• December 2025
    S M T W T F S
     123456
    78910111213
    14151617181920
    21222324252627
    28293031  

  • On Facebook

    On Facebook

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Comic Blog Elite

    Comic Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory

Drawing Blood #6

Posted on September 24, 2024 by Walt

drawingblood_0006_with_KS_questionChapter 6

Writer: David Avallone
Artists: Ben Bishop, Kevin Eastman, Troy Little
Letterer: Tony Esposito
Colorist: Luis Antonio Delgado
Published by: Image Comics

So…Drawing Blood #6 is out.

This issue is the SECOND issue of the 4-issue "Drawing Blood vol. 2" that was funded by Kickstarter backers more than FIVE YEARS AGO.

In the 5+ years SINCE they raised over $121,000 dollars for what amounts to Drawing Blood #s 5-8, the creators have collectively posted a grand total of 15-16 Updates–several closer together, most with half-a-year-or-more gaps. By and large, they have stoutly refused to communicate with Kickstarter backers, preferring to post things to OTHER social media, expecting anyone who "cares" about the Kickstarter to BE on other social media.

And for years they’ve been making and continuing to break promises, and it’s been over 14 months since they even vaguely hinted at any sort of timeline. It’s always “soon,” but how many YEARS until “soon” becomes “scammed”?

Just going back THREE YEARS, below are some of the creators’ words from Kickstarter updates, with my ‘responses’ interspersed in blue. You’ll find the original comments from the creators on Kickstarter in the ‘Updates’ section of the project’s page corresponding to the ‘Update’ for each respective date.

David Avallone, July 21, 2021

[Shared video call between Avallone, Eastman, Bishop, saying loads of stuff that over 3 years later still hasn’t happened…and couldn’t even be bothered to summarize or write something for Kickstarter backers. Additionally, it was a short video, so no one spent much time to provide information/updates…it was like a 10-minute conference call on the go. ]

Ben Bishop, February 19, 2022 (7 months later…)

As I always mention – the very best place to see the latest on DRAWING BLOOD is our Instagram […] and our Facebook page […] – As wells as our individual Instagram accounts […] – – Whereas a single image and caption doesn’t always make for a meaty enough KS update,  I’m always posting bits and pieces of the process all the time over on IG, and also pretty decent at replying to comments. So, definitely give those accounts a follow if you want to stay more in the loop as we wrap this baby up.

It’s taking forever – we know. But we’re so close, and so confident that it’ll be worth the wait. Thanks for hanging in there.

And yet none of those pages linked to are Kickstarter itself…where backers backed this, and expect to be able to at LEAST get “monthly” “updates.” Sure, a single image/caption here or there may not warrant a whole Update and can add further TO the actual updates…abdicating Kickstarter and forcing people to go to other social media in the hopes of MAYBE finding something relevant to this particular project?

Ben Bishop, November 9, 2022 (9 months later…)

We’ve been getting lots of bumps and nudges, or pokes, whatever you want to call them – for another DRAWING BLOOD Kickstarter update, so I wanted to drop in quickly this morning and type something up for all of you patiently waiting on DRAWING BLOOD VOL.2.

Yeah, that only took NINE MONTHS of “bumps/nudges/pokes/whatever” for an Update. Even if not posted as a full-on Update, it’s actually, genuinely POSSIBLE for creators to hop on and post COMMENTS and/or REPLY TO comments without having to put together huge/long/fancy Updates.

There’s not a whole lot to update you all about – and no one likes a lame update – but I can at least come by and let you know we’re all still alive, and still working on the book. Nothing has changed. We’re still all bouncing between various jobs or conventions or everyday human stuff like doctors appointments, funerals, DMV lines, and whatever else somehow sucks the time away each day.

No one likes lame updates, sure…but at least an update IS an update. It’s the few minutes of a creator’s time amidst everything else—it should be part of those “whatever else somehow sucks the time away each day” to have even one creator out of 3+ take five minutes in ONE MONTH to post something. Creators bouncing between jobs taken in lieu of what money was already collected for (Last Ronin over Drawing Blood v. 2) is a bit shady. Everyone else has stuff going on, do they not deserve to know where their money’s going and that the creators haven’t just left them high and dry?

