BLACK PANTHER #43
"Enemy of the State II, Book Three: The Kiber Chronicles"
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Priest
Pencils: Sal Velluto
Inks: Bob Almond
Colors: Jennifer Schellinger
Letters: Paul Tutrone
Editor: Mike Marts
Price: $2.50 US/$4.00 CAN |
Priest thinks too much.
What does he do? Forego rest of any kind in order to come up with plots that are intellectual, intricate and goofy all at once? We've reached the middle of this story arc, and the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit together. Priest has crafted a bizarre but thoroughly believable story about politics, economics and the insanity of the Silver Age of comics. This issue stands out as one of the strongest -- and strangest -- of the entire run of this series. It reads as though the writer's been taking smart drugs while licking psychedelic toads. Not, make that psychedelic frogs.
As Iron Man battles the Black Panther and Wolverine underwater in a Canadian lake, he discovers he's fighting the Panther in another arena: in the financial sector. And he's losing. Meanwhile, the goofy Black Panther, accompanied by Everett K. Ross and a costumed entourage, heads off to Kiber Island to face off against a dead man in order to retrieve a mythic object of power: a golden frog. Meanwhile, Queen Divine Justice, kidnapped by a spy in a gravity well, debates politics with a good ol' boy from the Great State of Texas.
Velluto and Almond manage to capture the realism, the standard super-heroics and the sheer goofiness of various story elements, and they blend it all together that it fits well as one package. Their Kirby homage is a mess of fun. They render the clunky but colorful designs wonderfully, not to mention the chaotic action. There's a lot going on in this story arc, with a throng of characters playing integral parts, yet there's a clarity in the art that makes it easy to follow along.
There are two aspects of this book that sell the super-heroics, and one of them is the down-to-earth characterization. I actually found that Nightshade seemed like a human being. Sure, she's a super-villain in a leather thong, but her dialogue really seemed to... ahem, flesh her out as a character. Watching Queen Divine Justice debate health-care legislation was a riot as well.
The other aspect of the plot -- and the book's greatest strength -- that made the underwater duels and energy blasts seem plausible was how everything is hinging on politics and economics. Once again, the Panther proves that bank statements can be one of the world's most powerful weapons, even if that world is home to armored avengers and thunder gods. Black Panther is easily the most intellectual super-hero comic book on the stands, and one of the most intellectual regular titles in the industry as a whole.
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