NEW BLACK PANTHER COMIC BOOK - Ridley's Believe it or Not! BP #6 Preview

[BlackClaw]

I'm wondering if this is the comics and Disney synergizing and preparing the audience for whatever they plan to do with Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa/Black Panther in the next film.

I was hoping they wouldn’t go full stupid and try to erase T’Challa in every medium but it’s being harder and harder to have faith in them.

They might not, or not completely, but I got a feeling they'll want to get their comics aligned with the movies in the thought to sell more to  new readers. But they got to tread carefully in now they treat the traditional Black Panther/T'Challa readers and try to hold on to them as much as they can (or rather they should IMO).

Traditional readers are the ones that bring in the money on the comics side. The casuals usually just buy the first issue just to pose with it on Social medial to look cute and then drop off after that. So they better come correct.

[Ezyo]

Catering to the non comic/BP fans is how they get Coates situations, ie they have to spend the following 5-6 years proping up the book with incentive after incentive because it sucks otherwise

[Emperorjones]

Don't disagree with you all here, but there's always that compulsion to expand, to grow the market, and that's why I think they will keep doing it. They will keep chasing after those phantom dollars, and to some extent, there might also be an assumption that enough traditional fans are onboard or will stick around, and also perhaps even a contempt for traditional fans who might be considered retrograde or toxic to some extent and not the right look for how Marvel/DC, etc. want to be considered.

[BlackClaw]

The only thing MCU fans care about is the MCU. If Marvel thinks they can get away with getting rid of T’Challa in the source material they better not act surprised when sales for this run tank harder than Coates.

[Emperorjones]

Fair enough, but obviously sales didn't sink enough for them to take Coates off the book. Even DC took Tom King off Batman, but Marvel stuck by Coates, and I would argue, because they had a bigger goal and that's in deconstructing and rebuilding the new non-toxic male version of Black Panther, if not outright replace or diminish the character in favor of Shuri or another female or non-straight male character.

[BlackClaw]

Fans better call their asses out if that is their end goal. All this talk about how much the character means to people only to try and purge him from his own f*cking franchise is gonna prove their full of sh*t and how they’re using peoples grief over Chadwick’s passing to their advantage.

[Emperorjones]

Fans better call their asses out if that is their end goal. All this talk about how much the character means to people only to try and purge him from his own f*cking franchise is gonna prove their full of sh*t and how they’re using peoples grief over Chadwick’s passing to their advantage.

I think comic book fans have been doing just that for a long time, far as I know since Maberry came onto the book and the dissolution of the Storm-T'Challa marriage and also the contemporary deconstruction of Black Panther began. I can't say it's been super successful overall, but that being said, that doesn't mean people shouldn't still be speaking up. I have to wonder if the pushback to breaking up Storm and T'Challa didn't play a role in Coates actually revisiting their relationship. And perhaps it has factored into how Hickman and Aaron also depicted T'Challa.

[BlackClaw]

It’s just a super frustrating time to be a fan of this character. It’s really getting to a point where at times I wish the damn movie would’ve never been made if I had known all of this would happen. I’m just hoping Ridley can prove us all wrong.

[CvilleWakandan]

It’s just a super frustrating time to be a fan of this character. It’s really getting to a point where at times I wish the damn movie would’ve never been made if I had known all of this would happen. I’m just hoping Ridley can prove us all wrong.

That's a sign you need to walk away from comics and comic based movies for a few years. You're too heavily invested and taking it personally. After 'Siege' I didn't pay attention to comics until they announced the relaunch.

[BlackClaw]

It’s just a super frustrating time to be a fan of this character. It’s really getting to a point where at times I wish the damn movie would’ve never been made if I had known all of this would happen. I’m just hoping Ridley can prove us all wrong.

That's a sign you need to walk away from comics and comic based movies for a few years. You're too heavily invested and taking it personally. After 'Siege' I didn't pay attention to comics until they announced the relaunch.

Maybe you’re right. I have been watching like a hawk ever since they announced that there would be no recast. I’ll just sit and wait for feedback on the run and if my concerns become reality I’ll just dip. At least my man Static is making a comeback. Lol.

[Ezyo]

Fair enough, but obviously sales didn't sink enough for them to take Coates off the book. Even DC took Tom King off Batman, but Marvel stuck by Coates, and I would argue, because they had a bigger goal and that's in deconstructing and rebuilding the new non-toxic male version of Black Panther, if not outright replace or diminish the character in favor of Shuri or another female or non-straight male character.

Coates fell into cancelation zone multiple times. In S2 they had to do a deal with comic stores to order a certain amount of the book to get the sales up, then they did a renumbering to bring up sales right before S2 ended just to AGAIN renumber the space arc as a new number 1 to get up sales. Given how sharply then book fell, and the fact that when covid hit and delayed all of marvels books, Coates book was the only one that didn't resume after they started up their books again, pointed that Marvel didn't have faith in the book and were desperately trying to inflate the sales by having it start up around February the following year. Marvel tries hard to get new fans that they isolate the core fans that keep the book afloat by catering to those who don't care

[Ezyo]

The problem is that they want to overcomplicate T'Challas franchise. Instead of telling good stories of T'Challa being a hero and WHY he is exceptional among a nation of exceptional people, they instead are trying to jump the gun and establish a Wakandaverse the same way dceu tried to quickly catch up to a marvel.

