One of my favorite comic book runs is Christopher Priest's Black Panther. Newsarama has a three part interview up, timed with a release of the run in trade form. One really weird thing about Newsarama is they never link from part one of an article to part two, so here are the links to all three parts: part one, part two, and part three.

Interesting. I always liked Black Panther as a character and was initially interested in the series back in the day. However, I had the same problems with Christopher Priest's work as I had earlier. That he seems bothered that there was an expectation the series had to sell well if it was to continue to be published goes a long way of explaining how Priest fails as a writer, even though he has tremendous strengths. Lots of things Priest did I thought worked well, and I liked his general concepts for the series. The Black Panther should have access to advance technology and vibranium weapons. But ultimately, I couldn't get into it and only picked up the sporadic issue here or there.

I like the idea that BP joined the Avengers on false pretenses. I didn't like that Priest portrayed him as not liking his fellow Avengers at all. That didn't seem real to me. He should have come to trust and respect his colleagues just like they did to him. It felt like Priest was channeling some of his own resentment into the character to make a point which didn't come out well. I think there are other ways to explain why a Wakandan king would join the Avengers and want to serve the world, not just Wakanda. and incidentally protect Wakanda from certain threats. It did not to be addressed in order to show that Panther was not abandoning his duties to his people.

Priest is someone I think who needs a strong co-plotter to have been a bigger success in the industry than he has, but it doesn't seem he is someone who takes kindly to suggestions. he has a very strong eye on the weaknesses of others, but can't apply it to his own work. If I ever had my own comics group, I'd want Priest as a creative consultant, but I don't think I'd give him a title.

Was not a fan of Priest's run when it was published, as I thought it undermined the Black Panther, rather than strengthened him. Having read the interview, I feel somewhat justified in my reaction, as he mentioned how he was not enthusiastic about the character or of most of the earlier portrayals of the character when he agreed to write the series. Unfortunately, creators who have little investment in the characters they are portraying starts to become a larger problem for Marvel in specific, and comics in general, from the 1990s onward, leading to a lot of retconning, or outright ignoring the any given character's background and capabilities.

In particular, I was not a fan of the retcon that the Black Panther joined the Avengers in order to determine what sort of threat they might pose. It was basically conflict for conflict's sake, working with the old maxim that conflict makes for good storytelling, which I would amend to say that logical conflict makes for good storytelling.

The Black Panther comes off poorly if he is still be suspicious of the Avengers after fighting alongside Captain America in Tales of Suspense #96-99 and Captain America #100. As a result, any suspicions about the Avengers would mean that the Panther still has doubts 1.) about who Cap would ally himself and 2.) about Cap's request that the Panther join the Avengers. Given that Cap 1.) came to the Panther's aid without having known about the Panther previously (before retcons), 2.) risked his life to help the Panther, and 3.) showed concern for both the Panther's life and Sharon Carter's life, the Panther would have to be a pretty poor judge of character not to realize that any concerns about the Avengers would be unfounded. This poor decision-making portrays the Panther as less cunning, not more cunning. Whatever justifications Priest gives can't really justify his retcon at the expense of the Panther's judgment and intelligence.

Additionally, the Panther's "spying" creates another barrier between him being an active Avenger, giving future writers excuses not to use the character in the team.

And the retcon weakens a strong friendship between him and Captain America, which given all the Misunderstanding Fights in Marvel Comics, was a relatively rare instance of two heroes having a great deal of mutual respect for each other.

I have other concerns about Priest's run, especially his take on Kirby's Panther, given the controversy about how Kirby was being poorly treated by Marvel when he was working on the series. I think any digs (vs. thoughtful criticisms) at Kirby in the stories of a character he created are not the sign of professional behavior.

I do wish Priest had been offered Daredevil, like he said (in the interview) that he had hoped would have happened, because it would have been interesting to see what he would have done with a character he was more invested in.

Fnord, as you would have probably realized fairly soon, the links are to Newsarana, not to CBR.

Thanks to linking to the article. Although I am obviously not a fan of Priest's Black Panther series, I think the interview is really worthwhile for fans to read, as it gives a lot of insight into how the series was put together and what Priest's intent was. He clearly gave a lot of thought to how he wanted to position the series, even within the guidelines Marvel editorial had set.

I'm looking forward to seeing you review the series when you arrive to it in the chronology, as it will help me reconsider the series.

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I've corrected the CBR/Newsarama thing.

I read the first few issues of that run, and it was okay, but...I always want to enjoy Christopher Priest's stuff a lot more than I wind up doing. It was the same as when I was reading his Deadpool run: I kept telling myself I was enjoying it, until I realized I really wasn't. It had gotten too gimmicky, relying way too hard on the 'meta' thing (which unfortunately seems to be the character's defining trait now), and unlike the Joe Kelly run it didn't have any heart.

I might have enjoyed Priest's Black Panther a lot more if I hadn't previously read the McGregor Jungle Action run, which is just mind-blowing. But to me the Priest series felt too faux-cinematic. It had some great moments, but it didn't hold together. And, Priest was way too into referencing Friends and Seinfeld back then.

I like his Deadpool run but the artist is terrible and prefers showing off rather than actually doing any storytelling. He was also held back (for want of any better words) by his editor who wanted him to suddenly set a story in space.

In fairness, sometimes I find it hard to read some of his stuff and I prefer his earlier work with Marvel, especially his Conan run. I think they're a lot tighter and easier to follow.