That is a good post. Let me get back to this in a minute...
More Hickman caping perchance?
We simply see matters differently, Salustrade. I seem to recall more than a few instances in which I disagreed with how Hickman did various things with BP and other characters. However, my disagreement with various specifics didn't detract from the appreciation I have for the overall story. And the deftness with which Hickman executed a multiyear multitiered story with multiple changing arcs and shockers that kept all of us...all...of...us...guessing until the end of each arc.
As I recall, I was one of the first on this board...in fact, THEE first...to guess that this story might very well be some far flung horror morality play. As a writer myself, I deeply appreciate the audacity of such daring plotting and execution. The maturity as a writer and the risk taking it takes to go to such unprecedented extremes. I recognize these things in Hickman, and give him his props.
I recognize that there are some adversaries that even the mighty Black Panther TChalla cannot overcome alone. Some of our esteemed HEF brethren seem to be unwilling to face this clear and obvious truth. While I do take exception to TChalla not defeating Black Dwarf on page, and I take exception to quite a few other points as well, I do NOT disagree wit hthe idea that TChalla can e defeated and he CANNOT defeat the freakin Beyonders. Period.
Oh. Some of you would like me to give examples of just a few things that I disliked that Hickman did while very much liking overall the story that Hickman wrote? Okay. Howzabout:
TChalla not using his ubertech much earlier and sooner, not flashing his vaunted uberprep to the max, even in a failing effort, which would make the stakes, the triumphs and the eventual loss of everything facing the Illuminati and their failure to save the MCU even more compelling
The rather repugnant sight of Reed pulling a TChalla planning wise and uberprep wise. Not that Reed or any of The Illuminati are not incredibly skilled prep geniuses, my gripe lies in the fact that nobody in the MCU is as good as TChalla is when it comes to uberprep. Uberprep is TChalla's thing, that's one of his trademark calling cards. He should have been all up the wazoo and out the Yin Yang and around the sun dial and glowing with the Ka of uberprep from page one.
My intense intense intense dislike of TChalla saying to essentially "Batman" in the alternate Golden Society universe that this Batman is probably abetter fighter than he is [ even though, we must recall, that Priest himself was the first to say that Batman would probably win a fightg between himself and TChalla so that TChalla could achieve the goal that TChalla was ACTUALLY gunning for, and Priest was given essentially a major pass for such a statment, whereas Hickman is raked over the coals for essentially incarnating in a story the sentiments that Priest expressed ]. For the record? I think that TChalla even when he's NOT The Black Panther would kick the living crap out of Batman AND Bane. As The Black Panther? TChalla would storm them both at the same time.
TChalla not having a far ranging highly nuanced multilayered backup plan including everything from the new stuff he picked up from Shadow Physics to the protocols he had in place to defeat The Marvel Zombies modified to face this current threat, all the way to plans involving heroes and characters like both The Blue Marvel AND Doctor/Brother Voodoo, as well as Blade, Photon, Drake [ a later teacher of Elektra, who one sidedly whooped Elektra's tail, who allegedly was killed by the Hand; in my fanfic, we learn that TChalla saved her, kept her tucked away with the Dora Milaje and Midnight Angels, sent her on the mission which eventuated in her interaction with Elektra, and her "death" gives her a terrific cover as one of the leaders of the many crack superteams that TChalla has performing multiple subtle missions round the world at all times. Drake leads a team that TChalla has executing a few important specific missions, including Deadpool, Taskmaster, Elektra, and a few other surprise characters in the performance of a subtle mission with multipronged objectives that plays a significant part in the story ] War Machine, Taskmaster, and a few other oddball characters that would make perfect sense for TChalla to use in the pursuit of his goals.
