“Bride of the Panther: Part One”
Writer: Reginald Hudlin
Artists: Scott Eaton (p), Klaus Janson (i)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Plot: The Panther tells Luke Cage how he first met Storm, and then goes to interrupt her current work busting up slavery rings in the Sudan. He has an important question to ask.
Comments: This is the first time I’ve reviewed this comic since its debut. It hasn’t improved. Then there was a solid plot marred by some odd juxtapositions between Marvel and the real world. Now it seems to show an alternate Marvel universe I’ve never known.
Let’s start with the cover. A bevy of Marvel babes line up to gaze
seductively at the Panther. Two sisters are among a group that includes Rogue (not his type), Sue Storm (married), She-Hulk, and Spider-Woman. Then we have Monica Rambeau (also not his type) and finally Storm.
Well, that one makes sense, right? She’s African, at least partly. She comes naturally by the same sort of aristocratic confidence he was born with. She’s a powerful leader among her people, too. So why does it read so awkwardly? While Hudlin makes an interesting choice in tying Ororo’s heritage to Malcolm X’s activism (her paternal grandmother worked for him, it turns out), what’s with the intense focus on her childhood lately? We’re into our second mini-series about it in one year. I applaud Marvel’s moves to hire more writers of color to write about their characters of color (always an oversight in a generally progressive company), but I’m not that interested in what Storm did when she was 16 or 20.
I’m interested in what Storm is doing now. And while I realize she has long acknowledged a respect for and interest in T’Challa, I don’t buy her outburst this issue for one second. It’s contrived. It’s never been hinted at before. And, unlike when Priest was writing them, they have no noticeable chemistry.
In fact, who is this T’Challa who hugs Luke goodbye and recounts in detail his failed adolescent love stories? Priest’s series made the questionable choice of giving us a white everyman character through which to view the more aloof and mysterious Panther, but at least there he was cool and intense and usually downright scary. Brother from the ‘hood used to be an act T’Challa put on, not his default personality.
They have a lot of nerve calling this issue a “countdown to the wedding of the century.” They need to count up to a relationship first, before we ever get to the final scene of this issue. So far, their fated love is a dud.
Visuals: Eaton teams well with Janson for solid super heroics. It’s interesting to note that Ororo is being drawn with completely African features these days; that wasn’t always the case, but I suppose it makes more sense than the idea that her mutation gave her white features, blue eyes and brown skin. At any rate, she’s quite beautiful, and Eaton does good work with her corny Davis-designed recent costume.
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