The above—a Fantastic Four briefly led by T’Challa, with significant backup from Storm—was probably the only good thing to come out of Marvel Comics’ Civil War.

***

BLACK PANTHER 24-29
WRITER: Reginald Hudlin
PENCILLERS: Marcus To and Koi Turbull (24); To (25); Francis Portela (26-27; pencils and inks on 28-29);
INKERS: Don Ho, Jeff de los Santos (24-25), Sal Regla and Nick Nix (24); Victor Olazaba (26-27)
PLOT: The Civil War continues in 24 and 25. In the aftermath, King T’Challa and Queen Storm find a special crib in which to crash, and an important task. Then a refurbished Foursome meet the Marvel Zombies…….

FANTASTIC FOUR 544-548
WRITER: Dwayne McDuffie
PENCILLER: Paul Pelletier
INKER: Rick Magyar
PLOT: The “new” Fantastic Four go up against The Silver Surfer and The Frightful Four.

VERDICTS: As far as Hudlin’s BLACK PANTHER goes, I eagerly await his NEXT storyline—which, hopefully, will be in Wakanda. The Civil War crossover issues try their best to solidify the Panther-Storm relationship, but nothing else happens, except a couple of sub-plots. Continuity again takes a walk, even from less than five years ago: Panther and Falcon talk about upgrading Falcon’s wings, when Panther ALREADY DID THAT in the pages of CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON. The Marvel Zombie storyline is not even worth discussing.

McDuffie had me cheering through his episodes of “Justice League Unlimited,” so I’m happy to report that his Fantastic Four is quite solid, albeit surface-level. Add Pelletier’s lovely art, and you’ve got a more-than-decent read.

Fanboys pitched a fit when T’Challa—who, in McDuffie’s book, at least, was a little more like the character Priest envisioned—was able to arm-lock Ol’ Chrome Dome. I guess they forgot when Stan Lee had Spider-Man do pretty much the same thing back in the day. Meanwhile, I got a little tired of seeing Sue captured for the 400th time and watching The Frightful Four try to get it together yet AGAIN, but the stories were entertaining, and I guess that’s the (only) point in 2007, right?

AUGUST 29th UPDATE (BLACK PANTHER 30 and FANTASTIC FOUR 549): Hudlin’s dialogue is still uneven, 30 issues into his BP run. *SIGH*.

McDuffie putting in Sue’s mouth the words “I. AM NOT. A HOSTAGE,” and her subsequent taking DOWN of three of the Frightful Four/Five by her damn self, was worth the price of the mag alone.  🙂 Again, if the goal is fun, the brothers are trying their best.