YIBAMBE! T’Challa: The Black Panther Appreciation 2022

[LukeCagefan]

I think part of the reason is when Marvel decides who writes BP these days they go for Name vs. Comic Book Skill level. They also want someone Black to write Black Panther in these days. Not entirely sure why but my theory is in the current times we live in, they don't want a "White" writer doing the flagship title because they may feel like they'll get backlash for it, even though it's not uncommon i.e. David Liss & Jonathan Maberry who BOTH did excellent jobs (argue with yo mama lol) . But the issue is when they select they go for the bigger name vs. the better writer. Geoffrey Thorne would have been a WAY better choice for the book but they gave it to Ridley.

I would've loved Bryan Hill if it has to be a black guy. His Killmonger series was fun and he seemed to do a nice job blending the movie and comic's canon together.

[Mantis-Ray]

Just for the record Gabby Rivera got DEATH threats over that book. A book that LOL is now going for blood money on Ebay due to the Dr Strange movie.
Also Gabby has written a comic at Boom Comics that got its run derailed by Covid.

While Gay has not written any other series for Marvel- Black Panther WOW was a big trade seller for Marvel before that movie came out.

And Black Panther WOW is still a top 200 seller on Amazon especially among TEENS. And guess who that book is beating???
Every DC Comic title not named Beast Boy Loves Raven or Superman Smashed the Klan or made after 2009.

Sadly among Teens-Coates and Gay's book are selling to teens. Not Hudlin and Priest eras.

She also did the comic The Banks from TKO Studios that is greenlighted for a movie.

These folks are NOT going away.

They are getting work and in some cases getting the last laugh.







There are 13 brand new number 1s on that list. That tends to push books down. Who are the other top 100-150 books?

Well damn, alright we're screwed.

Wonder why those titles are selling so well with teens. Maybe at least partly due to recency bias. Newer fans are more likely to get the newer stuff than the old stuff.

What we need is a writer more willing to focus on fun stuff, adventures and fantasy, someone like say a Neil Gaiman. I mean I myself came up with a couple Black Panther villains for fun, and one of them is basically this demonic spirit who lives in a pot, whose never fully seen, and can control frogs and water. Named him "River Rot" cause I thought the idea would be a fun villain for Black Panther to fight.

Or this tribe of spider themed assassins based off the hunter spider due to their immense physicality, mostly to kinda replace the Jabari's as that evil antagonist tribe. A group of slick looking baddies for T'Challa to fight, a badass assassin kinda like an African equivalent to the Hand.

[Ezyo1000]

Unless this book dips below 20k he isn't going anywhere I fear..

The question is where is it sitting at

[chief12d]

Well damn, alright we're screwed.

Wonder why those titles are selling so well with teens. Maybe at least partly due to recency bias. Newer fans are more likely to get the newer stuff than the old stuff.

What we need is a writer more willing to focus on fun stuff, adventures and fantasy, someone like say a Neil Gaiman. I mean I myself came up with a couple Black Panther villains for fun, and one of them is basically this demonic spirit who lives in a pot, whose never fully seen, and can control frogs and water. Named him "River Rot" cause I thought the idea would be a fun villain for Black Panther to fight.

Or this tribe of spider themed assassins based off the hunter spider due to their immense physicality, mostly to kinda replace the Jabari's as that evil antagonist tribe. A group of slick looking baddies for T'Challa to fight, a badass assassin kinda like an African equivalent to the Hand.

They’re not selling that well with teens (who represent such a small demographic of comic-readers anyway.) And trades don’t make up the bulk of profit from my understanding. A book selling below 15k is not a book Marvel wants to keep pushing unless it’s performing extraordinarily well and has the digital/Scholastic sales on lock as well. If Gay was delivering the massive sales Marvel wanted they would have given her more work unless she refused, since she’s clearly the kind of writer they want on the BP books.

The Coates era wasn’t a financial flop but it showed remarkably less stability than previous eras and as you said, benefits from coming out at the peak of T’Challa’s popularity, meaning Marvel aggressively marketed it and newcomers in circa 2016 were more likely to find those titles.

Love the ideas for BP rogues. A frog/water demon is definitely an interesting villain.

[Ezyo1000]

I would've loved Bryan Hill if it has to be a black guy. His Killmonger series was fun and he seemed to do a nice job blending the movie and comic's canon together.

But he nerfed the HELLE out of everyone involved in the story from kilmongers Crew. He did a good CHARACTER piece of Erik, but everything else was lacking. We never SAW how dangerous Erik was or HOW he got the name kilmonger. He was just an inexperienced hot head, which is what he is supposed to be but Hill forgot to add the part about him being DANGEROUS. Frankly it was stupid to put him and his team in New York and interacting with kingpin and bulleyes. They are DD villains and are untouchable, especially since it was a prequel story.

Should of been in California, or Texas, or literally anywhere else with an OC villain that Hill could of killed off. Then they could of bounced him off his team. All of them had some mutant powers and then Erik is just a "Regular guy" yet we see how he's actually the most dangerous of the Crew who seems to be fearless and has an incredible knack for racking up kills.

It should of been like a game to him and he should of had an extremely nihilistic view on life itself. Thats what makes him a danger. That and he is extremely manipulative.

I don't want anyone but Redjack for Black writers. He has more than proven himself

[skyvolt2000]

Well damn, alright we're screwed.

Wonder why those titles are selling so well with teens. Maybe at least partly due to recency bias. Newer fans are more likely to get the newer stuff than the old stuff.

Part of the reason that happens boils down to a few things. I'll point out one.

