Picking Up The Scattered Pieces — Reviewing ‘Ultimate Black Panther’ #15

Sit with something long enough and your feelings may begin to change. Opinions can steadily be chipped away. Sometimes that works out for the better, but sometimes for the worse.

Either way, there is a difference in how the thing is perceived upon each visit. Comic books have the ability to do this because of their ongoing serial nature. What might be a strong or weak start can completely turn the other way, given enough time. Other times, a book remains the way it is for the audience, no matter what.

That’s not the case for Ultimate Black Panther as the series coasts into its fifteenth issue from Bryan Hill, Stefano Caselli, David Curiel, and Cory Petit.

Prepare for a shocker, I’m actually liking this series.

After a score of reviews near the beginning, through to recent times that were (rightfully) shaky, I came out of this issue nodding my head. The various flaws and quibbles that I had over that shaky period are not all excised. There are still timeline wonkiness issues and a lack of really deep characterization, but with hat being said, if I look at this like just a Black Panther-starring thriller epic, really squinting at times, it’s not half bad.

Paring things down probably helps some. With just T’Challa and Ororo in this issue, there is more room to at least focus on something. Not them or their characters, which are still pretty threadbare (relying on MCU or 616 knowledge), but the plot. This Progenitor Dark Vibranium stuff is already more interesting than the Moon Knight Khonshu and Ra war plot.

So, there’s that.

Caselli keeps doing what he does best.

The art is slick, dynamic, and full of the right kind of dense scope that speaks the language of superheroes. It’s hefty enough, with plenty of darker, rougher textures to play with the thriller aspect mentioned before. Even when characters are not as emotional or fleshed out as they could be, we feel their presence. There is weight and power to what is on the page. Each of the action sequences glides along with a rapid, frantic, but easily followed direction.

That’s also thanks to a lot of creative and expansive paneling choices.

As usual, the work is paired with Curiel’s colors, which really work. The chosen color palette floats between darkness and light so easily. This allows the more vibrant elements to pop against backdrops that are more neutral or baseline colored. Shadows and darker tones helping expand the depth that is already present in the artwork. Just enough rough textures are factored into the proceedings for the overall feel of this particular story and chunk of the Ultimate world.

Taking what is given, Petit spins some magic to create solid and authentic feeling voices, where emotional resonance is conveyed as much as possible. This allows the voices to spread around with authority and logic, peppering in the right modifications at any given moment to best present the dialogue for our minds.

Ultimate Black Panther #15 is now available from Marvel Comics.