Some Idle Marvel Now! Speculation

Reading both the new Fantastic Four issue and the new AvX installment today, I had two thoughts about possibilities for those new books Marvel's been teasing for the insipidly titled post-AvX relaunch MARVEL NOW!, which is coming in October. Spoilers in this one, ladies and gents, so stop reading if you care.

Firstly, Fantastic Four #608 strongly hints that there's a new Black Panther comic coming. The book itself, for what its worth, is kind of mediocre. Although the art team of Giuseppe Camuncoli, Karl Kesel, and Paul Mounts put in an effort I'm going to go ahead and call generally rad, Jonathan Hickman is trying to tell two related stories at once, but ends up with too little room to properly tell either. One of them, sort of vaguely depicted on the cover, is a battle between the current Black Panther, T'Challa's sister Shuri and the Egyptian death god Anubis. Shuri gets help from Ororo and Sue Storm, and it's not quite clear what goes on or quite how the conflict is resolved, just that there's some fighting and that Wakanda's Panther God, who, T'Challa tells us, is actually Bast, ultimately decides to eat Anubis. I think. In the meantime, (incidentally, I think the ability to be two places at once is an advantage of deityhood that no one ever talks about) that very same Panther God is having a conversation with T'Challa and Reed Richards, asking the former about what he wants, making vaguely prophetic remarks to the latter, and, ultimately, giving the mantle of Black Panther back to T'Challa while indicating that Shuri is also going to hang on to the title and be queen of Wakanda. How can there be two Black Panthers?! Easy! T'Challa is going to rule in the country's Necropolis and be its KING OF THE DEAD. Which does sound pretty cool.

But the whole thing is sort of convoluted, and I don't quite understand what's going on or exactly what it's supposed to mean, but then again I'm not sure I'm supposed to, since, apparently, the reason Wakanda is going to need two Black Panthers (one to lead the country, the other to save it, so says the Panther God) is because first the country is going to have "a great fire in the sky" and then "the fire will bring great flood." Well, the since the fire is obviously the Phoenix (you know because the panel accompanied by the "great fire in the sky" text-box is the Phoenix, look right) and the "flood" is obviously Namor's attack on Wakanda (shown in today's AvX ish #8! -ed.), it seems pretty clear to me that the whole thing is going to be better explained in a new Black Panther series, written, hopefully, by Hickman.

Given that the last comic to star T'Challa was, although one of the highest quality books published by any mainstream comics company in the last few years and despite the presence of one of contemporary comics' great talents and a pretty significant not-comics writer, less then a best-seller, and that the one before that was even more poorly received, one wonders at the likelihood of a new book's success. But, then again, since Marvel appears to be doing all it can to sync up its movies with its comics, and since it appears that there's the possibility, however slight, of a Black Panther movie in the relatively near future, it's not a particularly surprising move. This new king of the dead status quo, though, seems like it might be a pretty good idea, particularly because it veers particularly close to one of my favorite elemants of The Immortal Iron Fist, namely, that Danny, as the Iron Fist, was the recipient of wisdom and history from every Iron Fist before him. T'Challa was always consulting his ancestors, but that aspect of the character is now being brought to the fore, with the Panther God having actually integrated all of their experiences into all of his personal experience. If I'm right, and only the people on the inside know if I am, and whoever does end up writing the book, if it isn't Hickman, who I think it must be, does a good job of developing and fully explaining what this new knowledge means, and then goes on to tell good stories with this new direction, then, who knows? Maybe the book will get a fair shake.

Oh, yeah, secondly, speaking of Danny-- does anyone else think that all of the K'un-L'un that we're seeing in AvX means there's going to be a new Iron Fist solo book? A man can hope, right?

In Which A Blogger Justifies A Thumbs Post From A Couple of Days Ago

Remember a couple of days ago when I gave a thumbs up to Black Panther: The Man Without Fear 513 and then said you'd have to wait for me to tell you why I gave it a thumbs up until Wednesday, when the next one came out?

Well, thankfully for both of us it is now Thursday. I went to my shop yesterday, picked it up and, let me tell you, if you were worried that there would be a significant drop in quality between then and now, fear not: issue #514 is even better. Behind that terrible Simone Bianchi and Simone Peruzzi cover (seriously, whats up with that cover? It bears no resemblance to the contents of the book, and is ugly as hell- if Francesco Francavilla doesn't want to draw the cover, you know who should? Chris Samnee) is the best comic book of the year so far.

