Originally Posted by
Emperorjones
I didn't care for Ewing's premise either. It reminded me of what Liss had to work with, however, I thought Liss ultimately did a better job despite the creative handcuffs put on him. I do think Ewing has a knack for worldbuilding, Besia isn't a bad character (though this story should've been hers instead of T'Challa's) and has a cool look, and the crime families, with proper fleshing out, could work, but perhaps not for a major Black Panther storyline. If they had put this story in a city in Mohannda it would've perhaps made more sense. The Gray Wolf demon also looked cool, though after reading Coates's run, it felt like a retread of The Adversary. And his motivation felt like it came straight from Ridley's Jhai.
I thought Ewing didn't seem to have a problem depicting T'Challa as able to physically handle himself, she also didn't gush over the prime minister and the new democracy (at the expense of T'Challa). Ewing didn't seem to dislike T'Challa like Ridley did and wasn't so hung up on him ruminating and philosophizing as much as Coates. For me, it's just the premise wasn't great, too many characters were underdeveloped, and the pacing was glacial. I thought the artwork was mostly good, and I liked the costume design for Ewing's Panther (even though I also felt it was a little too busy). And I never really was able to understand why T'Challa would wear a Panther costume if he wasn't supposed to be in Wakanda anymore. For real world, book selling purposes, there needed to be a Black Panther, but it didn't jibe with the premise. T'Challa, if he stayed in Wakanda at all, should've adopted a new costumed identity. That said, Ewing could've resolved that in a few issues and restored Black Panther officially, if not back on the throne, then in some other way, instead of having him sneaking around rooftops for nine issues now.
But as DigiCom was saying, Ridley's story left Ewing with a whole world to play with, but she chose to make her story smaller rather than larger. Perhaps there's something of a siren song when it comes to Wakanda as a concept for some folks. Though paradoxically, it feels to me that some of the people drawn or inspired by the idea of Wakanda also like deconstructing it because perhaps they just can't accept that idea in their minds.