Welcome back to another edition of Marvel Rundown. This week, as the year draws to a close, we’re having a rather quiet wrap-up. Our featured review is Ultimate Black Panther #22 by Bryan Hill, Carlos, Nieto, and David Curiel. As always, an elite group of Marvel experts provide a quick recap of The Amazing Spider-Man: Tone #2, Spider-Man and Wolverine #7, and Roguestorm #2 Dispatches from the Age of Apocalypse.
As always, The Beat wants to hear from all you true believers! Let us know what you think of this week’s Marvel Comics! Give us a shout in the comments section below or on social media @comicsbeat or @comicsbeat.bsky.social.
Ultimate Black Panther #22
Screenplay: Brian Hill
Artist: Carlos Nieto
Colorist: David Kriel
Author: Cory Petit of VC
One of the great things about the current cycle of Ultimate Marvel is how wild the creators can get. Ultimate Spider-Man proves that Peter Parker actually has a job as a married man. X-Men became J-horror in the vein of Junji Ito. Wolverine gets to the heart of what makes heroes so compelling. Ultimates, on the other hand, remains one of the most original superhero books of our time. This line is expected to be gone by March.
However, the wildest swing has to come from Ultimate Black Panther. Writer Brian Hill has been playing the game with this title for a long time. In an early interview, Hill hinted at how Frank Herbert’s seminal novel Dune influenced his approach to Ultimate Wakanda. In early issues, it was felt but not obvious. It’s become very obvious as the series reaches its end, but it’s a bug, not a feature. There’s little ambition in superhero stories these days, and Ultimate Black Panther is the big sci-fi blockbuster the genre needs.
Art: Carlos Nieto
Hill took the idea of vibranium, the magical metal that enables Wakanda’s technology and influences its people, to its logical extreme. Vibranium is alive and possessed by a being called the Progenitor, who led the Wakandans to create the means to invade our world. The reveal that vibranium is the life substance that influenced the development of Wakanda was the biggest development for the character in the series. Over the past ten issues or so, Black Panther T’Challa has had to reject the influence of metal, the reveal of the creature within, and so many betrayals.
This combination of technology and magic is one of the series’ most fascinating elements. Recent weak writers have used Arthur C. Clarke’s maxim, “Any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic,” to demystify magic. How boring is that? But Hill is more interested in the two working together. While using science to fight the Progenitors, T’Challa had to accept magic as a way to understand what vibranium was. Meanwhile, the real villains of the series, the Vodou Khans, are basically a sect of witches.
Art: Carlos Nieto
Hill uses all of this to create an engaging melodrama that lives up to his lofty sci-fi concepts. This penultimate issue is no exception. Storm, captured by Vodou Khan, finally creates the vessel of Progentior. Black Panther and Killmonger go looking for them. Inan, the ultimate sorcerer, makes a pact that could backfire. And the plot of the leopard goddess Bast. Both artist Carlos Nieto and colorist David Curiel feel completely at home here. He’s not the flashiest artist, but he grounds all of these lofty concepts. Like Richard Case in Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, Nate makes all of this believable and weird.
This is what this series is built on and it’s all exciting to read. There’s only one month left until Ultimate Endgame and two months left until the series concludes. Black Panther was a slow burn, and now everything is on fire. All that remains is to see how everything burns.
Verdict: Buy
rapid rundown
Amazing Spider-Man Tone Issue #02 Amazing Spider-Man Tone Issue #02, written by J. Michael Straczynski and with art by Pere Perez, is another great Spider-Man issue with a true return to the melodrama, secret identities, and drama of Spider-Man stories that some Spider-Man has been craving. Honestly, if you’re not happy with the current state of Spider-Man, this is a great series to get into. Straczynski brilliantly captures Peter’s inner dialogue, the drama of having a secret identity, and the many reasons why people love Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker. Even if it gets in the way of the drama, it could be a fun way to connect readers with Peter, who just wants to live his everyday life, while adding a fun supernatural element. And Perez’s art fits perfectly into this classic storytelling, giving everyone a classic yet modern design and doing a really great job with the design and presentation of Spider-Man. Straczynski also does a great job of articulating Peter’s ever-present guilt, which motivates many of his actions. Sure, our main villains may have mediocre designs so far, especially compared to other Spider-Man villains, but that’s not enough to stop fans from listening while reading. I can’t wait to see what happens. – LM Spider-Man and Wolverine #7 I was always going to be at least a little interested in a book that featured two of my (and the world’s) favorite Marvel characters. Their strange marital relationship is so wonderful that I feel strongly that a book featuring them should always be available. Can you give us a picture by Kaare Andrews of Spidey and Wolverine going on a big, weird adventure with a giant action set? That’s all you need. The first five-issue story focused on Peter’s secret agent parents and left me cold from a narrative standpoint, but after a one-off with a serious artist, this second story by writers Marc Guggenheim and Andrews is pure and super fun, featuring a villain from another Earth who is a twisted amalgamation of our heroes. Kare Andrews goes wild with the layout of this issue, using giant double-page spreads and distorted illustrations. The last page reveal is really cool. The inventive visuals and Andrews’ quirky pairing of MacFarlane and Romita are perfect for the acrobatic Spidey and animalistic Wolverine. Sometimes I wish superhero books had something to say about the human condition. And sometimes you just want to see an artist push the envelope with two of his favorite guys. However, this is clearly the best script we’ve gotten from Guggenheim for the series so far. Moving away from the first arc’s mysterious villain’s tormented motivations and Peter and Mary’s Parker baggage is a big help. Brian River’s retro approach to color, mostly flat with simple shading and highlights, helps Andrews’ bold figure work stand out on the page. The dimensional switch also includes a subtle color shift to a more faded, grimier palette that helps define the tone of this dark world. VC’s Travis Lanham’s lettering is clean and easy to read, and it follows comfortably even with wild layouts and heavy use of captions. You can easily skip the first chapter of this series and just jump here and have fun, but the previous chapters are also worth seeking out, if only for the work of the great Kare Andrews. – T.R.
Dispatch from the Age of Apocalypse
Rogue Storm #2 Writer Murewa Ayodele continues his Apocalypse-era story of the conflict between Storm and Rogue Red. Ayodele utilizes non-linear storytelling in this issue to help further ground the story in the era X years after the apocalypse. The constant jumps between time periods not only explain how chaotic the Age of Apocalypse was, but also help keep the pace of the story very brisk. The story, set X years later, focuses on Gambit confronting Storm about Rogue Red’s fate. This adds tension to Storm and Rogue’s Uncanny X-Force battle over a five-year saga. The mystery behind Rogue’s fate ensures that the outcome of that battle is never an inevitable conclusion. Ayodele makes for an interesting story, even though it’s unrelated to the main storyline of Age of Revelation, and I love seeing it in these kinds of crossovers. As always, Laurent Boschi’s art is beautiful as the timeline flits between lush jungles and desolate tundra. The action is dynamic and expressive. The weight of each punch, stab, and scream is palpable on the page. The sound effects that can be run through Boschi or Travis Lanham’s characters are a simple but fun way to add weight to a moment. Rogue Storm has a level of chaotic energy not found in other Age of Revelation tie-ins, and I appreciate that. I can’t wait to see how this book ends next month. –J.J.
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