I know, I know. The year is young yet, with only two weeks worth of releases. This one, though- we're going to remember this one. David Liss makes some missteps, sure, but really only in the context of the shared universe: his Luke Cage doesn't sound quite right, a little too brash and quick to anger then maybe he should be, but maybe that means there's something to watch for coming from that corner of New York. That little critique aside, David Liss writes a damn good comic book, particularly given that he's only recently come to the medium. He gets the pacing just right, his highly varied dialogue suggests that he has a complete grasp on his characters, and, most impressively, he convinces me that this way of reintroducing T'Challa to the mainland Marvel universe was a really good idea- Hell's Kitchen needed protecting before, and it still needs protecting now. This is a clever way of reintroducing 'ol Hornhead back into the old neighborhood, because it reminds us of what even those fantastic Brubaker comics had forgotten. Black Panther puts Hell's Kitchen back on the man without fear's front burner, it's just a much different man. David Liss, Stan Lee bless him, gets what the title was missing and puts that Marvel man on the street perspective on the whole thing. His work alone would make the comic work reading but, wonderfully, he's not working alone.

No, as good as Liss is, what makes the two issues of the book so far break out is the art of Francesco Francavilla. This is brilliant, pulpy stuff- dark and blocky, with colors both muted and flat. It just feels right, like we're in a noir movie set in Hell's Kitchen. His figures are stylized without being unrecognizable, flexible without being squishy. The whole thing is very kinetic and his panel design- maybe not the best I've ever seen, but damn close- adds to that impression a great deal. The result is all shadows and movement and I'm madly in love with it.

This is the first comic in 2011 that you're going to fall in love with- hopefully, it's a portent for the good stuff we'll see this year. If not, it's another brilliant and pulpy comic on the stands each month, and that's never a bad thing. Here's to another long, classic, run on a long running book.

The Blogger Without Fear

When I found my way to COMICTWART today, I found that my consistent favorite of all the contributors was Francesco Francavilla (on the left), although Chris Samnee was a close second (on the right):

At which point I remembered that, somehow in the midst of my finals, I had forgotten to purchase the first issue of the Francavilla drawn, David Liss written Black Panther: The Man Without Fear. I went to my LCS (actually, mine was closed today, so I went to a different one), picked up the book with a couple of other things, came home to review and lo and behold- the second issue comes out Wednesday. For now, then, you're just going to have to be satisfied with this:

Out of a Field So Far Left That It's In Wakanda...

So, the Panther's out of the bag, and the new Man Without Fear is going to be T'Challa, picking up where Matt Murdock left off with issue #513.

Be honest: Who saw that one coming?

With Daredevil going to be Reborn (again) and all of those "Who'll be the new Man Without Fear?" teasers from the last couple of months, we knew something like this was coming, but I don't think anyone really expected that it was going to be the Black Panther, given that the character's recent home has been thousands of miles from Hell's Kitchen and that he hasn't been involved in Shadowland (well, as of yet- I've only read through issue 2).

I still think there's something funny going on here- why not just relaunch the Black Panther in his own title? My best guess is that Marvel is trying to build a Daredevil "family", like what they've been doing with the Hulk (as Kevin Melrose points out in the article linked above, there is some precedent for this in the launch of Incredible Hercules a few years back). This announcement, plus Fred Van Lente's Power Man and Iron Fist mini (also starting in December) combined with these teasers, which suggest a new Heroes For Hire series, indicate that something's cooking in the Kitchen. Perhaps Shadowland is the start of something bigger than we really know just yet, and perhaps this welcome focus on street level heroes isn't going to ride off into the sunset once that mini finishes.

Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #513 ships in December from creative team David Liss and Francesco Francavilla: I've never heard of either, but since Francavilla is the guy who drew all of the Man Without Fear teasers, there's at least something definite to be excited about.

Why I Trade Wait (Sometimes)

This looks AWESOME.

I dig the title (Flags of our Fathers), I like the writing in the preview, I like the Denys Cowan art in the preview, and I'm a sucker for World War II stories... particularly those featuring Captain America and The Howling Commandos.

This is a comic book that I want.

But... 22 pages of story for $3.99 is a tough sell and this is why some people, myself included, have a tendency to trade wait for books like this.

The series is four issues long, so that's sixteen dollars for 88 pages (which, ratios being what they are, is the same 5.5 page/dollar ratio as the book). Now, it's possible that they'll release it as an even more expensive hardcover first, but if I'm waiting I can wait for the trade and here's why:

If I wait for the trade, the most it'll cost me is $15 dollars- and, because the page count is so low, I expect it will be less, even cheaper if I track it down on Amazon. The ratio continues to get lower and lower if I'm willing to wait a couple of months.

