Been There, Done That: Reviewing ‘Ultimate Black Panther’ #2

Comic books have dabbled in multiverses for decades. A wondrous concept allowing creators to re-envision, recontextualize, or fully reboot characters. Taking things we know from front to back and coming at them from a different direction.

Sometimes though, it just means putting familiar food onto a differently colored plate. Enter Ultimate Black Panther #2, the continuation of Marvel’s latest alternate universe take from Bryan Hill, Stefano Caselli, David Curiel, and Cory Petit.

Right off the bat, this isn’t a bad issue despite my dismissive reference to food and plates. It’s also not a great issue.

No, this one lies somewhere in the middle. Not a Goldilocks just right type of middle, but this meal will suffice with a shrug type of middle.

Things are different for this version of T’Challa. Except, they are also very much the same. I know, that probably seems contradictory but here we are.

The world of this Ultimate Comics attempt is different because of the Maker’s meddling. Various powerful entities have “secretly” carved up the world, owning whole swaths of continents and countries. Ra and Khonshu are down in the trenches with suits and ties controlling most of Africa, going by the moniker of Moon Knight. Storm and Killmonger are freedom fighters, and Wakanda is at war with Moon Knight and its own people.

Outside of these world-specific beats though, put this comic next to a 616 Black Panther issue and it’s like a low-level “spot the difference” puzzle. All the same usual characters in mostly the same spaces, just with a little different spice this time. If Hill announced that he actually pitched this as a 616 Black Panther story before it became Ultimized, I would give a swift “Oh that tracks” style nod.

Everyone feels like they are going through the motions. No real sparks of personality or passion. Speaking the words, they need to move the plot along and showcase their motivations. T’Challa is turning on his own people in paranoia and it’s a brushed over point, outside of Okoye getting a chance to do a Queen speech. Becuase of the nature of this universe we know nothing about T’Challa to know if this is out of character fully, bothers him, really bothers others, etc. Right now the book has seemingly no desire or compulsion to explore any of this either.

Also, the groan that emerged at the revelation that, of course, the potentially prophesied woman that will “give T’Challa an heir” is Storm. Because no matter the universe, we’ll never escape Marvel just shoving their two most prominent African characters together.

Visually there is a bit too much superhero standard with a dash of whimsical in this particular case. Mainly because this is a story of Wakanda going to war based on a terrorist attack and then tons of paranoia. Caselli is a fine artist; I enjoy his work in a variety of books. I do not dislike the work being delivered here, not one bit, I just find it not particularly fitting for the particular book.

That being said, it’s got a dynamic presence at times and plenty of really fluid movement. Action scenes are smooth, bringing plenty of impact. Characters are rendered well though emotions are hard to parse mainly because there was little to work with as I noted before. Characters lack defined personality and emotional power which means it cannot show up on the page.

Color-wise, Curiel does a good job of keeping things heavier feeling with the amount of shadows and darker tones. Plenty of more vibrant and lush colors do factor in since there are nature scenes and superhero-adjacent type beats. Just as there is little variety in character personas, skin tones are pretty much one uniform choice no matter the characters or place they are from.

It’s not washed out, as many Marvel books have had issues with over the years, but it’s still pretty monotone in a way.

Characters do a lot of talking and expositing, they have to fill us in since the book is skipping months. Petit makes it flow and frames the artwork quite well. Again, there isn’t a lot of that emotional energy that Petit is known for within those words. Not for lack of trying though. I hate to beat it over the head at this point, but this book is seriously missing a lack of heart that would take it at least a step or two above where it is now.

Ultimate Black Panther #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.