Bryan Edward Hill

Since the end of Eve L. Ewing's Black Panther run, there has been no ongoing Black Panther series... sort of. Though the "616 universe" Black Panther lies fallow, there is an ongoing set in Marvel's alternate continuity, the "Ultimate universe." I don't know much about the broader continuity of the Ultimate universe, so I can only judge the comic on its own merits, as a reboot of the Black Panther concept. We're back to the beginning here, with Wakanda in splendid isolation from the show more rest of the world, a Black utopia cut off from the rest of Africa. At the start of the series, T'Challa is already king of Wakanda, though his father T'Chaka is still alive, having stepped down. But pressures are conspiring to bring T'Challa and Wakanda into the outside world; two mysterious godlike figures are taking over Africa, and they are not going to leave Wakanda alone.

I thought this started strongly, with well-defined characters in interesting configurations. T'Challa is actually married to Okoye, former head of the Dora Milaje; I felt like there was sexual tension between Shuri and Okoye; Killmonger is romantically involved with Storm and T'Challa is sympathetic to his arguments. Wakanda is being rocked by terrorism, and the new king does not know who to trust.Unfortunately, what is the status quo at the end of the second issue is pretty much still the status quo at the end of the sixth, the last one collected here. It seems to me that T'Challa mostly sits around and thinks a lot about what he should do; more than once I turned a page on my Fire tablet and was surprised to discover I had finished an issue, thinking there was no way that twenty pages could have gone by. I don't mind comics without nonstop action; in fact, I wish more superhero comics writers would spend time on character and dialogue and mystery. But the attempts at such here by writer Bryan Hill (Killmonger: By Any Means) go in circles without interest.

Partially I think the issue here is that (if I am correct) the series is being told in real time, with a month passing between each issue. But that means not much of significance can happen between issues, so T'Challa can't do much between them... but then he doesn't seem to do much in issues, either, and thus he ultimately spends six months dithering. Potentially interesting conceit but poorly implemented. Such an approach requires a lot of done-in-one issues, I think, more plots shaped around individual issues. This is very much a "written-for-the-trade" plot. Well, except that even by the end of the trade little has happened. Written for the omnibus?

I enjoyed the art of Stefano Caselli, who draws the first four issues. It was much better than his work on Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways... but then that was twenty years ago! I found the work of new-to-me Carlos Nieto on the last two inferior; an artist for a series with this much dialogue needs to have a better command of facial expressions, and some of the compositions were confusing. (When Storm and Killmonger make out in issue #6, I at first thought it was Storm and Shuri!) show less

A new femme fatale comes to town and shakes things up. I liked the energy the disruption brought to this otherwise lethargic series, but I still find myself looking for reasons to stop reading rather than to continue on. Turnoffs in this volume include some bad editing that let the writer twice reference three deaths in a scene for which the artist only drew two victims. And the end matter seems to take up almost a quarter of the book, consisting of a lot of ego-stroking letters from big show more fans and that tired old script-to-rough-art comparison publishers love to use as filler. show less

This review covers volumes 2 and 3 of Ultimate Black Panther together.

Volumes 2 and 3 did nothing to dispel my impression that the series is paced terribly. Even when there is action, it seems pointless and goes nowhere. T'Challa will be like, "Now, I'm doing something!!" and in the next issue will be back to sitting around reacting to the machinations of others. The interpersonal dynamics are boring, largely the characters saying the same stuff to each other again and again. Are the show more mysterious cultists manipulating T'Challa? Yes of course so why is it taking him months upon months to do something about it.

One of the big mysteries of the series is "what is the agenda of vibranium?"... and I can't think of a mystery I care less about. Is a rock alive? Quite frankly this series has done nothing that would make that question seem like an interesting one. Like, can a rock have an agenda? If it did, why would it be relevant to Wakanda? I barely care about Wakanda in this series, so why should I care if a rock is going to do something to it?

By the end of volume 3, I was completely bored. I think this series has been cancelled, though, so volume 4 will be the last, and I guess I'm willing to give it a read when it turns up on Hoopla. show less

This review covers volumes 2 and 3 of Ultimate Black Panther together.

As I said in my review of its first volume, I thought Ultimate Black Panther started with a lot of potential that it ultimately squandered. The real-time gimmick of the series works against it; what initially seems to be a complex setup turns out to just be, like, four people. There was a lot of dithering because the pacing of the series means T'Challa can take action once a month at most... but he doesn't even seem to show more do that!

Volumes 2 and 3 did nothing to dispel this impression. Even when there is action, it seems pointless and goes nowhere. T'Challa will be like, "Now, I'm doing something!!" and in the next issue will be back to sitting around reacting to the machinations of others. The interpersonal dynamics are boring, largely the characters saying the same stuff to each other again and again. Are the mysterious cultists manipulating T'Challa? Yes of course so why is it taking him months upon months to do something about it.

One of the big mysteries of the series is "what is the agenda of vibranium?"... and I can't think of a mystery I care less about. Is a rock alive? Quite frankly this series has done nothing that would make that question seem like an interesting one. Like, can a rock have an agenda? If it did, why would it be relevant to Wakanda? I barely care about Wakanda in this series, so why should I care if a rock is going to do something to it? show less