This is why people trade wait- because comics are expensive, and trades are, quite simply, a lot cheaper. Contra Jon's objections (and, for the most part, I agree with them, which is why I buy most of my books on a monthly basis), trades allow for comic book readers to consume many more panels for a much, much lower price. This is also true of most $3 dollar books, like the first volume of Chew, for instance (which includes the series' first five issues and costs $9.99, which is hella savings), or, as is more common, like the first volume of Thor ($14.99 for six issues, and much cheaper on Amazon). Even in the latter case, waiting for the trade is the price of a comic book. If I'm willing to wait for some series I want to read (Chew, for instance) I save myself several books worth of money. If the move to $4 books continues, I think I'm going to trade wait more and more.

Again, this is not to say I disagree with Jon; in fact I think most of the comic-buying audience continues to prefer the single-issues, except in cases when they come to a series, writer or artist late in the game (which, I suspect, was the original purpose of the collections). This is, I suspect, because there's something compelling about a pamphlet, something beautiful and something worth keeping. There's a tension, though, because saving money (and, in particular saving money in such a way that it helps me buy more comics) is also compelling. The future of the comics industry is going to be in finding the balance, if we haven't already found it.

A History of "Marvelous Color"

"Marvelous Color" is the name of a wonderful small exhibit on display now at the Gallery of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (or CCCADI) near Columbus Circle, here in New York City. Perfect for Black History Month.

The basics about this exhibit with some wonderful photos (better than mine!) can be found at: MarvelousColor.com

The focus of the exhibit is the history and art of Marvel Comics' most popular African/African-American characters and it presents us that history and artistry with simple but bold curatorial strokes. The journey starts downstairs at the curatorial statement to be found on the wall at the bottom of the stairwell that leads to the gallery. After entering the gallery itself on the second floor, you start on the far wall to the left at the two huge faux-comic-cover posters created for the exhibit. One is a presentation of these six characters as they were in an earlier period of their history and the second, their modern incarnation. Both are wonderfully drawn by Eric Battle. The exhibit is organized clock-wise so that if you start at the double posters and walk to the right through the single room of the exhibit you'll have met each character in the rough chronological order they were first created and published.

Muralist David Medina composed a larger-than-life image of each of the colorful (pun intended!) characters directly upon the walls:

(1) The Black Panther, T'Challa, regal African prince of the fictional country of Wakanda. Both the character and his country were introduced in the same Fantastic Four story in 1966. It was while looking at the Black Panther art (some which is by the immensely popular John Romita Jr. and the one pictured below was, I think, by Billy Graham) that my friend Dev Crasta (from whom I had the luck of learnin' me about the existence of the exhibit) pointed out that a story in which the BLACK Panther is depicted fighting Captain AMERICA has a certain weight that you wouldn't find in another 'superhero misunderstanding fight' and this got me thinking that the absurdity of that weight falling so squarely on a single character's shoulders is emblematic of the problem minority figures, both fictional and political, face every day.

Doubly-so for T'Challa. He is both. Nelson Mandela with superpowers. [Click on the image, scroll to the upper left, while trying to ignore the murky reflection of me in the glass entirely through no fault of my own... You'll see a much clearer reflection of what we were talking about.]

(2) Storm, Ororo Munroe, goddess of weather itself and member of the second "All-New All-Different" X-Men team of 1975, and T'Challa's queen since 2oo6. Another character who's a leader, this time in several positions: X-Men team leader, goddess of a small tribe, Queen of the nation of Wakanda. Although her parentage is much more complicated: born of an American man and an African woman, raised in Harlem but soon orphaned while on vacation back in the continent of her mother's origin. She lived on her own, first in Egypt then in the countries of the Serengeti. (Thank you Wikipedia!) She too is a very strong presence and a popular character, which is of course what made she and T'Challa naturally attracted to each other (and a naturally attractive pair to marry for Marvel's editors). A Michelle Obama kind of woman, if you will. Commanding the cultural storms of a country with style. [It is difficult to see from my separate photos, but the Black Panther mural and the Storm mural were positioned side-by-side and their arms are gently reaching out for one another! You can just see Ororo's intricately designed cape (for which we get to see the original design drawing) in the upper left corner of T'Challa's mural. Just try putting them together in your mind.]

(3) Luke Cage, streetwise Hero for Hire and former convict who escaped his prison sentence in a violent Southern jail for a bogus drug-dealing charge in his first appearance in 1972. A Harlem boy, born and raised. (The famous New York City neighborhood isn't too far away from Columbus Circle!) Luke is in so many ways the complete opposite of T'Challa, inspired by Shaft and 'blaxploitation film' instead of being a political Sidney Poitier-type, yet he too has grown into a major leadership role over the past several years, under the loving care of writer Brian Michael Bendis, as the defacto leader of the Avengers team (comprised of Spider-Man and Wolverine, possibly Marvel's two most popular characters) that has been underground since the "Civil War" ended in 2oo7. And who got a fantastic origin-retelling 1920s-transplanted solo mini-series written by Mike Benson and Adam Glass with art by Shawn Martinbrough recently, as well. The collected edition of "Luke Cage Noir" is out this week. It is as smooth and cool as can be. This is a man who has come from the lowest of points and legal indignities to become 'the Greatest', a steel-skinned Muhammad Ali.

