Black Panther #23 – Civil War
Honestly, I don’t understand how Reginald’s storylines in BP could spark “racial controversy” on the bad boy sites that you all have mentioned. As a general rule the issues he addresses that steam me up are NOT the ones that deal with race at all (er … well, except the very early interchange between the general and Secretary of State “Dondi” which just seemed way over the top to me). Usually it is his treatment of political and geopolitical matters that gets my goat, haha. Reginald has addressed a number of issues in his writing, with racial issues being only one category (though a significant one). Maybe some of the “haters” on the other sites are simply too obtuse to even pick up on those other issues? Maybe they don’t care because they are racists themselves, and can only see Reginald Hudlin and his writing through that single biased lense, eh? But of course they would deny that. (See related comment below addressing this issue of denied racism). I hope that these critics represent an insignificant (albeit loud mouthed) minority – because from what you say about them, their comments appear very troubling.
Anyway, as to BP #23: Again we see the “contrast” of news coverage – this time the more liberal (network? PBS? BET?) coverage of the funeral of the anti-registration Bill Foster, a.k.a. Goliath and then later a conservative commentator’s coverage (in his “The Spin Zone” show … who could that be referring tooooo?) of T’Challa’s and Storm’s attitudes surrounding registration. The selection of sound bites used by each show is revealing. Funny thing is I thought the viewpoints expressed by all the folks in the sound-bites came across as plausible and not unreasonable – and I’m glad Reginald did it this way, instead of just presenting two-dimensional stereotypes. Yet it also showed how the “news” can be spinned even with valid material. I found this interesting and pretty amusing.
The meeting of the “conservative” political operatives (including, I believe, the Colonel Sanders look-alike Senator) was pretty amusing too … and did address racial issues though it also addressed politics with the group’s efforts to find some way to assassinate Bill Foster’s character (after he had been killed by pro-Registration forces) followed up by their discussion of Iron Man’s confrontation with the Black Panther. The reference to
Emmett Till was very clever and shows that Reginald also has an
educational purpose to his writing – since I bet a lotta readers (like the conservative politician in the comic book) have never heard of Emmett Till. Interesting that it was the Southern Senator who made reference to Till – as he understood the profound impact Till’s murder had on galvanizing the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s – just like Goliath’s murder might today. I liked the fact that all the “players” in this meeting were white and yet the younger more astute operative
rolled his eyes when the old fart leading the meeting revealed that he knew nothing about Till. So much for people saying Hudlin is a “racist” – it was a white guy rolling his eyes in response to the ignorance
of another white guy. And of course the comment by the old fart, in a denial of racism exhibiting racism, was dang clever. First the old guy blows off the black vote and later says:
Old Politico: “Why didn’t Stark just finish the job?” [i.e. kill the Black Panther]
More astute young operative responds, “His friend Jim Rhodes called for a truce, and considering the recent death of Goliath, it was probably a good idea not to engage in a probably fatal showdown with a popular African king.”
Old fart snorts and retorts, “Point taken. In this PC-Crazy world, we’d end up looking like the Klan, not patriots. In the meantime, I want the Panther to learn
he’s not in the jungle anymore.” [emphasis added]
Reginald’s addition of that last comment was astute on a couple of levels. First, were the world NOT “PC-Crazy” then it would be OK to “look like the Klan”? Second, while the guy seems to be saying he does not want to come across like the Klan, he follows up this sentiment with a remark about “the jungle” with clear racial overtones. (Notwithstanding that T’Challa is
in fact from Africa … though that fact might allow the speaker to later deny that his comment had any racial overtones … itself an interesting contextual spin since in the real world we often do see denials of racist intent following offensive comments). Reginald’s point is a fair one – that some folks deny they are racists (even to themselves) and yet display racial bias. As to his “PC-Crazy” comment … well, I do think we are too PC-Crazy nowadays (in some respects, not in others), so I don’t entirely share Reginald’s view of this issue – BUT I do think in a couple of frames Mr. Hudlin presented his viewpoint in a very sharp fashion.
How Reginald Hudlin puts
so much content in just a few comic book lines and pictures continues to amaze me.
On other fronts:
The suggestion that we may have a new Goliath in the making is interesting and exciting.
The suggestion that domestic Wakandan problems will contront T’Challa in the future, in response to his international efforts, is intriguing.
The suggestion that the Black Panther will provide technology to the anti-Registration forces, and assist in efforts to break into the Negative Zone to break out the prisoners, is globally explosive.
The fight between the dora milaje and the Black Widow was pretty cool (with an amusing aftermath) – though I do have to admit that a couple of times in the comic book I had to look at the illustrations more than once to try to figure out what was happening. Overall the art is OK but I do lose my patience when I’ve gotta sit and stare at a drawing for awhile to figure out precisely how X is hitting Y or who is hitting who, etc …
Also I was a little puzzled when T’Challa confronted Steve Rogers (in disguise) – that somehow T’Challa’s face mask appeared in a microsecond between one panel and the next, and that Cap’s shield appeared out of what was initially drawn to look like a regular-shaped duffle bag. Small points about the art and artistic transitions.
But back to the substance …
Finally, Tony Stark … has the extremis virus really affected his mind? He says to the Black Widow, “Of course, if Rhodey hadn’t jumped in, I would have solved the whole problem right then …” [paralleling the old politico’s sentiments, above, regarding his fight against the Black Panther and what Iron Man could have done to him]. Hmmmmm. And so … Stark is pissed and will bring out the Big Guns …. In the form of the Thor Clone [killer of Bill Foster] in Issue #24 ,,,
Promises to be a great confrontation.
P.S. I just looked over what I wrote above. Oh my goodness. Have my many conversations with some of the folk on this forum and my immersion in Hudlin’s Black Panther actually affected my thinking to some extent? My h-h-h-hands are s-s-s-shaking at the keyboard as I type these words … (HaHaHaHa!). Well … don’t get too excited … I’m not ready to register as a Democrat
yet!
[size=08pt][Note: I corrected the above post to accurately describe the contrasting "news coverage" portrayed in the comiic book, which Yaw points out immediately below was not a "black reporter" and then a "white commentator" but rather sound bites from Foster's family and then later sound bites from "The Spin Zone."][/size]
