Flip The Page Review: Black Panther #7

Wow, so I finally got around to reviewing this, a week and a half after I ACTUALLY WANTED TO. Still I loved this series' opening arc and still have great enthusiasm for reviewing this, so here's a belated and pointless crack at BLACK PANTHER #7 by Jonathan Maberry, Reginald Hudlin & Will Conrad!

HIT THE JUMP FOR THE BLACK PANTHERY GOODNESS!


Prior to this renumbering/reboot I had little to no interest in Black Panther save the Civil War and Secret Invasion storylines, brushing it off as a cult thing or some such. That all changed with the first arc of this iteration of Black Panther however, with some genuinely clever choices in writing. Taking T'challa out of the picture and giving someone else a new struggle (in this case his sister Shuri), accepting and being accepted as the Black Panther... You just wouldn't imagine it ever being done, and the execution just makes it all the more amazing to the reader. This reboot worked by changing EVERYTHING.

The question here is "Is it still as good now the creative team's changed up?" and the answer is a resounding... Not really. It's still a good comic, but it's had so much taken away from it. But enough of me being vague and a poor critic, let's review this thing!

My first gripe is the art. Jumping from Ken Lashley to Will Conrad is a jarring process. I mean to say nothing bad of Conrad, who is in fact a pretty good artist, but Lashley was the PERFECT artist for the job. With Conrad you still get some great action and emotive scenes sure, but you also get some fucked up faces and small flaws that make you feel kind of sad. So still good, but not AS good, and that hurts.

The writing is problematic. This issue is apparently Hudlin handing over to Maberry but however I read this it seems like Hudlin wasn't involved at all. All that occurred and developed Shuri in the first 6 issues suddenly seems inconsequential and she's become a self-assured snark like any other 'important public persona' hero. But then this didn't have much time to enter her head this issue so it could just be how it seems.

Now we're past that ON WITH THE MOMENTS!

1. Heartfelt Off The Bat

There's something great about opening on something that actually MATTERS, or isn't just a continuation of some lame cliffhanger like most comics tend to be (yes, even at the start of new arcs). In this case we get a bit of fallout from the first arc combined with a look at T'challa's humanity. It's just a small piece of him looking sad at graves whilst in a wheelchair, but it works enough to remind you he's not just an overhyped guy who used to wear a black suit.

2. I AM (not) WAKANDAN! AND I AM ALONE IN A ROOM WRITING A TITLE FOR A FLIPPIN' MOMENT!

Another case of rejecting standard comic junk is this one page spread (where there'd normally be a two page ya see. Marvel ain't inventive). But that's not important. This is an almost iconic image, a new ruler before her people, showing they can overcome the tragedy that just recently plagued them. Powerful stuff. Though I am tempted to moan about how I preferred Shuri when she was all pathetic and less overconfident. Wait, I'm pretty sure I brought that up earlier anyway... I'll leave now.

3. Obam-again

Okay so this is technically an Obama cameo that makes some sense but still, OVEREXPOSURE MUCH?! That and the expression on Shuri JUST below the panel in question scares the shit out of me. Still a moment's a moment and people would buy it for this, so [/gripe]

4. Wait, didn't the Thunderbolts do this sorta thing YEARS ago?

Seriously, this is the highlight emotive moment of the whole thing, showing the struggle T'challa has to go through, his intent on his poor state of health not holding him back... I mean... WOW. AND YET I CAN'T SHAKE THE FACT THAT THIS STUFF WAS BETTER WHEN JOLT WAS DOING IT BACK IN THUNDERBOLTS YEARS AGO! Can't find a scan of it sadly so take my word at face value. Great moment, done better by someone else. That or I cared more then... Ya know what let's just pretend we never had this conversation.

5. The Black Panther's FUCKING AWESOME

What? She is!

6. T'challa: Still Pimping After All These Years

So more of his lady people appear for some purpose... I don't really care that much in the end, this issue was weak and didn't leave me wanting. But T'CHALLA IS THE BOOM KING! He gets all the ladies!

And that's issue 7 of Black Panther. It's by no means bad, just incredibly weak by the standards of this new iteration. I'll still check it out next month and probably for long after that, but I can't honestly say it'll ever match those first 6 issues.

With that all in mind, here's the rating:

READ IT?

