Shuri: A Friend in Need and Other Stories by Nnedi Okorafor, Rachael Stott, et al.

The second half of the Shuri series continues the story of what Shuri is up to on Earth, acting as Black Panther while T'Challa is missing in space. First there's a two-issue fill-in by Vita Ayala and Paul Davidson about Shuri going to New York City tracking down black holes, where she ends up working alongside the Miles Morales Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel. I was a little skeptical of this going in, to be honest, but I ended up enjoying it a fair amount. Ayala (mostly) has a good command of Ms. Marvel, and the story does some interesting, nuanced things that stop it from being just another generic superhero punch-up. (I did find it weird that Kamala said she was a science person, though.)

from Shuri #9

The last three issues bring back series writer Nnedi Okorafor, alongside a new artist, Rachael Stott, to wrap up the series's various ongoing threads. Stott was one of the regular artists on Titan's Doctor Who work, where she did great stuff particularly on their twelfth Doctor series, and I was glad to see her making the jump to one of the "Big Two" publishers here.

I did think that the three issues here struggled a bit to get everything together; in particular, Shuri's friendship with the mysterious anonymous hacker Muti ultimately seems pretty underdeveloped. Yes, Muti plays a role in wrapping up the ongoing crisis with the music-loving black-hole-generating space bug that threatens to eat Wakanda's memories, but I felt like there was more to do here in terms of characterization with the idea that Shuri's only real friend was someone she never saw or met! In the end, it feels like Okorafor bit off slightly more ideas than than she could chew in a ten-issue miniseries; Wakanda's growing connection to other African nations is just a random bit of flavor rather than something dealt with substantively.

from Shuri #7

It does have some good touches; I liked the inclusion of a made-up piece of Wakandan dance music, and I was pleasantly surprised that the story ended with Shuri still having access to the powers of ancient Wakanda memory, since I figured the point of the series was to remove them to more closely align the comics version of the character with the film version.

So ultimately I found the first half of this series stronger than the second... but it is definitely the best showing from Okorafor on a Black Panther-adjacent comic and, other than Rise of the Black Panther, probably the best Black Panther comic of the whole "Coates era."

Issues #6-10 of Shuri originally appeared from May to September 2019. The stories were written by Vita Ayala (#6-7) and Nnedi Okorafor (#8-10), illustrated by Paul Davidson (#6-7) and Rachael Stott (#8-10), colored by Triona Farrell (#6-7) and Carlos Lopez (#8-10), lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE 

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

Lady Blackhawk in Guy Gardner: Warrior

In the 2000s, the original Lady Blackhawk, Zinda Blake, was a recurring character in Birds of Prey,* which I've already read. What I hadn't read, though, was the storyline where she was transported through time from her native era to the present day, and so I wanted to read that as part of my project to read Blackhawk comics. 

Thus, I read every issue of Guy Gardner: Warrior in which she appeared, checking the Grand Comics Database and League of Comic Geeks to determine which issues those were. (You can see the full list of them at the bottom of this post.) During this time, the Green Lantern Corps was all dead or something (I know I read about this when I read Emerald Fallout as part of Darkstars, but I don't remember the details), and Guy had discovered that he was actually half-alien, getting powers from his Vuldarian DNA rather than a power ring. (Did he still have these powers when the GLC reformed during Geoff Johns's run? Were they retconned away? Or just forgotten?)

from Guy Gardner: Warrior #24

I didn't except her to play a big role... but I did expect her to play more of a role than this! Zinda first appears in issue #24, the Zero Hour tie-in; in this one, Guy keeps jumping through time in pursuit of Extant, along with Supergirl, Batgirl, and Steel. In one time period, they encounter Lady Blackhawk; she comes along on their next couple hops through time, and that's it.

She doesn't appear again for five issues, until #29. In this one, Guy is opening Warriors, his superhero-themed bar (or bar for just superheroes? it wasn't very clear to me), and Zinda pops up. She says that after the events of issue #24, she found herself standing outside the bar and just came in. And that's it, that's all the explanation there is! She and Wildcat (who also seems to work at Warriors; in terms of his chronology, this would be after his Showcase '94 story, before Batman/Wildcat) recognize each other, but there was no previous story where the two interacted as far as I know, because during the time Lady Blackhawk was a main character in Blackhawk (c. 1959-68, see items #4-6 in the list below), Wildcat and the rest of the JSA were in comics limbo (or on Earth-Two).

from Guy Gardner: Warrior #43

From then on, Zinda is essentially just in crowd scenes of the employees at Warriors. She doesn't really do anything characterful or interesting; the bolshy, swaggering woman of Gail Simone's Birds of Prey does not yet exist. On two separate occasions, she flies other characters somewhere in a helicopter, and that's it; on the left you can see basically the only significant line of dialogue she gets between issues #36 and 43.

