Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #516 Review

Summary

Vlad and T’challa fight after he discovered the panther over the body of his dead wife. Spider man gives some unwanted help before the police bust in and take Vlad to Jail. Panther refuses to accept Spider-man’s help since he did not ask for it. Both Vlad’s wife and the waiter from the diner are laid to rest. Spider-man sticks around anyway and they shake down Vlads generals after he is released from prison and kills the local mob bosses when they refuse to follow his lead. At the Diner the social worker tries again to get T’challa’s attention to no avail, she gets the brush off thanks to Sofija who knows his secret identity. Vlad’s son visits his experiment with his younger brother; the subjects’ powers have surpassed that of Vlad.  In a power outage the younger son rescues the Subject.

The social worker visits a couple and that night she murders them in hopes of saving the child the same fate she had while abused by her ex-husband.

The Good

Story- Holy Shit! The mystery of the serial killer is revealed and man if I did not see that coming! Totally left field, totally understandable yet it totally catches you off guard! David Liss has made me a believer, read Black Panther Man without Fear and you will be a believer too!

I love that Liss has created a lovely niche for T’challa to play with; his villains are easily understood though a bit misguided.

Characterization- Complain all you want that Christoper Priest’s Black Panther was different than Reggie Hudlins and even David Liss rendition is different still. BUT know this Black Panther is still a self motivated, proud, scientific genius martial arts master in all instances and it’s still true here. I even got a kick out of T’challa and Spider-man’s little quibble over whether T’challa was the seventh or eighth smartest man in the world (chuckle)

Spider-man was his usual jovial over the top self and T’challa was stoic and distanced as ever. Vlad has also remained consistently ruthless and cunning while his sons’ different personalities and desires make each compelling in their own right. The secondary villain our serial killer is a nice touch I am thrilled and excited to see where this goes!

Art- Characters are more detailed, Francavelli’s Black Panther costume has been streamlined and everything comes together well, things have gone up a notch.

The Bad

No complaints

The Ugly

5/5 Damn good mystery!