Next up: Incredible Hercules #132

Interlude: Someone's a Jerk To Rob Liefeld - People Disapprove

In news that you all know already, Rob Liefeld was totally insulted and belittled by a douche in a yellow hat. In a rather unexpected move he managed to not really react or care at the time.

Now I'm not a fan of Liefeld. I think he's part of a disease that is bad artistry. But that's just a critical look at his art style, where it doesn't suit my preferences. Or is completely buttfuck insane. That doesn't mean I agree with someone being a complete cunt to someone who puts his heart and soul into his work (no matter how bad that work is).

This guy... Is un-fucking-believable. To feel you're owed an apology for something you could have just NOT READ or just straight-up ignored is ridiculous. But to go one step beyond and belittle the artist AND give him a copy of 'how to draw the marvel way'...

I'm a dick, but this guy is a CUNT.

Bonus: Peter David has something to say about it too kinda

Sources: ROBOT 6
&
THE CUNT IN QUESTION'S WEBSITE

Marvel is OFFICIALLY 70 Years OLD Awards pt. 2

I return in a blaze of kinda knowing who should win the other categories! How exciting! Still I don't think any of the winners will be quite as unusual as the whole X-Statix/X-Force thing so this might well be a shade duller. But screw that let's keep going with the awards!

HIT THE JUMP TO SEE OPINIONATED VIEWS THAT DON'T MATCH YOUR OWN!


BEST COVER:
Candidates: Various
Why?: Too many to mention. Before anyone goes 'ooh won't it just be the All New Savage She-Hulk 90s variant from one of your earliest posts? Well... No. No because if I go with that it'll just be me being a fanboy and such. I'm going to at least TRY to be more definitive with this!

THE WINNERS:
AMAZING FANTASY #15/Fantastic Four #1

Why?: I hate covers with speech bubbles (fuck you DC nation), but the impact of these two is completely undeniable. Still I don't need to tell you that; Bully's Comics Blog has all the evidence you could want (Amazing Fantasy / Fantastic Four). See? Fucking CRAZY influence!


Best Cancelled Comic:
Candidates: She-Hulk (Slott/David series), Captain Britain and MI13, Agent X, Cable & Deadpool, Nextwave, Alpha Flight, X-Man, The Order, etc.
Why?: Um... awesomeness...

THE WINNER:
NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E.

Why?: This is a true tragedy in comicdom. Almost revolutionary in it's anarchic mentality, NEXTWAVE represented more than just an awesome comic series to those who read it; it represented the other side of comics, the FUN side that got lost over the years in events and miserable shit. This was silliness perfected. Heck, even Warren Ellis (the famed writer-for-hire) decided he wanted to stick on past his 12 issue opener. But between him and Stuart Immonen the costs were too high, so it was either have the comic cancelled or get a new artist. So it died. The world mourned. Then moved on, remembering that the trades are still readily available.

The story of the cancellation can be found here


BEST COMIC ARC:
Candidates: "A Day With The Fantastic Four", "The Death of Jean DeWolff", "Kraven's Last Hunt", "Planet Hulk", "Earth's Mightiest", "Extremis", "E Is For EXTINCTION"
Why?: All of these stories stand as classics (or in the case of "Earth's Mightiest" just plain awesome) and couldn't go without at least being mentioned. There are many more classic storylines out there, but these are the ones that I personally think matter the most.

THE WINNER:
"E IS FOR EXTINCTION"

Why?: Really I SHOULD focus on the arc "Imperial" that followed this arc (it's the most epic part of the entire Morrison New X-Men run, but this arc did so much with just the three issues it had introduced one of the greatest adversaries of the X-Men (Cassandra Nova), invented Cerebra, massacred all of Genosha with a sentinel attack, set up Cyclops and Jean Grey to break up and more! And not a single negative aspect to it, save the occasional piece of iffy art from Quitely. The story took the X-Men to a whole new level and successfully revitalised the mutants by making them special again... By killing a whole load of them...


BEST EVENT COMIC:
Candidates: House of M, World War Hulk, Civil War, Kree-Skrull War, Secret Wars, Secret Wars II, Infinity Gauntlet, Age of Apocalypse, Heroes Reborn, Secret Invasion, Avengers Disassembled, Secret War, Decimation, Annihilation, Annihilation Conquest, Messiah Complex, Messiah War, War of Kings
Why?: Because Marvel have lots of events and they need an award of their own.

THE WINNER:
DECIMATION!

