Summary
The show starts with a flashback to the 5th century as an African tribe attempts to invade wakanda. They promptly get slaughtered all except for one lone warrior who the Black Panther beckons to tell everyone what had occurred.
Cut to the Introduction screens.
In the present Dondi Reese holds a meeting in the white house to determine what the best course of action would be when dealing with Wakanda. Everett Ross explains the history of Wakanda and also that the Black Panther at the time kicked Captain Americas ass seven ways from Sunday. A bigot general has to be escorted out of the meeting since he can’t remain calm. Everett then explains how the current Black Panther came to power after defeating his uncle in single combat.
Dondi decides to treat Wakanda like Iraq, suggesting a “regime change” may be in order. She plans to put in place an operation just in case there is ever need to deal with Wakanda decisively.
In New Mexico military operation are underway to create a team of Deathloks for the invasion of Wakanda.
The Good
First lets put it out there this is a motion Comic NOT a cartoon! With that said the quality of the animation used in this series surpasses my Astonishing X-men motion comic. Everything just flows naturally enough for the untrained eye to think this was a seriously stylized cartoon. The visuals from the opening issue of Reggie Hudlin and John Romita jr’s Black Panther #1 are accurately preserved.
The flow of the first episode diverges from Black Panther #1 in a number of ways. First was the omission of two expletives from the bigot generals dialogue, which was ok since it really never added much to the original script. The other was the flow of the story itself. Critics of Black Panther #1 often sited the problem of the titular character’s absence, here Hudlin reworks the script so that he not only makes his appearance but also wins a decisive battle in the process. The inclusion of Storm is also a welcome change considering she was not present in the original source material.
The other change was the expansion of the Azzari (T’challa’s grandfather) battle with a young Captain America. As battles go it was entertaining enough and trust me just hilarious to watch Captain America get handed his ass by this “savage” lol
The voice acting was spot on and easily the best of the motion comic lot ive seen thus far. Astonishing X-men may have been more popular but the voices here are so much better. Djmon Honsou as T’challa is a nerdgasm of the highest order because he’s just everything you think of when you you see T’challa in the comic. Stan Lee does a bang up job as the general while the queen mother and Dondi Reese get a nice distinction between the two despite being voiced by the lovely Alfre Woodard.
I especially loved the voice of Shuri who you would be hard pressed to know was voiced by Kerry Washington who pulls off a convincing accent.
The Bad
Motion comics are not mainstream appealing as say…….a cartoon and the Black Panther still does not have the mass appeal of say…..Astonishing X-men, so Black Superhero fans we are still in a niche within a niche 🙁
Only five more episodes exist 🙁 another season will be based heavily on the DVD sales as confirmed by Reggie Hudlin himself in our exclusive interview.
The Ugly
Great animation, easily setting the bar for motion comics of the future, Great voice acting and script rearrangement also lead to a more accessible start than the comic which inspired it. 5/5