Black Panther #5 Review *SPOILERS*

Story: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Art: Chris Sprouse
Inks: Karl Story
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99

Okay, right off the bat, I noticed something was off about this book. It looks like someone else was trying to draw in a similar style to Brian Stelfreeze and the inks are different as well. So I look up at the top and Stelfreeze is not written on the top! I was bummed since I do not read solicits, and I wanted this team to follow out the whole arc at least.

As I open up the book, I see Stelfreez's work on the character and recap page and compare it to page one. Let's see if I can get past this, or if it ruins the experience for me. We start off with  T'Challa and his task force raiding a rebel base and finding a group of men with bombs implanted in their chests.

Black Panther channels Rocky Balboa and wants to be hit a few times and says yes as he got hit. This part is either brilliant or just plain nuts, I haven't decided yet. But it is weird as hell for sure. He snaps back to his senses and they layeth the smacketh down on these fools and with the help of Eden (Manifold from the Avengers) they open up a gateway to bring the men with bombs to their base. I didn't think this was such a great idea either, but we will see how it plays out I guess. 

So Black Panther goes into a meeting that he set up with the rulers of Madripoor, Alberia, Genosha, Santo Marco, and Symkaria. Another not so great idea in my opinion. They basically tell him he needs to rule with a heavy hand, they want him to go back to the old ways of ruling "Or somebody else weill". 

We then cut to Ramonda and Shuri in a flashback training as Romonda tells her about a story of foreigners that tried to invade Wakanda. I think this took away a bit from the flow of the book and that it could have been cut down a bit. 

 We cut back to Black Panther as he questions one of the men with the bomb implanted in his chest. They bicker back and forth a bit and we learn that Black Panther knows who he is and knows his brother. and after bantering he tells Black Panther that he will serve his nation, He then tells him that they have a secret pact. Another bad idea? Possibly, we will see in time.

We then transition to one of the men from the council that T'Challa had earlier. This is where I had an issue with the art. It was hard for me to tell which guy this was because three of them looked pretty much the same. I went back to that page a few times and all three had changes in their faces and hair, so I said screw it! One of the white guys was meeting with Tetu, Zenzi, and Zeeke. I was glad to finally see them since this is my second favorite faction in this book. The Midnight Angels are still my #1 faction, but we do not get much of them in the past few issues.

Anyways, we find out white guy #3 was working with Zeeke the wholle time and he wants his money.Poor guy had no idea he was about to get the "Snakes" treatment from that home alone movie that Uncle Frank wouldn't let Kevin watch!!

So anyway, white guy #3 gets whacked and it appears that Zeeke made a snuff film and sent it to the Midnight Angles, Changamire, Storm, and Black Panther as the issue ends.

 Overall, the issue was decent. It was not bad at all, but it was the weakest of the series so far. After the first few pages I get over the difference in the art. The inks are crisp and the book still has that darker vibe, but it had a better feel with the art of Brian Stelfreeze. I have to step back and remind myself that this is the first comic book that Coates worked on as well, so I can understand and forgive the fact that this issue was a bit slow compared to the previous issues. I was going to give this book a solid 7 for sure, since I felt it delivered on filling us in on what is going on and setting up the following issues. After reading it for a second time I felt that I was too hard on Coates and this issue.

Coates is giving me a book that has a solid plot, has a good flow, and has me interested in the villains and supporting cast. These are elements that most books drop the ball on and I drop them from my pull list in frustration. So I need to tip my hat to him for keeping me on board to see what's next. Although this is the weakest book in my opinion for the series, it was still a really good issue.

7.5/10

Until next time DatBeardedBastard is out.....