The book that landed the top of the pile this week is Black Panther #1. Not because of the character or his place in the whole Marvel Universe, but because of the writer, Ta-Nehisi Coates. He is not a comic book writer, but rather a poet and journalist who is best known for writing the best selling Between the World and Me.
This book raises some interesting questions. What does it mean to be a king today? How does one rule over people when they have absolute power? What responsibilities does the Black Panther have with his country?
Though the first issue was really cool, it is just the setup for what hopefully will be a good story arc. Ta-Nehisi, for his first try at comic book writing, is pretty good. Often when a non-comic writer first starts writing for comics, they tend to be much too wordy not letting the pictures add to the narrative. But with this book, a good portion of the story is conveyed wonderfully by Brian Stelfreeze.
Interestingly, this book was pulled automatically by my local comic shop because the last time Black Panther was in his own book, it was penned by the best selling novelist David Liss. And with this new book, another famous non-comic world writer is making his mark.
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