BLACK PANTHER MAN WITHOUT FEAR #514

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Avg Rating: 3.7
 
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Story by David Liss
Art by Francesco Francavilla
Cover by Simone Bianchi, Simone Peruzzi

Size: pages
Price: 2.99

“Boy”, I say to myself, “boy I can’t believe I gave this another shot.” I didn’t find the first issue to be that remarkable, but yet I gave it another shot? Why? Maybe it was that I yearned for more Francesco Francavilla art in my life even though I get a lot of it in Detective Comics. I seriously can’t think of why I did this. After reading it, I’m even more angry at myself for giving this another shot.

Look, I like David Liss and I think his previous comic work (and prose work) was great to read. But this issue, really is some of the worst dialogue I’ve seen in a comic. The characters are so stupid, so stupid, that I think this title has shown a new low on how stupid a character can be. It’s mostly the villains and thugs here that are downright idiotic, but T’Challa’s new friends in his diner are pretty dumb to. Lets just say that something happens to one of them and I was upset mainly because it was their own damn fault for it happening. Back to the villains, man does Liss make Russians look like complete incompetants (then again it is sorta factual). Also, the way he makes them talk varies from page to page. Vlad (the main baddie) goes from eloquent mob boss to a parody of Yakov Smirnoff on the drop of the hat. That and we also have one of the most stereotypical portrayals of Luke Cage ever. It isn’t like what you see in Afrodisiac but it almost crosses the line, that’s how bad it is.

I can’t even go further on this review. Yes there is some wonderful art by Francavilla in this and it’s the only good thing about this run. But Liss’s writing is either lazy, bad, or just plain stereotypical on the races and cultures he writes (both Russian and African American). It’s a shame because previous work by Liss show that he can be a good writer when he wants to be. But I have a feeling that this decision for Black Panther as the new ‘Man Without Fear’ was a late one. Because if this is written with time and care put into it, then I’m frightened to even continue with this series.

Story: 1 - Poor
Art: 5 - Excellent

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