Black Panther Appreciation 2019

[MindofShadow]

Never checked out this season. Had no idea BP was this badass in it from the gifs being posted.

The season before Panther's Quest was a lot better than previous Avengers Assemble seasons. And I *think* Redjack wrote some of it...

[XPac]

I dont think it is a retcon. Priest just expanded her scale. Tchalla said Egyptian gods were the local gods first then became known in egypt later or something like that.

I think it was a retcon in that the Panther God wasn't supposed to be Bast until Priest decided she was. But it didn't effect much because the Panther God was used and mentioned so little. She showed up far more often once it was established as Bast.

I just think they could have branched out a little, given the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythologies are usually the only ones that get any play in fiction. It sort of shrunk things a little, when they could have expanded things a bit.

[Ezyo1000]

The second to last paragraph is interesting as a fan who came into the character much later... Bast was already the "source" of the powers by the time I started reading the character.

This is probably in my top ten favorite stories id imagine if I sat down and wrote a list.

Mendinao was also in Panther's Rage I thought? He was at least in Panther's Prey.

This comic gets better with time IMO. It is unfortunate Gillis is basically black balled at Marvel. I would love a lot more of this type of stuff to creep into the cartoons and future movies. In only 4 issues, Gillis did a great job integrating politics, tribal, mysticim/gods, prep T'challa, whoop ass t'challa, while still getting into what makes T'challa click as a person.

Definitely one of my favorite stories as well, and he did thst without sacrificing and deconstructing T'Challa to do it. Just a well put together story and good characterization

[Cville]

I think it was a retcon in that the Panther God wasn't supposed to be Bast until Priest decided she was. But it didn't effect much because the Panther God was used and mentioned so little. She showed up far more often once it was established as Bast.

I just think they could have branched out a little, given the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythologies are usually the only ones that get any play in fiction. It sort of shrunk things a little, when they could have expanded things a bit.

Shrunk how? Bast doesn't show up as a popular god in Egypt until around 3,000 B.C. Which means there are five thousand years of Wakandan worship and stories someone could write about with no mention of Egypt.

[MouserGrey]

This series sort of made me wish they didn't retcon the Panther god into being Bast. I sort of liked the Panther God being it's own thing. Plus, making it an Egyptian god sort of took away a bit of the Panthers God mystique, by making it essentially a Pantheon god like Thor.

I agree about the Panther god. I was obsessed with this story for years. So long that after Priest introduced Achebe I wrote a story in my head about him obtaining a sample of the avatar/human blood and cloned a copy (with some help) to be his muscle.

[nj06]

This series sort of made me wish they didn't retcon the Panther god into being Bast. I sort of liked the Panther God being it's own thing. Plus, making it an Egyptian god sort of took away a bit of the Panthers God mystique, by making it essentially a Pantheon god like Thor.

Agreed. I would have preferred the Panther God(dess) remain its own unique deity to Wakanda. I would have wanted all of the Wakadan gods such as the White Gorilla God and the Lion God to have remained unique to Wakanda as well. Although, being revealed as Bast hasn't hurt the character either.

[Marvell2100]

"The movie only did as well as it did because diversity BS!"

"If black panther was a white guy it wouldn't do so well!"

"Funny how they talk about how diverse it is when it's an 90% Black cast!"

"Political bs here! Why can't I just have a superhero movie be good because it's good? Politics and sjws ruin everything!"

"Black Panther??? Wow okay what if there was a white hero called Klan leader?"

There is. His name is Donald.

[XPac]

Shrunk how? Bast doesn't show up as a popular god in Egypt until around 3,000 B.C. Which means there are five thousand years of Wakandan worship and stories someone could write about with no mention of Egypt.

Shrunk in that we only really see 3 pantheons getting any sort of play in MU fiction. Egyptian gods already get a reasonable amount of appearances in marvel. I think they could have perhaps chosen a different african pantheon to represent Wakanda's gods and show a more diverse array of religions in the MU.

It's sort of the equivalent of having WOlverine guest star in a book. Wolverine already shows up in a lot of books. Why not a different character? No one uses Cardiac ... how about sticking him in there instead. I think there's more than just Greek, Egyptian, and Norse gods out there but that's usually all we see.