Why?: Okay, so before anyone tuts at me for going with the muties again, we're talking DECIMATION for crying out loud! This wasn't about their kooky adventures or anything. This was dealing with their number being reduced by 90%. Imagine you went from being such a massive group of people... say... I don't know.. LIKE YOU ALREADY ARE and getting reduced to the point of being an endangered species. This was a chance for heartfelt interactions and to show the damage from House of M. Between Quicksilver in Son of M, The 198, Sentinel Squad O*N*E we saw some great fallout from the event and gained a whole new understanding of what it meant to be a mutant. But the real moment of genius, of empathy, where you finally understood it, was with Generation M. In it we saw Sally Floyd (much-hated (for some dumb reason) character from the Front Line comics) dealing with her own personal grief related to the Decimation by talking to and writing about the mutants who were so unfortunate to lost their powers. That was enough to mean a lot, but when Chamber appeared, on a crazy amount of life support due to his lack of jaw and chest and heart and such... It was powerful. There was no better represention of an event than the comics that came out of House of M under the Decimation event banner. Trust me.

Holy crap I'm done. Regular updates resume soon, starting with 2 review tonight/tomorrow.

Marvel Is OFFICIALLY 70 Years Young Awards pt. 1

Wow, so after 7 months and 10 days of Marvel throwing it in our faces it has finally, officially and absolutely turned 70.

Thank. Fucking. God.

As such I feel the need to state what the best Comic Series, Cover, Story, Event and such have been over the entire 70 year span.

FOLLOW THE JUMP TO THE SEMI-AWARDS-LIKE CEREMONY!



BEST STILL ONGOING COMIC SERIES:
Candidates: Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men, Thunderbolts, Thor, MIGHTY Avengers
Why?: A comic SYNONYMOUS with Marvel, Marvel's Juggernaut (even with Greg Land), the eternal underdog with a classic history, A comic that has only ever evolved into the perfect creation it is today and the one TRUE Avengers comic still running.

THE WINNER (drumroll here):

UNCANNY X-MEN!

Probably something of a disagreeable choice in the face of AmazSpid but the history, the events, everything about Uncanny sticks out. If you started with the original team way back with issue 1 of X-Men (before the name change), the Uncanny team (from GIANT SIZE) or came in years later to something like Messiah Complex, this has been a comic that isn't afraid to evolve and change with the times. Amazing Spider-Man tries such things and the fans go ape-shit crazy. When Uncanny does it it's embraced as a new step in the life of everyone's favourite mutants. I could mention how Thunderbolts has gone through a lot of change too but I'm still a little bitter over the loss of the long-mourned days of old. Uncanny CAN do wrong, but in the face of the sheer brilliance that you get about 70% of the time it falls into distant memory. I mean heck, this comic came out of the dark age smelling faintly of roses. How many series can say that without coughing up blood?


BEST FINISHED ONGOING SERIES
Candidates: X-Force/X-Statix, Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Cable & Deadpool, Nextwave
Why?: WAIT! THESE ARE ALL 21st CENTURY COMICS (sans Avengers of course). Am I honestly saying that the best concluded ongoing series are ones from recent years?

Yes, yes I am. Still that isn't the most shocking thing here. This is...

THE WINNER:

X-FORCE/X-STATIX!

What? I can hold my head high and declare this the best comic Marvel has EVER released. Why? It went far and above what it portrayed itself as, secretly displaying itself as high art and a study of the human condition, celebrity, death and so much more to those who could see past the superficial surface. Not only that, but it managed all of this despite a heckuva lot of controversy. First off for apparently sullying the good name of X-Force, resulting in a stream of hate mail from the same people who just so happen to spend their time complaining about things like Shatterstar being gay now (read as: dark age comic fans), followed by a MASSIVE spurt of hate fired at it for trying to resurrect Princess Diana as a superhero.

Wait... What? This move was so ballsy that it garnered a great amount of press attention (by comic standards) including some particularly vile hate from that shitrag that is known only as THE DAILY MAIL. Of course X-Statix abandoned the whole Princess Di thing, with a fictional person in her place, but it will forever be known for having balls for things that no other comic would dream of. X-Statix, I salute you as one of the best things to ever happen to comicdom.