Who talks to Gay will help. Example Kirkus Reviews tend to IGNORE the comic book side UNLESS they get a book done by someone they WOULD review. Every single comic book OGN (more than trades) has been done by someone like Gay, Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Ronald Smith, Gene Lung Yung and others.
Kirkus Review reaches WAY MORE folks than any comic book store. How many business (aside from schools) is that book sitting in waiting rooms? Airports?

Also back to Coates-how many websites and book review sites praise that book BEFORE a single issue came out??? Like Good Reads?

So if you are Marvel and looking for attention and higher shot at "sales" without doing a TON of work.
Who do you go with??
For all the complaining, temper tantrums and fits we are seeing not just here but EVERYWHERE at Marvel and DC (mainly DC). Those folks get books on shelves outside of comic book stores. Folks trust those writers.

To help Black Panther you have to find that right writer. Along with the right EDITOR.

Bryan Hill could be that person.
Jason Reynolds too but I think he is way too busy.
N.K. Jemisin maybe.

[skyvolt2000]

But he nerfed the HELLE out of everyone involved in the story from kilmongers Crew. He did a good CHARACTER piece of Erik, but everything else was lacking. We never SAW how dangerous Erik was or HOW he got the name kilmonger. He was just an inexperienced hot head, which is what he is supposed to be but Hill forgot to add the part about him being DANGEROUS. Frankly it was stupid to put him and his team in New York and interacting with kingpin and bulleyes. They are DD villains and are untouchable, especially since it was a prequel story.

Should of been in California, or Texas, or literally anywhere else with an OC villain that Hill could of killed off. Then they could of bounced him off his team. All of them had some mutant powers and then Erik is just a "Regular guy" yet we see how he's actually the most dangerous of the Crew who seems to be fearless and has an incredible knack for racking up kills.

It should of been like a game to him and he should of had an extremely nihilistic view on life itself. Thats what makes him a danger. That and he is extremely manipulative.

I don't want anyone but Redjack for Black writers. He has more than proven himself

Hill probably had a TON of restrictions.

If that book was done anywhere except the big two-you probably would have saw that.

[DigiCom]

You’re probably right, I’ve looked around modestly and I can’t find much on what he’s doing now.

Hickman did an almost unreadable story with Chris Bachalo in last month's Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood #1.

[BlackClaw]

They’re not selling that well with teens (who represent such a small demographic of comic-readers anyway.) And trades don’t make up the bulk of profit from my understanding. A book selling below 15k is not a book Marvel wants to keep pushing unless it’s performing extraordinarily well and has the digital/Scholastic sales on lock as well. If Gay was delivering the massive sales Marvel wanted they would have given her more work unless she refused, since she’s clearly the kind of writer they want on the BP books.

The Coates era wasn’t a financial flop but it showed remarkably less stability than previous eras and as you said, benefits from coming out at the peak of T’Challa’s popularity, meaning Marvel aggressively marketed it and newcomers in circa 2016 were more likely to find those titles.

Love the ideas for BP rogues. A frog/water demon is definitely an interesting villain.

I’ll die on the hill that Baron Macabre should be a full on Necromancer (no pun intended), so we can get some evil Necromancer vs KOTD action.

Another villain should be based on Gustave. For those of you who don’t know, Gustave was a crocodile thats infamous for being a man eater with well over 300 human fatalities and being hard to kill. He’s gained damn near mythical status in Burundi. He’s also abnormally large for a crocodile, which allows him to go toe to toe with hippos of all things. Now for the BP mythos, I was thinking maybe he could serve as T’Challas Moby Dick. He’d be about the size of a sarchosuchus (a prehistoric crocodile) but fight like he was a monster in Monster Hunter. I’m talking about Elder Dragon levels of dangerous.

You can read more about Gustave here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_(crocodile)

[MindofShadow]

Hickman did an almost unreadable story with Chris Bachalo in last month's Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood #1.

OH crap that was Hickman... yeah that was a waste of time lol

Alright, I only came back for the Moon KNight talk lol

[Ezyo1000]

Hill probably had a TON of restrictions.

If that book was done anywhere except the big two-you probably would have saw that.

Maybe, but there was no need to include those characters. They actually made kilmonger LESS threatening, same with his crew Because they got wrecked and were too busy propping them up instead of being a menace to a OC that could of been used to make them look dangerous

[Ezyo1000]

From the HEF, courtesy of emperorjones

Marvel reveals All-Out Avengers cover and teases more plot details

http://www.gamesradar.com/all-out-avengers/

[Vanguard]

Hickman did an almost unreadable story with Chris Bachalo in last month's Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood #1.

Damn. Well at least he’s still working.

[Mantis-Ray]

Damn. Well at least he’s still working.

Well he did the whole big finale to his X-Men saga with Inferno several months ago and as well well finished up his Decorum series over at Image. So he's probably taking a break and also in the middle of prepping up his next big works, which considering his writing style he prolly takes a lot of time for research and preparations. I hope he finally makes the jump to DC to work on Legion of Superheroes. Thats the DC series he genuinely wants to write, being a fan of them, and the Legion could use an epic writer like Hickman after the disaster that is the Bendis Legion run.

Shame about the Moon Knight story, really should have gotten a less hit or miss artist than Bachalo.

[charliehustle415]

Well he did the whole big finale to his X-Men saga with Inferno several months ago and as well well finished up his Decorum series over at Image. So he's probably taking a break and also in the middle of prepping up his next big works, which considering his writing style he prolly takes a lot of time for research and preparations. I hope he finally makes the jump to DC to work on Legion of Superheroes. Thats the DC series he genuinely wants to write, being a fan of them, and the Legion could use an epic writer like Hickman after the disaster that is the Bendis Legion run.

Shame about the Moon Knight story, really should have gotten a less hit or miss artist than Bachalo.

He's pretty deep into his Substacks comic 3W3M, so I can't imagine him coming back to the big two anytime soon, but I would love to see him on Legion