Underseer
Contributor
OK, so I never actually read anything from the Christopher Priest run of Black Panther, but I know what people have written about the Priest run, I know some of what he introduced to the comic book, etc.
Further, I'm still in the process of reading the Ta-Nehisi Coates run. It's on my list of to-read stuff. I have already purchased digital copies of most of it. I've enjoyed what I read so far, but to be honest I got sidetracked by reading other stuff (e.g. "Stamped From the Beginning" by Ibram X Kendi).
Thus a lot of what I have to say about the Coates run versus the Priest run is the result of reading stuff written by other people who have read both. Take everything I say with a grain of salt. A big grain of salt.
From what I can gather, the Priest run is widely regarded as the greatest run of the Black Panther comic book. He introduced the Dora Milaje, he added the "James Bond" elements (T'Challa and various members of the Dora Milaje in civilian clothing doing action stuff, often while mingling with the well-to-do in expensive cocktail clothes). And yeah, Priest is a comic book writer, so he has a better understanding of what makes a comic book good, and probably has a better understanding of Marvel comic lore than Coates.
I grant all of that, and from what I've read of the Coates run, it's pretty obvious that Coates does not come from the comic book world like Christopher Priest or Joss Whedon did.
But I am still loving the hell out of the Coates run on Black Panther, so I want to sing his praises a bit.
As those old SyFy commercials note, what makes great sci-fi great is the "what if?" questions, and that's where Coates excels above and beyond the "legit" comic book writers who are more grounded in the medium.
For those not familiar with the "what if?" stuff, a good example is the first Star Trek movie. It's an objectively mediocre movie that happens to be really good at asking the really big "what if?" questions. Even if the movie itself was not that good, you walked out of the theater asking yourself really big "what if?" questions. Humanity really did create the Voyager probe, and it really did leave our solar system with vague pictograms describing how an advanced technological race could find our solar system. Even if the movie itself is not that good, when you're done watching the movie, you can't help wondering what might become of the real Voyager probe. That's the power of a good "what if?" question, and one of the things that characterizes the original incarnation of Star Trek is that they were willing to make a movie or TV show less good just so that they could ask more interesting "What if?" questions.
Which brings me to Coates.
A good example of this is the Midnight Angels subplot.
Ramonda is T'Challa's stepmother. T'Challa's biological mother died in childbirth, and so Ramonda is the only mother figure he's ever known, and she certainly treats him like a biological mother would. Since all Marvel heroes have flaws, Ramonda's biggest flaw is being very hidebound and inflexible.
Ramonda made a decision that accidentally sparked a pro-democracy rebellion within Wakanda.
What makes this more complicated and more interesting is that Ramonda was right. The "wrong" decision she made that caused the rebellion to happen was the objectively correct decision for anyone who believes in the rule of law over the rule of men, which is actually an interesting decision to be made by a traditionalist from a monarchy. You would expect Ramonda to choose the rule of men over the rule of law, yet she chose the rule of law, which prompted Ayo and Aneka to start that pro-democracy "bust the patriarchy" rebellion.
It might just be that the Midnight Angels subplot is not an example of great comic book writing, but as you get into it, there are a ton of great "what if?" questions that lead to all kinds of tangential thoughts about the real world. Good comic book writing or not, it's great science fiction writing in the old school sense.
Another good example would be the offworld colony, which is part of the Coates run that I didn't get to yet.
For those not keeping up with the Coates run, Wakanda now has an offworld colony, which means that Earth is now officially a space-faring world and a space-faring civilization. Prior to that, Earth in the Marvel universe was always looked down on by the space-faring civilizations (e.g. the Shi'ar, the Kree, etc.). Now Earth is moving into the ranks of the space-faring civilization because of the Wakandans.
The world colonized by the Wakandans is rich in vibranium. In fact, Wakandan scientists are convinced that this world is the original source of vibranium. Further, this world has a native sentient species already living there, and the Wakandans have taken control of that world.
This opens up a metric crap-ton of interesting "what if?" questions.
Wakanda stood aside and watched as European colonial powers ravaged the continent of Africa, mostly because they were interested in stripping Africa of its natural resources. The famously xenophobic Wakandans always thought of colonialism as a sin of the outsiders, something they were above.
Now Wakandans are the colonizers, and suddenly they have to ask themselves if there is a correct way to be a good colonialist, or is colonialism is always wrong?
Is this a good story? Is it a good comic book story? I don't know. I didn't get that far into the Coates run yet to tell you. But even from the vaguest outline of the plot, it's obvious that Coates is inviting the reader to ask the kind of great "what if?" questions that characterizes some of the best old-school science fiction.
