It’s a bloody struggle for power with the new Black Panther attacked on all fronts. Cyber-enhanced assassins are gunning for her – using technology whose origins will rock Wakanda to its foundations – and sexy new villain, Predator , is looking to make a trophy out of the her head. Meanwhile, T’Challa – no longer the Panther – embarks on a path that will take him down dark roads he’s never walked before. He’s gearing up for something really, really big. The question is, what?
Summary
Shuri and her team continue to gather information regarding her attackers from last issue. They also uncover atlantean technology. The desturi continue to monitor the news as people speculate that Wakanda may be at the end of it’s era of prosperity as their economy has become increasingly unstable since T’challa handed things over to Shuri who has spent most of her time as leader in a foreign nation.
Ramonda, Storm and the doctor oversee T’challa and his training now that he has lost his connection to the panther God and all the powers he once had. In America Shuri and her team discover a company which may be the link that all three technologies have in common. She gears up and infiltrates the building only to be caught. She engages the enemy.
In Wakanda T’challa confides in the Adored ones leader that Doom is the one who attacked him. They make plans to retrain the entire team to combat Robots and counter laser fire. T’challa consults Zawaviri to give him new powers.
Elsewhere the desturi lament that Shuri may win but it wont matter because she will discover what they want and it will lead her straight to Namor.
The Good
I loved the cover art! Shuri’s Black Panther costume looked slick and tribal. Far more tribal than her brothers old costume and I loved it. The foreboding figures of Doom and Namor in the background led to a lovely foreshadowing of things to come which does not bode well for Shuri since both men are way out of her league!
The story took on a very different tone than the typical Black Panther story as well, the infiltration and the new toys gave the issue a very “secret agent” feel. It was a welcome change of pace from the norm and helps to differentiate the seasoned veteran T’challa from his sister.
T’Challa and the adored ones continue to mount there own defense against Dr. Doom and we get confirmation that after what happened to T’challa he has lost the powers of the Black Panther and is now an ordinary man, albeit far more skilled but with none of the enhancements. We see here he’s in a very unfamiliar place, defeated and weakened he turns to magic for assistance even though his whole life and tenor as Black Panther has been about Technology. Zawaviri continues to grow in importance in the new status quo of Wakanda.
The Desturi– not identified by name yet are proving to be a formidable group of adversaries for Shuri in her bid to locate her brothers would be assassins. It’s also interesting that T’challa has trusted the leader of the adored ones with the identity of the person who tried to kill him but not his sister.
The Bad
This issue shows something I clearly missed while reading Hudlin’s run namely the loss of the Panther enhancements once a new Panther is crowned. I may have missed this but I’m pretty sure S’yan was still very much enhanced when he faced Klaw back in the “who is the black panther arc”. May be a retcon or maybe I missed it but it seems like a nice way of making Shuri Queen with all the trappings of the modern BP mythos attached while freeing T’challa for more “old school” BP stuff.
The art was very uneven
The Ugly
2.54/5
8 thoughts on “Black Panther (2009) #8 Review”
Comments are closed.