Superhero Hype reports that Marvel Comics’ worst editor from 2001-11, along with the writer who was assigned to the Marvel Knights take on Black Panther, have returned to the company and title just to bury T’Challa, which sounds like they’re mimicking the premise of the movie sequel, Wakanda Forever:
In 1998, the Marvel Knights line set a new standard for the House of Ideas. Focused on street-level superheroics and more obscure characters, the line had a hand in inspiring the MCU. Now, just in time for the 25th anniversary, the line is returning with a new miniseries. Titled Marvel Knights: The World to Come, the six-issue will center around the death of Black Panther.
As the story opens, T’Challa is dead and the world of Marvel Knights dances on the edge of a Vibranium knife. The story begins in Wakanda, with Storm and Shuri struggling to maintain order and prevent a civil war over who will be the new Black Panther. This will set up a series of global conflicts, which will bring back other beloved heroes and villains from the Marvel Knights line.
[…] The World to Come is the brainchild of two of comics’ legends, who were among the architects of the Marvel Knights line. Christopher Priest, famed for his work on Black Panther, scripted all six issues of the miniseries. Priest co-plotted the story with writer/artist Joe Quesada. The former Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, Quesada also provides the miniseries’ artwork.
Gee, this sure is some way to revisit something that, for all we know, may not have aged well regardless. Let me guess: the premise has what to do with the current event, One World Under Doom? Or, is this meant to be yet another variation on the bizarre PC swapping they did in the past decade? Whatever they’re doing here, this only compounds how the movie franchise has surely done more harm than good artistically.
And Quesada was a very mediocre artist years before, one more reason it’d be better to avoid this insult to the intellect that does no favors for Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s creations. I don’t think the Knights line holds up well in hindsight, also recalling what happened to Karen Page in the second Daredevil volume. Maybe that Knights was marketed as “street-level” heroics rather than stories allowing for more elaborate science fiction adventure is another fault. And it should be noted that Priest’s only proven himself a mediocre writer at times over the years, with few real gems, and whose stories have to be taken with a grain of salt no matter the quality.
Personally, I own all three Marvel Epic Collection editions archiving Black Panther’s stories from past decades, and that’s decidedly all that’s needed for me when it comes to reading Black Panther in retrospect. We don’t need to waste time on these overrated projects from more recent times.
Originally published here.
English (US) · 