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A review by wealhtheow
Black Panther And The Crew #1 by Jackson Butch Guice, John Cassaday, Ta-Nehisi Coates
3.0
When an old activist dies mysteriously in police custody, Misty Knight investigates. Her search for answers rapidly involves Storm, Black Panther, Manifold, and Luke Cage. Over the course of their investigation, as they go up against systemic racism, the criminal justice system, gentrification, and commodification, they realize that a single sinister force is behind many of their recent near-fatal accidents.
I really liked the team up, which brought out good qualities and moments in each of the characters. I liked the revelation thatHydra had posed as Wakanda back in the 50s and created superpowered people yearning for revolution --anything that gives us more black superheroes canonically working in the past sounds great to me. I wish there'd been more of Hydra's schemes being unwittingly aided and abetted by non-Hydra systems. I wanted this book to pound home the message that participating in police coverups or acquiescing to totalitarian oversight aids evil. Having everything lead back to Hydra in the end felt a little too easy and (dare I say it) comic-book-y.
The art was ok. It worked really well for Luke Cage and Manifold; kinda ok for Misty. I loved that they made a choice to set Ororo apart not just in her speech patterns, but also her incredibly fashionable and noticeably non-American clothing. I had a hard time telling some of the other characters apart, particularly Black Panther. His face looks so generic in this that I kept mixing him up with flash-backs of Ezra. I don't love the cell layouts; too often there are lots of little shards of cells within larger cells, and it looks too disjointed.
Annoyingly, I now realize this book is set before the Nation Under Feet Black Panther series I just finished, also written by Coates, so I already know what's going on with the villain that says "not yet" to Black Panther (and then apparently disappears, because he never captures her even though they're physically standing right next to each other? This is what I mean by the art sometimes obscuring plot).
I really liked the team up, which brought out good qualities and moments in each of the characters. I liked the revelation that
The art was ok. It worked really well for Luke Cage and Manifold; kinda ok for Misty. I loved that they made a choice to set Ororo apart not just in her speech patterns, but also her incredibly fashionable and noticeably non-American clothing. I had a hard time telling some of the other characters apart, particularly Black Panther. His face looks so generic in this that I kept mixing him up with flash-backs of Ezra. I don't love the cell layouts; too often there are lots of little shards of cells within larger cells, and it looks too disjointed.
Annoyingly, I now realize this book is set before the Nation Under Feet Black Panther series I just finished, also written by Coates, so I already know what's going on with the villain that says "not yet" to Black Panther (and then apparently disappears, because he never captures her even though they're physically standing right next to each other? This is what I mean by the art sometimes obscuring plot).