T'Challa: The Black Panther Appreciation 2021

[Huntsman Spider]

Probably the best interview ive seen the goat Priest give.

Talks about continuity, talks about Marvels treatment of black panther because of his race as opposed to other characters, talks about how it feels to have continuity ignored and alot of it apllies to the MCU debacle as well

It is truely worth unpacking and discussion here
Cant wait to hear everyones thoughts on different sections

One exert: "The main thing preventing Black Panther from fulfilling that Batman niche for Marvel is, frankly, Marvel. Whether knowingly or subliminally, Marvel marketing sees Panther in a racial context and, thus, as a less 'pure' character than, say, Drax the Destroyer or the Sub-Mariner"

https://www-gamesradar-com.cdn.amppr...pher-priest%2F

Panther will always been seen in a racial context based on him being a black African king..

From an African nation untouched by European colonization and conquest and thus enabled to advance and prosper as a society and culture, something a lot of the dominant powers and forces in "mainstream" American society and culture would be very nervous about portraying or depicting, "whether knowingly or subliminally," to quote Priest.

[Pulp Fiction]

Probably the best interview ive seen the goat Priest give.

Talks about continuity, talks about Marvels treatment of black panther because of his race as opposed to other characters, talks about how it feels to have continuity ignored and alot of it apllies to the MCU debacle as well

It is truely worth unpacking and discussion here
Cant wait to hear everyones thoughts on different sections

One exert: "The main thing preventing Black Panther from fulfilling that Batman niche for Marvel is, frankly, Marvel. Whether knowingly or subliminally, Marvel marketing sees Panther in a racial context and, thus, as a less 'pure' character than, say, Drax the Destroyer or the Sub-Mariner"

https://www-gamesradar-com.cdn.amppr...pher-priest%2F

"'We're not actually going to buy any Black Panther comics, but how dare you make him smarter and more technologically advanced! Bring back the plain old spandex and get rid of the gadgets!'"

Somethings never change

[Klaue's Mixtape]

Priest is also a fan of Coates. Just saying

[Vordan]

Wow Sky knows his stuff. I’m a little disappointed that Spawn has more. That doesn’t mean he has more quality issues or stories, but it’s still more.

Definitely not lol. Quality over Quantity when you compare T’Challa with Spawn.

[Pulp Fiction]

Damn Priest was spitting facts throughout the whole interview. Stuff that's been subconsciously bothering me for a while. Now I want marvel to give him the book and let him do anything he wants with it.

[Ekie]

Panther will always been seen in a racial context based on him being a black African king..

Naturally, but the problem is the limitations that come with that when people in charge of the comic and the movie only view him as a diversity project rather than an actual character. And if the project can continue then what's the need for that specific character when his story doesn't matter or on the comic side the story never gets carried over from writer to writer?

[Ezyo1000]

Probably the best interview ive seen the goat Priest give.

Talks about continuity, talks about Marvels treatment of black panther because of his race as opposed to other characters, talks about how it feels to have continuity ignored and alot of it apllies to the MCU debacle as well

It is truely worth unpacking and discussion here
Cant wait to hear everyones thoughts on different sections

One exert: "The main thing preventing Black Panther from fulfilling that Batman niche for Marvel is, frankly, Marvel. Whether knowingly or subliminally, Marvel marketing sees Panther in a racial context and, thus, as a less 'pure' character than, say, Drax the Destroyer or the Sub-Mariner"

https://www-gamesradar-com.cdn.amppr...pher-priest%2F

Actually, now that I think about it, Denys worked on Panther, Reginald Hudlin worked on Panther, and I worked on Panther. Marvel should create a Milestone Black Panther book. I'm quite sure, if it wouldn't blow up Milestone's deal with DC, we'd all be eager to see what could be done with the character in a creatively uncompromised environment. We all dearly love this character.

I was also introducing a paradigm shift to the way Panther was to be portrayed; somebody had to give voice to the expectation of a dull and colorless character who always got his butt kicked or who was overshadowed by Thor and Iron Man suddenly knocking out Mephisto with one punch. I mean, he runs into the room, Ross says, "Should we call the Avengers?!" Panther says, "Why?" and just decks the guy.

To me, that's Black Panther. It's not arrogance, it's competence.

These are ones I paid a lot of attention to

[skyvolt2000]

Wow Sky knows his stuff. I’m a little disappointed that Spawn has more. That doesn’t mean he has more quality issues or stories, but it’s still more.

Well consider this-

Before Spawn 300- I can say it has been maybe 10+ years that a Spawn book was above 20K.

Heck before Malcolm Dragon took over- I did NOT see a Savage Dragon book in a comic book store from issue 100-190. The Obama cover was the only one and that was by accident.

For that book to be on issue 271 and have sales LOWER than Moon Girl is amazing.

Image comic can sell 18k a month and that's considered successfull

Here is the thing about Image-they don't leave large piles of unsold books.

Take 18K and split that among 2000 comic book stores-you get 9 issues a store. That book will be sold out at the majority of those stores.

I would say those books are bought and actually READ versus bought for money or hate buying.


Spawn has more because his book never stopped running. All the drama that POC lead books have here is NOT at Image nor is all the restarting of books.

"'We're not actually going to buy any Black Panther comics, but how dare you make him smarter and more technologically advanced! Bring back the plain old spandex and get rid of the gadgets!'"

Somethings never change

But that is an issue for pretty much ALL black (let alone POC) characters. Many of them are way more advance and powerful than the white ones.

Cyborg, Storm, Flint & Static throw in Synch-how dangerous could they be? Mainly Storm?

Falcon talks to birds-how many birds are on this planet alone? Vixen? Miles?

If they were written to their full potential.