Anyway, is there anyone here who read the Priest run or the Coates run (preferably both) who wants to comment on comparing the Priest run to the Coates run?
Further, I'm still in the process of reading the Ta-Nehisi Coates run. It's on my list of to-read stuff. I have already purchased digital copies of most of it. I've enjoyed what I read so far, but to be honest I got sidetracked by reading other stuff (e.g. "Stamped From the Beginning" by Ibram X Kendi).
Thus a lot of what I have to say about the Coates run versus the Priest run is the result of reading stuff written by other people who have read both. Take everything I say with a grain of salt. A big grain of salt.
From what I can gather, the Priest run is widely regarded as the greatest run of the Black Panther comic book. He introduced the Dora Milaje, he added the "James Bond" elements (T'Challa and various members of the Dora Milaje in civilian clothing doing action stuff, often while mingling with the well-to-do in expensive cocktail clothes). And yeah, Priest is a comic book writer, so he has a better understanding of what makes a comic book good, and probably has a better understanding of Marvel comic lore than Coates.
I grant all of that, and from what I've read of the Coates run, it's pretty obvious that Coates does not come from the comic book world like Christopher Priest or Joss Whedon did.
But I am still loving the hell out of the Coates run on Black Panther, so I want to sing his praises a bit.
As those old SyFy commercials note, what makes great sci-fi great is the "what if?" questions, and that's where Coates excels above and beyond the "legit" comic book writers who are more grounded in the medium.
For those not familiar with the "what if?" stuff, a good example is the first Star Trek movie. It's an objectively mediocre movie that happens to be really good at asking the really big "what if?" questions. Even if the movie itself was not that good, you walked out of the theater asking yourself really big "what if?" questions. Humanity really did create the Voyager probe, and it really did leave our solar system with vague pictograms describing how an advanced technological race could find our solar system. Even if the movie itself is not that good, when you're done watching the movie, you can't help wondering what might become of the real Voyager probe. That's the power of a good "what if?" question, and one of the things that characterizes the original incarnation of Star Trek is that they were willing to make a movie or TV show less good just so that they could ask more interesting "What if?" questions.
Which brings me to Coates.
A good example of this is the Midnight Angels subplot.
Ramonda is T'Challa's stepmother. T'Challa's biological mother died in childbirth, and so Ramonda is the only mother figure he's ever known, and she certainly treats him like a biological mother would. Since all Marvel heroes have flaws, Ramonda's biggest flaw is being very hidebound and inflexible.
Ramonda made a decision that accidentally sparked a pro-democracy rebellion within Wakanda.
What makes this more complicated and more interesting is that Ramonda was right. The "wrong" decision she made that caused the rebellion to happen was the objectively correct decision for anyone who believes in the rule of law over the rule of men, which is actually an interesting decision to be made by a traditionalist from a monarchy. You would expect Ramonda to choose the rule of men over the rule of law, yet she chose the rule of law, which prompted Ayo and Aneka to start that pro-democracy "bust the patriarchy" rebellion.
It might just be that the Midnight Angels subplot is not an example of great comic book writing, but as you get into it, there are a ton of great "what if?" questions that lead to all kinds of tangential thoughts about the real world. Good comic book writing or not, it's great science fiction writing in the old school sense.
Another good example would be the offworld colony, which is part of the Coates run that I didn't get to yet.
For those not keeping up with the Coates run, Wakanda now has an offworld colony, which means that Earth is now officially a space-faring world and a space-faring civilization. Prior to that, Earth in the Marvel universe was always looked down on by the space-faring civilizations (e.g. the Shi'ar, the Kree, etc.). Now Earth is moving into the ranks of the space-faring civilization because of the Wakandans.
The world colonized by the Wakandans is rich in vibranium. In fact, Wakandan scientists are convinced that this world is the original source of vibranium. Further, this world has a native sentient species already living there, and the Wakandans have taken control of that world.
This opens up a metric crap-ton of interesting "what if?" questions.
Wakanda stood aside and watched as European colonial powers ravaged the continent of Africa, mostly because they were interested in stripping Africa of its natural resources. The famously xenophobic Wakandans always thought of colonialism as a sin of the outsiders, something they were above.
Now Wakandans are the colonizers, and suddenly they have to ask themselves if there is a correct way to be a good colonialist, or is colonialism is always wrong?
Is this a good story? Is it a good comic book story? I don't know. I didn't get that far into the Coates run yet to tell you. But even from the vaguest outline of the plot, it's obvious that Coates is inviting the reader to ask the kind of great "what if?" questions that characterizes some of the best old-school science fiction.
Anyway, is there anyone here who read the Priest run or the Coates run (preferably both) who wants to comment on comparing the Priest run to the Coates run?
