It's funny, just two months ago the image of Black Panther on the cover holding two smoking guns would have made me groan, but now it feels absolutely right. Priest has quickly and efficiently transformed this into a street-level crime/super-hero book without a lot of the excess continuity baggage, and with an almost entirely new and fascinating cast of characters. So I was a little surprised to see that shift a little bit this issue, tying the new in with the old a little, but even more surprised that even with that shift the book remains accessible and friendly to new readers.
Although the book is no longer hampered with a huge cast of characters and a lot of continuity, Priest has maintained a certain complexity to the book. The interactions of various police divisions and gangs is complicated enough without introducing the former head of the secret police of a foreign nation and the king of that nation into the mix. While I like that the reader has to pay attention to keep up with what's driving Kaspar and his antagonists and allies, there's a part of me that wonders if Priest is writing above the heads of a lot of his potential audience again.
What's at the heart of the book, though, is a very simple conflict that all of us face, not in specific but in general. In the modern world, it's nearly impossible to be totally free of obligations and control from someone, and Kaspar is being forced to decide where his life is going to go. He is smart enough to know that the choices he makes right now will define him for some time, and none of his choices seem particularly appetizing or easy. I like that, and the added wrinkle of an outside manipulator was the icing on the cake, especially since I didn't expect it until much later in the story.
Jorge Lucas is the artist on this one, just as he was on the previous issue, and the work is effective, although not always as strong as I would like. Which is not to say that Lucas isn't good, or even that he isn't suited to the book, I'm just still getting used to it, and he doesn't have the ease with Priest's quirky humor moments (like the appearing costume or the random roach joke) that some of Priest's former artistic collaborators had already developed. On the other hand, Lucas does terrific work on the urban backdrop and details like the vehicles, and his splash page of Panther flying high above the city is simply gorgeous.
Given it's long history of low sales, artist and editorial changes and rumored cancellations, I had assumed that we'd be saying goodbye to Black Panther soon after issue fifty. While I'm not sure where the sales are sitting these days, however, creatively this book is as strong as can be, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it continue for quite some time with the new energy that Priest has brought to it.
