Writer of Black Panther: Legends, Tochi Onyebuchi, is one of the most exciting creators working for Marvel right now. He’s doing really interesting stuff with the Captain America book he’s writing, and I recently read his autobiographical/criticism (S)Kinfolk which is beautiful in prose and execution.
The effect of reading both these, and getting to see Onyebuchi’s thoughts on Blackness in America and his specific life as the son of a Nigerian immigrant, I was excited for Black Panther: Legends, anxious to see what Onyebuchi’s fantasy of Wakanda would look like as the focus. Now, that’s not what I got in this volume, and I’ll say it is somewhat disappointing for me, but I think what is here is still excellent – my expectations were just out of whack.
First and foremost, this comic is four issues long, roughly 80 pages, designed for children. To expect this to be some kind of thorough examination and revision of Wakanda was complete foolishness on my part, and difficult-to-impossible for Onyebuchi to pull off. Ridiculous standard to set; that’s on me. Surprisingly enough, it ended up treating T’Challa and his kingship in a positive way that hasn’t been as popular in comics of late.
In the recent past, writers have started depicting T’Challa and his rulership of Wakanda in a more negative light. This can be traced to different sources, but it inarguably came to a head with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze’s relaunch of Black Panther in 2016. The run criticizes the Wakandan kingship, and commits to complicating Wakanda as a state, and eventually an empire. Instead of a utopian vision of and for the diaspora, Wakanda and its king were held in the light of the Empire, and treated accordingly. It is one of my favorite superhero runs of the last decade.
While it is a great story for any number of reasons, it’s also the kind of story that is going to define the character and setting for years to come. There is little chance to go back to any other read on the character, including one closer to the MCU’s Black Panther, and Wakanda – incidentally, that seems to be the version that is most meaningful to Onyebuchi.
Black Panther: Legends takes the opportunity afforded by being an origin, and tells a story about T’Challa finding his way as a young man, superhero, and king. It uses its space to contextualize his rise to power in struggle and tragedy. It’s a more classic depiction of kinghood, where rulership is earned and deserved, more in line with other child-oriented stories like The Lion King, where growing up is equated with kingship. The result is a book that feels more like a classic superhero story in all the right ways.
However much I enjoyed it, it really failed to stick the landing, with the fourth issue feeling rushed in an inorganic way. I’m not sure what all went into it, but from the art to the guest stars, it felt much more mandatory than anything else in the book. I can imagine a more solid ending, one where the themes were more elegantly woven into the whole, that was given more room to breathe, which would have made this comic into a more obvious instant-classic. Instead, it falls into a pitfall that many prequel stories do; having to stick too closely to what’s already been established.
I know Onyebuchi has meaningful things to say about Wakanda: he’s done so in (S)kinfolk and is doing so in Captain America. Unfortunately, I don’t think he was given the space to do so in ‘Black Panther: Legends’, however, I do think it forms part of the tapestry of his thoughts on T’Challa and Black Panther, and for that alone, it is worth checking out. I hope he gets every opportunity he wants to continue defining them.
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