YIBAMBE! T’Challa: The Black Panther Appreciation 2022

[KingNomarch]

There have been diminishing returns on Klaw’s use as a villain since his first appearance. There have been fine reinventions across various stories and mediums but Klaw hasn’t been a compelling threat to T’Challa in a non-origin related comic in the main MU in years. I’m always one for reinventing and building off stuff that came before, but like Ezyo’s suggesting, the potential of Klaw as an Avengers-level threat has the real possibility of being another lame showing based off prior appearances. And Ridley hasn’t exactly done a great job conveying threat level and competence in his first arc, it’s perfectly fine to question his ability to make a villain “worthy” of the Avengers. Which is to say nothing of the generally meh character work.

If Klaw’s the villain then it’s uninspired because it wasn’t that long ago that we saw him. Since T’Challa fought him over reverbium or whatever halfway the Coates run, readers have only really seen T’Challa fight Adversary and the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, which was led by another major Black Panther villain in Killmonger. To do another intergalactic story repurposing a classic BP rogue after fans spent 25 issues and like 3 years with that same story is definitely a bit boring at this point. Hell part of the novelty of this run was “grounding” T’Challa back to earth after an entire vol largely spent on cosmic stuff, heading back to space less than 12 issues into this new run is lame to me, but given Ridley’s mediocre espionage direction maybe this is the shot in the arm his book needs.

In terms of character Hudlin's Klaw was the best but when it came to creative use of his abilities Priest used it best. Give Klaw the character of the masterclass assassin that Hudlin gave him combined with the creative use of his abilities under Priest, he'd be a much better villain than. Only BP books treat him as a threat meanwhile outside he gets beat by Goldballs.

[BlackClaw]

I used to advocate for more Wakanda set stories but after these last six years Wakanda has been nothing but a hindrance. Let T'Challa rule the empire, he's still emperor and give us the proper space story that Hickman setup.

Indeed. Let’s get some cosmic villains in T’Challas rogues gallery. And interactions with Inhumans are a must if we’re never gonna see Wakanda interact with utolan.

[Klaue's Mixtape]

In a BLACK PANTHER FILM

This is the only thing Im looking forward too. Like how?


Leaker obviously blurred him to not get in trouble, but still.

[Vanguard]

I don’t care who’s in it. I still won’t be seeing it. I’ll just read what it’s about later on after the release.

[Ezyo1000]

I agree, 100.

And that's on Marvel for not having faith in his story pitch, and experience and deciding (yet again) to go with a more "reputable" and experienced writer.

No no no, Coates was NOT experienced at all. He was as neophyte as you get. He simply had the literature crowd and able to get T'Challa in places other comic writer's couldn't... But then wasted it by giving us the most castrated T'Challa and the most racially stereotyped depictions of black folks and Africa shoved into Wakanda.

[Ezyo1000]

In terms of character Hudlin's Klaw was the best but when it came to creative use of his abilities Priest used it best. Give Klaw the character of the masterclass assassin that Hudlin gave him combined with the creative use of his abilities under Priest, he'd be a much better villain than. Only BP books treat him as a threat meanwhile outside he gets beat by Goldballs.

All the above with the look of War for Wakanda Klaw. Then crank his power up to 11, have him kill goldballs and a few other forgettable Z listers straight up, have he battle and beat some more popular characters and prove himself to be a true threat to the Avengers and have T'Challa be the one to deliver the knock out blow to him. But DON'T make him the main boss.

[Vanguard]

All the above with the look of War for Wakanda Klaw. Then crank his power up to 11, have him kill goldballs and a few other forgettable Z listers straight up, have he battle and beat some more popular characters and prove himself to be a true threat to the Avengers and have T'Challa be the one to deliver the knock out blow to him. But DON'T make him the main boss.

When you say don’t make him the main boss, do you mean TChalla or Klaw?

[KingNomarch]

In a BLACK PANTHER FILM

This is the only thing Im looking forward too. Like how?


Leaker obviously blurred him to not get in trouble, but still.

Only thing in the sequel that interests me is exactly how they're going to kill T'Challa off.

[Ezyo1000]

When you say don’t make him the main boss, do you mean TChalla or Klaw?

Klaw, he shouldn't be the big bad

[chief12d]

In terms of character Hudlin's Klaw was the best but when it came to creative use of his abilities Priest used it best. Give Klaw the character of the masterclass assassin that Hudlin gave him combined with the creative use of his abilities under Priest, he'd be a much better villain than. Only BP books treat him as a threat meanwhile outside he gets beat by Goldballs.

Yea Hudlin made Klaw entertaining as a personality, that’s actually one major contribution he made that hasn’t been warped by current creators yet. It was Saturday morning cartoonish but that works for Klaw because he’s not the most serious villain in the world so we don’t need complex motivations or a clash of ideals, that’s what the mythos has Killmonger for. You’re right, combine that with the sonic powers of the Priest era and you already have a Klaw infinitely more interesting than his last appearance. The War for Wakanda DLC adds some useful elements as well, the whole Nathan Drake treasure hunter meets underground super-scientist vibe works well.

