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Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Priest, Christopher J.
Legal name: Priest, Christopher James (legally changed name)
Owsley, James Christopher (born)
Other names: Priest, Christopher
Priest
Owsley, Jim
Priest, James
Owsley, James
Birthdate: 1961-06-30
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Queens, New York, USA
Places of residence: New York, New York, USA
Occupations: comic book writer
Bus driver
Baptist minister
Disambiguation notice: Note: This is the US writer of comics, not the British writer of science fiction.

Members

Reviews

Black Panther: The Complete Collection, Volume 4 by Christopher Priest

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

After his run on Black Panther came to an end, Christopher Priest began a short-lived ongoing called The Crew, a team book that included one-time Black Panther Kasper Cole (now the White Tiger) among its members. I wasn't super into Kasper part of Priest's Black Panther run, but The Crew was included in the Christopher Priest Black Panther: The Complete Collection volumes, which you can read for free on Hoopla, so I figured why not read it? (I'd already read the issues from the main title collected here, #50-56 & 59-62, so I did not reread them.)

It was kind of worth reading, kind of not. Certainly it wasn't worth it for Kasper, who continues to spin his wheels as a character, arguing with his girlfriend and expectant mother of his child, chasing promotion so he can afford to support his mother and girlfriend. The ongoing thing about his dad wasn't picked up at all, and by the end of these seven issues, Cole isn't really anywhere we haven't already seen him.

The other three members of the "Crew" (never called that in the story) are James "Rhodey" Rhodes, the one-time Iron Man and War Machine; Junta, a superpowered information broker whose mom is a robot who I think appeared in one issue of Black Panther vol. 3; and Josiah X, the son of a black man who was experimented on during World War II in an attempt to create super-soldier serum. The first few issues look at each man in turn; the "team" really only kind of comes together with issue #7, when of course the title was cancelled. Junta probably could have become fun with time, but the real standouts here are Rhodes and Josiah.Rhodes I don't think I have ever actually read a comic about before, but I liked what Priest did with him here; a man who use to be on top but has found himself at the bottom trying to climb his way back up using his sense of justice as a guide. I don't know how the character is in actual Iron Man comics, but I would read more stories about him if they were like this.

Josiah X (called "Justice" in behind-the-scenes information but not in the actual book) is a really interesting character, a black Muslim community organizer who dons Captain America iconography. Can such a man reconcile the contradictions that led to his own existence? How can he wear the emblem of the country that treated him and his father so disposably? Priest and artist Joe Bennett do their best work with Josiah, and unfortunately only scratch the surface of the character. I gather he hasn't really appeared since, but I am curious to pick up the Captain America: The Truth miniseries where his father originally appeared.

As I've alluded to, it's a bit of a slow burn, which was probably a mistake for a book that bundled together a bunch of has-been and also-ran characters; I cannot imagine it sold well at all. I enjoyed it well enough, but by the end of seven issues, I wasn't convinced we needed seven issues to see the Crew take down some pretty ordinary gangsters. A decent read, but not really for Black Panther–related reasons. I gather the Crew returns during Ta-Nehisi Coates's run, but not with this line-up.… (more)

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Stevil2001 | 2 other reviews | Feb 28, 2024 |

Black Adam Vol. 1: Theogony by Christopher Priest

A dreadfully dull mess.

Black Adam gets an owie and tries to pass his power to a descendant before his immortality comes to an end. A bunch of political gobbledygook gets spouted. Mesopotamian gods and goddesses show up for a roll call but don't do much of anything. And then Batman shows up hankering for a fight, so BIFF, BAM, BOOM.

I cannot imagine trying to read the second half of this mini-series. It is soooo not worth it. Sort of like Dwayne Johnson's movie.

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villemezbrown | Aug 4, 2023 |