In my opinion,blkyoda,RH's scripting and grasp of characterization,his humor and most recently his triumph in #18 is indicative of quality writing and then some.I have no problem with you not liking his style,or disagreeing with the speed with which BP and STORM get married...hey,I can see your perspective,albeit I disagree with your perspective in this regard.But I have to honestly ask you where do you spot--I mean specifically where --do you see subpar writing? Or were you just not feeling various books because the plot,theme,or whatever felt weak to you? I thought the BRIDE arc wasn't just arbitrarily throwing in guest appearances,I thought it showed BP's international pull and tossed a spotlight on the Orient as seen through the eyes of a brotha,plus it gave RH the opportunity to make the direly needed corrections to FU MANCHU and the other things that I alluded to earlier.Could you elaborate?
And honestly,I think that I and several other HEF members have demonstrated our open-mindedness time and time again.I don't think that it's accurate to portray the majority of the board as being initially or at any time during its previous and current membership makeup on HEF 1.0 or now as being close minded,reactionary or defensive...
The main problem that I had in the comic which may come to an end now that T'Challa is married, is that the guy had no personality to me. Honestly he was a blank slate. I just didn't see WHY he was bothering to do most of what he did or why people were so impressed with him. Nothing he'd done so far in the book made me go 'WOW This guy's the sh*t' except for the House of M Crossover. I thought that was brilliant writing and thougt to myself then 'Okay, NOW I see where this is going, this guy IS a badass and a real take it straight to YA' kindof character. Then is just... I dunno fell off again. I've already talked a bit about how the initial arc left me flat. For a storyline called "Who is black panther' I honestly didn't feel like I knew Hudlin's version of him after the first six issues. In fact, I don't think I really even got an inkling into his character until issue 18, where the interplay between him and storm, in thier quiter moments was the first time I started to understand where this guy was coming from. That and the VERY well written scene where he tries to broker peace between Iron Man and Cap but makes it clear he ain't havin' none of that Civil War BS at his wedding. Even his self depricating disappointment about NOT brokering peace gave me some insight into the guy. HOPEFULLY that kind of dialogue and introspection continues. But to me, prior to this issue, he was just some dude running around from issue to issue with no themes that seemed to tie one issue to the next. I personally would have LOVED to see BP and Storm really date and court in the comic for awhile I think that would speak volumes about who he really is, but alas, they're already hitched so we'll see where it goes.
To me, good characterization means that I have a handle on what the main character is about, they can be enigmatic in some ways but to quote that famous actor phrase 'What's my MOTIVATION?" I couldn't figure out what T'Challas motivation was for anything in the first 10 issues or so. I read Peter David's Aquaman, and his motivation is ' Hey, I lost my kingdom I have to do everything in my power to reconsolidate my people.' So everything he did was moving towards that. Made sense. I read Strazynski's Amazing Spiderman and his motivation is 'I've GOT to get more balance in my life, I'm losing my wife, my job and my whole world because of this hero stuff, i need a mentor!" I didn't see much of that in early BP. I mean, you kill your father's murderer and the next thing you want to do is get laid and get married? HUH? I can go on and on, some people liked it, I didn't but that's the examples i can think of right now about why I found the writing poor. Issue # 18 was good, first time i saw some real character development, I hope it continues.
He didn't seem to EMOTE or feel much. I mean, the guy finally kills Klaw the man who capped his dad...And what? No speech, no page or two of him coming to grips with what the hell his life is about now? Now look, some people saw this in what was written, I didn't. It seemed like the moments of major IMPACT in this book thus far were just flat, with no real depth.
Whassup blkyoda,I read your response to my post and I want to first take time out to thank you for even bothering to respond.My lengthy posts tend to discourage responses,especially lengthy and well thought out responses like yours.
Now then,if we can pass on to what I thought was manifestly apparent in regards to TCHALLA'S character...
In issue #3,we see TCHALLA for the first time as both King of Wakanda AND the Black Panther.He is holding court with the Council,and in it I think that RH clearly demonstrates several aspects of TCHALLA'S character:
1) The first order of business that is being discussed is Wakanda's unrelenting hunt for Klaw. I think that RH displays concisely but intensely that TCHALLA is veyr dedicated to locating and destroying his father's killer.In the process,RH does something that I have never ever seen done previously...he compares the intelligence gathering abilities of Wakanda's government with those of other international bodies,and lets the reader know that Wakanda's intelligence network is roughly equivalent to that of the Israeli MOSSAD.I think that this was a clever,very realistic and much needed fleshing out of the details often ignored in comics and basically wholly ignored in BP.Secondly,RH has TCHALLA declare that he wants KLAW found.When one of the wise council members point out that quite possibly the assassin's employers did him in,TCHALLA replies:"Then I want the DNA from the ashes to prove it!" Yep,major plot thread #1 as setup...and done with characterization. Plot thread #2: TCHALLA sends T'SHAN to New York when his father refuses the post,for two important reasons: T'SHAN is tough,smart and a patriot...and as a person envious of TCHALLA,it might be best if he was also out of the kingdom for a while.And TCHAN...TSHAN'S father...was shown in two panels,the first just thinking,the second pic showing TCHAN's reaction in two words:"Smart man." I think that RH believably set up plot #3--the Cannibal-- was clear with his dismantling of Klaw's force.I thought that RH showed a deep grasp of character by displaying the verbal confrontation between BP and KLAW,I think he did well to show Wakanda's history and that the Queen Mother ain't no joke.,,as she demonstrated to KLAW with her hammerfist to her groin...
there's a lot more,but I have to go take care of a few things.See you guys later...
