Hudlin's Black Panther

[Fastballspecial]

I have to say for a long time I never liked the Black Panther. I always thought the character was under used and always a B or C lister. Recently I picked up Black Panther 21 for kicks and really enjoyed it. This caused me to pick up issues 19 and 20 just out of curiousity and I thought those were very well done as well both the writing and the art.

Originally when I heard about the Storm/Panther marriage I was against it whole heartedly. I am X-men fan at heart and I hate for them to mess with those characters out of the X books. Having said that its nice to see Ororo gets some quality time and some freaking development . A nice marriage, a good mini, more development by Hudlin then she has seen in YEARS in the X books. This marriage works and works well. I dont care about the continuity problems its impossible to avoid them. This is just a plain good story so far. I never cared for her and Forge and she just wasnt a good fit for any of the other X-men IMO.

Hudlin is turning the Panther/Wakanda into a World Power which it should have been already. The Civil War tie-in fits well and its nice to FINALLY see the Panther acting like the king he is supposed to be. I went back and bought issues 1-18 this week and was very impressed. I loved seeing all the 70s B characters again. Other then the Vampire storyline I thought they were all very good. (It could have been fleshed out better.) The Black Panther even beat Cap America I love it. The art by Romita, Eaton and others is above average to say the least. I like where this series is headed and Hudlin has me for the long run now. I hope Storm and Panther have kids its a nice progession in a good way for once. I read all the negativity on the other thread and just didnt see the point. Yes the continuity is off, but its off in a good way and thats good enough for me.

[Cayman]

I enjoyed how Monica took out the vampires, and seeing Brother Voodoo again.

[Fastballspecial]

I enjoyed how Monica took out the vampires, and seeing Brother Voodoo again.

I enjoy CM(Photon or whatever she is today.) as well, but she has the same problem she had when she was in the Avengers she is too freakin powerful. Her power scale is off the charts and until some writer can figure out a way other then Stern to either make it easier to disable her or limit her power some way, I think its best she is served as some sort of Cosmic Avengers similiar to Quasar. She is much more likeable and useful in space.

[Young Avenger]

Oh no, A Black Panther thread. Someone should start a betting pool. How many pages this thing will last before it closes.

I voiced my dislike for Hudlin and his portrayal of Black Panther on many other threads. I'll leave it at that.

[oneasian]

I picked up the beginning of the series, and stopped when Romita stopped doing the art after the first arc. I started to get it again because of the Civil War tie-ins starting with the cease-fire.

i'll probably stop after the Civil War stuff. It'll be interesting to see the Black Panther in his own book, and also in the Fantastic 4.

I wonder how that will work

[Karthak]

The series suffers from some continuity errors, which I can live with, and at times it feels like a blaxsploitation movie, but other than that I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the series. The Storm/Black Panther marriage was handled a tad poorly(not nearly enough buildup) but I have been pleasantly surprised there as well. I think this marriage is actually going to work.

[sinjection]

Great post, Fastballspecial. A very "special" post, indeed.

Aside from the original X-MEN, the lineup of Cyclops, Marvel Girl(Phoenix), Storm, Banshee, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Wolverine was my favorite. I even thought adding Kitty Pryde was a good move. Subsequent changes in the lineup, story moves and character development (or in my opinion, character deconstruction), eventually turned me off the X-MEN. When I saw the "new team" of X-MEN replacing members like Iceman, Angel, and Beast, my initial response was negative. There are times when change in anything - even when that change proves to be exciting and beneficial - is often first thought to be the worst thing that could happen. Remembering how I felt when I saw "new" X-MEN replacing the "originals", I have a sense of how X-Fans like yourself found it difficult to see Storm removed from the X-MEN. When I saw the "original X-MEN" reunited in "X-FACTOR", I was pleased. I didn't like the fact that they were operating under the guise of villanous mutant hunters, but it was nice to see them together again, identified by the "X" even though they were not calling themselves "the X-MEN". Storm is still a mutant. Storm still remembers the X-MEN with great fondness. However, Storm has now gone on to bigger and better things. She is now the wife of the ruler of one of the mightiest, wealthiest and influential kingdoms in the Marvel Universe. She will rule that nation beside her husband, T'Challa, the Black Panther, as the magnificent, the regal and the extraordinarily beautiful Queen of that mighty land. She has become what Prof. X - the one-time most powerful mutant on Earth and member of this "Illuminati" - deemed her to be on her Wedding Day. By becoming Queen of Wakanda and the wife of T'Challa, the Black Panther, Ororo has become the most highly-visible, most influential mutant in the Marvel Universe, if not to those disaffected fans of the Marvel Universe. So indeed, Storm has moved beyond being a mere leader of an X-MEN "team" - something that nearly every X-MAN has been at one time or another, to being the wife of one of the Marvel Universe's most powerful, wealthiest, most highly-regarded, most attractive characters, ruling beside that character as the Queen of his mighty nation. Storm has come up in the Marvel Universe.