I believe a lot of this material about Cage ended up coming from the research that was done by Martinbrough [whose wonderful art was on display as you can see, at left] for an exhibit at the Studio Museum Harlem that never came to be, as I mentioned in this post reviewing the last issue of "Luke Cage Noir".

(4) Blade, the Daywalker, a half-vampire hunter of vampires created in 1973 who was so surprisingly popular upon being brought to the big screen back in 1998. We've moved now from an African country (fictional or not) or Harlem with a quick detour to the American South, to south London where Blade was born to a prostitute who was bitten by the vampire Deacon Frost while in labor. (Another thank you to Wikipedia, the blogger's friend!) Blade is second only to Cage in having been altered from a bit of a 70s joke to a popular bad-ass superhero. Imagine Michael Jordan if he had been called to a nomadic life hunting the undead, instead of slam dunks followed by a baseball stint, followed by more basketball, followed by a brilliant corporate career. (Okay, that's a really loose one. But they are both smart, resourceful, athletic masters of their domain who maintained their position for a long time.)

(5) The Falcon, Sam Wilson, former sidekick to Captain America himself seems on the surface to be a degrading African-American figure, a subordinate to the white Captain AMERICA. But although Sam has never had his own ongoing series the "Captain America" series was re-titled "Captain America and The Falcon" for a number of years and Sam has shown himself to be his own man, most notably when he quit the Avengers (the premiere superhero team of the Marvel Universe) citing his stated degrading 'token' status. Back to Harlem we must go for Sam's origins: raised by a minister father, he was actually the first African-AMERICAN superhero from Marvel as he debuted in "Captain America" in 1969, four years after the Black Panther and T'Challa was after all African, but not American. Like the character we will meet next, Sam took over his white friend's superhero identity when he was unable to. Which means that Captain America was black... twice. He didn't actually have wings of any kind before he was gifted with a technological flying harness by T'Challa. Making him in some ways a pretty remarkable character of mixed linage: born in America, pro-America (to the point of temporarily embodying it), yet a beneficiary of his forbears in Africa; willing to stand as a subordinate, yet refusing to stay in a position where he is taken for granted. A high-flying risk-taker. The first African-American superhero. I do believe we have our Barack Obama.

(6) War Machine, James Rhodes, a former marine who has recently been seen on the big screen in the highly successful "Iron Man" and is to be seen again in this year's "Iron Man 2", this time gearing up in his own suit of armor as War Machine! A Philadelphia boy, 'Rhodey', as he's affectionately called, became Tony Stark's personal pilot after assisting him in the escape from captivity that figured so heavily in his origin story (as seen in flashback in a 1979 story). Suddenly forced to don the Iron Man in an emergency (partially caused by Tony Stark's inebriation) Rhodes became Iron Man for various periods of time on three separate occasions and eventually received his own suit of armor and identity from Stark. Rhodey stepped up to the part of Iron Man in place of Tony when he fell and he eventually became a hero in his own right. A career military man, Rhodes is intelligent, (generally) cool-headed, and a man of integrity. Colin Powell in a suit of armor.

(This writer hopes you will take his African and African-American character/real-world figure comparisons for what they are: loose comparisons with the intention of illuminating the importance of these fictional characters in our culture and tying the exhibit, and this post, more fully into the context of Black History Month. No specific political comment or endorsement is intended beyond equality for all people of all races. Minor discrepancies or outright contradictions can be found by anyone with a more thorough understanding of these characters or these figures, I am sure.)

The CCCADI is at 408 West 58th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues in Manhattan, New York. That's just about a block west of Columbus Circle, one of the major transit hubs on the island. Suggested donation is a mere $5. The same as the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art downtown. The exhibit will run through February 26, 2010 and when I met-up with the exhibit's curator Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez I was informed that awesome events to spotlight the different characters and their creators were still yet to come! The gallery is holding a 'Meet the Artists' event on Wednesday the 24th at 6:30 PM at the CCCADI Gallery at which you could hear the great Gene Colan and the young Dennis Calero and Shawn Martinbrough.

I highly recommend going to this if you are in New York City and even going to the website and signing up for the mailing list to learn about any other events lined up for the end of the month!