Comics I Bought: June 25, 2008

Last week I was a day late to the comic shop and this week a day early. Anyway I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got 2 new comic plus three hard cover collections. Yes there is a hardcover and TPB sale going on at my local shop and I picked these up for about $6.50 each. Not bad:

Fear Agent - 22

Supernatural - Rising Son - 3

The Lone Ranger Volume 1

Squadron Supreme - The Pre-War Years

Iron Man - DoomQuest

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

"Black Panther: Who Is the Black Panther?" by Reginald Hudlin and John Romita Jr.

This is the beginning of the 2005 Black Panther series. I hadn't read any of it before. I had read quite a bit of the Christopher Priest written Black Panther series that came before it. The Priest written series dealt a lot with politics and the fact that the Black Panther is the leader of a technologically advanced African country. Besides the fact that Vibranium (the rare metal found only in the Panther's kingdom of Wakanda) could do anything the writer wanted, which stretched my willing suspension of disbelief, I enjoyed the series. I especially liked the political angle.

This series continues the political angle but I think it fails in what it tries to do. That is unless the writer is trying to get me to root for the villains. Wakandans come of as arrogant and holier than thou in this book. The writer's point is that this is an African country that Western powers can't push around but the Wakandans are as patronizing to the Western powers as the Western powers were to the rest of Africa that they did push around. So why would I feel any sympathy for the Wakandans? They're no better.

It's even mentioned that the Wakandans can cure cancer but don't think the rest of the world is worthy enough to be given the cure. I pretty sure that is considered evil. And I'm supposed to cheer for these guys? I was hoping Klaw would kill them after that. It's like one of those all books or movies that is all about criminals and you have no one to root for. I don't think that is the writer's intention but it sure is the way things worked out for me.

Another strange thing about this book is the use of country's names. Usually in the Marvel universe when there is a country doing bad things they make it a fictional country such as Dr. Doom's Latveria or Genosha from the X-Books. I guess writers don't want to make citizens of other countries look bad. Understandable. In this book the fictional African country of Niganda invades the fictional African country of Wakanda. So how come the country behind the main villain, Claw, is named as Belgium? It's even mentioned that years ago Belgium hired Claw to assassinate the Black Panther's father. What does the writer have against Belgium? Just an odd inconsistency.

The art on the book by John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson was, of course, top shelf super hero stuff. I got no complaints there. The writing wasn't bad but I think it missed it's mark. The Wakandans should come off better than they did and the political aspect was a little too simplified for my taste. Everyone ended up being a villain to me.