The Wakandan super hero is back with Hollywood heavyweight Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang) and fan-favorite John Romita Jr. (Wolverine, Amazing Spider-Man) teaming up to deliver a new take on T'Challa that's sure to excite both True Believers and the hip-hop faithful. The Black Panther's origin is retold in a cinematic scope with social satire and all-out action. Collects Black Panther (2005) #1-6.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Though perennially a second-string player at Marvel, the Black Panther has attracted some interesting creative talent over the years. Now Marvel has brought in director Hudlin (co-creator of Birth of a Nation). But Hudlin's take is caught between a rock and a hard place. His over-the-top narrative is not likely to appeal to fans of the most recent version of the character, but it's too mired in obscure Marvel continuity to attract the more general reader. The plot manages to be convoluted without ever becoming absorbing. Rather than establish the Black Panther as a major power by giving him intelligent adversaries, Hudlin pits the African king against a series of buffoons. Hudlin shows some flair for revamping Marvel's more obscure supervillains, turning Klaw from a throwaway henchman into a hateful mercenary and giving the Radioactive Man a scary, alien quality. But overall this version deals in broad caricature rather than skillful characterization. Artist Romita (Wolverine) shows why he is considered a consummate craftsman. His sketchy line art brings a kinetic sense to action scenes, and his vivid character expressions work overtime to sell the emotional impact of an ultimately cartoonish plot. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Started Good, Ended Poorly,
By Ed Nemo "ednemo" (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Black Panther: Who Is The Black Panther HC (Hardcover)
As a die-hard comic fan, I was extremely interested in this book after reading the preview of the first issue. Someone had finally gotten it right, I thought. It focused on T'Challa as a king, first and foremost. However, the story soon degraded into something else entirely. Hudlin completely distorted established characters, and even completely changed others. This offended me as a comic book continuity freak. The stereotypes offered for both white and black characters managed to offend me as well. The art in this book is pretty good and if you dig a little, you can even find a palatable story. My recommendation is to skip this book. Pick up the collected Kirby Black Panther and the Priest books and enjoy.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
More A Movie Script Than A Piece Of Literature,
By Todd Steven Burroughs (Hyattsville, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Black Panther: Who Is The Black Panther HC (Hardcover)
This first story of Reginald Hudlin's Black Panther--a re-interpretation of the character created in 1966 by comicbook legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby--is a mixed bag.
On the one hand, it is an unapologetically Afrocentric portrayal of comicbook's first Black superhero, an African king. The plot: T'Challa dons the habit representing the state religion of the fictional nation of Wakanda, and does battle with the man who killed his father. However, the story reads more like a movie script than a piece of literature. (In his text portion--which might have been his proposal to Marvel--Hudlin explained that this story is indeed his version of a Black Panther movie.) Not surprising, when you remember that Hudlin, entertainment division president of Black Entertainment Television, is a filmmaker/television producer with a reputation of providing popular entertainment for young, urban audiences. In "Who Is The Black Panther?", there are too many patches of clumsiness, wasted lines and, at the story's climax, clichéd Golden Age puns of yesteryear that's just plain bad writing ("Time to wrap this up, Klaw!" declared Panther, wrapping up the villain in a cloth of some kind during the story's climax). Marvel Enterprises, seemingly now more interested in licensing its characters for film and television properties than continuing the groundbreaking storytelling that has been its calling card, apparently gave Hudlin great liberty in re-introducing the character without the baggage of nearly 40 years worth of continuity. Hudlin clearly took full advantage of the opportunity, keeping only the parts of the character's history he wanted, and altering the rest. Although Hudlin created a full universe of his own here, it is one that is only mildly interesting at best. My verdict is that it does not improve the House Stan and Jack Built and subsequently fortified, by various degrees over the decades, by Marvel writers Roy Thomas, Don McGregor and Christopher J. Priest--the latter my personal favorite. (Priest's first two Black Panther stories, "Black Panther: The Client" and "Black Panther: Enemy Of The State," can be found in trade paperback on Amazon.) For a story that apparently was supposed to introduce the Panther and Wakanda to new audiences, I really didn't get inside T'Challa's mind and/or heart--how he works, what he thought or felt. Yes, the villains should have held my interest, but not hold down the center of the story. Those looking for a piece of graphic literature--something that is supposed to go beyond the obvious, that creates its own interior rules for specific reasons that advance the story, that provides thoughtful uses of language with a distinct rhythm, that's supposed to be both internal and external, that at best contains symbolism and multiple meanings--will be disappointed here. Approximately 130 pages of story was more than enough space for an editor and writer to collectively weave a sophisticated fictional tapestry worthy of a great, modern-mythological character like the Black Panther. But, alas, Warren Ellis' "Transmetropolitan" or Brad Meltzer's "Identity Crisis" this hardcover is not. That might be a good thing for some. This is a straightforward tale that, again, seems designed to appeal to young non-comicbook readers (read: members of the hiphop generation). In the text portion, Hudlin said he wanted the Panther to be seen by today's readers as a blatant "baddass" in the Black cultural tradition of Muhammad Ali, Miles Davis, Diddy, et. al. T'Challa is portrayed as a taking-no-prisoners African monarch unafraid of the inferior Western powers, so Hudlin succeeds in that regard. But ultimately, "Who Is The Black Panther?" reads like either a poor version of a politically and culturally well-meaning Milestone Media comicbook story from the mid-1990s or a better version of the badly done (and equally well-meaning, if not painfully obvious) independent Afrocentric comics from the same era.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great New Take on an Old Superhero,
This review is from: Black Panther: Who Is The Black Panther HC (Hardcover)
Black Panther has been around for many years but has never been embraced by the comic buying public. He is a great character that should be as well known as Spider-Man, Superman or Batman.
When Christopher Priest was writing Black Panther's adventures the series became one of the best reviewed comics around but still failed to find a significant audience. Now we have a new writer (Reginald Hudlin) taken a shot at plotting the exploits of Black Panther and he is off to a good start. We get an exciting new origin and plenty of background information in this tale. Once you read this you can understand the character and his motivations. This is only the beginning. Hudlin provides plenty of thrills and surprises in the subsequent stories that follow this one in the series. Some will continue to reject the adventures of Black Panther but those with an open mind looking for a good story and a great hero will embrace it.
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