Black Panther #15 Review: Black To Normal

Writer: Ta-Nehisi Coates / Artist: Daniel Acuña / Marvel Comics The Return of the King T’Challa returns to Wakanda Prime and things are good. Really good. Good enough that he even questions if he was the problem. Shuri grounds T’Challa in the facts: his presence, actions, and tremendous nobility have brought on this ‘second golden age’ of Wakanda. The book takes a lot of time to flesh out where the nation sits in the global context of the Marvel Universe. Coates flexes on the panels — some are entirely dominated by the dialogue. Where this might be a detriment to some characters, the cleverly placed text sets up the trajectory of this arc with little effort and plenty of impact.

Booed Up Black Panther #15 dwells on T’Challa’s sense of duty, post space war, by exploring how he relates to the world when he isn’t fighting. In issue #14 he spoken to the Queen Mother Ramonda about the state of the nation. In #15 he politics with Shuri about geopolitics. Standard kingly things. On her way out, T’Challa shows his hand and asks if she’s seen Storm. She’s away on X-Men business. Shuri assures him that she’ll holler when she can. He’s all brooding and thoughtful when that lightning strike lights up the Wakandan skyline. Ororo ‘Thee Storm’ Munroe knows how to make an entrance and plays no games. Can we talk about the Afrofuturist Black excellence of Kimoyo beads being used for a royal booty call? There’s no carbon footprint AND no paper trail??? I digress.

Two Places At Once Post-co…