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« on: August 21, 2011, 02:31:33 pm »
Okay. I've had this brewing in my head for a while now. Now, I'm not knocking the current Black Panther: The Man without Fear/The Most Dangerous Man Alive. I have enjoyed it for what it was. But we all know, a time is going to come when Black Panther is returned back to the status quo (Panther powers, being king of Wakanda and whatnot). It's not going to happen anything soon. We know that from Avenger solicits that he will become an Avenger again after Fear Itself and Spider-Island. But the question, running through my mind, as well, as many of you HEFers, is just how?
Reading through Reggie's run and the last series up to Doomwar, I think I may have found a solution. It probably will and wont be a "people pleaser", but here is my idea, and it steals a little from Spiderman, but hey, it could work.
Black Panther: OMIT (One Moment in Time).
The idea begins immediately after the 2008 Annual, Black to the Future. We saw a possible Panther/Wakanda future, through the eyes of King Solomon's Frogs, those pesky time traveling frogs. From their rants, we know that one of the frogs stated that "we cant have Wakandans rule this world", with the other frog agreeing.
See where this is headed?
After Marvel gets done with all their 'urban' Panther stories, this can be the set up. The current path that T'Challa is on will set the timeline in the path to the future presented in Black to the Future. The Frogs now know this. They begin deciding onto what point in time to begin messing with the timeline. They snatch Klaw (or this would be the perfect time to create a new villain for Black Panther) in current day to the past. Somehow have current day T'Challa get plucked away and get pulled into the past as well to stop Klaw (Or new villain). Have something CRAZY happen to already established Panther continuity in either Priests or Reggie's or before "Doomwar's" story arch.
Me, I'd pick before Storm accepted his proposal, like perhaps right after the Vampire story with Brutha Voodoo, Blade and Cage. Now, hear me, I am a big Storm/T'Challa fan. I love it to death. But fans don't respect the marriage. Apparently, neither do Marvel X-writers or editors. They have had plenty of chances to have T'Challa cross over in the X-books. Plenty of chances. Past T'Challa never gets to ask Storm, and current day T'Challa, after thwarting Klaw (or new villain) the Frogs toss them back to their current time. T'Challa returns back to New York, Hell's Kitchen, only to find that he still has his Panther powers as well as some 'upgrades'. He still retains all the knowledge of his past. The marriage, the dimension hopping with Johnny and Ben, the Civil War, the Secret Invasion, yadda, yadda, yad and so on. But things have changed, but only he is aware.
New time line changes include, no marriage to Storm, the brief FF team-up with Monica instead, different outcome to Doomwar (meaning some of his family, such as his Uncle, are alive, viberanium is still out and about, Shuri can still be Queen, but not the Panther...). This would set up some great emotional stories for T'Challa, as well as get rid of any extra baggage for a while. EVENTUALLY, have Storm and T'Challa get back together in this new time-line (maybe allow them to court for a little while longer), but giving the writer/writers more to work with, and by that I mean by removing bad story decisions (cough, Doomwar, cough). T'Challa, having the knowledge of how things were the first time, could make new measures to prevent some events from occurring later, such as creating Shadow Psychics a tad bit earlier without Doomwar looming over his head. You know, keep the good stuff. Back to basics, where Reggie had left off. We don't have to ignore recent or soon to happen stories. Besides, isn't that what the majority of comic writers do these days, pick their continuity (cough, DC, Batman, Green Lanturn, cough).
But that is only one path. Just anyway, to bring T'Challa and Wakanda back to the greatness that it was.
So... whadda think? Could it work? Would you want it to work? Just had the idea pop in my head over the past week, thinking of reboots and recons of such (have DC to thank for that).