King Again In Spirit: Reviewing ‘Black Panther’ #10

As the former King, T’Challa has long fought for Wakanda’s soul. Now he fights for the souls of his people.

The exiled hero’s time in Birnin T’Chaka comes to an explosively personal conclusion with Black Panther #10. This is the conclusion of a ten-part tale from Eve L. Ewing, Chris Allen, Craig Yeung, Oren Junior, Jesus Aburtov, Andrew Dalhouse, and Joe Sabino.

When it comes to stories that must maintain a certain length, two types of frantic energy exist. There is the energy that feels extremely rushed, a story being pushed to the finish line no matter what. The other type is structured manufactured frenzy that often plays out with big action or fight types of scenes.

Black Panther’s concluding issue finds a way to do both.

Everything to do with the fight against the demonic soul-eating Kivu’ma checks both frenzied boxes really hard. It’s a chaotic fight scene, featuring characters bounding through a variety of settings, that’ll bring on some whiplash. Part of the reason it feels that way though is that it took almost nine issues to even reach the point of knowing who or what the villain truly was up to. Therefore, one final normal sized issue was never going to feel quite smooth at concluding things.

Not without a little finagling to make it all fit.

Look, I can’t say for sure because these things don’t always come out, but I would not be surprised if Ewing had a plan that spanned more issues. In comics though the best laid plans are always at the whim of the higher ups who can extend or cut off your run at the drop of a hat.

Maybe sales were not what they were hoping for such a long-form run. Perhaps it was always meant to end here and things just weren’t parceled out the best between issues. Hell, maybe having Ewing now joining the X-Men side of things for a big relaunch led to a sacrifice for this title.

I can speculate all day, but that feels trivial.

The point is, while this has a lot of good solid beats and character moments, everything feels very rushed and brushed aside.

Even the ending, with the goodbyes and moving T’Challa on from the city feels slightly hollow.

Chiefly the treatment of the transgender thief Beisa, who T’Challa befriended and even flirted with, who gets no goodbye or appearance during T’Challa’s departure. She and so many others, like the guide lawyer character N’Yobi, are summarily cast into character Limbo. Because the likelihood that the next run, whatever and whenever that will happen, will pick them up seems slim.

All of this frenzy permeates through the artwork as well.

It’s overall great, as it has been this whole time. Very detailed, kinetic, really taking advantage of the current story environment. Where it hits the sort of rushed tone is in the paneling, and in some cases seemingly missing panels. Odd angles and approaches make some things feel a bit bunched up or hard to follow. Proper weight and focus are mostly given to the elements on the page, letting the characters movement and body language speak for themselves. A trio of inkers work together pretty well to bring the same feeling to all of the pages, making it unclear who handled which section (as it should be).

While I spoke about some of the bunched-up paneling, there are some others that stand in opposition. When T’Challa loses his soul and characters are trying to bring him back, the full page spread of the floating heads and panels with N’Yobi speaking to the trapped essence of Panther is so well done. A real mix of things that work and those that don’t, pointing more toward the idea that this was potentially numerous issues worth of things put into one.

Heavy can also describe the colors that Aburtov and Dalhouse bring to the table. Shadowy and rough in their own way, keeping the overall tone that has been here through all ten issues. Giving most portions a more natural appeal so that the outlandish bits, like Kivu’ma, truly stand out as bizarre and above everything else.

A ton of dialogue has to fit into this issue, as there were still a lot of questions to be asked and things explained. Sabino makes sure that no matter how many bubbles must appear on a given page, it’s never too many. There is no bogging down or overwhelming the audience as things move along.

Black Panther #10 is now available from Marvel Comics.