TChalla not exploring what being The King of the Dead means [ which I do in my fanfic ] and accessing the colossal collective abilities of The Panther Spirits. In my fanfic I point out that The Panther Spirits are in essence are a combo of The Council of Reeds, an army of Captain Americas, a guild of druids clerics and sorcerers, something on the order of literally 1000 tech super geniuses equivalent to or just shy of Tony Stark and Hank Pym [ I cannot see how they could be in the main LESS intelligent than Stark and/or Pym ], Ka warriors equivalent to a blend of Emma Frost and Shang Chi with a strong emphasis on Natural Law harmony rockin weapon skills superior to Hawkeye in every way, and more. Exploring this ability of TChalla's and having characters like Beast and Reed and Tony and Cho comment upon what TChalla chooses to reveal would be an eye opener in a major way for all involved. We'd see once and or all that TChalla defines his own intellectual/spiritual/ka/psionic/warrior/tech/philosophical/etc reality. I would have included twists and turns and fleshed out foreshadowings from ORIGINAL SIN in TChalla's character, too. Which makes TChalla a much more formidable opponent who would have tumbled to Doom being Rabum Alal and a few other things as well, yet he would still fail to defeat The Beyonders. Also in my fanfic I point out that prior to TChalla ascending to his station as King of the Dead, TChalla...and all previous and current Panthers...can commune with The Panther Spirits in The Panther Pavilion, but only TChalla as King of the Dead can literally incarnate the collective knowledge and ability of them all; either one at a time or in rare instances of great peril he can elect to incarnate the collective abilities of all of the Panther Spirits at the same time. His choice. This gives TChalla the terrifying ability to wield Hulk like strength, somewhere in the area of faster than Quicksilves but slower than Photon level speed, Celestial Madonna level hand to hand skills, Contemplater level Ka and/or Psionic abilities, Thor level experience with facing and defeating cosmic threats in hand to hand battle, employ ubermagnificent tactics aided by flashes of Precognition, etc. [ Remember, TChalla acquired clairvoyance and probably ESP during the King Kirby run ]. Of course, becoming the receptacle for the collective Panther Spirits' abilities would prove to be insanely draining [ making by contrast Storm's off handed housing of the essence of Eternity all the more dazzling ], and therefore be an option that TChalla would actively seek to avoid unless pressed into the most unanswerable of extremes.
Imagine. The African Council of Reeds aka The Panther Spirits, TChalla, Reed, Tony, the Illuminati as a whole, The actual Council of Reeds, The Contemplaters of various dimensions, all working together to solve The Incursions and reach beyond them to The Beyonders. And failing to defeat The Beyonders. Losing everything. Reeds in the Council that we like, start dying. Contemplaters get killed. The Illuminati may even be called upon to battle and destroy Earths and realities that their former allies inhabit. Talk about a truly terrible moral quandary!!
The Panther Spirits provide an incredibly multifaceted, spiritual, unique to BP, African, uberbrilliant uber-lethal resource who in and of themselves also present unique challenges and dangers with their communion. Nobody has explored this, and the truly extraordinary jaw dropping knowledge etc which such a spiritual link confers upon and conveys to TChalla. Exploring that past of TChalla's provides all kinds of ripe territory for magnificent storytelling. How does TChalla reply to threat of Thanos? Well a good writer could conceive of something like what I have in my fanfic when I say...7000 years ago his ancestor the Black Panther known in her time as Sansakhenaton the Star Seeker came across Thanos, managed to thwart the Mad Titan's plans at that time and narrowly escaped with her life. Ever since then, she not only inaugurated the practice that led to the specific cultural manifestation of the kids who died at the hands of Black Swan's henchmen in New Avengers 1, but she also specifically plotted and planned to defeat and outwit both Thanos AND The Celestials. She knew she couldn't defeat them alone, or even with the collective knowledge and power of Wakanda during her time, but constantly planning and preparing for these threats specifically for 7000 years gives Wakanda the best chance by far of all Earth civilizations to defeat Thanos. This is the kind of thinking that I would have poured into each of the Illuminati, including the criminally underused Beast, Doctor Strange, and vastly underplayed massive battle tech megagenius and combat megagenius of TChalla himself, much less TChalla The King of the Dead. Imo beyond question The Panther Spirits in the Panther Pavilion provide invaluable opportunities to explore the Africanness of TChalla while establishing beyond