BEST LIMITED SERIES:
Candidates: Agents of Atlas, Madrox, Inhumans, Marvel Boy, Marvels, Toxin, Longshot, Marvel Zombies, Books of Doom
Why?: I've read a fair amount of limited series, probably far more than anyone should nowadays. Again I'm shamed that they're mostly 21st century ones, but perhaps that's a sign that Marvel is doing SOMETHING right.

THE WINNER:

MARVEL ZOMBIES!

I want to call this a clear winner but I took over an hour to decide on it. Marvel Zombies is a limited that did so much more than anyone thought it would. Coming from the pages of that piece of shit that is Land-drawn Ultimate Fantastic Four, Marvel Zombies exploded with popularity, pulling many people into comics who would have had no interest beforehand. This evolved further into a Dead Days one-shot, an arc in Black Panther, a sequel, ANOTHER sequel, AN EVIL DEAD PREQUEL, CONNECTIONS TO MARVEL APES, ANOTHER MUCH SHITTIER SEQUEL AND AN UPCOMING MOTHERFUCKING OTHER CHAIN OF SEQUEL ONE-SHOTS! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH LOTS OF ZOMBIIIIIES! Most of this content is at least good (save Marvel Zombies 4, which is just shit) and Marvel Zombies 2 and Dead Days had the same writer on board, which was certainly in its favour. Sure Marvels has had a follow-up (apparently) and another on the way AND was drawn by Alex Ross (who's only good for covers btw) but can it honestly say it affected Marvel as much as Marvel Zombies?

Marvels was a success, winning multiple awards and launching the significant careers of Busiek and Ross

It CAN? Oh... Well it can't say it's had as many spin-offs and sequels so let's roll with my rant.


END OF PART 1. MORE AWARDS TONIGHT!

Astonishing Flashbacks: The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man, by Tim

Although I have only been reviewing the title for a few issues, I have about 80 Astonishing Spider-Mans in a big box in my room. This collection holds many of my personal favorite Spider-Tales, and some of the most lauded stories ever written and drawn about the web-slinger. As such, I am trying out an idea for a new, irregular column featuring notably famous, good or awful strips from my old comics - Astonishing Flashbacks.

The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man is one of the most popular and best loved tales in the entire Spider-Man/Peter Parker franchise of comics. I was aware of it's existence before I read it, and when I saw that it would be in AstonSpid #23 back in Feb-Mar of '08, I was reasonably excited. Well, hit the jump to see what I thought back then, and still think now.

This is a human interest story that relies on readers associating with the boy who is finally meeting his idol, Spider-Man. I can relate very easily to the kid above; a geek called Tim (and hates being called Timmy) who loves Star Wars and Spider-Man sums me up quite well as a nine-year-old. No problems there, and the art by Ron Frenz is serviceable at the least, though a little of it's time.

So why don't I enjoy this story? It's not badly written, and uses a clever framing device; but it's just not interesting. Peter explains his origin and powers to Tim, and beats himself up yet again for being indirectly responsible for the death of Uncle Ben; this is painted by numbers, boring dwelling on a story that has been told hundreds of times. The story gains some vitality when Peter takes off his mask and lets Tim see his face, and this is almost a touching moment, but it is ruined by the revelation that Tim is dying of leukemia. This just makes Peter seem callous and calculating, which adds to the artificial feel of the whole strip. And yes, cancer is awful, but introducing a nice young child over the course of 11 pages then suddenly giving them terminal cancer as a surprise ending isn't compassionate writing; it's puerile hackwork.

This story is not awful, but it's also nowhere near good, let alone one of the greatest Spidey stories around. It's a fairly boring story with an ill-conceived ending that was only ever intended as filler for a Thunderball arc that ran short; and the fact that story that is so sentimental without earning it is lauded as one of the greats is a bit of a shame; there are so many better stories out there. I still encourage you to read it if you haven't before; and if you have read it, look over it again with these criticisms in mind. After that, if you disagree, just nail my nadgers to the bedpost in the comment section; that's what it's for!

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910 review, by Tim

Myself and a group of merry young fools were in Waterstones, killing time before going to see Public Enemies (Soundbite review - Not so much a biopic about Dillinger as a fairly good movie about a guy who was a bit like Dillinger). Since the most/only interesting place in Waterstones, for me, is the graphic novel section, that is where I headed; and we were leafing through the comics, making snarky comments, when I stumbled upon this.

