I finally retyped my reasons on why I hated Black Panther #513
Reason #1: Massive Continuity Issues
First of all, Black Panther #513 is set three weeks after Matt asks T'Challa to take over for him as protector of Hell's Kitchen. There's a big problem with that. First of all in Daredevil #512 and Shadowland: After the Fall, which are set in the days after Shadowland ends, Black Panther is already patrolling Hell's Kitchen. There was no time for Matt Murdock to be all healed up, call up T'Challa from Wakanda, and take the time to ask T'Challa to protect Hell's Kitchen.
Second, Shadowland #5, Daredevil #512, and Shadowland: After the Fall clearly establish that the only person that Daredevil has had personal contact with is a priest to confess his sins. Everyone, Foggy Nelson, Luke Cage, Elektra, Ben Urich, etc. have not been in contact with him. Yet somehow, Foggy is completely aware of the situation of T'Challa taking over for Daredevil and come up with forged immigration papers, set up an apartment, and job for "Mr. Okonkwo." Who told Foggy that T'Challa is taking over for Matt?
Third, Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America clearly states that the Super Soldier Serum has not been successfully duplicated and yet, we have Romania, ****ing Romania, managing to do so!
Reason #2: Why the hell is Black Panther taking over Daredevil's book ?
Marvel has done plenty of title changes before. Sometimes frivolous title changes like the Incredible Hulk to the Incredible Hulks and Fantastic Four to whatever the title will become after "Three". And sometimes they are more drastic title changes when the book stars a new character such as changing Wolverine to Dark Wolverine when Daken took over the book or changing the Incredible Hulk to the Incredible Hercules when Hercules and Amadeus Cho took over the book. And now, we have Daredevil becoming Black Panther.
Everytime though something has built up to these title changes. Three is killing a member of the Fantastic Four, so it really doesn't make sense for the book to be called Fantastic Four when there are three members. World War Hulks developed the Hulk family coming together. The Dark Reign event took the theme of warping various Marvel books such as a Hawkeye mini starring Bullseye, Moonstone taking over Ms. Marvel, and Daken taking over Wolverine. And during World War Hulk, the tie-in issues of the Incredible Hulk starred Amadeus Cho and Hercules and the role they played in the event and barely had the Hulk in the book. However, with Black Panther taking over Daredevil, there was no proper build up. We just have Black Panther showing up saying how Hell's Kitchen is his neighborhood now and a crappy explaination is given after the title is already changed. Black Panther had nothing to do with Shadowland, nothing to do with the recent Daredevil stories, etc. He just shows up barely in the epilogue issues of Shadowland and Marvel expects us to go along with it?
Also whenever a new character takes over a book, they tend to have heavy ties to the original character. Amadeus Cho was a Hulk character. Daken is Wolverine's son and even took up the mantle of being a fake Wolverine. When a new character took over Hulk, the Red Hulk was already established as a Hulk character. Mon-El, Flamebird, Lex Luthor, and Nightwing have ties to Superman when they took over Superman and Action Comics. Batwoman has ties to the world of Batman.
T'Challa on the other hand has very little ties to Daredevil. Daredevil really hasn't appeared in the Black Panther books, you can count the number of times on one hand Black Panther has appeared in the over 500 issues of Daredevil, and they never teamed up in a book like Marvel Team-Up or Daredevil/Black Panther.
So I ask the question: Why is Black Panther taking over the book of a character he has very little ties to? Yeah, they certainly are allies. But I wouldn't call them close enough friends to merit Matt Murdock to ask T'Challa to take over running Hell's Kitchen for him. That would be like Spider-Man asking his fourth cousin that he sees once every ten years to take care of Aunt May for him.
Reason #3: Why didn't Daredevil ask someone else to protect Hell's Kitchen for him?
It's pretty obvious who Daredevil's closest allies are in recent years: Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. So why didn't he ask one of them to watch over Hell's Kitchen, since they live so close by Hell's Kitchen and there is no need to create any false personas, forge documents, etc. And let's not forget that Iron Fist has actually posed as Daredevil to fill in for Matt Murdock's absence during Ed Brubaker's run on Daredevil.
Also, Matt Murdock says during Kevin Smith's run on Daredevil, Matt says that New York City alone has enough superheroes to fill in for him. Lets go over that list: Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible
Woman, the Human Torch, the Thing, Hawkeye, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, the Falcon, Captain America, Mockingbird, Moon Knight, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Spider-Girl, Jackpot, Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, Spider-Woman, Blue Shield, the Punisher, it's the headquarters of the Avengers (Wolverine, Thor, Iron Man), etc. So why the hell would Daredevil go and ask the one superhero in the Marvel Universe that didn't live in New York City?