Continuity-wise, her appearance is a bit of a throwback, because there was no Zinda Blake in the post-Crisis Blackhawks... though I guess as the Rick Burchett Blackhawk ongoing only made it up to 1950 (aside from the 1963-68 span briefly covered in Blackhawk Special #1, see item #11), we could imagine that Zinda did participate in the post-Crisis Blackhawks from 1956 to 1968 as what would have been the second Lady Blackhawk, following Natalie Reed. Or maybe Zero Hour changed the history of the Blackhawks back to something more closely resembling its pre-Crisis version. I guess I will see what various Blackhawk stories do going forward. (I do know that Blackhawk's post-Crisis name of "Janos Prohaska" sticks.)

You might wonder if removing Lady Blackhawk from time would have repercussions for those older stories, but I believe Zinda's last appearance was in issue #243, from November 1968 (see item #6), so as long as Zinda was plucked out of time between 1968 and the present day, there wouldn't be any issues.

So, overall, Guy Gardner: Warrior was not worth reading for Lady Blackhawk; I didn't experience anything I hadn't experienced by reading summaries on Cosmic Teams. But sometimes I read tangential comics as part of my reading projects and end up enjoying them on their own merits. Was that the case with Guy Gardner: Warrior?

Lots of things in this comic make no sense, but foremost among them is how many women want to sleep with Guy.
from Guy Gardner: Warrior #38

Not at all. In fact, this is probably one of the worst superhero comics I've ever read. Beau Smith continually introduces new ideas without having followed up on previous ones (there's an issue that ends with Guy's mother moving in as the cliffhanger; she literally never appears in the series again). The villains and the art are the 1990s "extreme" Image aesthetic at its worst, even in the hands of artists that would go good work elsewhere, like Phil Jimenez and Howard Porter. Most issues are boring at best, actively stupid at worst. I'm all for a good gender-swap story, but the one here is awful. Lots of gender violence throughout the series, including the gratuitous fridging of Arisia in the penultimate issue (I guess this must have been undone later, though).

The only benefit to reading this comic is that it gave me an excuse to read a bunch of entries in Guy Gardner Colon Warrior, one of the Internet's greatest blogs, which unfortunately reached its natural end point when they ran out of issues to take the piss out of. Amazing stuff. 

Zinda "Lady Blackhawk" Blake appeared in issues #24, 29, 36, and 38-43 of Guy Gardner: Warrior (Sept. 1994–June 1996) and issue #1 of Guy Gardner: Warrior Annual (1995). The stories were written by Beau Smith (#24, 29, 36, 38-43; Annual #1) with Flint Henry (Annual #1); pencilled by Mitch Byrd (#24), Phil Jimenez (#24, 29), Howard Porter (#24), Mike Parobeck (#24, 41), Flint Henry (Annual #1), Marc Campos (#36, 38-39, 41-42), Tom Grindberg (#38), Aaron Lopresti (#40), and Brad Gorby (#43); laid out by Jackson Guice (#24); inked/finished by John Stokes (#29), Dan Davis (#24, 29, 36, 38-43), Flint Henry (Annual #1), Rod Ramos (Annual #1), Bob Dvorak (Annual #1), Phil Jimenez (Annual #1), and Nick Napolitano (#39); colored by Stuart Chaifetz (#24), Gene D'Angelo (#29), Scott Baumann (Annual #1), and Lee Loughridge (#36, 38-43); lettered by Albert De Guzman; and edited by Eddie Berganza.

This is the twelfth in a series of posts about the Blackhawks. The next installment covers JLA: Year One. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Blackhawk Archives, Volume 1 (1941-42)
2. Military Comics #18-43 / Modern Comics #44-46 / Blackhawk #9 & 50 (1943-52)
3. Showcase Presents Blackhawk, Volume One (1957-58) 
4. Blackhawk vol. 1 #151-95 (1960-64) 
5. Blackhawk vol. 1 #196-227 (1964-66)
6. Blackhawk vol. 1 #228-43 (1967-68)
7. Blackhawk vol. 1 #244-50 / The Brave and the Bold #167 (1976-80)
8. Blackhawk (1982) 
9. Blackhawk vol. 1 #251-73 / DC Comics Presents #69 (1982-84) 
• Pre-Crisis Continuity 
10. Blackhawk: Blood & Iron (1987-89)
11. Blackhawk vol. 3 (1989-92) 

* She first joined the team in Between Dark & Dawn (2004), and was featured in several subsequent volumes including Blood and Circuits (2006-07), Club Kids (2007-08), Metropolis or Dust (2008), End Run (2010-11), and The Death of Oracle (2011).

Killmonger: By Any Means by Bryan Hill and Juan Ferreyra

As I have been chronicling, Ta-Nehisi Coates's Black Panther run was accompanied by a wide variety of tie-in miniseries. The next of these is Killmonger, a five-issue story by writer Bryan Hill and artist Juan Ferreyra filling in the backstory of Erik Killmonger, the son of Wakanda cruelly abducted to the outside world by Ulysses Klaw who returned to Wakanda to rule it. Obviously this was originally chronicled in Don McGregor's Panther's Rage, but the more salient reference points here are probably the Black Panther film, where we got an MCU version of that story, and Rise of the Black Panther, where Evan Narcisse and Javier Pina briefly retold the story for the modern era.

from Killmonger #2

I thought this take was incredibly disappointing. This takes place after Erik graduates from MIT (where he sleeps with his "guidance counselor" in a cringey scene) before he returns to Wakanda. There is surely a very interesting story to be told about how Killmonger gets radicalized, how he decides to go back to Wakanda and take it over and possibly even use it to change an unjust world.

Unfortunately, this story mostly focuses on Killmonger running with a gang doing crimes. Killmonger is angry, he's a misogynist, and that's about as deep as his characterization goes. There's no engagement with the political ideas that made Killmonger so interesting on screen, there's no real sense of why he might want to take over a country or why he thinks he can do it. Just lots of action scenes where people get brutally killed. Like, I'm not even sure what anyone involved in this was thinking, it seems so incredibly off-beam from what you would want out of a Killmonger comic that it ought to have been rejected at the outline phase. Boring and dull.

(There is a prominent character who I initially thought was Misty Knight: she's called "Knight," she looks similar. She very much is not. I don't know if this was a deliberate wrong-footing by Hill and Ferreyra, or if I just don't know very much about Misty Knight.)

By Any Means originally appeared in issues #1-5 of Killmonger (Feb.-May 2019). The story was written by Bryan Hill, illustrated by Juan Ferreyra, lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE 

Shuri: "Gone" and Other Stories by Nnedi Okorafor and Leonardo Romero

In parallel to Ta-Nehisi Coates and Daniel Acuña's story about T'Challa in space, Marvel released a series about what Shuri was doing back on Earth, written by Nnedi Okorafor with art by Leonardo Romero. I think Shuri is the first time there were multiple Black Panther–themed ongoings even if it only lasted ten issues; here, I am going to cover the first five because there's a natural break point at the end.

I haven't been very into Nnedi Okorafor's previous Black Panther comics (Long Live the King and Wakanda Forever), but I found this worked a lot better for me—perhaps because it's about a young woman trying to find her place in the world, and much of Okorafor's prose work is YA. The story (surprisingly to me) provides a little more context for what's been going on in The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, as it opens with T'Challa and Manifold (now Shuri's boyfriend) going on a space mission through a wormhole in a ship of Shuri's design... and not returning. 

from Shuri #1

Shuri has to step up as the handler of crises in Wakanda, while she tries to keep her brother's disappearance secret, and deal with her insecurities about replacing T'Challa. Last time she was Black Panther, after all, she died. Also, the powers she got during Coates's first run are on the blink, meaning she needs to rely more on her gadgets. This is pretty clearly to align the comics character with her film counterpart, but I don't mind, as I never really got what Coates was going for with the new Shuri anyway!

Anyway, I enjoyed this. It's not great comics, but it made for a solid five days of reading. Okorafor has a lot of moving parts, which is nice; her previous two stories were probably too straightforward. There's Shuri's adventures, of course, but also her mother's creation of a group of woman to advise her, T'Challa's secret creation of a pan-African council, Shuri's loss of her powers, her online-only relationship with a mysterious hacker from one of Wakanda's "mute zones." There are lots of idea being thrown about, and they overlap and interact in interesting ways.

from Shuri #1

I particularly liked the illustrations by Leonardo Romero, which are well-matched by the coloring from Jordie Bellaire. I apparently previously encountered Romero's work as an illustrator on Titan's Doctor Who comics featuring the tenth and eleventh Doctors; I don't really remember it, but I did once write, "Something about Leonardo Romero's art turned me off; not enough expression in it, I think. Looks like he drew it with a computer. (I mean, I know probably everyone here drew with a computer-- but I don't like it when the inking is all the same thickness.)" Well, maybe he got better in the two years between The Endless Song and this, or maybe he just vibed better with this series, because overall, I enjoyed his style here. It reminds me of the work of Javier Pulido: on the cartoony end, but with solidity. Bellaire compliments it with flat colors instead of shading, which to be honest, I tend to like better! Sometimes I think Romero struggles with clarity in action, but overall, I think his approach really makes this book pop.

Oh, and in perhaps a first for the Coates era... not a single fill-in on art! Not even an ink assist. 

from Shuri #3

The best issue of the five here is the third. At the end of the second, Shuri attempts to astral project herself into space to find out what happened to her brother. The cliffhanger ending is that instead of returning to her own body, she finds herself in that of Groot from The Guardians of the Galaxy: "I am Shuri!" In the third, she must work together with Rocket Raccoon to battle an alien insect; Rocket can understand all of her "I am Shuri" just as well as he usually does "I am Groot." It's fun and funny. (Though it did stretch credulity for me that Rocket Raccoon would somehow know who Shuri is.) I think if the series can keep this up (like a lot of series about mid-tier character, there are a lot of guest characters: Iron Man in #5, and the teaser for #6 promises Miles Morales), it will be solid, and perhaps one of the best contributions yet in the Coates era.

Issues #1-5 of Shuri originally appeared from December 2018 to April 2019. The stories were written by Nnedi Okorafor, illustrated by Leonardo Romero, colored by Jordie Bellaire, lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE 

Showcase Presents Wildcat by Eddie Berganza, Nick Gnazzo, and Ray Kryssing / Green Lantern / The Flash: Faster Friends by Ron Marz, Val Semeiks, Chip Wallace, et al.

From June 2020 to December 2023, I chronicled the history of the Justice Society in fifty installments. And then, at last, I was done!

Or was I? The nature of these projects I undertake is you can always discover there was some relevant comic you didn't know about at the time. Such was the case when a friendly commenter named Drew popped up to tell me that, after I'd bemoaned Geoff Johns forgetting about the brother of Yolanda "Wildcat" Montez, the character made an appearance in an issue of Showcase '94. Well, it looks like I have more comics to read, so this series is (much like the JSA itself) called back into action again after a long gap. Since December 2023, I've discovered a few different JSA-adjacent comics, so this will be the first of, I think, three new installments.

So, the second Wildcat, Yolanda, was created by Roy and Dann Thomas in Infinity, Inc. (see item #10 below), but like a lot of DC's legacy characters, basically went into limbo once the series was over. And then was brutally killed off to prove the situation was serious... in an issue of freakin' Eclipso! Gotta put that old white guy back into his rightful position, of course. 

from Showcase '94 #8

But as Drew told me, there was a follow-up to all this in an issue of Showcase, DC's anthology series. In this story, Ted Grant, the original Wildcat, goes to Yolanda's funeral... only to find out that her parents, desperate with mourning, have hired a witch doctor to bring their daughter back to life! It's a pretty simple story: you might not be surprised to find out that Yolanda comes back as a mindless monster, and Ted defeats it. It is, after all, just ten pages. I didn't much care for the art, but it was nice to see that Roy and Dann Thomas's original conception of Yolanda wasn't totally forgotten; her brother is in the story. (For some reason, Geoff Johns later makes up a cousin for Yolanda rather than just use the brother during his JSA run; see item #34 below.)

from Green Lantern/Flash: Faster Friends #1

I also read Faster Friends, a two-issue miniseries from 1997 about Green Lantern (then Kyle Rayner) teaming up with the Flash (then Wally West) in order to deal with the consequences of an early adventure of a different Green Lantern (then Alan Scott) and Flash (then Jay Garrick). We get some flashbacks to that original adventure, the first time Green Lantern and Flash ever teamed up, back in 1940, as the present-day characters work alongside their namesakes and each other.

I think the idea here is good but I also think there's too much going on for the story's ninety-six pages... or maybe there's too much action, which pushes out the stuff it seems to me the story should actually be about! The first issue in particular is a bit of a nothingburger; we have a flashback of Jay and Alan teaming up but it goes so quickly it doesn't really give us any insight into their personalities. In the present, I think we're supposed to see a sort of rivalry between Wally and Kyle, but it's more like something we're told happened in other stories than something we actually see in this one.

from Flash/Green Lantern: Faster Friends #2

The second issue has more potential but again is trying to do too much: Jay is terminally ill, and Kyle and Wally go through a teleporter that mixes them up a bit. But Jay's impending death is a bit too much to deal with in a story like this, and of course it's all resolved by the end of the story (albeit in a clever way). One might think that Wally and Kyle being scrambled up would yield some good drama or character insight, but basically all it means is that each is wearing the wrong costume and seems to know stuff the other should, and then it gets fixed. There's no meaningful character arc: one expects more from Mark Waid, to be honest.

As far as this project goes, it's always fun to see Jay and Alan... but this is from the period (see #23 below) when Alan was deaged and went by "Sentinel." Such things happen in superhero comics, I suppose, but one doesn't have to like them. Bad creative decision, though again, Waid and Augustyn do an interesting thing with it, at least. 

(I read the story collected in a DC Comics Presents issue from 2011, but I think it will end up being collected whenever DC does The Flash by Mark Waid Omnibus, Volume Three, which I will buy when it comes out, so that may have been pointless.) 

Wildcat: "Brujas Y Gatos" originally appeared in issue #8 of Showcase '94 (July 1994). The story was written by Eddie Berganza, pencilled by Nick Gnazzo, inked by Ray Kryssing, colored by Suzanne Bourdages, lettered by Bill Oakley, and edited by Neal Ponzer.  

 

Green Lantern/Flash: Faster Friends #1 and Flash/Green Lantern: Faster Friends #2 originally appeared in 1997. The story was written by Ron Marz (#1) and Mark Waid & Brian Augustyn (#2); pencilled by Bart Sears, Andy Smith, Jeff Johnson, Ron Lim, & Tom Grindberg (#1) and Val Semeiks (#2); inked by Mark Pennington & Bill Anderson (#1) and Chip Wallace (#2); colored by John Kalisz (#1) and Ian Laughlin (#2); lettered by Chris Eliopoulos (#1) and Albert DeGuzman (#2); and edited by Kevin Dooley (#1) and Paul Kupperberg (#2). It was reprinted in DC Comics Presents: Green Lantern / The Flash: Faster Friends #1 (Jan. 2011).

 

This post is the fifty-first in an improbably long series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Impulse: Bart Saves the Universe. Previous installments are listed below:

"this peace, like any other, was a temporary thing" (Blackhawk, 1989–92)

The third and final (so far, anyway*) volume of Blackhawk comprised sixteen issues in 1989 and 1990, plus a 1989 annual and a belated 1992 special. It picked up from what artist Rick Burchett and writer Martin Pasko had been doing with Blackhawk in Action Comics (see item #10 below); Burchett would illustrate all sixteen regular issues of the title (occasionally with various assists), while Pasko would write the first eleven, with Grant Miehm taking over at the end.

Back when I began this series of posts, I said the question I was interested in was how various creators made use of the Blackhawks outside of their original context. Can a premise and set of characters originally anchored to a very specific time and place have any viability outside of it? The last couple incarnations of the Blackhawks have seemed to indicate "no": both Mark Evanier (see #9 below) and Chaykin returned the Blackhawks to World War II. 

Somewhat cleverly, Mike Grell and Martin Pasko followed on from Chaykin by making the viability of the Blackhawks outside of World War II the very topic of their stories. At the end of the Action Comics run, Pasko set up that the Blackhawks would be operating at the behest of U.S. intelligence, their cover story being that they were a charter air service. These warriors need a new war to fight, even if it's one they don't totally agree with themselves.

Glamorous even with one eye.
from Blackhawk Annual #1
(script by Martin Pasko, art by Rick Burchett & Bill Wray)

This is the topic of the first three issues and the annual, which see the Blackhawks go on missions like distributing anticommunist leaflets to influence elections overseas, but of course they get into fights and scrapes, and of course Janos himself gets into shenanigans with local women. There's lots of moral ambiguity here; it's a strong follow-up to what Pasko and Burchett were doing in Action Comics.

In that run, Pasko had also set up that Natalie Reed (the so-called "Lady Blackhawk") had a child she was unable to reenter the U.S. to see, thanks to increased anticommunist sentiments postwar. This is the main spine of those first four issues; from Mexico, Natalie is writing comics stories about the Blackhawks and sending them to a publisher in the U.S., who illustrates them with her name under a pseudonym. But the fact that Reed is a former communist means a right-wing member of the publisher staff informs on her, and soon the Blackhawks are battling enemies at home, not just abroad. I really enjoyed this subplot, particularly some of the revelations about who the father of Natalie's baby was, and what happens to him.

I agree, Janos.
from Blackhawk vol. 3 #1 (script by Martin Pasko, art by Rick Burchett)

(If you want, this subplot can also be used to kind of maintain previous versions of Blackhawk in continuity. Pasko and Burchett include interpolated bits based on the original Military Comics run [see item #1] and Chaykin's miniseries [item #10]. Any story you want to keep can be an in-universe fictionalized comics based on on actual adventure!)

After this, though, the comic moves into an ongoing plotline that runs from issue #4 to 12. This takes the conspiracy thriller tone of the whole thing to a new level: the government decides they want to the Blackhawks to go to China and stop them from developing an atomic bomb... so they kidnap them and make it seem like they're dead? Meanwhile, other members of the Blackhawks are being abducted and put in suspended animation. I can enjoy conspiracy thrillers, but one that bugs me is when the antagonists are so powerful in the way they manipulate the protagonists that it doesn't really make sense that they need the protagonists to do anything to begin with. If the government can force the Blackhawks to do all this, why can't they just do it themselves directly?

As the story goes on, it gets increasingly convoluted, with the villains trying to (I think) copy the Blackhawks' memories into other people's bodies for... reasons, I guess? I don't really know, and that's despite two different issues where the plot stops so that people can explain to each other what's going on! And like I said, this plotline dominates nine issues of the title! It's pretty bad, and feels like it must be the reason the title ended up cancelled.

Martin Pasko doesn't even see it all the way through; issue #12 is actually written by Doug Moench, who wraps everything up implausibly quickly. Oh, did the Blackhawks go through the most traumatic events of their lives? That's fine, they're back to work... for the same people who did all this to them to begin with! Natalie goes through some particularly twisted shit, and he writes her out rather than deal with it. On the one hand, I'm frustrated to lose one of the new Blackhawks' best characters, but on the other hand, I'm not sure what Moench could actually do with her given how much Pasko screwed up the character that he had made so interesting!

After that, Moench quickly moves onto a four-part storyline about the Blackhawks flying experimental planes... and possibly also there are UFOs? To be honest, I found this disjointed, confusing, and pointless. Again, it's not very clear what the conspiracy is or why the conspirators want the Blackhawks; there are several different parts to the story that don't go together. A disappointing conclusion to a series that had a very strong start.

Other stuff: The series contains a couple "Blackhawk Express" stories set in the present day of the DC universe (following on from "The Crash of 88" in Action Comics) starring Weng Chan. These have good writers (Elliot S. Maggin and John Ostrander) but unfortunately a terrible artist in Dick Rockwell, and to be honest, neither writer ever does anything with the premise that convinces me it was worthwhile. Finally, 1992's Blackhawk Special (script by John Ostrander, art by Mike Vosburg) chronicles 1963 to '68 for the Blackhawks (the main body of the ongoing covered 1948 to '50), mostly focusing on the Blackhawks getting involved in a conspiracy surrounding the deaths of JFK and RFK. It's decent enough but a bit too jumpy to be engaging; I feel like Ostrander was trying to do too much even if he had 57 pages to work with.

This is the eleventh in a series of posts about the Blackhawks. The next installment covers Lady Blackhawk in Guy Gardner: Warrior. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Blackhawk Archives, Volume 1 (1941-42)
2. Military Comics #18-43 / Modern Comics #44-46 / Blackhawk #9 & 50 (1943-52)
3. Showcase Presents Blackhawk, Volume One (1957-58) 
4. Blackhawk vol. 1 #151-95 (1960-64) 
5. Blackhawk vol. 1 #196-227 (1964-66)
6. Blackhawk vol. 1 #228-43 (1967-68)
7. Blackhawk vol. 1 #244-50 / The Brave and the Bold #167 (1976-80)
8. Blackhawk (1982) 
9. Blackhawk vol. 1 #251-73 / DC Comics Presents #69 (1982-84) 
• Pre-Crisis Continuity 
10. Blackhawk: Blood & Iron (1987-89) 

* There was a short-lived ongoing series that ran 2011–12, but it was called Blackhawks.

Black Panther: Many Thousands Gone by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daniel Acuña, et al.

After Avengers of the New World came to an end, Marvel did that thing that Marvel likes to do, which is that they started Black Panther over with a new #1... even though there was no gap in publication at all, and it was the work of the same writer! Ta-Nehisi Coates continues on, though the main artist of this new arc is Daniel Acuña, who is new to the character (other than a short story in Black Panther Annual vol. 1 #1).

from Black Panther vol. 7 #5

The first six issues of Black Panther volume 7 comprise a story called Many Thousands Gone, itself the first "book" of The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, a massive story arc that runs through all twenty-five issues of this volume of Black Panther. It seems to me that Coates must have taken some of the comments on his first couple story arcs to heart (though clearly not the one about how long his story arcs are!), because while A Nation under Our Feet in particular had lots of dialogue and seemingly little action at times, Many Thousands Gone has lots of action and little dialogue, and especially little exposition. 

from Black Panther vol. 7 #3

We're dumped into a new status quo in medias res: there's some kind of Wakandan intergalactic empire (you can tell Coates isn't a science person because he doesn't seem to know the difference between "galaxy" and "star system," much like Terry Nation), which is evil; there are a group of slaves, some of which become rebels, one of whom seems to be T'Challa. Many of the other characters share names with familiar Black Panther ones, but don't seem to be the same ones. Lots of time passes between some of the issues here—years, I think—and T'Challa is sometimes referred to as some kind of distant, historical, legendary figure, but also the T'Challa in the story dreams of Storm, indicating he's the regular T'Challa.

I appreciate the attempt to do something different and unusual—I appreciate it a lot. There's a very standard type of Black Panther story that's emerged ever since Don McGregor first wrote the character, and this is very much not it... but one can see how it might let Coates and his collaborators explore some issues that are often intrinsic to the character.

from Black Panther vol. 7 #2

On the other hand, I found this a bit too inscrutable at times: exactly who these characters were is so opaque, and the jumps between issues so large, that even though there's a lot of action, I didn't know why what the characters were trying to do mattered, and thus it was hard to glom onto.

By the end of these six issues, we don't know a lot about what's actually going on. Coates is clearly playing the long game here. He also did this on his previous two story arcs, but unlike on those... I kind of think it can work? A Nation under Our Feet didn't play any better with foreknowledge of where it was going, but I can imagine rereading this and getting it. Maybe I'm being naïve, but I have faith!

Unlike the editors of this run, I suspect. Each issue begins with a page that lays out some of the backstory, information that six issues in hasn't been otherwise revealed to the reader. It reads like someone chickened out of the in medias res approach to the series after it was written and illustrated and insisted this be stuck on the front. But it's not even that helpful, I was still confused! I wish they hadn't bothered, I felt like it showed a lack of confidence.

The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, Book 1: Many Thousands Gone originally appeared in issues #1-6 of Black Panther vol. 7 (July 2018–Jan. 2019). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Daniel Acuña (#1-5) and Jen Bartel (#6), with layouts by Paul Reinwald (#6), colored by Triona Farrell (#6), lettered by Joe Sabino, and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever by Nnedi Okorafor, Alberto Alburquerque, et al.

Today, I'm reviewing two comics that both feature elements of Black Panther crossing over with the wider Marvel universe. The first is an issue of Marvel Super Hero Adventures where Spider-Man meets Black Panther, "Spider-Man and the Stolen Vibranium." This is a kid-focused comic that begins with a frame: here a regular-looking Spider-Man captures a diamond thief, who Spider-Man tells the story to, which is rendered in a less naturalistic style.

from Marvel Super Hero Adventures:
Spider-Man and the Stolen Vibranium #1

In this story, the Black Panther—who doesn't seem to have met Spider-Man before—whisks Spider-Man away to Wakanda to obtain his help when Doctor Octopus invades the country seeking vibranium to incorporate into his technology. It's pretty simple stuff; Black Panther originally wants a divide-and-conquer approach, but Spider-Man points out that each brings their own knowledge to the table—Spider-Man knows how the Octobots work, Black Panther understands vibranium—and thus they need to work together. It's perfectly fine. 

Probably the high point was when my four-year-old, who's currently obsessed with Spidey and His Amazing Friends on Disney Plus, saw me reading it, and I explained what was going on to him. Black Panther is a recurring character on that show, but Kid Two didn't know that he was a king and was pretty excited to learn this.

from Avengers: Wakanda Forever #1

Similarly, the next storyline, Wakanda Forever, begins with Spider-Man. Wakanda Forever is a three-part storyline focusing on the Dora Milaje, who need to chase down one of their own, Malice, who went bad during Priest's run and who popped up in New York City in Black Panther Annual #1. In the first issue, Spider-Man helps the Dora Milaje deal with Malice and recovering some Wakandan technology from the Titanic; in the second, the Dora Milaje team up with the X-Man when Malice attacks Storm at a grocery story; and in the third, some of the Avengers turn up to a big battle with Malice in New York City.

I felt like this series was a big missed opportunity. The Dora Milaje—in the comics anyway—are a fascinating institution. In theory, they're all potential wives for T'Challa, but he chose to have them trained as warriors to serve him. But even still, they were not allowed to talk to people other than him. The whole reason Malice went bad is that she loved T'Challa but would never actually be allowed to marry him. But by the present day of the comic, the Dora Milaje are very different; they have the freedom to speak to anyone, and even be involved in romantic relationships. How might someone who devoted her life to a set of strictures that were ultimately lifted feel about that? How do the new-era Dora Milaje feel about this woman who came up through a much different system than them?

from X-Men: Wakanda Forever #1

None of this is explored; Malice is a pretty generic villain who went bad for pretty vague reasons in this story. What's gained and lost as traditions are modernized is something the story doesn't do anything with. We don't really learn anything about the three main Dora Milaje here, Okoye, Aneka, and Ayo, who may as well be anybody for all they demonstrate in terms of distinctive personalities.

The first chapter and some of the second are illustrated by Alberto Alburquerque, who does reasonably good work, as does Ray Anthony-Height, also on the second. But I thought Oleg Okuney's work on chapter 3 was pretty ugly.

Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Spider-Man and the Stolen Vibranium originally appeared in one issue (June 2018). The story was written by Jim McCann, illustrated by Dario Brizuela, lettered by Joe Caramagna, and edited by Sarah Brunstad. It was reprinted in Marvel Super Hero Adventures: To Wakanda and Beyond (2018), which was edited by Jennifer Grünwald.

Wakanda Forever originally appeared in Amazing Spider-Man: Wakanda Forever #1, X-Men: Wakanda Forever #1, and Avengers: Wakanda Forever #1 (Aug.-Oct. 2018). The story was written by Nnedi Okorafor; penciled by Alberto Alburquerque (chapters 1-2), Ray Anthony-Height (2), and Oleg Okunev (3); inked by Anthony-Height (chapter 2), Alburquerque (1-2), Juan Vlasco (2), Keith Champagne (2), and Oleg Okunev (3); colored by Erick Arciniega; lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Rise of the Black Panther by Evan Narcisse, Javier Pina, et al.

The "Coates era" of Black Panther comics has seen a lot of a releases so far: twenty-five issues of the main series, plus three six-issue miniseries and assorted other stories. And, as I have chronicled here in detail, most of it has done little for me. I found Ta-Nehisi Coates's main series overly long and dull; I have found most of the miniseries fairly pointless.

from Rise of the Black Panther #2

So it was nice to find myself enjoying Rise of the Black Panther. This was an origin retelling for T'Challa, somewhat surprisingly the first one of them we've ever gotten since the character debuted way back in the day. Coates is credited as "consultant"; I am not sure what that means, nor why he should get first billing on the covers of a series he did not actually write. (Based on reading his Black Panther work so far, he's the one who needs a consultant on how to write comics!) The series is scripted by a new-to-me author, Evan Narcisse, and largely illustrated by Javier Pina, who did some good work for DC on Manhunter and Birds of Prey in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Of particular note are the beautiful colors of Stéphane Paitreau.

Narcisse does what a good retroactive origin story does in my opinion, which is take a lot of existing disparate threads and weave them all together into something coherent—something that works on its own even if you haven't read the stories that are being referenced. Over the years, we've learned a lot about T'Challa's youth, and Narcisse unites it all: we see T'Challa's birth mother (for the first time, I think), we see how his adoptive mother Ramonda (from McGregor's run) came into his life, we get bits of backstory from Captain America / Black Panther, we have Shuri (from Hudlin's run) woven into the texture of T'Challa's youth. Various comics have other the years given us a lot of different pieces of T'Challa's family; here we get to see T'Challa's Uncle S'Yan (from Hudlin's run) incorporated alongside T'Challa's half-brother Jakarra—a character from Kirby's run I had forgotten about and would have guessed most writers had too!

from Rise of the Black Panther #1

Perhaps because it had a lot of ground to cover, there's a lot more going on in these six issues than has been standard in the overly decompressed comics of this era. If the series has a downside, it's that the first issue is the very best one, leaving the later parts of the series feeling a little disappointing. Not that they're bad, but there's just not as much going on as in the first. The first mostly focuses on T'Challa's father, T'Chaka, and his relationship with the legacy of his father, as well as the son who sees him die. The issue is narrated by T'Challa's mothers; using a first-person narrator isn't something any of the series's later issues do, but it adds a lot of depth to what's going on, and I wish Narcisse had used this device more later on; imagine S'Yan or Shuri as the narrator of T'Challa's life, I think it could have been very effective.

But that shouldn't be taken as a strike against this comic. Unlike some other material of the "Coates era," I found that this series maintained a strong character focus. This is the story of how T'Challa chose in involve both himself and Wakanda in the outside world, and Narcisse effectively follows that thread through T'Challa's interactions with Namor, with S.H.I.E.L.D., with Killmonger. Plus, Javier Pina is a strong artist, with clear action and good character work; I found he blended fairly well with Paul Renaud, who also draws a couple issues. And, like I said above, Paitreau does some beautiful coloring here that really adds to the atmosphere and coherence of the story.

from Rise of the Black Panther #3

Overall, this works really well as an introduction to T'Challa and his world, as well as a standalone Black Panther comic. I'd imagine Marvel made it to make sure there was an origin on the shelves at the time the film came out, but I suspect it's likely to be an evergreen one. Solid work from a good creative team, and I'd particularly be interested in seeing more from Narcisse in the future.

Rise of the Black Panther originally appeared in six issues (Mar.-Aug. 2018). The story was written by Evan Narcisse, with consultant Ta-Nehisi Coates; illustrated by Paul Renaud (#1, 3), Javier Pina (#2, 4-6), and Edgar Salazar & Keith Champagne (#5); colored by Stéphane Paitreau (#1-6), with Morry Hollowell (#6); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

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.

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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.

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