Let me get one thing straight: Alan Moore is, in my opinion, probably the greatest writer in the English language, ever. Feel free to hoot in derision in the comment section, but every single thing he has written is brilliant, and that's not something I can say about any other writer (including Shakespeare, who wrote an awful lot of crap). Moore has created some of the greatest and most interesting characters ever written, from Rorshach to V to William Withey Gull (ok, Gull was a real man, but go and read From Hell anyway; it's like a massive What If for the Ripper murders of 1888). In addition, Moore is very good at taking existing character's (e.g. Superman in For the Man who has Everything; The Joker in Killing Joke) and making them much more interesting.

This is the thrust of Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series; he has created a world in which the characters from all his favorite novels, plays and films all exist and interact. To someone like me (i.e. oblivious to a fair percentage of the references), reading the series is a bit like following Moore on a strange journey through vaguely familiar settings and characters.

If this kind of world intrigues you, then read on past the jump to the review proper, in which I have a look at the latest offering.


Century: 1910 is the first part of Volume III of the League. At the end of the last proper story, several members died or left, leaving only Mina Murray (Aka Mina Harker, hero of Bram Stoker's Dracula) and her lover Allan Quartermain (from H. Rider Haggard's novel King Solomon's Mines). Since then it was revealed in Black Dossier (as in implied then steadily verified) that they have both gained immortality after bathing in the pillar of fire from, Wikipedia tells me, another Haggard book called She. Allan is certainly looking more chipper.

It was also briefly explained in the Dossier that Mina and Allan have recruited replacement team members to get back up to a team of five. Hawley Griffin, the invisible man, is replaced by A.J. Raffles, a definitely visable thief created by E. W. Hornung, brother in law of Conan Doyle who seems, according to the wiki article at least, to have been taking the piss out of Sherlock Holmes somewhat. Another Sherlockian character added is Thomas Carnacki, a supernatural detective created by William Hope Hodgson, who investigates hauntings and, in this story, has terrifying visions of the future.

The new powerhouse of the team is Orlando, an immortal whose gender is subject to change. Moore created Orlando from some half dozen different characters going by that name written by different writers at different times, because Moore is a fucking genius. Orlando has fought in almost every major war in history, and as such has become exceedingly good at killing, wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.

While the team investigate one of Carnacki's visions, Jack MacHeath arrives at the docks and starts slitting throats. He is Jack the Ripper, a descendant of MacHeath (Mack the Knife) from John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. He sings a variation of the song Mack the Knife from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil's The Threepenny Opera which is an adaptation of The Beggar's Opera... I have read a few of Brecht's works, but never read or seen either of the operas, so if this is confusing for you, dear reader, you are not alone. As this is going on, we are also introduced to Janni Dakkar, daughter of Prince Dakkar or Captain Nemo. She wants nothing to do with her father, and while he is on his deathbed she stows away on a liner bound for London.

Events take an exciting turn when... Actually, I'm not going to spoil the whole story like I do with AstonSpid, because it's far more likely that one of you reading will want to buy this comic for yourself, and you really ought to. While it is by no means universally accepted that Moore is the best comic writer going, it is indisputable that he is one of the greats, and he is producing work that is just as good as it ever has been. If your experience of the comic/graphic novel is limited to Marvel or just super-heroes in general, works of Moore like The League are excellent stepping stones onto more diverse grounds of subject. Moore's stories usually have a super-hero element, but are far more complex and, indeed, real, then the usual comic fare. Did I mention that he's also the greatest writer in English ever?

As far as art goes, one of Moore's most prolific collaborators Kevin O'Neill demonstrates superb skill. There's a splash page near the closing of the novel that is utterly beautiful (and fairly bloody). I can count the number of artists at O'Neill's level on one hand; John Romita Jr, Eddie Cambell, the late Mike Wieringo and maybe Bob Kane... The point is, this is a worthwhile purchase for the art alone.

To conclude, I really ought to be paid by the marketing department at Top Shelf and Knockabout (the publishers). That said, this article is very late; Max isn't the only lazy writer on this blog. Regardless, I heartily encourage you to buy this comic, especially if you have enjoyed previous work by Moore (and O'Neill). The League is probably my favorite comic series (unless one counts serial work e.g. Spider-Man) and is well worth a look for any comic fan; especially those readers who may have outgrown certain output.
Flippin' BUY IT.

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Robbie Advice:

Clean That Shit Up, It'll Stain The Carpet!