But according Weggie Rudlin, Black Panther hates Amerikkka!
Black Panther becomes.... [SPOILERS]
- Thread starter JoeZhang
- Start date
Maybe next he'll crusade for breast cancer awareness and become the Pink P... uh, never mind.
Politically Correct Panther!
^ PCP!
Well, he was BP originally. No wonder he changed his name.
Didn't take too long for this to become a joke thread. Oh well, I guess that's what Marvel gets when they pull stunts like this even as part of a story.
I think one way it *could* work would be as an editorial commentary on the sort of overreaction in RL that brought us "Freedom Fries", so that we are supposed to disapprove of the garb implicitly, which was perhaps itself inspired out of fear.
I wonder if this is a personal fear story for T'Challa? As I've said earlier, he's been on a kind of personal quest and is trying to rediscover himself? I'm reaching here, I have to be honest I dropped "Man Without Fear" after two issues. Just wasn't feeling it.
This is straight bullshit. T'Challa is one of the few, and perhaps the second best known, besides Storm, African character in all of comics. He's not an American. He's a king (or was king) of his own nation, and in the Marvel Universe, Wakanda is a superpower with a longer history than the USA.
This deconstruction of T'Challa started with him being replaced by his sister. I was cool with that because I thought it would be short, and would shake things up a bit. Then they punked him out to Dr. Doom in DoomWar and take away vibranium, his country's main export and the basis of much of their wealth. Now, instead of sticking around to solve the problem T'Challa created by getting rid of the vibranium to check Doom, they sent him off to New York. Currently there he doesn't even use the name Black Panther, nor his real name. And he's been keeping at arm's length from his wife Storm.
Through all this trashing of his character, I was sticking with it because the writing for the new direction wasn't bad even if I hated the new direction, plus the writer was promising more Storm in a future ark. And now this, turning him into American Panther.
On one hand I am glad Marvel isn't relegating the character and are willing to try new things with him to build his audience. But I feel that all of these moves do little to build a sustaining new audience while alienating long time fans. Plus, they do nothing to modernize/update his villains, allies, or milieu, and don't reinforce the brand. If anything it just makes him a muddled kind of character. A shame really.
This deconstruction of T'Challa started with him being replaced by his sister. I was cool with that because I thought it would be short, and would shake things up a bit. Then they punked him out to Dr. Doom in DoomWar and take away vibranium, his country's main export and the basis of much of their wealth. Now, instead of sticking around to solve the problem T'Challa created by getting rid of the vibranium to check Doom, they sent him off to New York. Currently there he doesn't even use the name Black Panther, nor his real name. And he's been keeping at arm's length from his wife Storm.
Through all this trashing of his character, I was sticking with it because the writing for the new direction wasn't bad even if I hated the new direction, plus the writer was promising more Storm in a future ark. And now this, turning him into American Panther.
On one hand I am glad Marvel isn't relegating the character and are willing to try new things with him to build his audience. But I feel that all of these moves do little to build a sustaining new audience while alienating long time fans. Plus, they do nothing to modernize/update his villains, allies, or milieu, and don't reinforce the brand. If anything it just makes him a muddled kind of character. A shame really.
One thing, though -- all we have is the artwork and the title, right? We haven't actually been told that's T'Challa, have we? Maybe it's somebody else adopting a blend of his iconography and Captain America's for some reason.
True, however its unlikely that it would be anyone else. Kasper Cole could be a possibility, but it seems that Marvel has forgotten about him. You also have Josiah X or Patriot, but why would either call themselves the American Panther? And that goes for any myriad potential preestablished characters in the suit. It could also be a completely knew character, but that is unlikely too.
The artist of the pic is the same currently working on the BP: Man Without Fear series. And the MWF series feels like it could be setting up T'Challa for a move of this sort. Currently he doesn't use the name Black Panther (actually he is officially no longer Black Panther; Shuri is), so he doesn't have a code name. He has been divorced from most of his African/Wakanda roots, being either exiled or in self-exile, with no help and little to no ties to Wakandan technology or his abilities. He's pretty much rootless, due to Marvel's editorial decisions, and is in need of an identity.
Marvel is looking to revive the BP property. Expect it to be T'Challa.
Revive?? When did it go dormant?
It's T'Challa. The article mentions that it's from the "Fear It's Self" tie-in/aftermath for "Black Panther:Man Without Fear". We just have no story details yet. Sigh.
Tom Brevoort talks about American Panther...
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=31624
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=31624
^^
Good read. Related it to the rebranding of Alpha Flight to Omega Flight and back again.
The surprise piece in that link was that the new Spider-Girl is cancelled as of issue #8. Intersting how he admitted that due to orders of the first issue the writing was on the wall before the issue hit the stands. So my question would be, "What market research tells you anyone wants a Spider-Girl ongoing with this character?"
Good read. Related it to the rebranding of Alpha Flight to Omega Flight and back again.
The surprise piece in that link was that the new Spider-Girl is cancelled as of issue #8. Intersting how he admitted that due to orders of the first issue the writing was on the wall before the issue hit the stands. So my question would be, "What market research tells you anyone wants a Spider-Girl ongoing with this character?"