David Avallone, July 20, 2023 (Over 9 months later, start of SDCC 2023 just ahead of panels involving this creative team)

I hoped the overlap in the fandom would satisfy most of you that you were getting something amazing, even if it wasn’t DBV2 yet.

Some of you… weren’t satisfied and weren’t patient.

What *I* myself primarily saw and experienced in the months leading up to this Update was people requesting informatioin, updates, SOME SORT OF COMMUNICATION from someone involved in the project…but it was months of abject SILENCE.

[…]

He should have 8 inked within a month… and then we’re finally done, and ready to send it to you.

As of September 24, 2024…this statement is 14 months old. Speaks for itself.

[…]

Which leads us to the big announcement. You are the first to officially hear it, before we talk about it later today at San Diego Comic Con (and I hope some of you are in the room when we do.)

This seems to be the entire reason anyone even bothered to post an update…so that no one could stand up in a panel and ask FOR an update or ask why they haven’t communicated in 9 months…

It was pretty thrilling to get this email, even knowing the contract had been signed.
Eric Stephenson of Image loves DRAWING BLOOD, and we have signed a contract with him to publish the series, and the RAGDOLLS comics that supplement it.

And this was the first backers had anything official on this. Never even any information about them considering publishing through Image, having already published 1-4 as single issues through Kevin Eastman’s studio!

[…]

Within a week or so, we’ll announce when the first issue will drop from Image.  In keeping with industry practice, that means the first issue will be in comics shops about four months later. This will be DRAWING BLOOD #1, which you’ve all read, of course, but then we will go straight through for 12 months, with Volume Two commencing about four months in, and Volume Three four months after that.

14 months later and they still have not communicated when issues would or have drop(ped) from Image.

Never anything specific about timelines or intentions such as “We should know by December if we’ll be able to deliver by February” or some such.

[…]

rest assured: Kickstarter supporters of Volume Two will get their copy of the Volume Two trade a very long time before those issues hit stores for public consumption.

Absolute LIE. Now with #6, this is HALF OF volume 2 that is in stores, and Kickstarter supporters have NOTHING tangible. Even a PDF of #5 shared at the end of the day the day it was in shops was half-assed at best; more later.

[…]

You’ll get it first. And you’ll get some extras we’re throwing in, to thank you for your patience. We’ll make sure that you, the core fans of DRAWING BLOOD hear about everything first, and see everything first.

Again, LIES. There has been NO FURTHER communication, promotion, information, announcement(s) etc in the over 14 months since this was posted.

Kevin Eastman, May 18, 2024 (10 months later)

A LONG OVERDUE letter to all the generous fans that supported the second Drawing Blood Kickstarter campaign in 2019 – my sincere apologies.

Long overdue indeed…I had figured Eastman had essentially merely lent his NAME to the project. Finally, some responsibility being assumed, and this thing can get underway…
…right?

[…]

It is appalling quite honestly that I have not been up here to speak with you before, my name is on the campaign, much like the first one

EXACTLY like the first one

[…]

There is no one to blame except me and there are no excuses I could offer or would accept if I were you.

Ok, we’re getting toward platitudes, especially looking back more than 4 months with nothing tangible since.

[…]

I will say only this, five years to complete a project like the one you funded is disgusting – especially when it has my name on it, even more so. I can sincerely tell you on every level, over that time, the money you contributed to help create and fund this project has only been spent on this project – the funds to complete and deliver the remaining items (original art and related, already complete items, have long since be sent to the supporters) are right where they are supposed to be, and will be used to do so in the coming months.

Potentially ok, but these months later in September, methinks he doth protest too much, so to speak.

[…]

We will be sending out a backer survey shortly, we are nearing completion of all the final elements of the funded Kickstarter campaign

Nothing concrete. No specific dates. And 4+ months later, no backer survey (pretty sure one might have been sent out YEARS AGO, but I haven’t even dug back that far if my emails even DO go back that far). No word on what “nearing completion” means, or what “final elements” REMAIN.

