Broken Frontier

One of Marvel’s most intriguing characters is back with another shot at his own on-going series.

Marvel doesn’t even bother listing what volumes these new ongoing titles are, probably because they have lost count. Regardless of what number series this is for Black Panther, any new attempt at an ongoing monthly for one of my favorite comic book characters is fine by me. The first forty-five issues of T’Chala’s previous series remains one of my favorite comic book runs of all-time, but around issue forty, while still written by Priest, it rapidly deteriorated into a convoluted mess, then into a new direction that made little sense.

In this volume, Marvel brings in a newcomer to the superhero genre, Reginald Hudlin to write the series, along with the familiar pencils of the prolific John Romita Jr. The series begins with most of the first issue telling the tales of various tribes, armies and oppressors throughout different time periods trying to invade Wakanda and failing miserably as time and time again they underestimate the ingenuity and technology of the small, yet great, nation.

I was not very excited when I heard who Marvel was getting to pen the new series and after reading his first issue that opinion has not changed. First, the series begins in the 5^th century outside of Wakanda with a small tribe hunting down the Wakandans. The dialogue Hudlin provides is atrocious, writing a tribe in 5th century Africa as if they are a team of modern Navy Seals trying to sound like characters from a Tarantino film. Second, like most Marvel books these days, this comic is padded and takes all of thirty seconds to read, filled with plenty of pages with little or no dialogue. Finally, my largest complaint is the approach Hudlin is taking on this comic. I don’t want to reveal too much of the issue, but he is essentially portraying America as the villains, which according to the media is the trendy school of thought these days, but one I don’t particularly share or like to see in my comic books.

If you are taking the time to read a review on a comic book website, you probably know and are familiar with the work of John Romita Jr. I realize he is one of the most popular artists in the business, but I’ve never been a big fan of his work. I do think he is a master of panel structure and this debut issue is a true example of that; the pages detailing an invasion in 19th century Wakanda have some wonderfully rendered panels. It’s the way Romita draws faces that has always bothered me; however, the entire issue is very strong artistically, so I have no problem getting past my dislike of Romita’s boxy heads. Dean White also does a great job with the colors, changing the color scheme as each scene dictates, something many Marvel comics fail to do, often keeping the same core colors throughout an issue.

I have no doubt other critics will shower this debut with praise; however, even putting the political views aside, this is an extremely flawed and disappointing debut. It’s also another prime example of the unnecessary padding of Marvel comics, stretching stories out so they can fit neatly in a trade, rather than focus on just telling a great story in each individual issue.

-Glen Siegal