Black Panther #2 Review

Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates / Artist: Brian Stelfreeze / Marvel Comics I hate lines on so many levels. I don’t stand in line for anything if I can avoid it. But if you think I wasn’t the first human at the door of my local comic shop two months in a row, ready to get my hands on Ta-Nehesi Coates’ run of Black Panther…..you have severely misjudged reality. With the King of Wakanda’s positive reception from his theatrical debut in Captain America: Civil War and Ta-Nahesi Coates’ first issue of his solo series selling out in almost no time, it’s only a matter of time before we get Kendrick Lamar referencing the fictional African country in his mixtapes. It’s either that or Azealia Banks will be dissing an African king that doesn’t actually exist on Twitter. Issue #2 picks up not too long after the events of the first. Wakanda is still in disarray, on the edge of complete upheaval from a few different angles. T’Challa locks on like a guided missile and takes his classic “hands on” approach to putting out fires and hunting down his new enemy, but is distracted from his duty due to familial bonds. Coates’ internal narrative for the Panther almost makes the book worth the four bucks by itself, but he also does a fantastic job of getting many balls rolling. Many seeds are being planted that will inevitably cause the hero/king 99 problems before too long. The great attraction of Marvel heroes is that, even in their nobility, they are commonly fundamentally flawed in some way or anothe…