Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "christopher-priest"

Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection, Vol. 3 by Christopher J. Priest

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book covers a lot of ground with 16 issues of Black Panther, an issue of the Hulk and an Issue of Thor from the 1980s.

The Once and Future (Issues 36 and 37): A story from Black Panther's future where he has kids and one of them is determined to ensure he's the next king. This story's not horrible but there's not really a great context for what type of story this (alternate future, etc.). Probably my least favorite story in the book

Incredible Hulk #33: The Incredible Hulk meets up with Queen Divine Justice, a bit of a pre-cursor to Social Justice Warriors who became part of T'Challa's supporting cast. This one is okay at best, as it focuses on the relationship between Hulk and Queen Divine Justice, and it ends predictably bad.

The Return of the Black Dragon (38-40): A three issue story that finally resolves the Everett Ross turned into Mephisto saga. It's pretty cool with an appearance by Iron Fist.

Enemy of the State (41-45): It's once again T'Challa moving secretively to stop a secret cabal. His actions cause concern for both the Avengers and the US government. This is the type of narrative Christopher Priest excels at. This is driven by T'Challa v. Tony Stark and makes for a solid romp.

Saddleblaze (46 and 47): T'Challa and friends travel back to the Old West where they interact with a story that Priest told several years previously in Thor #370 (reprinted much later in the book.) This is diverting and has some fun moments, but diverts from larger plot points.

The King of the Dead (48 and 49): This brings a lot of plot points to a head and really left me wondering whether this needed another issue or two as this is a bit bewildering.

Masks (from Doubleshot #2): This was a bit of a stretch but was included because it features Doctor Doom, who is another monarch. In the story, a woman who looks like Doom's lost love has worked her way into his inner circle and Doom pegs her as a spy. However, she's actually a reporter who has been disguised and Doom gives her a story. As a character of Doctor Doom, this is darn good. The art work is really superb and the script ends with an appropriately dark ending for the story told.

Coming to America (#57 and #58): The only guest written story in the Black Panther series, this is included here. The troubled royal family from another country visits America and the Panther chooses to serve as their protector. The motive's not great for Panther's involvement, but they do manager to work in an entertaining amount of palace intrigues.

Overall, this book is decent. At times, it was really great, but it never was boring or uninteresting throughout the rest despite its problems. This is a solid set up for the final volume.




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