We saw Flint of the Inhumans move asteroids or a PLANET in Royals.

[Ekie]

Damn Priest was spitting facts throughout the whole interview. Stuff that's been subconsciously bothering me for a while. Now I want marvel to give him the book and let him do anything he wants with it.

This interview definitely made me raise my expectations for Ridley. Also opened my eyes to why they would pass on someone like RedJack who is capable and looking to raise seeking to elevate the characters profile on an individual basis

Just shocks me how much interference Marvel ran with priest only to turn a blind eye to wakandan rape Adventures by the now former guy

[Ekie]

These are ones I paid a lot of attention to

There's that word dot-dot-dot competence. Oh how I've missed it

[Mike_Murdock]

He completely botched this.

All that effort in season one and Tchalla/Aneka had an off panel conversation... things are fine?

Coates had some good ideas and just straight up botched everything.

Just thought I'd follow up with the second half and say that pretty much describes the rest of this Avengers of the New World story.

First off, it's incredibly complicated. It reads better all at once because it's easier to remember the pieces but I think I would have to read it a third time to be sure. The strengths remain the strengths and the weaknesses remain the weaknesses. I like the connections to both Black Panther history and Marvel history. But Storm isn't given enough build up to sell the ending even if you were OK with the Adversary coming out of left field. There's the set up of Wakanda's faith powering Storm, but it barely has any impact initially to justify the solution. And the solution is ridiculously quick. The Adversary is one of the most powerful villains in all of Marvel and the solution is barely a couple pages.

Part of me wonders if the addition of Klaw was an editorial decision. Having two unrelated villains didn't add anything but it did make it generally confusing. It sort of works, but it felt like a distraction from the development we needed to appreciate everything else. Also, Coates gave Klaw an entire backstory that was brand new for this one story and I'm skeptical anyone will follow up on it. I'm not sure we need a sympathetic lobotomized sister, he's a cool enough character on his own. It also was extremely unclear if they needed Ayo's life to give the sister life or why Queen Divine Justice had to be the one brainwashed into pretending to be a cult leader.

On the other hand, adding Klaw and Co. gave some needed action. I think #169 is a very clever issue and the action there is genuinely well done. I'd probably put that on the top of the list of all the issues he's done. Insert joke about his best issue not having any of his dialogue here.

The other thing that I think is interesting is there's a clear effort to appeal to fans of the character who thought he was too passive and too ineffective in the first half of the first arc. On the other hand, we're essentially just told that he's effective. Most of his effectiveness comes from delegating to others. Shuri is really, really cool in that final battle. I know the movie pushed her in a different direction, but I actually really liked her using her abilities. Of course, the day was saved by Storm. T'Challa gets credit for masterminding everything, but he doesn't really do anything. That's certainly a very big criticism in addition to the complexity and rushed ending. As a Wakandan team book, it sort of works, but it just needs more.

Next up is the Black Panther Annual followed by the car commercial story. Then I get to do things like Rise of the Black Panther and Killmonger. I probably won't get to the Intergalactic Empire story until the second week of July.

[skyvolt2000]

These are ones I paid a lot of attention to

Actually, now that I think about it, Denys worked on Panther, Reginald Hudlin worked on Panther, and I worked on Panther. Marvel should create a Milestone Black Panther book. I'm quite sure, if it wouldn't blow up Milestone's deal with DC, we'd all be eager to see what could be done with the character in a creatively uncompromised environment. We all dearly love this character.

There is nothing stopping this from happening. Dc does not own Milestone just have publishing rights. But then again this is DISNEY we are talking about.

There was a reason Lois & Clark New Adventures of Superman did not get season 5 and it costed ABC The Rosie O'Donnell show.

Along with Stevie not having a mother on Malcolm in the Middle and the Practice/Ally McBeal crossover was not hyped by ABC.

Priest: Kasper Cole. No, I liked Kasper and re-cast him as the White Tiger for the (gets angry every time he mentions it) series called The Crew, which Marvel canceled before the first issue shipped. The Crew was supposed to be akin to a Marvel version of Milestone: a book developed specifically for Latino and African American markets with some effort made to move beyond the normal comics distribution chains.

Maybe that name is a curse-Coates version got axed at issue 2.

Priest: I've got to be honest: the character never appealed to me until Joe and Jimmy (and Mark and Brian) began to engage me. I was ready to pass. I was arriving at a point in my life - where I am now - where I no longer take gigs just for the rent money; it's got to be something I'd actually like to do, and something I believe in.

The end-user usually has no way of knowing the artist failed to follow simple and clear directions and made changes for no other reason than they are either (a) egotistical or (b) lazy. But, inevitably, I am the one who gets dinged... every time.

This is a primary reason why I stopped writing comics.

This is what killed New 52 Static's book. Antics like that. Also the most recent projects he did was US Agent & Sacred Six. Vampi is still going on. Wonder is he talking about those 2 books.


This interview must have happened before Daniel Cherry was hired at DC.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Priest is also a fan of Coates. Just saying

Eh, so what?

Priest is old school. He'd tread lightly about any and all writers, because that's just what you do.

And Coates is an intellectual powerhouse outside of comics. If his comics were half as good as his other writings, we'd all happily declare him 'The New Priest'.

It's just that in this narrow field, he sucks

[Jabare]

Priest is also a fan of Coates. Just saying

Preist is in the industry. And Coates is well regarded for all he's done, outside of comics.

There's nothing to gain from going at Coates. I wouldn't put my name on anything like that. I'm just speaking with my wallet. Anything posted on these forums is nameless.

[Ezyo1000]

Priest is also a fan of Coates. Just saying

I mean yes he is going to be professional about it. Hudlin was the same way. Doesn't mean he thinks Coates BP is the best around