Writer: Christopher Priest Pencils: Sal Velluto Inks: Bob Almond
Publisher: Marvel Comics
PLOT: As the husband of one of T'Challa's cousins manages to get involved with the unstable Malice, we see private investigator Dakota North was hired to discover evidence of his indiscretions. Meanwhile, T'Challa has arrived in Manhattan to seek out Malice, and in a bid to locate where she might be, he's placed all of the possible targets that Malice would go after under surveillance.
Meanwhile, Malice has somehow placed a police officer under her spell, and she and her new lackey make their way to the Wakandan Embassy, where a heated protest is taking place. While this is going on, T'Challa contacts Dakota North to spy on Monica Lynn, who T'Challa believes will be visited by Malice. During his investigations, T'Challa manages to locate the place where Malice has been living, and the clues he finds there lead him to Washington D.C.
As the issue ends we see that at the protest, a shocking display of violence has occurred, and the Black Panther has fallen into the hands of Malice.
COMMENTS: Even though my initial response to this issue is one of confusion, I do get the general idea that Christopher Priest is trying to convey. While the book is a bit unclear on several points, past experience has shown that Christopher Priest has everything mapped out, and that the key information that has been left out will all be revealed in the ensuing issues.
In fact if I wasn't such an impatient person, I do believe I'd simply put aside issues of this series until the entire arc had been released, and then I'd sit down & get the full story in one sitting, as this book is very much a series that will spend several issues focused on an single idea, that is revealed to be more & more complex as each succeeding issue reveals more information about it.
This current arc looks to be centered around the scorned Malice & her vendetta against T'Challa, and while this opening issue is a bit confusing, it does have me highly intrigued.
A very reader unfriendly issue, as while Christopher Priest does make an effort to explain the past continuity that this issue draws upon, in the end there's simply too much information to absorb, and even though I've read every single issue of this series & the issues of Daredevil that detail the back-story of M'Koni's husband, there were still moments in this issue that I found a bit daunting.
Now Christopher Priest has always written highly intricate stories for this book, and I'm certain that when all is said & done everything will be explained, but it's a bit disconcerting to be reading a comic, and be completely uncertain about what's going on. What's the deal with Luke Charles' best student climbing the Himalayan Mountains in Tibet? Why is there another person wearing the Black Panther costume? How did Malice suddenly gain the ability to make that police officer into her ever loyal lackey? What's the deal with the last couple pages?
Sal Velluto does a pretty decent job on this issue, especially when one considers the rather complex setup of this story. The art neatly details the role of Dakota North during the opening sequence, without requiring any writing to explain it, and while I still don't understand how she does it, the heart-shaped tattoos that appear on the necks of the men she kisses makes it clear Malice has some hold over her victims, that is probably linked to Mephisto.
The display of violence on page twenty-one is also quite disturbingly rendered, and has me eager to see the fallout that will be generated. My only quibble is the rather hard-to-believe scene where Dakota North responds to a car that's been tailing her by emptying her gun at it. I understand artists like to open scenes with exciting shots, but this response by Dakota North seemed highly excessive, given the car following her hadn't shown any sign of hostility.
FINAL WORD: Making sense out of some of this issue takes a keener intellect than I'm sporting, though I imagine it'll all make sense in the end, so I'm not overly concerned. I will say that this title does remain the most intelligent comic coming out of Marvel, as the stories Christopher Priest creates are one big puzzle that the reader is forced to think about, as they piece it together.
This issue is also full of highly disturbing moments, from the discovery of a body inside a hot-water heating tank, to the final page shocker as Malice makes her presence known outside the Wakandan Embassy. However, if one is coming into this issue cold, then I pity you, as I've been with this book since issue one, and frankly I'm intimidated by the complexity of this opening issue.
