T'Challa: The Black Panther Appreciation 2023

[chief12d]

Oh dang thats a Darkhawk from the Fraternity of Raptors

Cool inclusion

Is human Darkhawk a villain now? Or is that just a random member of the Fraternity?

[Mantis-Ray]

Is human Darkhawk a villain now? Or is that just a random member of the Fraternity?

It's probably a random member.

From what I recall of the Darkhawk mythology, all it's members have that armor I think, its their standard equipment. So human Darkhawk is the lone hero in an organization of pirates.

[chief12d]

It's probably a random member.

From what I recall of the Darkhawk mythology, all it's members have that armor I think, its their standard equipment. So human Darkhawk is the lone hero in an organization of pirates.

Yea I think you’re right! Been awhile since I read those DnA cosmic books but I remember the huge updates they made to Darkhawk lore. Nice to see them still being used.

[Ezyo1000]

When does the new series drop again? I am wanting to get peoples feedback

[KingNomarch]

When does the new series drop again? I am wanting to get peoples feedback

Next month on the 14th but Mackay’s Avengers drops next week

[KingNomarch]

Saw a tweet of someone calling Buffalo Soldier Ridley’s self insert and now I can’t unsee it

https://twitter.com/Dsolomon83/statu...59316750254080

[MouserGrey]

Ridley should go insert himself into himself.

[Mantis-Ray]

Saw a tweet of someone calling Buffalo Soldier Ridley’s self insert and now I can’t unsee it

https://twitter.com/Dsolomon83/statu...59316750254080

It is baffling since nothing is really explained about Buffalo Soldier.

Whether he's an alien, enhanced, or with specialized guns goes unmentioned. He just backhands with T'Challa with little effort despite looking like a regular guy.

Buffalo being a self-insert does explain Ridley's interest in him even more. He really wanted this guy to be a thing.

[Ekie]

Next month on the 14th but Mackay’s Avengers drops next week

Excited to see the start of this

[Ezyo1000]

Next month on the 14th but Mackay’s Avengers drops next week

Awesome I can't wait. TBH it's been sad this thread has been pretty dead as of late. It's hard to be motivated or have anything to discuss

[Ezyo1000]

Saw a tweet of someone calling Buffalo Soldier Ridley’s self insert and now I can’t unsee it

https://twitter.com/Dsolomon83/statu...59316750254080

Yeah buffalo soldier (and his alien death trio or whatever the f**k they were called) were stupid as hell. O explanation how random OC is able to not only contend with T'Challa, but beat him... Handily.

And funny how hard he tried to get people to like him or Tosin, his comment about how Buffalo soldier surprisingly became very popular reaked of BS

[Besouro]

Yep. This is a money thing.

I read Ridley's final issue, Black Panther #15 the other day (damnable completist I had to be), and wow, was it bad. I was left wondering who was this series really written for and I would've loved to have been a fly on the wall at Marvel for the discussions about this book. I got a feeling-and this is just me-that Ridley got thwarted on whatever his intentions were for the book, and he took it out on T'Challa and his stories. I also feel that Marvel wanted a book that would align with Wakanda Forever, while they still were believing it would be another runaway billion-dollar success. However, what the comic does is go beyond the idea of BP is "just a mantle", it disparages T'Challa without necessarily uplifting the mantle, so it's on another level. I could see the comics aligning more with the film if Ridley's run had ended with Shuri back in the habit or if Tosin was the new Black Panther, but that didn't happen. Maybe that was in the offing at first but got changed.

In any event, T'Challa was a bystander in Ridley's final issue. After talking tough, or thinking tough thoughts, T'Challa couldn't kill Jhai. Of course, Omolola had the stones to do that, and she did it coldly (killing an unarmed man, but since this is feminist-skewing entertainment, it's okay and not toxic if a woman does it). When T'Challa wants to use sleeper agents it's bad, but when the Prime Minister does it, it's cool, and that's more of the feminist entertainment which supposedly castigates the "behavior" as "toxic" when really it's just who is doing the behavior they have a real issue with.

