Black Panther #36 – Review

By Reginald Hudlin (Writer) & Francis Portela (Artist)

One of the nice things about reviewing comics is I get to read books I normally wouldn’t pick up. Of course, if the book is good, I’ll buy it anyway because… well, because I have a problem, that’s why. So am I going to start laying down my hard-earned money for the Black Panther now?

Not based on this issue.

Don’t get me wrong; the book’s not bad. The art is okay, though it looks as if Francis Portela learned how to draw by studying comic books rather than real people. Actually, the same could be said of Reginald Hudlin’s writing. I know that’s not completely fair—unless you have “Monarch of Small Central African Nation” on your resumé, it’s hard to write the Panther with an air of authenticity—but what we have here is a collection of stock characters going through the motions.

The premise is actually quite good. A guy named Killmonger (whose personality is a subtle and clever as his name) has seized control of a neighboring country and kidnapped the Panther’s sister, hoping to provoke an international incident. T’Challa and his team of yes-men spend almost the entire issue discussing how to respond. Now, if Hudlin had spent some time researching international diplomacy, this could have been fascinating. But when the Panther says the mission will be “surgical”, no one raises an eyebrow, which is odd considering the poor record of surgical strikes in the past few decades. At any rate, when the Panther jumps into the Mole Man’s drill machine to attack from below and Killmonger retaliates with giant mutant crocodiles, you get an idea of the level of sophistication of the whole affair.

Also, Monica Rambeau (my personal vote for most boring Avenger ever) plays a bit part. Maybe if Storm had showed up in the book, as she does on Alan Davis’ beautiful cover, things might have worked out better. (Grade: C)

– Andrew C. Murphy