Black Panther as an S.A.T. Analogy

(I'm old. Back in my day, kids, the S.A.T.s had an analogy section.)

The odds of the "Black Panther" movie resembling the Christopher Priest/Mark Texeira/Sal Velluto "Black Panther" series from 18 years back are about as good as Zack Snyder's upcoming "Justice League" movie resembling the Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis/Adam Hughes "JLI" series of 30 years ago.

It does, however, provide me with all the excuse I need to write about another of my favorite 90s comics, "Black Panther." I'm going to concentrate on the first issue from late 1998 here. There will be spoilers, although with a non-linear story, it's still not spoiling much.

While reading this, imagine Quentin Tarantino directing the "Black Panther" movie, with a script co-written by Roger Avary.

Some Context

"Black Panther" was part of the Marvel Knights line, the side line edited by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti that brought us the Kevin Smith run on "Daredevil," the Paul Jenkins/Jae Lee "Inhumans" series, and the Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon "Welcome Back, Frank" run on "The Punisher." (We'll overlook that ghost Punisher business that came first. It was a nice try, but didn't work so well.)

Quesada and Palmiotti were busy turning second level characters at Marvel into Grade A series. So successful were they, that Quesada would go on to become Editor In Chief at Marvel to clean things up, one family of titles at a time.

That would be a good idea for the current Marvel line-up, too. But I digress...

And That's Where Black Panther Comes In

Christopher Priest's "Black Panther" blended the classic Wakandan hero with a scrawny white U.S. State Department official named Everett K. Ross. Ross -- the point of view character for the series -- was in over his head. He was supposed to be the Wakandan King's escort during this visit, but wound up more deeply involved.

Page one begins with a large caption box filled with text telling us "The Story Thus Far." This is normally a bad sign for a first issue. In this case, it's not an explanation of a previous crossover series to bring the reader up to speed. Rather, it's the beginning of Priest's rather eloquent way to bring in exposition dumps in an entertaining way. Through Ross's point of view, exposition was often hilarious.

Priest used the same bucket of tricks he had first showed on "Quantum and Woody," bringing the non-linear storytelling together with scene titles, and a skewed sense of humor. This all leads to the memorable opening splash page with Ross sitting in his underwear on top of a toilet, pointing a gun at a rat.

He's bluffing, by the way. He wouldn't really shoot the rat.

But the rat didn't know that, so...

Some Introductions

We meet a few Wakandans in this issue. Besides Panther, we also meet Zuri (who enjoys teaching Ross about Wakanda's heritage), T'Challa's step-mother, and the Dora Milaje, two beautiful teenage girls from separate tribes who act as the king's bodyguards.

The one who suffers the most in the issue is Ross' boss, who also appears to be his girlfriend. She's trying to get the straight story out of Ross, but he enjoys torturing her by jumping all over the place in the story's timeline. This way, the storytelling style also has a bit of an excuse for itself, above and beyond any "Pulp Fiction" references, which are also made in the first issue.

Wakandan Politics

Wakanda has a refugee problem. The King has opened up part of his nation to those escaping from other civil skirmishes around Wakanda. There are different factions amongst those emigrants that causes conflict, and the native population isn't so fond of the newcomers to begin with, either. It's the city folks versus the country folks.

Meanwhile, there's a scandal brewing over at the king's community activism group, bringing him to America to look into things personally.

Putting aside the part where the king takes supersonic speeds to fly to America, that's an amazing political set-up that echoes modern events, perhaps even more closely than when the book was published in the first place.

Suddenly, Out of Left Field

The doorbell rings. Ross jumps off the toilet to answer it, only to find The Devil (Mephisto) on the other side.

Priest successfully creates a series so twisted and so far out of left field that you don't even blink at how crazy this all is.

Of course Mephisto is at the door! It would be rude, after all, to just walk in un-announced...

There's Art, Too

Mark Texeira does full pencils and ink washes on the book. He's controlling the values of the colors before the colors are chosen. Brian Haberlin then colors over it, giving it a nice painted look. Haberlin was doing the same kind of coloring at the same time over Jay Anacleto in "Aria" at Image. I can't think of anyone doing a similar art technique in recent memory. Shame. (Did Tim Sale do some of that style in "Captain America: White"? I never read that one..)

Joe Quesada is credited as a "Storyteller." He did the layouts for the series' first few issues. Imagine Texeira's stylistic flourishes from "Ghost Rider" tempered by Quesada's layout and storytelling skills. The two worked well together.

Alitha Martinez is credited with "background assists", which I'm sure played no small part in keeping the storytelling grounded, with characters better occupying specific spaces. Backgrounds were not always the strongest suit for Texeira in "Ghost Rider."

The overall style does mutate here and there, from some simplified wider angle shots to some dramatic close-ups that look very photo referenced to get colors and anatomy right. It's a dramatic difference in styles from where the series would initially go after Texeira, towards a more Bruce Timm-inspired animated style.

Eventually, things would reach a perfect middle ground with Sal Velluto.

We've Only Just Begun

This issue only lays the groundwork for a sprawling series that balances Wakandan traditions and culture with Marvel superheroics and wild cultural clashes.

There's a great collection featuring the first 17 issues at Comixology. The entire run of Priest-penned issues runs four collections under the banner of "Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection." It runs nearly 60 issues by the time it's done. I'm sure that by the time the movie comes out next year, you'll see a big sale on them. (I think I paid $5 for volume one during the last sale.)

It might not be in line with modern, more politically serious "Black Panther" interpretations, but I think it's more up my alley: playful, humorous, "edgy", experimental. It remains to be seen how much of a jump you'll get on the movie by reading this comic, but it's a worthy read all on its own.

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