T'Challa: The Black Panther Appreciation 2024

[Ezyo1000]

So glad we got folks I. Here ready to defend and support mutants and tell BP fans to patiently wait after already doing so for 8 years. Such great contributions to The Black Panther thread

[BPStorm2]

So glad we got folks I. Here ready to defend and support mutants and tell BP fans to patiently wait after already doing so for 8 years. Such great contributions to The Black Panther thread

I’m not telling nobody to patiently wait, I understand why some of you are upset, but damn lol let the man tell his story than complain lol. He got over 12 issues. We are on number 3. Was it boring yes….. But is it as bad as Eve and Ridley no.

[Ezyo1000]

I’m not telling nobody to patiently wait, I understand why some of you are upset, but damn lol let the man tell his story than complain lol. He got over 12 issues. We are on number 3. Was it boring yes….. But is it as bad as Eve and Ridley no.

Guess what, Eve had atleast 12 issues to and we saw what happened to her run. You can't take the scenic route story telling with BP after the last 8 years of BS. And quite literally your saying your not telling people to wait, and then telling people to wait in the same sentence my dude.

[dkrook]

What I find funny (not really) is the amount of effort that writer's in the last 8 years have put into inserting Storm into the mythos in some way instead of trying to flesh out and carve a clear and unique path for T'Challas ACTUAL supporting cast instead of leech Shuri and isht talker Storm

I hear you on that, but to be real I am tire of Shuri at this point. Honestly if Storm and Shuri had to be removed from Black Panther to get focus on T'challa, I would have pulled the trigger on that move yesterday. I'm one of the fans that is still willing to soldier through a slow burn plot for a hot pay off, even I have to admit we starting to see more of Shuri than is needed, to me.

[Username taken]

The thing about Ultimate BP is that it seems Hill is going for decompressed storytelling.

Decompression was pretty much popularized by Bendis on Ultimate Spider-man way back in the day and a lot of writers embraced that form of storytelling in the early 2000s. It comes across as writing for trades which has always been a divisive approach to comic book storytelling. It could work back in the day because comics were a lot cheaper and Marvel went in pretty hard on trades (they still release them super-fast compared to DC).

I'm not a fan of decompression at all. I much prefer the "Stan Lee approach" of "treat every single comic like it's for a new reader". I don't mean having constant pages of recaps but plot and story points such advance and resolve at a logical pace and a single comic should be interesting enough to make the reader want to come back. The most recent issue of UBP didn't really advance any of the major plot points of the title beyond learning a little more about Killmonger and the reveal of the giant green ball at the end. This is just my opinion but this isn't how to launch a new title regardless of the character, it comes across as a waste of time and readers time and patience. I'm not dropping UBP yet but I really did expect more at this point.

[skyvolt2000]

Guess what, Eve had atleast 12 issues to and we saw what happened to her run. You can't take the scenic route story telling with BP after the last 8 years of BS. And quite literally your saying your not telling people to wait, and then telling people to wait in the same sentence my dude.

Dr. Ewing and Ridley lost issues. It's odd for books to end at 10 and 14 unless you KNEW by trade number one that was it.

Blue Beetle is ending at issue 11 but it's a double sized issue. Ewing and Ridley didn't get double sized issues.

damn lol let the man tell his story than complain

Once again nobody is stopping him from telling the story.

[skyvolt2000]

The thing about Ultimate BP is that it seems Hill is going for decompressed storytelling.

Decompression was pretty much popularized by Bendis on Ultimate Spider-man way back in the day and a lot of writers embraced that form of storytelling in the early 2000s. It comes across as writing for trades which has always been a divisive approach to comic book storytelling. It could work back in the day because comics were a lot cheaper and Marvel went in pretty hard on trades (they still release them super-fast compared to DC).

I'm not a fan of decompression at all. I much prefer the "Stan Lee approach" of "treat every single comic like it's for a new reader".

It is that has become the point.

Stories that could be told in 3-4 issues got expanded to 6 issues to pack a trade.

