevate it. (My favorite is the Thing and the Human Torch playing good cop/bad cop.) My main complaint would be that it's very much a Fantastic Four comic, not a Black Panther one; the trip to Wakanda and battle there is over pretty quickly. But this isn't really a complaint about the story, more a complaint about the decision to reprint it in Marvel-Verse: Black Panther. (But I guess it makes sense; it's a nice one-issue version of the FF/Black Panther meeting, as opposed to the original 2½-issue one.)

Wild Kingdom originally appeared in X-Men vol. 2 #175-76 and Black Panther vol. 4 #8-9 (Nov.-Dec. 2005). The story was written by Peter Milligan (#175-76) and Reginald Hudlin (#8-9); penciled by Salvador Larroca (#175-76) and David Yardin (#8-9); inked by Danny Miki & Allen Martinez (#175-76) and Jay Leisten (#8-9); colored by Cory Petit (#175-76), Dean White (#8-9), and Matt Milla (#9); lettered by Randy Gentile (#8-9); and edited by Mike Marts (#175-75) and Axel Alonso (#8-9).

"Law of the Jungle" originally appeared in Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #10 (May 2006). The story was written by Jeff Parker, penciled by Manuel Garcia, inked by Scott Koblish, colored by A. Crossley, lettered by Dave Sharpe, and edited by Mark Paniccia. It was reprinted in Marvel-Verse: Black Panther (2020), which was edited by Jennifer Grünwald.

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Dark X-Men: The End

Comic hardcover, n.pag.
Published 2010 (contents: 2010)
Acquired April 2012
Read May 2012

Dark X-Men

Writer: Paul Cornell

Penciler: Leonard Kirk

Inkers: Jay Leisten & Leonard Kirk
Colorist: Brian Reber
Letterer: Rob Steen

After the events of Utopia: Avengers/X-Men, the "Dark X-Men"-- Norman Osborn's government-sponsored team of mutants for dealing with mutant problems-- are down to just five members, Emma Frost, Namor, Cloak, Dagger, and Dark Wolverine all having gone elsewhere.  This leaves the team with Mystique as its field leader and Mimic (who borrows other mutants' powers), Weapon Omega (who killed Alpha Flight, the bastard), and Dark Beast (a sadistic version of Beast from an apocalyptic timeline) as its only members. Mystique impersonates the dead(?) Jean Grey in the field, just because she can.

In Utopia, one was left with an impression of the Dark X-Men as a group of very, very dangerous people with malevolent intent. In turning them into viewpoint characters, Cornell ends up undermining them: the book feels more like Confused X-Men. Mystique just wants to be free of Osborn, Omega doesn't mean to do anything he does, and Mimic is similarly well-intentioned. Only Dark Beast is as malevolent as his name implies, cruelly tortuting in the name of science. This would all be okay, as obviously this group needs to be more deeply characterized than being simply EVIL, but they're not deeply characterized; each character has one single-minded objective that they follow.

We're told they're conflicted, but only with Mystique does this conflict come across as anything more than confusion.  Indeed, Mystique was my favorite part of the book. Sure, she's selfish and partly she just wants to escape Osborn, but she's motivated by a loyalty to mutantkind and she seems to actually want to do the right thing sometimes. I've never read a story with her character before, but I'd like to read more.

This being Cornell, the dialogue is pretty good, and there's a number of great concepts running around here, more than a book this size would lead you to expect. And Leonard Kirk's art is great, clean but angular, perhaps not what you'd expect for a "dark" comic, but it's so good, that I have no complaints. His Mystique looks pretty good in that jumpsuit!

A number of reviews that I read of this book indicated that its subtitle, "Journey to the Center of the Goblin," was a dead giveaway as to where the story was going. It sure says something about the oddity of my dabblings in Marvel Comics that I spent the whole book waiting for Alpha Flight's Goblyn to show up. (She didn't.)