Klaw’s also the kind of villain that benefits from having cool underlings. He has the tech already. All he needs is the resources of an abandoned AIM lab facility to create his own team of cyborg killers enhanced with black market super metals and sonic energy. He shouldn’t be treated as the kind of villain T’Challa can just run up on and punch out, he needs powerful subordinates, allies, etc. to have the air of someone worth going against the king of the most advanced civilization on Earth. If Ridley plans on using him, I think he’s on the right path having T’Challa bring together the Avengers to take him down, but I would’ve preferred Ezyo’s idea. Have him in the background accumulating power while catching some bodies to establish his new threat level and goals.

[Vanguard]

Klaw, he shouldn't be the big bad

Got it. I thought you meant TChalla. I was thinking, I like seeing him lead the Avengers. Should he come back in and lead right away? I don’t know? But I would like to see him work his way back in to leading the team quickly.

[Nate Grey]

Only thing in the sequel that interests me is exactly how they're going to kill T'Challa off.

Slips in the bathtub. I mean why not go all the way with the f.u. to the fans.

[chief12d]

Got it. I thought you meant TChalla. I was thinking, I like seeing him lead the Avengers. Should he come back in and lead right away? I don’t know? But I would like to see him work his way back in to leading the team quickly.

If Aaron is writing I’d be happy to see T’Challa as chairman again. He’s consistently gotten the character’s tone and capabilities right. Everything from that scene where he’s talking to holographic T’Chaka down to the reveal T’Challa had Ursa Major as his spy on the Winter Guard all the way to him beating Moon Knight. At the same time, his T’Challa isn’t invulnerable and he’s always written the character logically. If T’Challa didn’t have an ongoing I’m pretty sure he’d be the central figure of the Aaron run, which I’d almost favor over an ongoing at this point lol.

But I’d be happy to just see T’Challa as part of the team. If Tony, Cap, Thor, and Carol can all pull double duty in their solos and Avengers there’s no excuse T’Challa can’t. He deserves to be seen as a regular member just like them and it never hurts to expand a character’s appearances. As long as the solo isn’t influencing the team book too much and vice verse it should work out fine. But if the writing team for Avengers changes (which seems possible since the current run feels like it’s coming to a close) and it’s a writer I don’t trust then I’m fine with just a solo.

[Vanguard]

If Aaron is writing I’d be happy to see T’Challa as chairman again. He’s consistently gotten the character’s tone and capabilities right. Everything from that scene where he’s talking to holographic T’Chaka down to the reveal T’Challa had Ursa Major as his spy on the Winter Guard all the way to him beating Moon Knight. At the same time, his T’Challa isn’t invulnerable and he’s always written the character logically. If T’Challa didn’t have an ongoing I’m pretty sure he’d be the central figure of the Aaron run, which I’d almost favor over an ongoing at this point lol.

But I’d be happy to just see T’Challa as part of the team. If Tony, Cap, Thor, and Carol can all pull double duty in their solos and Avengers there’s no excuse T’Challa can’t. He deserves to be seen as a regular member just like them and it never hurts to expand a character’s appearances. As long as the solo isn’t influencing the team book too much and vice verse it should work out fine. But if the writing team for Avengers changes (which seems possible since the current run feels like it’s coming to a close) and it’s a writer I don’t trust then I’m fine with just a solo.

I absolutely agree. The solo shouldn’t influence the team book. Aaron writes a better TChalla anyway. In fact, I don’t want Ridley influencing Aaron’s TChalla. And I loved that scene where he’s talking to the holographic TChaka. Aaron went as far as to show how meticulous TChalla is as a person, right down to what the man eats.

[chief12d]

I absolutely agree. The solo shouldn’t influence the team book. Aaron writes a better TChalla anyway. In fact, I don’t want Ridley influencing Aaron’s TChalla. And I loved that scene where he’s talking to the holographic TChaka. Aaron went as far as to show how meticulous TChalla is as a person, right down to what the man eats.

Yea Aaron nailed that T’Chaka scene and I think articulated why he likes the character so much by just giving a little insight into T’Challa’s routine. It’s one of the strongest, yet understated bits of character work the book has done so far and if everything else about it weren’t so trash people would realize Aaron is writing a really good Black Panther.

Not definitive by any means (he’s basically writing Hudlin T’Challa with a heavy dosage of Priest) but it’s still entertaining. It really does make you wonder what he could do if he didn’t have to write the character as part of a team and just had T’Challa. I’m not sure I want a solo by Aaron but I definitely want T’Challa on whatever ensemble book he’s writing.