5-6 part stories were generally special stories.

Milestone/Superman crossover was 14 issues. There was no fluff in any book.
Same with Panic in the Sky, Knightfall and others in the 90s.

Most of these huge events with tie ins are about MONEY and printing out huge trades later on.

Which is why you get some badly done books because writers are now doing filler because they can't tell the short story that they want.

[MindofShadow]

IF you are going to write for trades, then I"ll just wait for the trade

I don't understand why you can't have an overarching plot AND interesting single issues.

[DigiCom]

It is that has become the point.

Stories that could be told in 3-4 issues got expanded to 6 issues to pack a trade.

5-6 part stories were generally special stories.

Milestone/Superman crossover was 14 issues. There was no fluff in any book.
Same with Panic in the Sky, Knightfall and others in the 90s.

Most of these huge events with tie ins are about MONEY and printing out huge trades later on.

Which is why you get some badly done books because writers are now doing filler because they can't tell the short story that they want.

Nowadays, you are lucky if a storyline finished in 12 issues, a.k.a. "a season".

I don't understand why you can't have an overarching plot AND interesting single issues.

Because writing for comics is a different beast than writing a novel, but Marvel keeps hiring novelists.

[Mantis-Ray]

IF you are going to write for trades, then I"ll just wait for the trade

I don't understand why you can't have an overarching plot AND interesting single issues.

That is a problem with modern comics in general.

Some books do it better but overall a lot of runs feel stretched out in general all over the place.

[Customizer]

I just finished reading the latest issue of Ultimate Black Panther.

I understand the complaints regarding it.


The art is beautiful. The story is well written.

However the story doesn't reflect the Black Panther that i expected upon purchasing the first issue.


I purchase and read a wide variety of comic book titles. I buy a book like The Sacrificers or Black Monday Murders for different reasons than i buy a book like Ultimate Black Panther.

I have different expectations with regard to the title character in a "capes" book. It's early but ... i'm seeing warning signs in issue #3 (the end of #2 as well). I'm not ready to leave the Ultimate Black Panther title yet but i am side eyeing the exit.

I recently came across a post on Twitter updating fans regarding the latest Blade film.

‘BLADE’ will reportedly start filming this Summer in Mexico.

The film is said to be “stripped down to Mahershala Ali killing vampires.”

The overwhelming response to that news can be summed up in a reply:

So ....what it should have been the whole time? Nobody was asking for anything more

No one was asking for Blades daughters. No one was asking for Blade to be removed as the lead in his own film. Fans simply wanted to see Blade be the skilled ferocious character that he is and lead the way killing vampires. Period. Do not add anything to that.

Like Blade .... i expect T'Challa to utilize all of his historically established skills and to *lead the way* in the fight against his antagonist. Period. Do not add anything else. I do not need Black Panthers sister, "that other person" , democratically elected individuals usurping his command , "culture war bait" or random characters not identified as being the primary antagonist being consistently condescending and /or attempting to upstage the lead character.

It's not difficult to write a successful capes book if you stick to the formula. Many people who are buying eponymously named titles expect to see the character who the book is named after lead and WIN.

One more issue.

We'll see.

[DigiCom]

There are, in my opinion, two major approaches to writing action stories nowadays. You might call them "plot-dominant" and "character-dominant".

A plot-dominant story is usually fairly high-concept (i.e. bare-bones). The Hero™ (occasionally accompanied by his Love Interest™/Sidekick™) battles The Villain™ and their Minions™. It is usually fairly exciting, if sometimes a bit shallow. Most of the Bond films up to 2006 operated in this mode. They might not win many awards, but they are FUN.

A character-dominant story gets deep into the hero's head, exploring his (or her) motivations, flaws, and/or trauma. Again, look at the Craig Bond films, and their deep focus on Bond's character growth. These stories are usually meatier, and hence more interesting for the writer. But they work best in isolation... when part of a franchise, you are often confronted with the challenge of "what happens AFTER they've explored said issues?"

