Black Panther #1 (2021): The Long Shadow, Book One

[superboyprime]

"If heavy is the head that wears the crown, what makes T’Challa’s head heavy?" - John Ridley

Comments

[dcbanacek]

So first it was "Shang-Chi vs everyone" and now its T'challa's turn?

Just variations on a theme these days...

[scorntx]

Just sitting over here, waiting for the inevitable Aunt May Vs. The Marvel Universe.

[cygnia]

I'd actually be all for that...

[dcbanacek]

"I made you cookies..."

[icon_uk]

The return of Golden Oldie?

[filthysize]

Deadpool: I did it first!

Punisher: .....

[leahandillyana]

Ridley is a great director, but his forages into comics don't seem too exciting :(

[remial]

he wrote 2 great supers novels, Those Who Walk in Darkness and What Fire Cannot Burn

[shakalooloo]

Way to be passive-aggressive, Steve...

[blueprintstyles]

Steve isn't coming off in the best light here, T'challa went of that meeting like a boss, hope it's on Wakanda's version of C-span.

[beyondthefringe]

The issue literally started with T'Challa literally telling Steve that he was back and ready to be a full-time leader of the Avengers. So to have him say, five minutes later, "No, wait, I got more shit to do, see ya," understandably irked Steve. (Who's always been a little prone to snirks when it comes to the Avengers, just because he doesn't actually HAVE anything else to do most of the time...)

It's just "Make up your mind, dude..."
Maybe Steve wants to be in charge again. Who knows?

An interesting story. It feels like it links to Priest's run, with T'Challa as the tactical genius with plans inside plans, and a contingency for everything, dealing with global politics and intrigue.

[lordy_co]

This would work a lot better if it was T'challa cleaning Shuri's mess from when she had the crown.

[starwolf_oakley]

Namor had Atlantean "sleeper agents" as revealed in CIVIL WAR: FRONTLINE. (An Atlantean posing as an 'air-breather' isn't that hard, it seems.)

[scorntx]

Frontline and the Wolverine tie-ins.

Which just sort of fizzled out.
You'd think Namor having secret Atlantean sleeper agents would maybe have been a bigger deal?

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Everyone's like "Oh yeah, we figured. We're just surprised there weren't more of them.

What tipped us off was when Spider-Man beat up a guy with a fish bowl on his head, and it turned out not to be Mysterio."

[bradygirl_12]

So Wakanda has a Cone of Silence? :D

[lbd_nytetrayn]

+1

[icon_uk]

Much as with Black Bolt, it's a little awkward having one of your major characters basically wander around pointing out how funny and inefficient those unstable little democracies are compared to the wonder so his own... ummm... benevolent dictatorship.

(Lord Vetinari gets away with it because he's never claim to be heroic for a single second and we rarely see him have to do anything TOO appalling, but he always has the ability and resources to do so)

I mean, T'Challa's points are valid, but an absolute monarchy had a whole raft of it's own issues, being a single point failure waiting to happen (especially since, outside Shuri, is there anyone else actually still in the family line for the throne should anything happen to T'Challa?)

Of all things, Ms. Marvel (2015) #18 helped answered that last question!

[chortles81]

Even if Bruno Carrelli's Wakandan classmate Kwezi Dzana was exaggerating with "King T'Challa's 10 million cousins", nevertheless his mother was among them and T'Challa acknowledged him to his face as a nephew, albeit also as "A lesser son of lesser princes." Whether anyone else would recognize Kwezi as having any place in line for the throne is another story...

As for the first paragraph, I thought it was meant to be sharply contrast with Coates' 'constitutional monarchy reform' run by Ridley's T'Challa chafing a lot harder under it than Coates' T'Challa ever did.