T'Challa: The Black Panther Appreciation 2023

[skyvolt2000]

Even so its weird how its always mega-arcs that go way past 6 issues. Like its one thing to be a 6 issue arc thats stretched, but we're talking about way longer here. This gang war is solicited to still be going at March so thats 10 parts and there's no indication its resolving soon since the solicit for issue 10 is for the most part identical to 9, "Oooooh the big villain is about to do something and T'Challa has to unite all his allies to defeat him".

This isn't writing for trade, its writing for the fricking omnibus.

It's that too.

Because you have to understand a lot of these trade have a signed, sealed and delivered consumers.

A ton of repackaging in trades and omnibuses.

So we get tons of books that we ALL know will pack bins to death.

However those books do get ordered by schools and libraries.

[Klaue's Mixtape]

Just took a peek at the Amazon graphic novel charts and I've noticed that One Nation Under Feet is still one of the top sellers there.

It's almost always a feature on the top graphic novel sales charts (in Canada).

This suggests there's real interest in the character, the problem is the stories have been underwhelming.

Also presents the fact Coates knew what he was doing.

[KurtW95]

Also presents the fact Coates knew what he was doing.

Coates has proven that he doesn't know what he's doing on a number of matters.

[chief12d]

Coates has proven that he doesn't know what he's doing on a number of matters.

Exactly, him and John Ridley literally ruined 616 Black Panther, I don’t know how this is even a conversation lol.

Bryan Hill Word Balloon Interview

-Decided right away when he got offered the gig that he didn’t want to do sociopolitical commentary or the like. Nothing wrong with that but he doesn’t think he’s good at it
-His approach to Wakanda was “what if Frank Hubert created Wakanda?”, looking at the worldbuilding for Dune inspired him
-Story is about the price of waging war vs. not waging war, how does T’Challa navigate the factions pushing him in both directions?
-T’Challa and Storm are not a couple at the start. With Storm he thinks it’s interesting that the Wakandans worship Bast, a goddess who usually doesn’t interact with them, but then they meet a demigoddess
-Themes of his run involve zealotry vs. diplomacy, prophecy, do you have patience for prophecy or try to force it
-Hill loves Shakespeare so there’s a lot of Macbeth and other plays in this
-T’Challa is a character who loadbear big ideas as opposed to someone like Peter Parker who is a character focused on smaller scale intimate ideas
-He’s well aware that people have been hitting him up on Twitter demanding that this book focus on T’Challa and let him be badass and do cool things, says he hears you guys and the character is in good hands

Still listening but that’s what he’s shared thus far.

Got a chance to listen to the full podcast and minus the Storm stuff this all sounds really great. Compared to the initial interview he did I think he’s given a lot more context for where he’s coming from and what he wants to say with the book.

Hill’s sensibilities for Black Panther have been clear in most of the content he’s written for Marvel. He wants the character to tackle big ideas while staying outside the social commentary bubble he’s been forced into by other writers and elevating the mythology in a way we haven’t seen before.

The Dune influence is gonna be heavy here, what with the prophecy hinted at in recent solicits and his interpretation of T’Challa as a noble warrior king. I like that he seems to emphasizing T’Challa’s humanity in this, his inability to see people suffer but having to protect his own people. That’s baked into T’Challa’s character from his early years but really came into focus in the Priest era, who’s run started with him dropping what he was doing to investigate the murder of a little girl. And this is a much more dangerous world than 616 so T’Challa’s kindness has higher stakes for everyone so the way he gets influenced by various factions should make for really strong character drama and intrigue. It could just be my hoping but I expect this Panther to be more cerebral than we’ve seen in recent years but still a man of action, seeing as he seems to finally make the call to war.

I thought his “this is Black Panther, not Black Kitty” comment was really funny lol. If anyone’s been reading his Blade or Outsiders you know he gets brutal so I like the sense that anything could happen. I found his music choices for when he was writing really interesting too, he’s hinting at psychedelic panels which sound fun in a way BP art hasn’t been in a long time. Though I wonder if he (or other BP writers) have listened to actual African music when writing BP lol. Not that they need to but it’d be cool to hear what African musicians have influenced the writing/art on the title.

[skyvolt2000]

Also presents the fact Coates knew what he was doing.

No it does not...

Because NOBODY returned for the other 7 volumes.

[Ekie]

Coates has proven that he doesn't know what he's doing on a number of matters.

In one of exit interviews after Panther, he said, looking back that he had no idea how personally ppl identified with superheros (in response to criticism from Panther fans on his run). Which explains his writing.

I doubt that man even had a favorite ninja turtle growing up.

[KurtW95]

Bryan Hill is indeed great. But I object to the notion that potential writers should be limited to the color of the creator. A mindset that pigeonholed Priest and made him want to avoid comics.

[Ezyo1000]

Also presents the fact Coates knew what he was doing.

Ah yes, rape treehouses, gender inequality, meeting with despots, telling rape victims to shut up and accept their fate, showing a black man in chains and saying he is owned by other black folks, becoming colonizers and kicking out denizens in chains, throwing T'Challa and Wakanda under the bus so they can pray to Storm, making Wakandans the biggest hypocrites as well as the greatest slave owners, and making his pet, Non Wakandan, murderer of Wakandan people, terrorist and enemy of the nation become the new Avatar of their goddess... I'ma call BS on he knew what he was doing other than then dismantling the mythos

[BlackClaw]

Bryan Hill is indeed great. But I object to the notion that potential writers should be limited to the color of the creator. A mindset that pigeonholed Priest and made him want to avoid comics.

You and me both. But hey Hill is the first writer we’ve had since Redjack’s one shot that truly understands the character so we’re in for a treat.