Sometimes, they drag the character back to square one and do it again. Sometimes (e.g. in the aforementioned Bond films) they skip ahead and show the character at the end of their careers, burdened by what they have gone through. The Nolan Batman films did that too.

From a writer's perspective, it's great. Even MORE drama to depict. But from a reader's perspective, it can often become boring. If I may shift examples, I used to be a pretty big Daredevil fan, but I honestly can't read the book anymore. The stories may (or may not) be well-written, I don't know. But seeing the character torn down, run after run, exploring tropes that were tired 15 years ago just feels sadistic.

And that, I think, is my biggest problem with the BP franchise, nowadays. Every run, even in an AU like Ultimate, is character-dominant. It's all "What does it mean to be Black Panther?"

I KNOW what it means to have that job. Now let's see T'Challa actually DOING it.

[Ezyo1000]

Dr. Ewing and Ridley lost issues. It's odd for books to end at 10 and 14 unless you KNEW by trade number one that was it.

Blue Beetle is ending at issue 11 but it's a double sized issue. Ewing and Ridley didn't get double sized issues.




Once again nobody is stopping him from telling the story.

Yes they lost issues because there runs were isht. Eves was slightly better, but she wasted 8/10 issues going on about things no one cares about and underdeveloped her villain and the final fight was anticlimactic because all the time was wasted on nonsense and people lost interest before we even got close to issue 10.

Ridley was just a hit job and was utterly hated and crashing hard.

This is the same thing we saw with Carol year's ago with their celebrity writers. Except for some reason T'Challa is getting the same treatment with no signs of stopping

[Ezyo1000]

IF you are going to write for trades, then I"ll just wait for the trade

I don't understand why you can't have an overarching plot AND interesting single issues.

Right? That's what Panthers Rage had, Killmonger was the big bad but T'Challa fought mini bosses throughout to progress the story.

Priest and Hudlin, each issue moved the story along. No padding issues, just telling good stories

[Ezyo1000]

There are, in my opinion, two major approaches to writing action stories nowadays. You might call them "plot-dominant" and "character-dominant".

A plot-dominant story is usually fairly high-concept (i.e. bare-bones). The Hero™ (occasionally accompanied by his Love Interest™/Sidekick™) battles The Villain™ and their Minions™. It is usually fairly exciting, if sometimes a bit shallow. Most of the Bond films up to 2006 operated in this mode. They might not win many awards, but they are FUN.

A character-dominant story gets deep into the hero's head, exploring his (or her) motivations, flaws, and/or trauma. Again, look at the Craig Bond films, and their deep focus on Bond's character growth. These stories are usually meatier, and hence more interesting for the writer. But they work best in isolation... when part of a franchise, you are often confronted with the challenge of "what happens AFTER they've explored said issues?"

Sometimes, they drag the character back to square one and do it again. Sometimes (e.g. in the aforementioned Bond films) they skip ahead and show the character at the end of their careers, burdened by what they have gone through. The Nolan Batman films did that too.

From a writer's perspective, it's great. Even MORE drama to depict. But from a reader's perspective, it can often become boring. If I may shift examples, I used to be a pretty big Daredevil fan, but I honestly can't read the book anymore. The stories may (or may not) be well-written, I don't know. But seeing the character torn down, run after run, exploring tropes that were tired 15 years ago just feels sadistic.

And that, I think, is my biggest problem with the BP franchise, nowadays. Every run, even in an AU like Ultimate, is character-dominant. It's all "What does it mean to be Black Panther?"

I KNOW what it means to have that job. Now let's see T'Challa actually DOING it.

That's the craziest part though. Priest was able to do BOTH. We saw the hero vs the villain, and then we Also got quieter moments when T'Challa expressed doubt and uncertainty with those close or him. Abd it was all INTERESTING. it's like people have this black and white mindset, and approach when things are more grey. Hell Hudlin to a lesser extent on the meatier side did this. I think people have forgotten the essence of Stans mindset the world outside your window, it didn't mean just like real life, but a little more fantastical