[…]

Again, and you’ll hear it MANY, MANY more times from me in coming months – my apologies –

more generic-sounding apologies and words from something that doesn’t seem like it should have taken more than a half hour to write…averaging (at a half hour) 3 minutes per month of silence since July 2023?

Kevin Eastman, July 9, 2024 (over 7 weeks later)

By the end of next week, we’ll have the final digital PDF of issue #5 to send to you all, and if all goes as planned, we’ll have issues #6, and #7, and #8 off to you about every two weeks thereafter – so you get to see, at least in digital form, in the short term, everything you helped us bring to life – and the hard copies are coming soon.

2 months shy of the 5-year-mark from this project being funded, virtually a YEAR after being told backers would have DBv2 long before others, and it was reduced to a digital file. That many people don’t even care about or have trouble attempting to read—it is NOT a Guided View thing or any ‘smart’ digital comic, and at least for myself, viewing PDFs on a widescreen laptop is NOT conducive to a good reading experience for comics and their crazy panel layouts/structures modern artists seem to always be using.

[…]

I’ll also make sure we send around Troy’s final 40 page “RRRR Adventures” again as well – as I know some of you have gotten it and some missed it, and I want to make sure you all get to enjoy it – it’s truly beautiful.

I have seen NOTHING of this being sent around again…maybe there were private messages and/or private emails, but certainly nothing posted to the Kickstarter project page itself for general access by backers.

[…]

Looking further down the road, we’re all self-funding the final four issues of the series, issues #9, #10, #11, and #12 (which we couldn’t be doing if you hadn’t helped us with the first eight) and we are going to make sure you get digital copies of all those as our “thanks” for helping us throughout the dreadfully long process to date.

Probably because there’d be no way to do a Kickstarter again with the abysmal track record of the current project remaining UNfulfilled 5 years later and plenty of comments and concerns from people seeking updates that extremely rarely materialize.

And being published through IMAGE…aren’t ALL such comics—be it The Walking Dead, Drawing Blood, Saga, whatever—thus self-funded?!?

[…]

Okay – back to work for me – wanted to touch base with you all – and stay tuned for the backer survey details and more updates and surprises from us all in the very near future.

Ok, July 9…very near future…great.

(NOTHING on those as of September 24!)

Kevin Eastman, August 28, 2024 (another over-7-weeks later)

I know you are all feeling (very appropriately) upset about putting down your hard-earned cash to support our second Drawing Blood Kickstarter and are feeling ripped off – I apologize – it was not my intent, nor any the parties involved in this project to rip anyone off.  I couldn’t be more sincere here – and I assure you the money you have invested has been spent ONLY on the Drawing Blood project, period, and is actively making its final steps to completion.

August 28, 4pm, virtually end-of-the-day…after #5 was in stores all day for anyone, backer or otherwise.

Not sure I’d seen any further comments or such about how the money was spent, so again, methinks someone doth protest too much.

[…]

Personally, if my Uncle Quentin (one of the OG crowd funders in my history) did not loan us the $1300 to print TMNT issue #1 it would not have happened. Thanks to him it did, and thanks to many of you, our 2017 KS for Drawing Blood Volume One never would have happened, and additionally for so many more of you, the 2019 KS for Volume Two would never have happened either – I am very grateful for your support.

$1300 is a far cry from nearly $122,000 (OVER A HUNDRED *THOUSAND* dollars) that then has left backers waiting HALF A DECADE. If that $1300 loan happened in 1983 (TMNT #1 hit in 1984), 5 years later would have been…1988. Think about THAT.

[…]

Below, you have a link to issue #5, and in the next two weeks you can expect another update from me and the digital version of issue #6. 

And after all that time, and it’s just a simple link to a basic PDF file. Presumably such a file had to have existed prior, for proofing and approval and such during the printing process.

And a simple, basic LINK to a simple, basic FILE couldn’t even be provided to backers until the END of the day, basically an AFTERTHOUGHT?!?

[…]

And here we are, 8pm September 24, with issue #6 arriving in stores in a few hours (likely already there, just not for sale til Wednesday), and…

STILL.

NOTHING.

NOT. A. Freaking. Peep.

No PDF for #6. No backer survey. No timelines for expected schedules and such.