Plus, if they are unique gods only used in Wakanda rather than gods already part of an established mythology you can potentially do more with them because they're more blank slates.

[XPac]

Agreed. I would have preferred the Panther God(dess) remain its own unique deity to Wakanda. I would have wanted all of the Wakadan gods such as the White Gorilla God and the Lion God to have remained unique to Wakanda as well. Although, being revealed as Bast hasn't hurt the character either.

I'm still shocked he haven't seen seen the Gorilla god. M'Baku has been around for decades, but his god never showed up. Conversely the Lion god has appeared, but unlike the Panther god and the ape god he/she never had an avatar which could have been a perfect new member of T"Challa's rogues gallery.

I also think Hudlin might have tried retconning the lion god into Morlun... or at least that was sort of implied. THat was kinda weird.

THat said, Priests retcon was harmless and Bast has been used a LOT more than the previous iteration of the Panther god. So BP writers in general seem to feel they can do more with Bast now. I do wonder if that limits the usage of the Gorilla and Croc gods though, since they never established Egyptian equivalents to them like they did with Bast and Hathor.

[XJlock]

I'm still shocked he haven't seen seen the Gorilla god. M'Baku has been around for decades, but his god never showed up. Conversely the Lion god has appeared, but unlike the Panther god and the ape god he/she never had an avatar which could have been a perfect new member of T"Challa's rogues gallery.

I also think Hudlin might have tried retconning the lion god into Morlun... or at least that was sort of implied. THat was kinda weird.

THat said, Priests retcon was harmless and Bast has been used a LOT more than the previous iteration of the Panther god. So BP writers in general seem to feel they can do more with Bast now. I do wonder if that limits the usage of the Gorilla and Croc gods though, since they never established Egyptian equivalents to them like they did with Bast and Hathor.

M'Baku's god has been seen years ago.

[Cville]

And the heliopolitans have a crocodile god. The gorilla god started out as just Yetis in the mountains.

[XPac]

M'Baku's god has been seen years ago.

Forgot about that. I guess he did show up for a little bit ... that's something I guess. Shame he wasn't used more in actual stories. Maybe its because since he didn't have his own Egyptian god, so writers had nothing to work with.

[XPac]

And the heliopolitans have a crocodile god. The gorilla god started out as just Yetis in the mountains.

So the idea was the Gorilla god wasn't actually a god? I guess that sort of makes sense.

Wakandans worshipped Storm as a goddess. And apparently the lion cult worshipped Morlun as the lion god.

[MindofShadow]

Agreed. I would have preferred the Panther God(dess) remain its own unique deity to Wakanda. I would have wanted all of the Wakadan gods such as the White Gorilla God and the Lion God to have remained unique to Wakanda as well. Although, being revealed as Bast hasn't hurt the character either.

She is used so sparingly and mysteriously that it hasn't really mattered.

The worse thing anyone ever did with her is turn her into a normal human that ascended or some garbage ****.

[DigiCom]

My problems with Priest making the Panther God Bast (one of the few choices he made I didn't care for) are three-fold:

1. It confuses the gender issue. Bast is a goddess, after all, and the Egyptian pantheon does not have a tradition of switching gender. So you end up having to say things like "the Panther God(dess)".

2. It takes away Wakanda's uniqueness. Instead of their own rich heritage, their culture is positioned as something of an Egyptian offshoot. Theoretically, what Coates did with the Orishas would have changed that, if it wasn't so ham-handed, inconsistent with existing Marvel continuity, and ultimately pointless.

3. Speaking of which... Marvel has been horrible at the way they handle the Egyptian gods, anyway. The only one who gets consistently strong characterization is Set, and even he went through a phase of looking like a giant frog for some reason. The others either get treated like hallucinations (in MOON KNIGHT, depending on the writer) or comic relief.

I mean, which lion god would YOU prefer? This?



Or this?



(From an in-continuity, non-parody, Marvel comic)

That was Hathor. But it could have just as easily been Bast.