Dark X-Men: The Beginning

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2010 (contents: 2009)
Acquired January 2011
Read May 2012

Utopia: Avengers/X-Men

Writers: Matt Fraction, Craig Kyle & Chris Yost, Mike Carey, Kieron Gillen, Paul Cornell, James Asmus, Shane McCarthy, Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman, Rob Williams, Jason Aaron, and Simon Spurrier

Pencilers: Marc Silvestri, Terry Dodson, Luke Ross, Bing Cansino, Dustin Weaver, Leonard Kirk, Jesse Delperdang, and Paco Diaz (with Michael Broussard, Eric Basaloua, Tyler Kirkham and Sheldon Mitchell)

Inkers: Joe Weems, Rachel Dodson, Rick Magyar, Mark Pennington, Luke Ross, Roland Paris, Edgar Tadeo, Jay Leisten, Leonard Kirk, Andy Lanning, and Guillermo Ortega (with Marco Galli, Eric Basaloua, Rick Basaloua, Jason Gorder, Sal Aegla, Jon Sibal, Ryan Winn, and Jesse Delperdang)
Other Artists: Mike Deodata, Daniel Acuna, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Ibraim Roberson, Michel Lacombe, Jock, and Paul Davidson
Colorists: Frank D'Armata, Justin Ponsor, Rain Beredo, Dean White, Christina Strain, Edgar Delgado, Brian Reber, Matt Milla, John Rauch, and Dave Stewart
Letterers: Chris Eliopoulous, Joe Caramagna & Cory Petit, Rob Steen, and Dave Sharpe

Holy cow! Not counting cover artists or editorial staff, 64 different people worked on this 368-page book.  Even if you discount everything but the core story "Utopia," which has just one writer (Matt Fraction), there are still some nineteen artists at work on six issues.  Oh, the American corporate comic book factory: how delightful.

Suffice it to say that I'd never ordinarily buy such a book (X-Men comics alienate me in general, and their gigantic crossover events even moreso), except that Paul Cornell has a few stories in it: three shorts that were part of a miniseries called Dark X-Men: The Beginning. Originally these were going to be published as their own book, but that ended up not happening and so I had to by this whole fershlugginer crossover just to get 20-something pages of Paul Cornell goodness. I hope you're happy Marvel!  These stories see Cornell reunited with his Captain Britain and MI13 collaborator Leonard Kirk to tell the tales of superheroes recruited for Norman "Green Goblin" Osborn's government-sponsored X-Men team.

"Namor/Norman" is probably the best of the three, as Osborn attempts to figure why Namor, Prince of Atlantis, could possibly care about what's going on in the surface world. Given its placement in the book after the reader has learned the answer, it's a delightful example of two men out-out-thinking one another.  I also enjoyed "Hidden Depth," where Emma Frost probes Namor's mind herself.  The weakest was clearly "The Temptation of Cloak and Dagger," which didn't say anything that wasn't revealed in the earlier chapters of Utopia.

Utopia as whole is about X-Men leader Cyclops's attempt to keep the X-Men based in San Francisco in the face of growing anti-mutant hysteria and attacks by something called "Bio-Sentinels" whose origins are never explained, not to mention the arrival of Norman Osborn and his government-sponsored Avenger and X-Men teams. The first chapter is actually quite good, building a feeling of tension and unsettledness as the streets of San Francisco are filled with angry rioters, and no one's quite sure what to do. Reading it for the first time after "Occupy Wall Street," it actually feels very prescient.  After that, though, the story stretches out too long through its last five chapters. The characters do interesting things, but we're not privy to their interiority enough to really experience them; Emma Frost must be really conflicted over what's going on, but the plot precludes us from discovering how she feels about her role until its over.

Terry Dodson's art was an unexpected delight, though: nice, clean, and vaguely cartoony.  I got tired of Luke Ross's well-rounded butt shots, though, and the less said about Marc Silvestri's identical faces for women and poor story-telling skills, the better.

I was delighted to see Mike Carey here, after enjoying his work on Lucifer so much, and joined by Dustin Weaver, one of the better artists on Knights of the Old Republic, but their story (about what Rogue gets up to during the riots in the first chapter) feels like a pointless fill-in.  Otherwise, I found the rest of this volume fairly disposable.