Cannonball!!!

Since “Captain American: Civil War” I’ve been intrigued by the Black Panther Character.  I like that there’s a character who’s not supernatural (Captain America, Thor, Spiderman, etc.), but has skills similar to Black Widow and Hawkeye, which are my favorite types of super heroes.  It’s about time that a person of color is going to be featured as a superhero and not just as Iron Man’s sidekick. 

I like to read the back stories on the superheroes in the movies, I’ve been wanting to catch up on Black Panther and thought this graphic novel would be a good start. I was wrong. While this is part of Marvel’s reboot of their classic heroes, this story starts in media res but without explaining to new readers what has happened to set up the plot of this book.  The only sequence literally clues the reader in that there’s been a political catastrophe in Wakanda (Black Panther’s home nation).  Yet, this even isn’t developed in this volume, volume 1.  Which tells me that there’s another volume I need to read in order to have context for this volume.

One problem I have with comics today is that there’s so many reboots it’s hard to know where to start and with what reboot. Clearly this volume of Black Panther is the beginning of a new series, but it’s trying to link up with the series ahead of it.  What I think these franchises need to do is create a list or a resource for readers to go to in order to get an idea of where to start and how the super hero has developed over time. Without a reference like this I feel that new readers are left with so many questions and undeveloped plot lines.