Omolola was dismissive of both T'Challa and Jhai, and then T'Challa goes and sits like a whipped dog, his head hanging, while others do the fighting for him. There's no fight in Ridley's T'Challa. Everyone dumps on him, and while he might talk back a little at Namor, he doesn't do anything. He lets the Prime Minister spin her joining with Namor, while at the same time making T'Challa the worst of the worst. And the final scene had largely Black women and Tosin declaring that Wakanda was forever, which felt like a rejection of Black males (in the proxy of T'Challa). Though that final scene almost felt like Ridley was parodying or satirizing feminist entertainment too, but that might have just been in my head.

I've never read a book where the creator seemingly had such disdain, if not hatred, for the lead character. No one made Ridley write this book far as I know. Also, far as I know he's still having a successful writing career, so he didn't need to write this book to keep food on the table. If he did, I doubt he would've written it this way anyway. I'm assuming he would've done a better job in the hopes of getting another one, and I couldn't imagine too many novice writers putting in this kind of work and expecting to get a crack at another solo title, maybe even a team book, not for a major character.

The positives, if there were any, was the artwork was decent. There was also this weird thing where T'Challa got dissed, but Shuri talked about his wisdom or paraphrased him. It was like Ridley was trying to sort of have it both ways, which makes me wonder what was really going on behind the scenes.

I don't know what could've been done to salvage this series, but for the sake of it, Ridley's first arc should've established all the relationships between T'Challa, Omolola, Jhai, and Akili. With Jhai seemingly being killed off at the end of the first arc, which then exposes Killswitch. Hunter is the mastermind, no Colonialist, Buffalo Soldier, or the three alien women. The Prime Minister is working with Hunter. Tosin, with an attitude adjustment, can stay, but if needed, he would've been checked hard by T'Challa, Shuri, or Gentle. Would've kept Storm out of this story rather than bring her in to dump on T'Challa, but gave Gentle more to do. Tie Wilson's Captain America more into the story so they can have a Black Panther/Captain America "Killswitch" event that brings in the Agents of Wakanda, War Machine, and also the Rogers' Captain America side of Marvel.

I do think Ridley's run started off fine and seemed like a breath of fresh air (and something of a rebuke or rejoinder to the Coates's era), but it went downhill quickly. That said, I thought the fake out with Akili wasn't bad, and I thought Jhai, with more setup, could've been a stronger villain. I did like his character design. As I said, the Killswitch idea wasn't a bad one. With a lot more work even the Colonialist could've been a decent kind of villain to have an issue or two story about. There was also nothing wrong with characters taking issue with T'Challa, or the Democratic Republic of Wakanda concept. I just wish there had been pushback on his end, so we could have a debate. And not that everyone dumps on him, he agrees with them, hangs his head, and then keeps trying to "fight" (he didn't do much of that, or when he did, he didn't do it well) or "save" them when all they did was disrespect him for his efforts and tell him how much of a screw up he is and how much he's not needed or wanted. I did think that Alex Ross's covers were pretty good throughout, and it's a shame that they got him for this story, and I felt the same about Brian Stelfreeze with Coates.

Ridley's run was a trash compactor added to the dumpster fire of TNC/Coates run. There is no long talk about this. Period!!!!

[Mantis-Ray]

Yea I think you’re right! Been awhile since I read those DnA cosmic books but I remember the huge updates they made to Darkhawk lore. Nice to see them still being used.

Oh thats cool, they wrote something involving Darkhawk there?

[Frontier]

Oh thats cool, they wrote something involving Darkhawk there?

Yeah, I think they did his new book and established the Fraternity of Raptors that were tied to the Shi'ar.

[Steroid]

Awesome I can't wait. TBH it's been sad this thread has been pretty dead as of late. It's hard to be motivated or have anything to discuss

It'll be nice to have something featuring that will actually be good. Hopefully things will pick up in here.