Artemy's Reviews > Black Panther, Vol. 1: Who Is the Black Panther?

Before seeing the Black Panther movie later this month I wanted to check out some of his comics. Unfortunately, just like with Guardians of the Galaxy, it seems that there is not a single good Black Panther run in existence. Christopher Priest's stuff is incomprehensible, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a superhero comic equivalent of a science textbook, and Reginald Hudlin's run is the silliest thing I've read since the last time I tried to read a Stan Lee comic. Even worse, it doesn't have a lot to do with T'Challa himself. It does a decent job of explaining the mythos of Wakanda and its place in the world, but its main focus is on some laughable caricatural villains and their contrived plot to kill Black Panther because of reasons, and T'Challa is just a supporting character who shows up from time to time to kick an occasional butt.

It's dreary and depressing and I keep wondering why Marvel wouldn't just hire a good comic book writer to write a Black Panther comic. I mean, think about it! Hudlin is a film writer and director, Coates is a journalist and a non-fiction writer, and Priest is... a priest, apparently. Yes, they're all famous black people, and representation is a necessary and important thing, but these people obviously don't have the chops to write good comics!

I have no doubt that the Black Panther movie will be great. After all, Marvel hired a professional director and a bunch of professional actors, as well as a whole professional movie crew to make that film. If only they could learn from that experience and hire a professional comics writer to write a comic book, wouldn't that be swell...