Reason #4: Wakanda
Due to the events of Doomwar, Wakanda is in serious economic,
social, and political turmoil. Their primary source of economic income, Wakandan vibranium has been rendered inert by T'Challa in order to prevent Dr. Doom from using it. Their government has just recently survived assassination attempts and an attempted coup by a Latverian backed group. The people of Wakanda are frustrated by their king constantly taking part in superheroics and shying away from tradition and are dealing with a social conflict between the old traditions and the rise of the new ideals.
Thankfully, Wakanda has a king who is one of the eight smartest men in the world, who has the wisdom, knowledge, and ability that can revitalize and diversify the economy, stabilize the government, and has the strength that can guide Wakanda by leading the various ethnic factions, respecting the old traditions, while accepting new ideals. Oh wait, he's in some neighborhood playing Batman for a
guy he rarely interacts with.
Luckily, Wakanda has a strong queen that can rule in her husband's place. Oh wait, she's off being a part of the X-Men.
At least Wakanda has a princess regent and current Black Panther to fill in for the Wakandan Royal Family. Oh wait, she's off having adventures in the Savage Land and New York City because T'Challa told her to "take some time off."
Who the **** is ruling Wakanda at a crucial time like this?
Reason #5: T'Challa is an *******.
See Reason #4. T'Challa is an irresponsible ******* for now completely avoiding his responsibilities to his nation and people to do this "test."
Reason #6: Why is everyone going along with this?
Why is Storm just kowtowing to T'Challa's wishes? Why does Foggy Nelson just go along with T'Challa taking over Hell's Kitchen when there is clearly no one capable of telling him about the situation? Why doesn't the rest of the Marvel Universe tell T'Challa to be a man and be the king that his nation needs him to be?
Reason #7: Characters Acting Out of Character
First of all, Matt knows of the situation going on in Wakanda, so why would he even bother asking T'Challa to give up his responsibilities as King of Wakanda to protect Hell's Kitchen?
Second, to Black Panther, his first and foremost responsibility is to his nation Wakanda. Going off to be an urban vigilante in Hell's Kitchen is completely out of charcter for him when Wakanda is in a dire state.
Reason #8: A Generic, Uniteresting, and Completely Unnecessary Antagonist
Now who is the person that Black Panther is going to go up against in his test to protect Hell's Kitchen?
Is it the Kingpin, Daredevil's primary archnemesis who is now in control of the Hand, and employs Lady Bullseye, Typhoid Mary, and the Hobgoblin? Is it Mr. Fear, someone who would go along great with the idea of T'Challa becoming the new Man Without Fear? Is it a member of Daredevil's rogues gallery who hasn't been used in a while? Or maybe a member of Black Panther's rogues gallery such as Erik Killmonger or Klaw. Surely an antagonist that would fit perfectly with both the Daredevil and Black Panther mythos.
Nope, it's some Romanian guy named Vlad the Impaler (realy subtle
) who has the powers of Captain America and the ability to convert mater into energy (which is really stupid). And they make him a generic mobster. You know instead of creating a new, generic mobster villain, why not use the many mobster type characters that Marvel already has such as you know the Kingpin, the Owl, the Maggia, the Gnuccis, etc.?
Reason #9: T'Challa is now Batman
Congratulations Moon Knight, you are no longer Marvel's Batman rip off. Now with T'Challa dressing up in a costume that looks like Batman's without the cape and playing grim and gritty urban vigilante in a desilute area filled with crime and corruption, Black Panther has now become Marvel's new Batman rip off.
Reason #10: T'Challa not calling himself Black Panther
The book is called Black Panther. T'Challa dresses up like Black Panther. T'Challa was Black Panther. And yet, he insists that he is not Black Panther and that he has no superhero identity. Stupid.
So yes, I will still say that this is one of the stupidest things that Marvel has ever done. And that's because there is no reason for Black Panther to take over Daredevil's book at all. Daredevil: Reborn should be in what should be Daredevil's book. Black Panther should be nowhere near the Daredevil mythos.
The sad part is that this is the best Black Panther book that has been written in years. And the real star of this book is artist Francesco Francavilla. Gorgeous art and I hope that he stays on the book when Daredevil rightfully comes back.