It’s not even like they’ve delayed #5 or #6 after #4, an understandable “break” between arcs/volumes, etc. SURELY they could have voluntarily INSERTED a brief hiatus in order to fulfill the Kickstarter, and see that backers got their books prior to them being released to the general public.

But here we are, halfway through vol. 2, and a whole lotta NOTHING.

drawingblood_0006_blogtrailer

Filed under: 2024 Non-Review Posts, 2024 Posts | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Drawing Blood and its creators disgust me

Posted on August 29, 2024 by Walt

db_ks_app_cover_pageSo, Drawing Blood #5 is out. To say it’s on my [crap]list is probably an understatement.

I meant to post back when #1 came out, but just didn’t have the heart to get into things on it.

But now?

End of August, 2024?

Yeahhhh…Drawing Blood and its creators (and by extension, basically anything/everything "Last Ronin" that I see) have a REALLY BAD taste to me, so to speak.

I backed the first Drawing Blood Kickstarter in 2017.

When the thing was later re-issued as single issues, I snagged those to ‘support’ the thing, even already having received the Kickstarter book.

August 2019 (FIVE. YEARS. AGO!) I backed the "Drawing Blood vol. 2" Kickstarter.

To this day, I have NOTHING PHYSICAL from said Kickstarter, despite promises and brush-offs and so on from the team behind it.

Drawing Blood vol. 2 was supposed to be fulfilled one year later: August 2020. Of course, pretty much anyone knows what "2020" held for the world, and obviously the project was "delayed."

But the 2020 stuff didn’t really hit until MARCH 2020, over 6 months AFTER the Kickstarter WRAPPED, over HALFWAY to the point the project was supposed to fulfill.

But the creators virtually ABANDONED the Kickstarter.

Oh, there were maybe an update or two in a YEAR.

But nothing remotely RESEMBLING the monthly updates that Kickstarter itself requires as part of its terms for creators of a Kickstarter project. As of this writing, August 29, 2024, there have been a grand total of 30 "Updates" posted to the Kickstarter…the first 15 of which were during the actual run of the campaign.

Meaning 15 "Updates" in FIVE YEARS. An "average" of 3 per year…with zero engagement from the creators to their backers, aside from some snotty attitude-laced comments over people basically BEGGING–for *multiple* MONTHS AT A TIME–for SOME SORT OF COMMUNICATION regarding the project.

Not ONE of the people involved in the Kickstarter–from Kevin Eastman, to David Avallone, to Ben Bishop, to whoever else–for MULTIPLE YEARS now–have even bothered to post a "comment" to the Kickstarter page.

While they’re off at conventions, signing appearances, hosting Whatnot events, posting to various social media, NONE would even take a few MINUTES within any given MONTH to so much as post a comment to touch base with and engage with their Kickstarter backers–who they collected $121,732 from HALF A DECADE AGO.

While there were occasional posts other backers noted being on Facebook or Instagram occasionally–the creators apparently REFUSED to engage with Kickstarter itself once they had the money and ran.

For the past nearly-14 months, even, there’ve been platitudes and half-assed supposed "apologies" with immediately-broken promises attached, yet STILL…

STILL, not one of the creators acknowledges the NEAR-ZERO COMMUNICATION.

Making matters worse–in my eyes–are "promises" and definitive statements made over the past ~14 months that have NOT materialized.

Just 3 “recent” examples:

Avallone Update #26, July 20 2023 (over 13 months ago)
"rest assured: Kickstarter supporters of Volume Two will get their copy of the Volume Two trade a very long time before those issues hit stores for public consumption."

Eastman Update #28, May 18 2024 (over 3 months ago)
"We will be sending out a backer survey shortly, we are nearing completion of all the final elements of the funded Kickstarter campaign – and you will be hearing and getting updates from me directly, here, through the completion of fulfillment."

Eastman Update #29, July 9 2024 (7 weeks ago)
"By the end of next week, we’ll have the final digital PDF of issue #5 to send to you all"

Yet even with that last promise…it wasn’t until AFTER #5 was already out, available in stores, that a link to a PDF was even posted to the Kickstarter page—4pm, nearly end of the standard workday—on the 28th, .

