Interesting how you guys are so hard on Coates when most of you sucked Maberry's dick and called his jizz vanilla ice cream.
(Not that I give two sh*ts. I said I would never give Marvel a dime of my money until T'Challa was reunited with his queen and being written like a strong African king again, and I meant it. And yes, that goes for the movie, too.)
Along with Ezyo, I disagree with your view of things. Maberry got a lot of criticism when he was writing the book. I was one of the few who was a hold out on him, because I really liked his "Power" arc. But when "DoomWar" happened I realized where he was taking the character and I didn't like it.
I've essentially stopped reading Coates, but it seemed he was taking the wrecking ball that Maberry's run, and to be fair, Hudlin helped set in motion, started. Though in comparison to Maberry and Coates, I've liked what I read in Maberry's "Power" arc more than anything I've read thus far in Coates's run. Maberry weakened T'Challa but his disdain for black men (as symbolized by T'Challa) as a group wasn't as evident as I see in Coates's writing, and right from jump. I didn't get any pointed disdain from Maberry to be honest. It was a more generalized black characters are subordinate to white characters in "DoomWar", but I think Coates goes right at black men to promote a white liberal/black feminist/LGBTQ agenda. So he adds to black male bashing on top of the generalized black characters being subordinate to whites in most mainstream comics.
I, too, was a holdout for Maberry due to the 1-2 punch of RH expressing admiration for Maberry overcoming his racist family background in a article I read somewhere, and Maberry's traditional martial arts background which translated directly into the dopest clearly self defense rooted fighting scenes of BP [ for Shuri ] since he fought Iron Fist under Priest.
However. DOOMWAR got me, too. Especially the part where TChalla didn't serve Doom, and secondly the part where TChalla THANKED Doom for opening TChalla's eyes to whatever garbage Doom was spitting about Vibranium.
Hell no.
I agreed with Maberry that Wakanda's exceptional qualities should be rooted in her people, the Wakandans. I would defend Maberry and/or anyone else who makes that assertion then, now, and in the future if I'm still alive and plugged into comics. But. Back then? When most people thought of Wakanda, they thought of VIBRANIUM and Captain America's shield more than anything else. Wakanda's superiority should be in its civilization, people, culture, spirit, brilliance, etc as Priest and Hudlin wrote. Wakanda's superiority shouldn't be ROOTED in Vibranium [ I never liked that idea, still don't ] ,as it infers that Wakanda would be a backwards Afrikan nation [ along with the rest of Afrika and everywhere else that Afrikans reside ] were it not for the fortuitous circumstance of a space rock falling onto their land.
Hudlin and Priest did great jobs of challenging that perspective, but BP wasn't kept on the shelves long enough to begin to change the perspective of the majority of LBCRD of the MU at that time [ which leads to money ].
Good seeing you again, Max. Missed you, lots.
For the record? I still think that THE MARRIAGE OF THE CENTURY should never have been annulled, and should be reignited and done again. But. I don't trust Coates with the MOTC. TChalla mess around and be hen pecked and punked by Ororo and all the women Royals of Wakanda. I can't see that changing, unless Coates does a massive sea change in writing substance.
More fights with TChalla clearly whoopin gluteus. More reconciliation of King and Hero, no need to choose one over the other. Less Americanized perspective, more Afrikan centric perspective from TChalla who is simultaneously deeply aware of every nook and cranny in his international cultural and political perspectives and dealings with Outworlders. From now on? TChalla gets emphatically displayed and written as THE MAN WITH THE PLAN YOU CAN'T EFF WITH...TRY AS YOU MIGHT; ALTHOUGH YOU SHOULDN'T TRY BECAUSE EVERYONE WILL TELL YOU THAT YOU'LL FAIL, AND THEY'RE RIGHT. Way more input from Stelfreeze regarding the frequency and substance of fight scenes. Way more use of technomagic and other unique expressions of Wakandan culture and tech, spirituality, knowledge, uberprep, etc. The issue isn't whether or not Coates is capable of setting TChalla and his books on such a path of this, which TChalla richly richly deserves. The issue and question is: Why hasn't he done so already, and can he ever be trusted to do so in the here and now or future?
How can a man so powerfully BLACK and brilliant in calling out Harvard's direct legacy in slavery and racism and harping upon the specific needs for reparations, as he does here:
http://www.theroot.com/harvard-confronts-its-ties-to-slavery-ta-nehisi-coates-1792987055turn right around and write literally the most Suckaville, insecure, emasculated TChalla ever written by a Black man?
