The MU comic characters are supposed to be in alignment with the Marvel movies. You think Movie Marvel BP will be mute? Powerless? Without Wakanda? No? Okay then.
That means that the twists and turns that he's going through now and all of the largely deserved complaints and cries that it's generated on this board simply show that Hickman is doing a good job of taking TChalla thru the ringer. And all of the foregoing will make TChalla's return climb to superior glory that much more memorable.
"...Hickman is doing a good job of taking T'Challa thru the ringer."
Agreed! Unfortunately my friend, "T'Challa's return climb to superior glory..." in comics only exists as a figment of your potent imagination. Hanging your hopes for such a return on the forthcoming movies when they are chronologically behind the books; just introducing Ultron and Civil War story lines, doesn't logically follow.
All we actually have is what's on the page and to that end we've gone from promise:

to:

and Reed is now unquestionably the lead:

(I know this isn't 616 Reed but you can insert the image of Cap confronting Reed and Sue in Avengers #40, I just couldn't find that online.)
For me, even a Priest/Hudlin level redemptive turn, which would be wonderful and welcome, would not undo any of the post-Hudlin experience which has been long, arduous and extremely disrespectful to fans of The Black Panther and Wakanda.
Peace,
Mont
I cannot deny nor would I even attempt to deny that Hickman has put hammer to the anvil of TChalla. No doubt that there are major aspects in there that I'm not loving.
But. We KNOW that Marvel Comics IS GOING TO reflect the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the MCU? TChalla is a badass. Therefore. We KNOW that TChalla is going to be a badass BEFORE the movie with Captain America breaks out. When's Cap's Movie? Next year, right?
Right when Battleworld ends.
So. TChalla is definitely on the comeback trail.
And YES you are RIGHT that Hickman's run won't be forgotten. But I tell you this:
Despite the bad pills. Despite the disagreeable pic of TChalla shedding tears. Despite the destruction of Wakanda.
When Hickman is done? He will have done what nobody else has done for TChalla. He will have placed TChalla invincibly front and center as one of the baddest best smartest and still the most independent man in The Avengers, and the MU. And every writer across the MU and comicdom will respectanize the Essence That Is TChalla. And that foundation will allow the CJP's the RH's the Liss' of the future to write TChalla full bore no shame in his game flames WITHOUT backlash from the LCBRD because the LCBRD will now include a much larger, much more diverse audience who ALREADY knows AND accepts TChalla as essentially Marvel's Batman.
Summer. 2016. TChalla tears down all hatas forever in his movie debut with Cap. He'll be with THE AVENGERS too [ making 3 Black guys: Fury, Falcon and TChalla ], which will kick the flava for his own movie up even more notches. And then? A trilogy all about "the shrewdest man in the MU"--CJP.
And Hickman is setting the Marvel Universe up for that, right now.
You do know the Black Panther flick's been pushed back to 2018?

Of course I do know that TChalla's movie has been pushed back to 2018.
That's why I pointed out that Cap's movie...which introduces TChalla...drops in 2016. That would be CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR.
That's the part where I said: "But. We KNOW that Marvel Comics IS GOING TO reflect the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the MCU? TChalla is a badass. Therefore. We KNOW that TChalla is going to be a badass BEFORE the movie with Captain America breaks out. When's Cap's Movie? Next year, right?"
This guy right here:

is not a sucka. You don't make hundreds of millions if not billions on a sucka. You don't introduce a sucka via CAPTAIN AMERICA:CIVIL WAR. You don't drop a trilogy costing a hundred million or so in aggregate for the trilogy...on a sucka. You do that only with major bankable properties.
BP is a major bankable property.
Heads are mad at Hickman now...and a lot of them are supposed to e. It's justifiable. But. Before the end of Battleworld? TChalla will be that major hot bankable property.
RH was the only guy who all by his lonesome had both the writing and directing skills to rock that BLACK Panther, but they hated on him [ unjustifiably imo and I will think that til my dying day ] and would let him do it.
Hickman came around and he's actually gonna get it done in the MCU and set it up for Kevin Feigle [ or whatever ole dude's name is ] on the Cinema side.
Proof? Check Marvel Phase 3.
Game over.
TChalla wins.
The sycophancy continues.
How much is Hickman paying you?
On a much more serious note.
I would never have believed that a time would come when a writer would be praised for totally watering down and destroying the Black Panther mythos to such a degree.
It's very hard to fathom but I can only assume that some weird type of Stockholm Syndrome is to blame for this.
Christopher Priest wrote a nuanced, complicated T'Challa replete with angst, knowledge of self and technological superiority without sacrificing T'Challa's inner humanity.




Reginald Hudlin gave us amore swashbuckling, supremely confident and culturally aware T'Challa who served as a bastion to other Black characters within the 616 MU.




Dwayne McDuffy represented to the max.


Hell!
Even Geoff Johns, came correct with T'Challa when he was writing the Avengers book.


David liss working from a very disadvantaged position, still succeeded in writing T'Challa as a boss regardless of status and he did so without diminishing either T'Challa, Shuri or Wakanda in the process...




David Liss also created one of the coolest supporting characters in Sofija.....


who turned out to be quite interesting...

All of these writers brought something special to the Black Panther mythos but for some unfathomable reason, I'm supposed to salute Hickman for reducing T'Challa to this...


Whilst giving T'Challa's attributes to Reed Richards.