Of just that one issue.

So FIVE YEARS of near-zero communication, passive aggressive hostility, and so on…and people that never had anything to do with crowdfunding had their issues in-hand before general backers even had a chance to read a digital PDF.

I can’t even begin to describe my disappointment–to put it most mildly–in a creator whose creations I’ve otherwise primarily enjoyed for most of my life. To say nothing of being so incredibly put-off by the other creators involved, and by their being able to put out umpteen issues of Last Ronin and Elvira and general work and appearances and events for themselves, other publishers…

But there’s been NO ACCOUNTABILITY to their Kickstarter backers.

Just idle "promises" of extras to be provided at fulfillment…but not even a PEEP in YEARS as to when anyone can EXPECT that fulfillment.

I’m amazed that IDW hasn’t stepped in–because surely this reflects poorly on creators involved with their biggest TMNT stuff in The Last Ronin, let alone TMNT itself!

Image sure doesn’t seem to have cared about the creators’ disrespect to their Kickstarter obligations, backers, and fans.

I am absolutely disgusted, and may post more on this at some later point but for now, putting this out there.

Feel free to visit the Kickstarter page itself to see whatever you can see for yourself–including my many requests for Updates, and comments asking what’s going on, etc.

Filed under: 2024 Non-Review Posts, 2024 Posts | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The ‘90s Revisited: Batman #476

Posted on February 15, 2024 by Walt

baman0476The Return of Scarface! Part Three: The Gig Heat!

Writer: Alan Grant
Artist: Norm Breyfogle
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: Todd Klein
Assoc. Editor: Kelley Puckett
Editor: Dennis O’Neil
Cover Price: $1.00
Cover Date: April 1992

In this day and age (February 2024), comic covers are virtually meaningless. People even seem to collect "virgin variants" that don’t even carry the TITLE, or cardstock variants that don’t have the actual big, bombastic, noticeable logos, etc. And there are so many variants with any given issue from any given publisher that there’s no way to keep ’em all straight from one issue to another. The best one (I?) can seem to hope for is to somehow determine something is "the next issue" of a series I follow, and hope that when/if I get around to actually READING the thing that it’s worth my $5.

So let’s jump back 32-some years. Let’s look at Batman #476 (from an era when a comic might see a #1 issue in the 1940s and 50 years later still be continuing the numbering without 35 reboots, 16 universe re-shapings and umpteen mini-series any given week).

In sorting through my accumulation, this issue REALLY stuck out to me…just by the COVER. We have a view from behind as Batman actually UNMASKS in front of a stunned woman in a hospital bed–who I mistook for Barbara Gordon but is actually Vicki Vale (oops, wasn’t she blond in the ’89 Tim Burton flick?).

But there was just something to the visual that so stood out to me–I had never read this issue before–that amidst hundreds of other issues being sorted through and stuck away for filing, I HAD TO set this one aside to READ. Because of the stupid COVER IMAGE grabbing my attention, holding my attention, spurring some thoughts and wonderment, and leaving me flat-out INTERESTED in reading the issue to see how this played out, if it was exactly as the cover depicted, or something sensationalized, etc.

I had no idea from the cover that this was a Scarface/Ventriloquist issue. But apparently it’s a THIRD chapter of a story…yet the cover proclaims NOTHING of the sort. No Event banner or Event designation/trade dress. This is just "another" issue or "a next issue" that happens to continue some ongoing story. There’s not even a "recap page" or a "What Came Previously" caption to catch one up. As a reader, one is just simply thrown on into the story! Some masked gunmen burst into a hospital room, obviously intending to Do Some Harm to Ms. Vale. Batman swoops in through the window, disarms and knocks out the gunmen, then unmasks in front of the startled woman, as she realizes Bruce Wayne actually IS a hero and not some weak, bumbling fool. She proclaims her love for him after all, they kiss, and…yeahhhh, Bruce’s mind wandered while he waited in the hospital to be allowed in to see his (apparently former) flame.

Scenes shift and we check in with the Gotham City Police Commissioner, and separately a gang of goons, as some plan gets put in motion. Meanwhile, Bruce is working up the nerve to tell Vicki that he’s Batman (apparently they’d broken up and he’s interested in ‘getting her back’ and thinking Total Honesty might work). But just as he’s about to Say The Words, he sees the Bat-signal lit up over the city, and Duty calls.

