Editor's Note: Black Panther #40 arrives in stores tomorrow, August 27.

"See Wakanda and Die - Part 2"

Could Jason Aaron have had Kill Bill playing in the background as he was plotting this issue? The blood flows so freely, and Palo's violence is so graphic, that this book could easily have been branded "Quentin Tarantino's Black Panther." That's merely an observation, mind you, not a criticism one way or the other. In the jungle, a battle fought bereft of anything that approximates "advanced" technology would be exactly this ugly (though you'd think that Wakanda might have stocked mortars and grenades which wouldn't have been affected by the pseudo-EMP that knocked out their gadgetry; it would have been exactly as ugly but somewhat more effective than sending waves of infantry into hand-to-hand combat with crazy, green aliens).

Aaron does have a reputation for graphic violence, of course, which presumably made him a natural choice to pen the pity of war in far flung Africa. The "heads on pikes" device was used in the first chapter to chilling effect and isn't repeated, but this is still not a book for the kiddies. The T+ rating is in effect but seems meaningless given that so many of Marvel's titles, just this week, have the same stamp. I'm actually not that hung up on ratings, but prefer to see them used consistently. The next step up for Marvel is what they refer to as "Parental Advisory," equivalent to an MPAA R rating, which seems a bit much but at least fits with their established norms. While the coveted X rating no longer exists, replaced with NC-17, for films, and MAX as Marvel's rough equivalent, one wonders where exactly the line is drawn at plucked-out eyeballs? Of course, this is an American comic book which assumes that copious blood and entrails are just dandy for the accompanied nippers in the audience, so long as no one suffers a wardrobe malfunction. But I digress.

While T'Challa's brigade of panther warriors sacrifice themselves to the Skrulls, the Panther himself is confronted with a Super-Skrull possessing the abilities of Earth's greatest unarmed (mostly) combatants. In between mourning the losses his side is taking on the battlefield, T'Challa sizes up his opponent until a weakness is finally exposed, then pounces. In his moment of braggadoccio, a pair of Super-Duper-Skrulls appear, one with assorted Asgardian abilities including replicas of both Thor and Bill's Uru hammers and the other a Hulk/Thing/Juggernaut monstrosity (T'Challa can't peg the "something else," but those look like Gorgon's hooved feet). Ordered to stand down after a deception removes his hidden ace (Ororo) from the contest, the Panther casually decapitates the Asgardian Skrull (!) with that nifty sword of his. Something to do with Vibranium, no doubt. Further treachery removes him from the equation. No doubt he's playing kitty-possum, but a downed Panther, an apparently defeated army, and a host of armed and crazy Skrulls doesn't bode well for the fate of Wakanda.

Jefte Palo's highly stylized illustration, though clean and precise, takes some getting used to. Structure and pacing are excellent, and specific characters are beautifully rendered - though the bulk of the cast consists of identical Skrull and panther-masked warriors. With Loughridge's stark, high-contrast pallette, particularly with the architecture, there's an almost Art Deco look. Why, exactly, Palo chooses to depict all of the Super-Skrulls (Super and Duper) as Megaton Man parodies is a bit beyond me; the style makes even less sense with the hand-to-hand battle Skrull. T'Challa himself looks less like the gymnast we've come to expect and more like a professional body builder, while Ororo... either she's really been letting herself go enjoying the privileges of monarchy or there's a cub in the oven. All of this over-chunkiness detracts greatly from Palo's otherwise smart layouts.

On the whole, this is pretty much what one would expect from what is, essentially, a war comic. The story is pushed forward incrementally and the extent of alien infiltration is revealed as greater than probably imagined. Certainly T'Challa and Ororo believed that they had a handle on the situation, to their chagrin. Pretty in places, bloody in others. Excitingly average!

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