Posted on: December 16th, 2010 Comically Challenged-Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #513

I’m not a big fan of Black Panther. His whole secluded high-tech village of people with a bunch of resources just never quite connected with me. He’s all high and mighty, super secretive. He’s kind of an asshole. Now, before this gets turned into something racial, I’ll have you know that my BEST friend is a panther. So there.

I do, however, like Daredevil. Did. Before he went crazy. Most recently. So, naturally, I figured I’d give the whole Man Without Fear title a chance to change characters. Matt Murdock has moved on and passed the Hell’s Kitchen guardian torch to T’Challa.

So David Liss is writing while Black Panther assumes a new identity and patrols the street at night.  First of all, his way of getting in touch with the land and the people of Hell’s Kitchen is to manage a restaurant? Look, Buddy, I work in the service industry. If you work around these people long enough, you’re going to want to kill them. There’s only so many times you can handle taking somebody’s food back. But he doesn’t care, he’s hunting down a Russian mob boss named Vlad and he’s fighting small crooks to get to the man.

The book fell flat. The “Big Bad” is very stereotypical. Poor immigrant kid made it good in America through crime and becomes a mob boss. The opportunity comes up to run this town and he’s going after it because he’s got the world all figured out. A regular rags to riches story. But dis new guy’s on da street and messin’ up ah plans, see? (Not a very Russian reenactment, I know.)

We kind of get to know T’Challa’s neighbors but not enough to actually care about them. Then one of them gets killed off by Vlad. And who cares? Well, obviously T’Challa seemed to but I sure didn’t. Two meetings in a stairwell does not really make me want to storm the Russian gates with Black Panther. Couldn’t we have waited maybe an issue to make some kind of attempt at emotional connection? Guess not. Now all I can think is maybe that guy should have taken T’Challa up on his self-defense offer. Liss might have this planned out to be one giant emotional roller coaster of interpersonal relationships and this is just the tip of the iceberg. That may happen, but I doubt it.

Liss also tried to tug at the heart strings of the reader when T’Challa is talking with Storm. It was completely unnecessary. Perhaps, PERHAPS, this exchange was to show me that T’Challa could be making sweet love to his weather-wielding-wife if he wanted to, he just chooses not to. Because he’s on a mission…or something. It may have just been an excuse for Francesco Francavilla to draw Black Panther using Skype. Who knows?

Speaking of Francavilla, let’s talk art. I like Francavilla’s work when dealing with shadows. It is a good thing, that The Man Without Fear is a very shadowy book. The exchange between Foggy and T’Challa under the bridge was my favorite page in the book. Just beautiful work. The panels of the restaurant when it’s all well-lit? Not a fan. It’s not poor art, simply not of my taste. That’s okay. Obviously, if you readily sing the praises of Francavilla’s work, you’re going to enjoy each and every one of these pages. (Especially the bridge).

I hate it when I don’t like comics, but I didn’t like this one. The book tried to fit too much into itself. You can’t introduce new fringe characters, build a relationship, and then expect anyone to believe that their death holds any importance over the character. Just because you throw up a little text card that says three weeks has gone by doesn’t mean I’ve read three weeks worth of story. When you’re able to make me care whether or not a fringe character dies, that’s when you know the writing is working.

Black Panther: The Man Without Fear rocks a $2.99 price point and evidently Brad Meltzer can’t wait for it.

3 Responses to “Comically Challenged-Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #513”

1. Al Says:
   December 22nd, 2010 at 10:58 pm

   I agree . i love Black panther, and I was crushed to see him come to this, brawling with street thugs and getting bashed on the head with a bottle. Not even elite Wakandan fighters are able to touch him. He also went through a process after losing the blessing of the panther god that magically gave him strength and resistance to magical attacks. Now, he leaves Storm so he can find himself. Ridiculous!!!!

2. Auburn Says:
   December 23rd, 2010 at 11:22 pm

   Thanks for the input, Al. It’s good to know that it also didn’t work for someone that has history with the character.

   I’m really hoping it will straighten up and fly right. Unfortunately you can tell that this is not David Liss’s usual writing setup. He’s obviously not used to scripting a comic book and because of that, he’s falling back on a lot of hack storylines and plot devices.

3. Comically Challenged-Daredevil: Reborn #2 « Giant Killer Squid - Film, Comics, News, Reviews and more Says:
   February 17th, 2011 at 12:55 am

   [...] you consider how much I disliked Black Panther: Man Without Fear, it’s actually comparable to the degree that I like this book. This is some pretty sweet [...]

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