Eagle-eyed iTunes shoppers may have noticed today that a season pass for BET's upcoming Black Panther series is now available for a mere $27.99. I haven't heard a peep about this series since it was originally announced (so long ago that I think it was originally planned as a radio serial) but iTunes tells me it has a release date of June 23rd, so mark your calendars, check your local listings, etc.
In addition to the season pass, iTunes has a 2:40 preview of the show to whet your appetite. Essentially a music video for the show's theme song, the preview gives the impression that the series is a pretty direct retelling of the Reginald Hudlin/John Romita Jr. arc that relaunched the Black Panther comic a few years ago. When I say "pretty direct," I mean that they are literally using Romita's panels from the book; the animation looks in many places like a "motion comic" that has gotten a lot more care and feeding than most. Not as good as Hayao Miyazaki, but twice as good as any episode of He-Man you ever saw.
The preview is also chockablock with Marvel universe cameos, including some of the less merry mutants. Take a look at iTunes (or the screenshots) and see what you think.
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wowwwwwwwww
It a great year for Romita Jr. His stuff on Kickass turned into film and a big hit, working on THE Avengers, and now this.
hope we get to use luke cage and other black super heros on the show…..
How is this new? This aired on tv in like January, I watched the whole series. It was pretty cool, and had some cool cameos.
yeah this on on TV in Australia ages ago. a bizarre blend of Romita Jr and Dave Johnson.
not for Nightcrawler fans
Yeah, that’s what I thought. It was good, but kind of a weird cross between animated comics and animation.
Apparently Australia got this one a few months back, and we here in the States are only now catching up.
wow. was that Dominic Fortune also?
I’m really anti-motion comics, but this looks pretty badass.
Ive seen most of it online and if your into this kinda thing you’ll love it but as someone who has pretty much hated hudlin’s run and take on the black panther i was not a fan since its pretty much a literal retailing with more content to fill out time
Jeez, they were promoting this at 2009 Wondercon.
I continue to be utterly baffled that Hudlin’s run gets so much more attention than the infinitely superior Priest run.
After watching the preview it reminds me a lot of the classic Johnny Quest animation. You Aussies are lucky in more than a few ways but I’m glad we can now get a chance to catch up with you on this one.
Johnny Quest! You have pulled exactly the reference I have been searching for.
I’ve been waiting for this for awhile now. I can’t wait to check it out.
@Jimski & @Cropcirkill: Maybe Jonhhy Quest is the Ultimate Black Panther.
As a very faithful adaptation of the comic of limited animation, I was a pretty skeptical about what I was going to get out of it. What I found was something that only enhanced my perspective on what’s a fantastic comic! Djimon Hounsou is an obvious choice for a live-action movie, but adds great gravitas to a character whose voice was probably never quite as authentic as it should’ve been in my own head. Treatment given to tone and atmosphere adds great weight to it, too.
Well worth a look!
why on BET? not even black people watch BET anymore.
@bigyanks: LMAO!!! SO TRUE. I hate that channel with a passion.
Anyways, I’m all game for this show. Let’s hope they don’t %#$@ it up.
Speaking as one of those Aussies that have seen this, it’s pretty good (Hounsou is excellent), but I think that the premise of adapting a comic run to animation was done better service in the 90’s X-Men series.
@Bigyanks sooo true.
I am Hyped about this.
I will never watch this on BET. They won’t put any money into it and the production value will suck. They will probably also make him the "baddest cat" in town. Cue the 70’s Blaxploitation music. The look on Cap’s face makes me wonder what kind of story we are looking at..
This is very low budget motion comic. Like twistedkaijuu07 said – it’s retelling the exact story from Hudlin’s Panther series. The Romita artwork is great – but the filler artwork is very weak and stands out when up against Romita’s work. Hudlin’s story is okay.
Overall: It’s not the worst I’ve seen – but nothing to get excited about.