Over the next few pages, we see Scarface’s plan unfurls: an apparent informant luring the police to some deal at a chemical plant between rival gangs. Batman (apparently withOUT his Batmobile) finds Sarah Essen manning the Bat-signal instead of Gordon, who has gone on ahead with police, unwilling to wait for the Batman to do their jobs for them. As the Street Demonz and the other gang start shooting, the police are at a disadvantage–especially Gordon, who has his glasses shot off, but thankfully not his head. As time goes on, it’s revealed there’s a bomb, and Scarface’s plan involves eliminating the competition and the Batman and whatever police are caught in things, leaving him to reign over crime in the city. Batman stops Essen from going into the plant after Jim, retrieving the commissioner himself…and realizes that for her love for Gordon, she could have been killed. This leads to his ultimately going back to Vicki after things are wrapped up, and NOT revealing his Big Secret…as he doesn’t want his love for her to lead to her being killed.

So this was definitely NOOOOT at all what I "expected" from the issue. The "big reveal," as I should have recalled to be typical of the time, was a cover "fake-out," where we see it happen on-page, BUT it’s "just a [day]dream sequence." Still, the cover reflected something from INSIDE the issue, which is more than I can say for most comics in 2024! Not to mention it got me to pick the issue out of hundreds to actually read; though obviously I’d already BOUGHT it some time ago for it to already be in my collection.

Visually this one has a defffffinite "early" look to me, from my earliest days being into comics. With an April cover date in 1992, I imagine this likely came out in January or February, barely off 1991, so still close enough to the ’80s to practically BE ’80s. And for me, Norm Breyfogle’s work is certainly a huge part of those early days, particularly his work on Detective Comics [including my first-ever issue in #604]. In fact, this is the same writer/art/colorist/inker team AS that issue of Detective!

On the surface level, the story didn’t really thrill me. I’m not exactly a fan of Scarface/Ventriloquist, nor am I overly familiar with the Bruce/Vicki thing except knowing it had existed enough to at least be incorporated into the ’89 film. It’s also strange to–after what seems like most of the past 20 years–have so much "Bruce" WITH the "Batman." So I’m not thrilled with the story, but I definitely appreciate seeing Bruce here…as human, as someone that CAN get nervous, as someone that IS fallible, etc. It’s a deeper portrayal than I feel I’ve seen in a long time, and reminds me how much I enjoyed Batman stuff as a kid and how little I enjoy it now.

I knew I remembered Grant/Breyfogle working together, and Grant prior to Shadow of the Bat, though I’m most recently familiar with Grant FROM Shadow of the Bat, reading Cataclysm along with the NML Podcast my friend Chris is doing. That’s also where I’m most recently familiar with Scarface and Ventriloquist…especially their inability to say "B"-words, or I might’ve been more put-off by the use of "G" for "B". The Gig Heat being the BIG Heat for this issue.

Due to reading this issue, my most recent comic shop visit included noticing that part 1 was in the previous issue, and I was shocked at a $10-$15 price on the thing! I would by NO MEANS consider this issue to be "worth" anything like that, and was able to enjoy this enough for what it is withOUT spending double-digit dollars on the thing…and it does not have enough for me to suggest or recommend anyone ELSE pay double-digit dollars. Assuming I have the previous couple chapters in my possession already, I might dig ’em out to read…but otherwise I’m gonna chalk this up to a reasonable one-shot-read.

batman_0476_blogtrailer

Filed under: 2024 Non-Review Posts, 2024 Posts, 2024 Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Ultimate Black Panther #1 [Review]

Posted on February 12, 2024 by Walt

ultimate_blackpanther_0001Writer: Bryan Hill
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Color Artist: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Artists: Stefano Caselli & David Curiel
Design: Jay Bowen
Assistant Editor: Michelle Marchese
Editor: Wil Moss
Editor in Chief: CB Cebulski
Cover Date: April 2024
Cover Price: $5.99
Published By: Marvel Comics

It seems like a long time since I reviewed any "current issue" of a comic, let alone a Marvel comic. I’m far more keen on facsimile editions and non-"current year" stories these days than current stuff coming out from most publishers. And then this issue is riding all sorts of hype and speculation, apparently, between skyrocketing prices of even the "A" cover of Ultimate Spider-Man #1 and a distributor reportedly losing thousands of copies of this issue’s "A" cover, and of course the USUAL (modern-day) speculation crap involving constant first issues and umpteen variant covers that exceed the number of story pages for a given issue, and so on.