In my always humble opinion, Reginald Hudlin's Black Panther presents T'Challa, the Wakandans, and Wakanda itself as the most impressive and most powerful he and they have ever been. His interpretation differs from other writers who have presented a Wakanda from their own pre-conceptions, perceptions and opinions of what an African civilization should be like and in my view, the difference has been fresh, invigorating, rejuvinating and exciting. Don McGregor introduced the all-too American human plague of "crack addiction" into the Wakandan "utopia". McGregor is the writer who introduced Ramonda, Anton Pretorious, kidnapping and sexual rape into the Wakandan/Black Panther mythos. While not being something that represents Wakanda and Wakandans in the best light, McGregor is hailed by many as probably the best to have ever chronicled the Black Panther. Of course, I would disagree with that assessment. Reginald Hudlin has imparted a fantastic, fabulous and highly-positive view of an un-bowed, unconquerable, proud Wakanda led by an intelligent genius-level, powerful, wise, youthful and fierce King. He has given that great King a magnificent Queen and now, the only direction Hudlin's Panther and Hudlin's Wakanda can go, is up. Not up in smoke, but upward and onward to bigger and better things.

I too hope that T'Challa and Ororo produce children - I say "children" because like many fans of the Panther/Storm love affair and Marriage, I am hoping their union produces twins - in due time.

Lastly, let me say this. There is no reason for this thread to ever be "closed" and I find it very immature, silly and troubling that at least one participant in these forums has suggested there be established a "betting pool" to bid on how long the thread survives. It suggests that he is among a cadre of CBR members dedicated to starting trouble in any thead which seeks to discuss Hudlin's Black Panther in an intelligent, respectful and cordial manner. I hope that those who have become tired of such antics would ignore those individuals whose comments are intended to enflame, insult and cause the locking of this thread and I would hope that the forum moderator views such posts as the "betting pool" post as one intended to instigate problems, caution the individuals posting such messages against doing so in the future and if that type of potentially inflammatory posting persists, the individual posting those messages, not the thread itself, should pay the price. I'm not suggesting banning the person, but removing potentially troublesome posts from the thread would be the right way to go in my opinion.

[sinjection]

I enjoy CM(Photon or whatever she is today.) as well, but she has the same problem she had when she was in the Avengers she is too freakin powerful. Her power scale is off the charts and until some writer can figure out a way other then Stern to either make it easier to disable her or limit her power some way, I think its best she is served as some sort of Cosmic Avengers similiar to Quasar. She is much more likeable and useful in space.

I respectfully disagree. If there can be characters like Thor and Sentry - who some might regard as not "too freakin' powerful", but simply "bad-assed, uber-powerful - then I believe that Photon should be able to attain that power level as well.

The reason the character Blade was created as being a normal human being whose only "power" gained as a result of his mother being bitten and murdered by a vampire - the fateful act which introduced vampiric blood and enzymes into the infant Eric Brook's bloodstream - was a stupid immunity to vampire bites, was to make the character more interesting and likable and relatale to the reader.

All it did in my view as to make him a punk.

Blade - like too many of Marvel's black characters - was woefully under-powered. I find the new direction Guggenheim has taken with regard to Blade's origin, powers and incarnation to be far more to my liking.

If Peter Parker can be bitten by a small radioactive spider and gain the fantastic powers he now has, how much sense does it make for Eric Brooks - whose mother was destroyed by a vampire and as a result of the vampiric feeding that took place, was blood-infected by that vampire's blood and enzymes (Marv Wolfman himself once said that Eric Brooks has vampire blood in his veins), - to have gained as a result of all of that, a stupid immunity to vampire bites while remaining a normal human being?

[Blade was one of the earliest black comic book heroes, and the first Marvel hero not to wear the typical comic book spandex costume of the time. Since Tomb of Dracula took place in a semi "real world," I wanted Blade dressed in somewhat realistic clothes: leather bomber jacket, pants, boots and his special goggles which, because he had vampire blood running through his veins, would let him see in daylight. Yes, he wore a bandolier complete with wooden knives (the better to kill vampires with, my dear), but they were only a fashion accessory. - Marv Wolfman; Marv Wolfman.Com]

http://wolfmill.com/

*bolding emphasis, mine.


Marc Guggenheim has been great for Blade. Reggie Hudlin has been great for the Black Panther, for Storm, for Blade, for Brother Voodoo and for Luke Cage.

I believe Photon is fine the way she is.

[sinjection]

The series suffers from some continuity errors, which I can live with, and at times it feels like a blaxsploitation movie, but other than that I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the series. The Storm/Black Panther marriage was handled a tad poorly(not nearly enough buildup) but I have been pleasantly surprised there as well. I think this marriage is actually going to work.

While being happy to see that you are generally pleased by what's gone on thus far in the Panther series and that you anticipate further positive developments in the future, I have to disagree that the series has ever felt like a "blaxploitation movie." I haven't ever seen anything in this series that would ever suggest that to be the case. Conversely, there have been many, many times when characters like the Panther, Storm and Cage have been seemingly "whitewashed". I wouldn't doubt that there have been young, urban black readers of Luke Cage who were probably turned off by a character who supposedly lived in the same social/economic and cultural circumstances as they did, seemed to be so much unlike them.

The way Hudlin wrote Cage was just right in my view.

[The Sword Is Drawn]

I actually like this series and, by and large, Hudlin's style.

But the way it has so stubbornly ignored continuity, and screwed up things for iother characters and titles, to make the Panther look better (In particular with regards to the Black Knight and his ebony blade) has ruined the series for me.

Hudlin's editor deserves a major smack about the head for paying zero attention to continuity or yto where Hudlin was going with several parts of this run.

[Fastballspecial]

I respectfully disagree. If there can be characters like Thor and Sentry - who some might regard as not "too freakin' powerful", but simply "bad-assed, uber-powerful - then I believe that Photon should be able to attain that power level as well.



I believe Photon is fine the way she is.

I get what you are saying. I am refering to the problems that Stern and other writers had with CM when she was in the Avengers. If you go back and read say Avengers 240-280 or so you notice a problem thoroughout the book in dealing with CM. Either they have to bring out villains to challenge her or find some other route to use her powers on more a cosmic scale. In her run on Avengers she leveled Thanos shields on his "Death Star" by herself and almost Kay'oed Zeus by herself. The woman is a powerhouse like Panther said she is just not living up to her potential. I say put her in Annihilation or some other cosmic adventure. Putting in at the last minute to fry a bunch of vampires is just a waste. It just seems to me there is so much you could do with her powers I mean she can run the spectrum of light her power is pretty limitless.

[lonesomefool]

I thought the series started out REALLY, REALLY bad, and I dont mean the continuity errors, those I can live with, as I'm not a huge continuity nut, but the dialogue and pacing were both bad. That said, while it still has some kinks to work out every once and a while (Too often a lot of the characters that meet BP practically act like a bunch of screaming teens at a Fall Out Boy concert) the series isnt that bad. It's a average super hero book, one that doesnt offend the reader, but at the same time doesnt challenge him/her either. Have I enjoyed it as much as the Priest run? No, but it isnt as bad or as good as it's detractors or supporters say it is. Like a lot of things the truth lies in the middle.

[Darkoth]

I'm a fan,I say it's about time a black hero gets the same amount of respect as Captain America,or Batman.

[Brian M.]

I'm a fan,I say it's about time a black hero gets the same amount of respect as Captain America,or Batman.

Always has to be about race...and we wonder why there is still racism in this day and age.

[Brian Cronin]

I figure, let's give ED a break and see if we can have a nice discussion on Black Panther here, so I stole this thread from him. ;)

-Brian