Product Description: What type of man does a hard case like Luke Cage look up to? The kind of man who's got the guts to speak the truth and the muscle to back it up. The kind of man who's got all the gadgets to get the job done, a pair of sexy female bodyguards watching his back and an entire kingdom at his disposal. That man is the Black Panther - and when King T'Challa asks for Cage's expertise solving a little problem, it's got the makings of a serious team-up - with cameos galore from across the Marvel Universe! Collects Black Panther (2005) #10-13.
Could not put the book down This was a great book! I couldn't put it down! Very creative, especially the team up in the Katrina Aftermath. Excellent Book!
What, no Black Goliath? The dialog in this book traipsed the line between offensive and stupid, never quite decided which side it wanted to come down on. Pookie's dialog was particularly endemic. Hudlin seemed to want this character to speak in a stereotypical manner, but he was unwilling to go the whole way. The greatest problem with this book was the absence of some black characters. Why no Black Goliath? With Civil War and his impending death on the horizon, why did he not make an appearance. Still it was great. I love T'Challa.
Black super heroes in all their glory!!!! Sweet Christmas - it sure is great to see Luke Cage teaming up with the Black Panther. How does Reginald Hudlin, a.k.a. Entertainment President of Black Entertainment Television, find the time to write such a thought provoking title?? His Black Panther is noble, powerful and super rich. I loved the interplay between Cage & T'challa as well as the dialogue. I also loved seeing all the black super heroes teaming up like Blade, Brother Voodoo, Photon, The Falcon, etc. I sure hope the Black Panther movie is made with Hudlin and Wesley Snipes in the title role. All the characters in this book are Bad Muthas and I say that in a good way!!
MARVEL'S BROTHERS (AND MONICA RAMBEAU) GONNA WORK IT OUT IN FAST, FUN TALE The "Bad Mutha" storyarc is a very good one-kind of like "Rush Hour 2," but with superheroes. Black Panther Nos. 10-13 comprise a storyline originally called "Two The Hard Way," a knowing nod to the 1974 Blaxploitation film "Three The Hard Way." After the travesty of the first nine issues (the first six of which Marvel has collected in the "Who Is The Black Panther?" hardcover and paperback), I had begun to wish this title a quick and painless end. But Panther scribe Reginald Hudlin, a.k.a. Entertainment President of Black Entertainment Television, is showing that he can handle (his version of) King T'Challa pretty well; it's just that he's doing it as if the purpose of his stories are to entertain in a 2006 African-American popular culture context, not to compete with, say, "Lord Of The Rings." (I'd rather him attempt the latter, but that's another story.) He entertains well here, providing speed, action and fun in large doses.
This arc's climax provided a large, and long-held, wish-fulfillment of many an African-American Marvel Zombie: seeing a bunch of the company's Black superheroes together, fighting in unity, if not uniformity. The roster: Blade (the Wesley Snipes film version), Brother Voodoo, Luke Cage, Hero-For-Hire (a.k.a. Power Man, a character soon to appear on the big screen), The Falcon (in a criminally small cameo), and Monica Rambeau (who has in the past gone by the codenames of Photon, Pulsar and Captain Marvel), all led into battle by the title character. (Note: Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu, makes the most of his all-too-brief appearance.) Hudlin uses a key goal of his Panther run to great effect in this arc: unapologetically showing Black (super) prowess directly confronting symbolic forces of oppression, with a too-Black, too-strong (pop culture and political) aesthetic.
The plot: King T'Challa begins his search for a wife, a plotline that will climax later this year when he marries Storm of the X-Men. The story's setting shifts all over the world--from the African nation of Wakanda to a New York City club (complete with an abusive Diddy lookalike) to an Asian mountaintop to the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Pop culture permeates the narrative: Ninjas, vampires-heck, even Fred G. Sanford (does the "G" now stand for "got-damn FEMA"?) and his good friend Bubba Hoover from classic television's "Sanford And Son" share a quick scene!
Hudlin was born to write Luke Cage. (He has said that he wrote Panther and Cage's interaction not unlike a buddy movie starring Denzel Washington and Ice Cube.) If somebody at Marvel gives Hudlin the chance to produce a Cage book or a series like the dearly-departed THE CREW, his non-team of Panther, Cage, Voodoo, Blade and Monica would be a great convergence of Marvel's Black Power. PLEASE bring this team back, including Hudlin.
Verdict: As a devoted fan of Don McGregor's and Christopher J. Priest's take on T'Challa, I don't think this is MY (ideal) Panther, but I can see this character, as portrayed in this arc, fast becoming SOMEBODY's favorite Panther. And it should.
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