Mineral On A Mission — Reviewing ‘Ultimate Black Panther’ #16
by Scott Redmond
Overview
Chemistry, harsh truths, emotional words, and the further growth of character development continues in another relatively solid issue for the series. Sometimes there are stories that take longer to bake and this might be a good example of that.
Overall
8.5/10Something ancient and sinister emerged from Wakanda’s Vibranium months ago. Its unstoppable path across Africa bodes ill for the world. Black Panther and Storm are on the case, but even they might not be enough to deal with this unknowable foe.
The journey continues with Ultimate Black Panther #16 from Bryan Hill, Carlos Nieto, David Curiel, and Cory Petit.
If we can’t have Stefano Caselli for more than some issues here or there, having Nieto as his artistic companion is a good situation.
Much like Caselli’s style, Nieto’s is one well-suited for action packed shiny colorful superhero fantastical tales. An overall slick smoothness is ever present with just a hint of rougher textures added in for good measure. A couple of body horror moments are kept from being too horrific because of the little more whimsical stylings. What action there is feels firm and kinetic at all times.
A lot of talking scenes are here too and Nieto keeps them feeling lively with just the little changes and energy.
Thicker color palette choices lend themselves to this art style. Curiel brings the lighter vibrant beats in the right moments, letting the overall colors soak in with a more toned-down aesthetic. So that the world around them feels very lively and familiar to the eye.
This pared down storytelling in the book the past few issues is helping a ton. Hill’s plotting feels more precise and the characters actually have room to emote. This might be the most emotionally present Storm we’ve seen this whole run, moving beyond the terse arms crossed revolutionary we’ve seen for all this time. It overall feels more complete compared to some of the issues we were getting in the beginning.
There are fewer of these barely disguised cutouts of other versions of the characters and more of them becoming their own thing.
With this shift Petit definitely has more of a foundation to work with for the lettering, finding the emotional beats easier, rather than having to somewhat force them. He lets it all wash over the page in a lively way so that all the words hit with the right impact.
Ultimate Black Panther #16 is now available.