Rush jobs like that dont work because the people employed to create these stories are not invested in the characters what so ever. So they throw together halfhearted stories that diminish the characters or use OCs to push narratives or "make their marks" on the franchise and again, it's half hearted and subpar.

This is one of the mistakes are by marvel by employing Coates and giving his carte blanche over the franchise, Instead of giving the book to Redjack. Would RJ have had a 300k number 1 for his BP run? Probably not, but it would of been over 100k and the difference would of been that the book would of sustained higher sales over the course of his time, would of had a greater effect on the MU, would of had more successful spin offs (especially if he had the same type control of choice over who got to get books) and T'Challa would of been in a much better place than he is now WITH the benefit of a better established cast who could do their own stuff and better tech feats 

[BlackClaw]

The problem is that they want to overcomplicate T'Challas franchise. Instead of telling good stories of T'Challa being a hero and WHY he is exceptional among a nation of exceptional people, they instead are trying to jump the gun and establish a Wakandaverse the same way dceu tried to quickly catch up to a marvel.

Rush jobs like that dont work because the people employed to create these stories are not invested in the characters what so ever. So they throw together halfhearted stories that diminish the characters or use OCs to push narratives or "make their marks" on the franchise and again, it's half hearted and subpar.

This is one of the mistakes are by marvel by employing Coates and giving his carte blanche over the franchise, Instead of giving the book to Redjack. Would RJ have had a 300k number 1 for his BP run? Probably not, but it would of been over 100k and the difference would of been that the book would of sustained higher sales over the course of his time, would of had a greater effect on the MU, would of had more successful spin offs (especially if he had the same type control of choice over who got to get books) and T'Challa would of been in a much better place than he is now WITH the benefit of a better established cast who could do their own stuff and better tech feats 

Bingo. Why Redjack never got the go ahead from Marvel is a mystery for the ages. The only reason why Batman has a mountain of successful spin offs is because writers understand that Bruce Wayne is the anchor for the franchise. He’s the heart and soul of it and all roads lead back to him. T’Challa is the same way but unfortunately Marvel wants to put the cart before the horse, especially now that T’Chadwick is gone.

[Emperorjones]

It’s just a super frustrating time to be a fan of this character. It’s really getting to a point where at times I wish the damn movie would’ve never been made if I had known all of this would happen. I’m just hoping Ridley can prove us all wrong.

That's a sign you need to walk away from comics and comic based movies for a few years. You're too heavily invested and taking it personally. After 'Siege' I didn't pay attention to comics until they announced the relaunch.

I agree. Don't let it mess with you like that. I think walking away is the best thing. I also recommend getting into more indie black comics if you aren't already.

I've largely stopped reading Marvel and DC (though I've picked up some of more recent Batman stuff, in part to see what was up with the black Batman), and I did subscribe for Ridley's BP run, the first time in years that I've done so.

Marvel has been undercutting T'Challa along with its other black superheroes basically since the moment of their creations. In many ways things have gotten better over the last 10-15 years, but still there's a lot of work to be done.

[Emperorjones]

Fair enough, but obviously sales didn't sink enough for them to take Coates off the book. Even DC took Tom King off Batman, but Marvel stuck by Coates, and I would argue, because they had a bigger goal and that's in deconstructing and rebuilding the new non-toxic male version of Black Panther, if not outright replace or diminish the character in favor of Shuri or another female or non-straight male character.

Coates fell into cancelation zone multiple times. In S2 they had to do a deal with comic stores to order a certain amount of the book to get the sales up, then they did a renumbering to bring up sales right before S2 ended just to AGAIN renumber the space arc as a new number 1 to get up sales. Given how sharply then book fell, and the fact that when covid hit and delayed all of marvels books, Coates book was the only one that didn't resume after they started up their books again, pointed that Marvel didn't have faith in the book and were desperately trying to inflate the sales by having it start up around February the following year. Marvel tries hard to get new fans that they isolate the core fans that keep the book afloat by catering to those who don't care

Not disputing what you said here, but the fact is they didn't yank him off the book like DC did with Tom King, and that's what I was getting at. They kept backing Coates, either to save face or because, despite the poor sales, it looked good for their brand and Coates was putting the idea of a neutered black male superhero out there which I think many at Marvel are more comfortable with. It's like going back to some of our old discussions about feminist genre movies that don't do well, but they still keep making them because its in line with Hollywood's values. Or bringing back up Batwoman. Despite it's perennially bad ratings, they keep greenlighting that series, so that says to me it's not just about money or even fan reaction or lack thereof, there's something more that Batwoman, etc. is doing for them. (To be fair, Batwoman this season has started off better IMO than the last two seasons; and I like Javicia Leslie in the role. It's just the writing is often very bad. I can deal with so-so production values or even action, but the writing has been the big Achilles heel for this series from jump).