[chief12d]

Bryan Hill is indeed great. But I object to the notion that potential writers should be limited to the color of the creator. A mindset that pigeonholed Priest and made him want to avoid comics.

Hill gets a pass because he can actually write and has a proven track record with Black Panther content. He’d be qualified to write Ultimate Black Panther regardless of his race with his experience and passion for the character. This is probably an assignment he sought out because he’s talked about writing more Black Panther for years as the character has attracted black creators for a long time. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that as many black creators would love to do BP work or stuff with Luke Cage, Blade, etc. because those characters often resonate with them differently.

The issue is that if Hill wasn’t black he probably wouldn’t be offered the book, so your point is valid. I’m sure he has other characters he’d like to write besides black leads and hopefully he gets those opportunities since he clearly has the talent and can bring a lot to any character, black or otherwise. I think he’d do a fantastic Doctor Strange book and I think his grittier writing style would fit a Wolverine or Ghost Rider pretty well too.

[Ezyo1000]

Bryan Hill is indeed great. But I object to the notion that potential writers should be limited to the color of the creator. A mindset that pigeonholed Priest and made him want to avoid comics.

That's a valid point, I don't think writer's should be pigeonholed into a character that's the same race as them, but I also think that writer's who express interest in a character should be given the gig, and it should be based on their pedigree, not their supposed "Fame" in medium's outside of comics because those folks don't stick around. Redjack should've gotten the gig over Coates straight up

[Redjack]

That's a valid point, I don't think writer's should be pigeonholed into a character that's the same race as them, but I also think that writer's who express interest in a character should be given the gig, and it should be based on their pedigree, not their supposed "Fame" in medium's outside of comics because those folks don't stick around. Redjack should've gotten the gig over Coates straight up

Speaking for. myself, I don't feel pigeonholed the way Priest did and I can't ever feel that way. I write a LOT of stuff in a lot of venues so, even if I were confined to writing black characters for the Big Two (I'm not) I wouldn't be bugged by it the way he was. I write lots of white folks. lots and lots and lots. and I never feel like "Here I am writing white folks again."

That said, in Big Two Comics, it will work out that I'm mostly going to be writing "minority" characters of one kind or another because their Big Guns don't interest me much as a reader or a writer. Given a choice between Batman or Bronze Tiger, I'm going for the Tiger 10 out of 10 times. Same for Vixen vs Wonder Woman or Shaman vs Dr. Strange.

I like the characters that haven't been overplayed and fleshed out. They're more interesting to me. So, I'll take Ben Reilly or Hobie Brown for a spin but I have no interest in Peter Parker. I'd write a Warriors Three book years before I'd wake up to write Thor.

Did I ever tell you about the time I pitched a book called RONIN where Dwayne Taylor steals the ronin armor and forms his own team to help the folks the BIG superheroes always overlook? Joystick was on it, among others. No sale.

Is it a coincidence that the least-used, least-defined characters also happen to be non-white, female and/or queer?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But I don't care either way. Nobody's going to do anything new with Batman, Superman, Spider-Man or most of the others because, if they do, too many fans will whine and squeal about how that's "not the character they know." So any really creative work is closed off with those characters.

I'm here for the stories, not the "icons."

[DigiCom]

In one of exit interviews after Panther, he said, looking back that he had no idea how personally ppl identified with superheros (in response to criticism from Panther fans on his run). Which explains his writing.

I doubt that man even had a favorite ninja turtle growing up.

Isn't he the one who said he wanted his T'Challa to be "some kid's Spider-Man"?

[skyvolt2000]

Bryan Hill is indeed great. But I object to the notion that potential writers should be limited to the color of the creator. A mindset that pigeonholed Priest and made him want to avoid comics.

You can object all you like but here is REALITY...

1) If black writers are the ONLY one offering pitches for a black character and Marvel or DC wants that book to made. They are going to go with that writer.

2) How many times have a black writer been called a diversity hire and attracted the worst of the fandom before the first preview?

3) How many times has a black writer been ASKED to write a book that does not star a black character?
Because everyone else doesn't seem to have this issue. Nobody calls Al Ewing nor James Tynion nor Steve Orlando diversity hires despite both being members of the LGBTQA+ community.

The X-Men have been around 60+ years. 2019 marked the FIRST time black male writers did X-books? For a company that employed McDuffie and Priest?
That is the ONLY franchise McDuffie never got to touch. Let that sink in with that man's resume. Yet guys that don't look like him with lesser resumes have.


As for Priest-a LOT of that happened because editors acted like he was the ONLY black writer in comics. Since so many forgot about McDuffie, Robert Washington and the others that were around.
He took that stance because his RESUME said he could do more. He was RIGHT. He has the longest Black Panther solo run.

Address the 3 issues above.

Especially number 2.

I look at the John Stewart last two runs.
I can look at the last 2 Justice League runs before New 52.
The black writers caught HECK on Earth over those books existing more than content.
White writers didn't.

Yet we have the NERVE to cry about quality. Quality has no skin color or gender. Yet at DC & Marvel is seems to.

Same black writers go elsewhere and don't have issues. Same with nonblack writers writing black characters as Tynion is showing.

So why is it an issue HERE?

[Klaue's Mixtape]

Bryan Hill is indeed great. But I object to the notion that potential writers should be limited to the color of the creator. A mindset that pigeonholed Priest and made him want to avoid comics.

While I think you're WRONG on Coates.

You are right here.

I just watched The Color Purple musical the other day. And sadly it was hollow compared to the original. It had me wishing that Steven Spielberg directed this instead.

So yea we cant just limit our art to color (no pun). However, as long a person of a different color has a clear passion and understanding of the characters and story then I'm for it.