Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Review | Tagged: avengers, black panther, daniel acuna, Marvel Comics, sci-fi, superheroes, T'Challa, Ta-Nehisi Coates

Black Panther #2 Review: T'Challa Meets Star Wars

T'Challa is now a member of the Maroons, a rebellion movement attempting to overthrow the Wakandan Empire. T'Challa, Nakia, and M'Baku lead an assault on a Wakandan installation called the Shango Array. There is more resistance than expected, and Nakia intends to pull out. However, T'Challa pushes ahead and attempts to take on the fleet stationed at Shango on his own.

Black Panther #2 jumps ahead to T'Challa being a seasoned member of the Maroon. It goes a bit en media res on the audience. This means you have little real context for the specific mission you're witnessing, but that also means the story gets to ramp up the pacing and tension quickly.

It draws heavily upon the Death Star run from A New Hope in some ways. T'Challa gets to be the sole hero shooting down tons of enemy fighters, and one bad guy pilot even says, "We have him now." The architecture of the Shango Array strongly resembles the surface of the Death Star too.

All this amounts to a fun if somewhat unimpactful issue of Black Panther. T'Challa gets more than his fair share of moments to be a consummate badass. The final scene with Emperor N'Jadaka is where the comic goes more interesting places. The rest is pretty, exciting, yet fairly empty action.

Daniel Acuna continues to dazzle with his gorgeous art style. The world has a sleek texturing to it so vivid that it looks like you could reach out and touch it. The Wakandan Empire and Maroon's technology have good designs that feel both futuristic yet reminiscent of the Wakanda we know. The color work is dark yet varied, and it can easily suck the reader into the environment.

Black Panther #2 is a good issue. It doesn't go beyond that, but it doesn't sink below it either. It's fun, T'Challa remains one of Marvel's best, and Daniel Acuna does incredible work with the visuals. This one comes with a recommendation. Check it out.

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