question that having The Panther Spirits as guides and consultants gives EVERY living Panther [ I'm looking at you, Shuri and Syan the Swift ] the equivalent of The Council of Reeds, Council of Captain Americas, Council of Brother Voodoos, Contemplaters, etc to confer with; the distinction of access and whatnot being directly connected to the Royal Rank of the supplicant Panther. Therefore, Shuri Queen of Wakanda can access more Panther Spirits at once and command more complete obeisance, and confer with them for longer, than Syan the Former King of Wakanda, current High Prince and Esteemed Panther [ the first Panther to ever hold all of these titles with two simultaneous positions in the history of Wakanda ]. And Syan can confer with more Panther Spirits than Mendinao and Zawaviri, as each of these men are High Priests whose rank is below the Arch High Priest stations and gradients available only to Panthers who are also Royalty. In my fanfic, the Queen Mother cannot By Right confer with the collective Panther Spirits, however, she may confer By Right with the Spirit of TChaka alone. Etc etc. Hickman, imo, missed incredible opportunities to write how amazing The Panthers are and how jaw dropping TChalla is, and thereby truly convey the massive menace of his villains by having his villains overcome The Panthers along with the rest of the MU. As this was a horror story the heroes would never win and weren't supposed to win, the heroic resistance and genius in resistance shown by these heroes would be all the more impressive and the gripping page turning tension and fear and sense of inevitable loss would be all the more palpable imo if the heroes pulled out all the stops and fought tooth and nail in ways that the most ardent fans of each character would agree is the maximum expression of each hero...and the heroes collectively...AND THEY STILL LOST.
This is the kind of detail and thinking and a lot more that I would have poured into Hickman's story. Who knows? Given the breadth and space and perhaps double the size of each book, Hickman may have worked with these things. Idk. I only know that I would have done this.
But. Despite my differences with Hickman. I have seen for years now that he's going toward an end goal that will be vastly superior to anything that came prior to his penning his MU changing and expanding story.
We already know that TChalla is almost guaranteed his own solo in 2016. The author of his solo is likely to be a Black scribe. This much was pretty strongly inferred by the link to CBR that you, Salustrade, provided us with.
So let's see. ,Thanks to Hickman? The whole MU...not just TChalla, but EVERYONE...is getting a top to bottom makeover. We the readers have no frickin clue as to how this megamonster blockbuster story will end, beyond a few really critical key things for TChalla and others. Garth Ennis and writers like him...who are not fans of spandex rockin superheroes...get to write incredible works of fiction in the old comic book style. Stories of high adventure rendered via pictures and story without any superpowers needed. And it's all good.
What do I mean by that? How could this be 'all good" for TChalla? Well, there's:
TChalla onscreen in Captain America Civil War? Check. TChalla being written by a Black writer circa 2016 or early 2017 [ a Black writer scribing TChalla was specifically mentioned in the article that you, Salustrade, linked us to. An article which was posted on CBR. We know that there aren't many Black writers around and even less Black comic scribes around, so whoever this writer is...s/he is gonna be good and will have TChalla do superfly stuff. It's almost certain that the writer will be someone who's NOT from the comic book industry. If the Black writer has written in the comic industry before? We're looking at a very short list inclusive of our own RH, Kevin Grevioux, and stalwarts like Priest himself being called back to the book that he made cool ]after a multiyear absence? Check. TChalla getting his turn in the Avengers roundabout summer 2017? Check. TChalla's solo movie trilogy starting round 2018? Check.
This is going to end up well. Period. And that's a good thing for TChalla the character. Period. So. While you, Salustrade, Ture, and other of my esteemed brethren on HEF and even I at various points am not thrilled with every twist and turn of the BP saga [ let's not pretend that we all loved every atom of Priest's and RH's run either ], the overall end result isn't even remotely in doubt that TChalla and all of the more inclusive, more diverse MCU will vastly vastly benefit and be vastly more inclusive for the first time ever. And that's a good thing all around. That is THEE thing that our heroes like Priest and RH have specifically called for and championed.
In the face of this? Our particular dislikes of specific events and specific characterizations simply pale into insignificance. In the grand order of MCU schemes? This new path is the way to go.
Poll