I bought all four issues of Ultimate Invasion last year, though when the series was announced, I’d planned to stay away from it. I vaguely recall actually READING the first couple issues, but I’m not sure I read the latter ones, as yet. Based on what I was hearing about Ultimate Spider-Man just before its premiere issue came out, I snagged that one, and waffled on Black Panther…wavering still on whether or not to "embrace" this new Ultimate Universe, even if only for nostalgia of the original. Given the hype on this issue, I elected to visit a second shop when the first was sold out, and snagged a copy, leaving behind 2 copies.

I hate that it seems so many modern comics are "about" the speculation, variants, and pretty much anything but the story inside the covers; and I’m frequently reminded that even as a young teenager I had speculated that publishers could simply polybag a bundle of blank pages behind a cover and call it a day, and probably few would even notice. So let’s dig in here on the actual story.

The issue opens on the apparent slaughter of a village, while two shadowy figures prepare to report what they’ve seen to their king. We then cut to a just-awakened T’Challa conferring with his wife Okoye after a bad dream. Reflecting on how traditions must change, T’Challa visits with his father T’Chaka, former king, who counsels that he listen to what the Vodu-Khan have to say about things. T’Challa later meets with his sister Shuri (woman-at-arms) and the spies we saw at the beginning as T’Challa learns of the attack. Though Shuri and T’Challa clash on response, T’Challa elects not to leap into war based on reports…though he intends to act in some form. Elsewhere as another attack unfolds, a new figure–Killmonger–appears on the scene to defend against the Ra/Khonshu invasion. Finally, at an annual Celebration of Life gathering in Wakanda, suicide bombers appear, and T’Chaka shoves his son off the building just before the explosion. Arriving at the ground in Black Panther mode, T’Challa–The Black Panther–declares that the enemy is Moon Knight and Wakanda is at war.

I think the best part of this issue for me is the art. I really liked it, at least in and of itself. I don’t know that it’s such that I would have flipped this open and chosen to buy it due to the art if I wasn’t already interested in buying it…but for reading it, the art fit, I liked it, and in whatever subjective way I interpret "art," it worked for me.

That said, I’m less thrilled at the overall issue (and sure, the art gets as much blame as the writing, I’m sure) feeling so "cinematic." This came off very much like the adaptation of something from a tv show, to me, more than being its own original comic. Having barely a dozen words on a 2-page spread SCREAMS "cinematic" to me, and remains a "cheat" on pagecount/story in my eyes. Even though this was an extra-sized (and extra-priced) issue, it read very much as a standard-sized one, which isn’t horrible but isn’t good, either.

Much of what I take from characterization is a combination of interpreting this as an alternate reality, and drawing on what I recall of Priest’s 1998 Black Panther series from Marvel Knights, with a certain influence from the MCU films that had T’Challa, T’Chaka, Okoye, and Shuri.

With only this single issue to go on, I’m definitely inclined to pick up the next issue and perhaps keep on with the series, assuming it’s more than a "stealth mini-series" at this point. While I understand this to be in the same Ultimate Universe as Ultimate Spider-Man, I do hope the titles stay pretty much self-contained, and with that they should be good companion books free of loooooads of other continuity things making so many modern comics unappealing to me.

I’m glad I got this issue, particularly to READ, and that I enjoyed it juuuuust enough to "justify" the price. I have a hard time recommending someone spend $6 on a single-issue of a comic, but you could definitely do WORSE than this one…though it’s not exactly all that meaty. It’s some fresh air from main Marvel continuity stuff.

ultimate_blackpanther_0001_blogtrailer

Filed under: 2024 Posts, 2024 Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »