But yeah, my point wasn’t that the X-Men didn’t evolve into the kind of story you’re describing — obviously. But just as it’s important to understand Superman didn’t start as a goody toe-shoes, it’s important to understand the X-Men didn’t start as an allegory for MLK and Malcolm X — which is something you still hear people saying.

Not sure why this warrants so much hostility, John. I hope you’ll read more that I’ve written, and I’m sorry this piece set you off.

Is this a bit of misdirection by Alan here? The conflation is troubling, considering the care in which Moore [and Alan Davis, as well] puts into the work we get

I created this account solely to point out your opinions are trash

I have no idea who commissioned Spiegelman’s introduction from Marvel. And, as I said in the article, I’m not sure whoever it was knew what they were going to get when they asked, which is kind of amusing in retrospect. In fact, I’m sure a lot of people — including Spiegelman — had a surprise waiting for them.

As for timelessness or timeliness, well even the Golden Age wasn’t timeless. It isn’t. It was a period of time. By the same token, there are parallels between the thirties and forties, and 2016-2020, that were — and still are — hard to ignore. Spiegelman was obviously going to say something about it given his record, and there have been many historical texts that have written parallels: especially in Western culture. I think the whole situation made people profoundly uncomfortable, and they backed off: well, officially, as Spiegelman did publish the introduction with some interesting additions. It was very on the nose, and I am glad it exists as it gives us, and people after us, so much to discuss.

I agree with what you say about empathizing with Spiegelman and taking to heart the lessons of the past, though humanity is known to repeat its mistakes. We have cycles. But there is always that idealism that perhaps we might learn something, and Spiegelman’s article and so much of his work are examples of this hope. Education is important either way, and the will to use it,, and learn from the past.

As for our modern myths, I think they are both versions of older ones told in different media, but also something new. I don’t think they are all morally bankrupt, or empty things. Sometimes, I think they are just different variations of human lessons. And I think there are things we can learn from them. They aren’t the same as what came before, but nothing ever truly is.

And oh man, I wish I could see those copies of Raw Magazine. The closest comparison in my mind that I can come up with after your description of your lost comix are zines: 1970s punk hand-made artifact magazines. I imagine holding one of those then, and now, would be utterly magical: especially with “Maus” in their pages. And producing those “little things,” as you put them, sounds like such a special experience.

Thank you for sharing that with us, and for commenting on this article. I appreciate it. Take care.

– Matthew

“I’ve seen things, you people wouldn’t believe, hmm … Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion … I’ve watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate … All those moments, will be lost in time like tears in rain”

Consider it shared.

I wonder whether a pressed Perlmutter-shaped thumb or a lack of moral certitude was required? As a Folio product, the “Golden Age” book seems by definition a timeless thing. Adding an in-the-moment political comment, no matter how well defined it’s lineage or how just, creates a sense of “timeliness” which, in this context, is simply unTimely. On the whole, I think that this answer saves the entire situation in a slippery, diplomatic way. The important thing is that, for now, we can read what Art intended. One hopes that we needn’t begin bowing toward the Guardian server to maintain the link.

It is important for everyone for whom liberty, equality, and justice are held close to the heart and mind to understand Art Spiegelman’s position. Thankfully, we needn’t have suffered the same horrors of his own family to empathize with and appreciate that we exist in a dangerous and precarious world largely overseen by thugs and miscreants. It is equally important to understand that within democracies, the citizenry, with sufficient education and impetus can, via government, offset the worst of their, and our own, excesses. It’s difficult to straighten the road, as it were, via government, but it’s historically adept at smoothing the curves (as well as installing them).

When you spoke of “zeitgeist”, I considered another: Art is damning of the way in which our modern myths and legends are born out on theatre screens – or now just home screens, which is much worse. He suggests that they have been rendered meaningless and impotent as they offer neither lesson nor succor. I often fret about the state of our modern myths. The legends of old, from a western tradition, provided a sense of permanence and context that aided in shaping civilisation. The things with which they’re being replaced appear hollow and transitory at best, no matter how well produced.

As a further aside, I possessed, oh, issues three through five of “Raw”? They’re long gone, I’m afraid, along with their original inserts of the “Maus” mini-comic (technically “comix”). Maus was beautifully and simply produced. It’s treatment was as an artifact, so there’s no fair comparison to a mass-market comic book either then or today. This was at a time when I was producing or helping to produce a variety of little things, so Raw meant a great deal to me. The variety, beauty, insanity, and hand-craftedness were a terrific inspiration.

Again, thanks much for this.

/mjh.

I wrote an article of my own on Sequart about The Last Jedi called That Grey Place:
Star Wars: The Last Jedi where I cover a lot of points about that film but I think if I can sum up what I read it was “Cleverness does not always for good storytelling make.” I believe that Johnson’s story would have been great a standalone with original characters in the Star Wars universe, even as a short film. But as part of canon, and a continuity I feel like it fell short. It aspired to subversion of themes on a grander, cinematic medium but as you pointed out Luke had already been there. It feels like these are lessons that Luke should have learned thirty years ago and not now.

I think The Force Awakens was effective because for the first time since the Prequels and even aspects of The Clone Wars, you have these actual, fully emotive characters with good dialogue and solid acting dynamics interacting with their environment. Compared to the Prequels with their over-reliance on CGI, wooden words, and just two dimensional characters it was like a breath of fresh air and even though it recycled ideas from the Old Trilogy, there was the potential to move past that and get to something … more.

But it didn’t happen.

Instead, we got some really poignant scenes and cleverness, but the storytelling suffered for it: especially as there was supposed to be a story right after The Last Jedi, right? I saw The Last Jedi as an attempt at a critique of the thesis of Star Wars itself: which is war itself. How war and conflict are supposed to be the enemy and the cycle of it. But then it all gets walked back and Rey and Kylo Ren at the time just go back to their respective places. I know Clone Wars did that as well, though it has its own problems. And to this day, I still haven’t written anything about The Rise of Skywalker. I just … don’t … have the heart.

In the end, it did feel like a lot of the same thing but done less effectively. And I can go on about the rest of it, but I will say one thing and I will stand by it even now: The Last Jedi will be the most remembered film of the Sequel Trilogy for what it attempted — or claimed — to do. Take that however which way you would like.

“…but due to the time-consuming nature of Lee’s pencils, the project was doomed from the start. Even if Morrison had a clear schedule with no other comic on his plate, Jim Lee’s molasses pace on a comic was the real death to the series.”

He’s definitely not the fastest artist, but he’s drawn monthly runs of comics before on Uncanny X-Men (11 issues), X-Men (9 issues), Batman: Hush (12 issues), Superman: For Tomorrow (12 issues), Justice League (8 or 9 issues at least), Superman Unchained (9 issues), etc. He’s no Jack Kirby or John Byrne for productivity, but he can definitely crank out a 12 issue storyline and I’m sure they would have given him time between issues if he wanted it.

And now more on subject :
Going back to character’s roots it’s not only refreshing, but it makes sense on things that initially don’t
like
Why Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have weapons, even though the punching non-robotic guys with their feet all the time? It’s because it’s cartoon adaptation, in original comics they kill people with them and they even murdered Shredder in the very first issue
Why Batman uses sharp knives as his primary weapon if he is so against killing anyone, why not use something like sleep gas like Green Hornet? Because original Batman will do what it takes, even it means killing someone, and Robin (yeah, 10 years old Dick Greyson version in funny green shorts) will do to if it’s self-defence or defence of another, or plain clumsiness situation, after all they are just (well-trained but still) humans in light costumes (though even then Batman used armor plates) to move fast not omnipotent gods with ultrafast reflexes.
Why would you give guy ability to move mountains, reverse time, shoot tiny clones, etc, if at max what he can do to badguys it just grab them and (GENTLY) move them to closest police station and people that he can punch always turn out to be too powerful so he has to trick them? Because original Superman wasn’t that powerful as some of his versions, and even when he could lift cars/throw steelbeams mid-air/change course of flying plane by landing on the ground and jumping up grabbing plane on the fly and it will turn upwards/etc he will sometimes punch badguys, even full force, or throw them (weird how you picked indirect kill, but left cases like when he threw soldier-torturer over a cliff) he has powers and he has his sense of what’s right and wong, and it won’t be necessary be about all this “peace” and “hope” nonsence when people dying at wars or when his friend gets killed by bad car driver (when in process he smashed every car and car factory in town just to force governement for more strict laws, super means for mundane problems, and then get’s justified penalty as Clark Kent in the end). He also isn’t really that all-invincible, there are instances when he hides from big explosions.
There is also most realistic reaction from people around, including Lois (at their first meet) when they see someone doing super shit Superman did. They get terrified by it.
First depiction of Kent parents. His father tells little Clark to hide his powers. So it makes total sense why he even has dual identity in the first place (because no one will buy into “kidnap Superman’s friends to make him mad” crap when Superman can already be mad very easily).
Also you leftout how Clark Kent is shown to be multidimensional persona. Or maybe just didn’t read enough. But there we have (i am speaking exlusively in terms of JS-JS made comics) nice super peaceful guy Clark who won’t pick a fight with rude crooks when they steal Lois from him (counter balanced by Superman that will wreck their car and throw them around, ofc), but also Clark Kent that can point gun to threaten someone and who isn’t always timid with Lois.
And Lois herself isn’t as 2D “pls marry me Superman” as later comics made her to be. And if we keep in mind stolen evolution from their relationship, it’s whole new character really compared to “classic” Lois.

It all makes sense when beings of force treated like enforcers, not diplomats or poster boys.

In a way, it was like reading the Lord of the Rings without reading the Silmarillion — there’s a lot of history that is hinted at, and you know there’s great depth to be explored should you want to, but it works just as well as a standalone story.

Perhaps the flaw of the cinematic adaptations has been that there is no lead up to the DPS (Apocalpyse/Dark Phoenix) that really shows that cosmic side and the importance of her powers for good, or else Phoenix isn’t even treated as a primary plotline (X-Men 3).

I think in the detachment of analysis of that first reading I noticed Black’s faults before we were perhaps given good reasons to empathise with him? Perhaps not.

Failing that I definitely have a lot more empathy for the guy this time round. If only he would just embrace it though. On some level it seems silly that it takes the piecing together of Lovecraft’s family for everything to click. Not the tons of batshit insane things right before his eyes. Let alone the massive amounts of time just lost. But that’s great and why I love it.

But like Lovecraft said the oldest emotion is fear. For me the source of Black’s faults is the source of his empathy. He has ultimately lived his life afraid of who he should embrace .

But thank you for the review
It made me laugh

Eyal Kless

Each still frame can easily be a comic panel; even certain frames are divided into panels themselves, demonstrating absolute artistic mastery, something most modern products (with the exception of CDProjekt’s Witcher III and Red Hook’s Darkest Dungeon) seriously lack.

Without comics, there wouldn’t be movies (no need to say that storyboards are comics, and that no movie could exist without them, right? Good) … and that is what Spider-Verse is: the quintaessential sequential narrative.

I had faith in Sony; they always deliver.
Check PS4′s Spider-Man if you’re having doubts, or better yet, look for Activision’s Playstation One Spider-Man, arguably the best Spider-Man game ever made (with Stan Lee’s acting as narrator, its hilarious plot and dialogues, nothing will ever beat that, period). Sam Raimi did nothing wrong, and Andrew Garfield was THE Peter Parker (Tom Holland who?), even though the ignorant crowd couldn’t get it yet (they will… eventually).

“It’s a Sony”… and thank God they got such a heavy grip on Spidey, and luckily they still will if they keep doing things at this awesome artistic level. Nobody wants another Star Wars fiasco, if numbers are to be believed, right…?

But back to Spider-Verse, the movie that subverted my expectations when it masterfully hinted at the SJW crowd in the beginning (already proven wrong by Comicsgate facts, thankfully and rightfully letting stupid politic agendas out of the medium – Jawbreakers all the way), exactly like original Ditko’s story does before Peter gets his powers.

I was ready to bash the film, and then comes the graffitti part (which could swoon ANY digital artist such as myself in one single go), then enter Peter B. Parker… and then all the possible subversions a single plot can make (“Great Expectations” is a wonderful meta-concept and I wonder how many people actually understood it as a whole, or ever will; you’d need actual brainpower to do that).

Miles earned my trust, my laughs, my tears and my heart, mostly at the same time (seriously, when was the last time any entertainment product made you cry and laugh at the same time?) – I never cared about his race, gender or those things Marvel want me to care in their boring new runs of things (Miss Marvel? Ironheart? PFFFFT), but I fully understood HIS point of view, and that’s everything that matters. The Leap Of Faith scene still gives me chills and tears every time I remember it, even now that I’m writing this!!

Leave the inclusiveness and equality fanfare for those who have too much free time on their hands and just give me a good story, which is what every true comics fan only wants and craves (again, like Comicsgate and contemporary sales figures effectively have proven), thanks.

I think Lee’s and Ditko’s passing helped a lot to put all the artists’ efforts do the extra Miles (heh) to create an unforgettable artistic experience. New animation techniques were invented just to bring this work to life. And computer effects were used to enhance the HUMANITY behind the story, instead of turning everything into the usual effect-fest postmodern films love to throw money at, and hollow audiences love to swallow without digesting.

I seriously doubt spin-offs and sequels would have a greater impact than this fantastic movie, but hey, we’re all True Believers after Spider-Verse, which undoubtely is the Ultimate Love Letter to the comics medium, and it’s something I’m deeply grateful to have experienced.

Cause I like high chances that I might lose,
I like it all on the edge just like you, hey:
I like tall buildings so I can leap off of ‘em,
I go hard with it no matter how hard it is.

One can only hope about the sequels. I’ll have to watch it a seventh time today, just in case I can discover something new in it. Long live REAL comics.
Long live Into The Spider-Verse, the best movie ever made.

https://www.salon.com/2019/02/24/how-an-x-men-writer-inspired-binge-worthy-character-driven-tv-from-buffy-to-game-of-thrones_partner/

It would be great to see that come full circle with a high-budget X-men serial. Hopefully Kevin Feige is considering that for the Disney streaming service.

A trailer I found doesn’t feature McGoohan at all, but your review, especially the part about McGoohan’s “drumming,” sold me on it! :)

Amazon has the Criterion BD on their Prime Video service, so I guess I’ll be watching this sometime over the weekend!!!

By the time of the Donner Cut, Brando had passed and I presume Warners had the ability to renegotiate with his estate for a more manageable fee.

As to your question, thanks for asking! It’s a tough one. I’d personally have used “The Red King Syndrome” (both parts) as a prologue to Book 2 and the silent Young Miracleman story as an epilogue to Book 2. For me, at least at the current moment, “The Yesterday Gambit” and the two Warpsmith stories (“Cold War, Cold Warrior” and the short that appeared years later in A1, in which they’re mourning) as an unfinished Warpsmith side series. The new Marvel stories from All-New Miracleman Annual are anyone’s guess. I’d personally put the Allred one with Apocrypha, and the Grant Morrison one… I dunno, as an appendix? I don’t think there are perfect answers here.

Sounds like a great project! Good luck!!! And thanks again for reading!

Thanks in advance,

Fraser Veitch

Promethea is something of a challenging read, though for me its challenge was more out of keeping my interest more than anything else. Alan Moore has even stated that out of all his works, Promethea is the more … didactic one. Basically, he made an occultic text in the form of the comics medium, or maybe if you’d like a sequential illuminated mystic manuscript. It is fascinating to see how he built up to that point in his other works. Personally, again, I like it when he focuses on the actual *story* in Promethea, though there is an academic interest in the art and panel layout and how it relates to the contents of what he is writing as well.

And my stack is … not shrinking any time soon. I just need to find that sweet spot between reading, writing, watching … and a personal life with sleep again.

I look forward to more of your work. Thank you for posting it, and replying as well, Mikayla.

I haven’t read anything by Yahgulanaas yet, but he’s on my list of people to look at. Always looking for good research material. I really do need to read Promethea, from what you’ve said, it would be fascinating to look at from a time and panel perspective. The ever growing reading stack will never get smaller it seems.

The way you describe the panel work and narrative structure, dissolution, and — literal — reconstruction, reminds me of the work done in Alan Moore, J.H. Williams III, and Mick Gray’s Promethea: especially as the mythological heroine descends and ascends through different aspects of the Kabbalah, or Tree of Life.

What is also fascinating is, after reading your analysis of Gwenpool with regards to Space-Time, Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse also seems to play with the concept of reality as a comics lenses. Whereas Deadpool, She-Hulk, and — well — Gwenpool seem to see all of the narrative and their panel structures as reality, the Spidermen seem to perceive their reality through something close to a comics panel aesthetic: probably a mirror of the way a spider’s multifaceted gaze would take in existence itself. Perhaps, as McCloud says, they make different connections between events that we might see as invisible because of our consciousnesses and perceptions, while they might see and come to different fundamental conclusions altogether?

But with meta-narrative and metafictional considerations aside, which are always fun, I’m just curious to look at Grant Morrison’s Animal Man, or again Promethea with these considerations of space-time and its perceptions with regards to panel play. Also, have you read Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas? He is a Haida visual artist and scholar that examines the “comics gutter” with relation to the white space between panels with its colonial connotations. I haven’t read his work extensively, but after a preliminary glance it really had a strong resonance with some of the works I’ve examined.

Once again, an excellent work, and welcome to the site. :)

He then became persona non-grata at B5 studios, because they had been forced to scramble to find a last-minute replacement. The creator JMS was quite angry about the breach-of-contract

.

Ryan makes exceptional points, stomping where few even tread. We have been beset with a pair of problems in the mainstream: a dearth of true drama (the best titles could always dig into one’s heart, the latest rarely manage to tittilate), and Crisis-Like cross-marketing and event oriented plotting. Tying the fundamental structure of a “universe” (or multiverse) to an annual Big Bad, year after year after year… is a safe business model but death to creativity. Ryan’s antecedents living and dead are exceptional, too. I’m not the Sacco fan that you appear to be, but rank him nonetheless. The others were each generational, like Los Bros, Miller or Moore or the Pinis, and so on. It was a happy coincidence that so many germinal and seminal creators were of the same generation. Kirby spanned several. Then there are journeymen to whom little respect is ever paid. Curt Swan, Don Heck, John Buscema, et al. The bottom line, I think, is that while real talent and vision do exist, the market is too diluted to allow for (their) appreciation. I’m always trying to rustle up the newest, awesomest, etceterest, but there’s SO much product… and so on.

Maher’s take needles fans because it’s TRUE. The major face of comics in the world is a bunch of all ages films with stupid potty humor and nonstop quips to keep the lowest common denominator’s attention. Industry has to be better if it wants to be treated better. Stop with the fucking variants. And gimmicks, and trash events and “nothing will ever be the same”. Return to simplistic storytelling with bombastic villains and high octane action, with some good character drama to boot. Stop doing desperate grabs for the phantom “new reader” every 9 months.
And don’t get on my ass for talking only about the big 2 above. They’re over 2/3 of the market and the non comics media is nearly 100% them. Fuck comics, comics need to get better if they want respect. It’s a pathetic crony industry, and without another set of Crumbs, Saccos, Eisners and Sims it’ll be gone in 25 years or less.

On the flip side compare him to oh say Andrew Jackson, still revered yet he was a horrible monster and a genocidal killer.

Now I’m curious as to how much of this movie is actually true considering the US’ anti socialist history.

It definitely is interesting how our maps change when we encounter new territory. Thankfully magic can help us become more flexible and make the journey ultimately enjoyable as well as traumatic.

However, one thing I take issue with in your piece, is the throwaway description of Providence. Together with Neonomicon, Providence is to me, the most enjoyable (and horrible) work from Moore since LOEG volume 2 (or perhaps, since Smax). I knew little of Lovecraft beforehand and while I know a bit more now, and understand some of his literary intentions, the comic worked as a wonderful, horrifying story, for me (with excellent art to boot).

I appreciated the first two League stories, both the comics and the prose. After unfortunately watching that god-awful film adaptation, I was surprised to see how … *good* these were. I really saw these flawed, but relatable characters in a setting that was a fusion of different literary references made into a shared universe and it was inspiring. If it makes sense, the fact that Alan and Wilhelmina were flawed made them … human to me, and it compelled me to want to know more about what happened to them. And Orlando was inspired, I really like them a lot and how they all started relating to each other.

For me, I really liked The Black Dossier because it outlined the most potential to me. It opened up the world. Most epics are basically shared universe fanfics when it comes right down to it. Finally, we could see this triad with their comrades going out and really interacting with all the world and universe had to offer: all the literary universes being one and true. It started to lose me with some of the references, but I always had a soft-spot for 1984, and combining that with this world was inspired as well … and the Blazing World ending, the idea that these characters could exist forever in an imaginarium was, for me, the best possible ending in this series.

But then Century happened with the subtlety of a brick, and the horror of a story that can’t have a happy ending if immortals can never really end … and … Well, the whole theme of life is shit and you don’t die just undercut that for me. I’ve had some … strong opinions of my own on some of my Sequart articles with regards to The League, and also Moore and some of his critical contemporaries’ attitudes towards Harry Potter and the like. That said, I’ve also had some counter-commentary on my work critiquing those positions, especially on how I absolutely detested the latter parts of Century.

You make a point about the difference between smart and clever writing that reminds me of something I wrote with regards to The Last Jedi and Rian Johnson’s work on it: that sometimes cleverness does not always for good storytelling make. I think that Moore models a lot of his comics, especially these days, like modernist literature: in make references to other works and other works in other languages without spoon-feeding them to you because he expects you as the reader to read up on them on your own time, to do your “own homework” as it were. I … don’t know how I feel about that. It is challenging, but like you said sometimes you just want Nivens’ annotations to come along with the book so that you … sometimes know what you should care about those references and relations.

Also, I’ve had issues with how he portrays Bond but I will say it is much more than Quatermain blowing up his futuristic hover car with his hunting rifle. Often, it was Wilhelmina that kicked Sir James’ ass, and that was pretty satisfying: though I will never personally associate Jimmy with the Bond of our popular culture, whatever his literary origins allegedly were. I guess of the two of Moore’s iterations, Quatermain may have been flawed, but he knew he was flawed and admitted to it. Wilhelmina appreciated that much, and there was something underneath that which warranted … I don’t know, an idealism that supposedly doesn’t exist anymore, and I don’t know … Bond represents State-sanctioned grandstanding violence?

There is a lot in this comment already, that should be unpacked as its own post. But I almost hesitated before reading Tempest even though I knew, deep down, I would read it. I am fascinated with how Moore has melded We’s One State with an almost weird British retro-futuristic universe, all pulpy and such. I do wonder what will happen next. And I actually … look forward to it. So there is my long ramble worth two cents.

(Also, if we are going to accuse a comic of being a non-fiction essay in paneled disguise, I am really looking at you, Promethea, though I can see some … Facts in the Case of Providence to that regard. I just like the retroactive Lovecraftian world-rewriting in it, so I am just biased all around. Also, again, did you notice how even Tempest seems to be making fun of, in a somewhat … fond way, of the comics subculture? Yeah. Me too. Not like we haven’t heard him do that before. ;))

As usual, Brazilians were forgotten. We might not be Hispanic, but we are a Latin American Country, Portuguese is a latin language, so we are also Latinx, Latinos and Latinas. Please, dont forget that.

I do hope that sometime, soon, especially perhaps due to … other matters now, that Shuri gets that chance to undertake the Trials, if only in her own way, and to get her chance to eat that fruit. She might need to use nanotechnology to make up for the fact that the fruits are all but gone, however I’m sure advanced Wakandan technology can do something as simple as cloning a species of plant: especially as a contingency. I mean, what would have happened if those plants had been struck by a disease or a contagion, or if another madman tried to destroy them in a dynastic struggle?

I do hope to see that movie come where Shuri is the Black Panther, or at the very least find out that there were female Black Panthers and Queens of Wakanda before her.

I too was wondering what Wakanda will offer the world. I was thinking that they would offer medical technology and advances, in certain increments, or an exchange of people to train in certain matters of a similar kind. Perhaps, as such, they would work with people of various Black cultures from different places, encouraging them to be cultural ambassadors of a sort. It’s true that this technology, particularly Vibranium, can be misused and repurposed for violent ends, but I wonder if *all* of their advances were the result of Vibranium and its after-effects or if it just helped them figure out principles that can be reverse-engineered with other materials.

Another interesting note about Vibranium that I just found out today was that Klaue wasn’t the first outsider to find Vibranium: at least in the Cinematic Universe with which this iteration of Wakanda is situated. As it turns out, in the 1940s a small deposit was found which was utilized by Howard Stark and possibly the SSR, which would become SHIELD. That is how Captain America, literally, got his mighty shield. So there are elements that know about this material and might even have some left in some form or another.

But that aside, I do agree with you with regards to the governmental structure of Wakanda as displayed in the Black Panther film, except I would go as far as to amend your classification of its government as a *meritocratic* constitutional monarchy. The Council of Elders, presumably from the four of the five tribes — though its possible after the Counter-Revolution that now *all* tribes are represented thanks to M’Baku’s intervention — council the King and may even keep him in check: or so went the idea until what we saw happen with Erik Killmonger, son of Prince N’Jobu. The meritocratic element seems to be in this ancient trial of combat: which is a haphazard and terrible way to choose a ruler. I’ve heard it said, somewhere, and I wish I could find the article that if there had been other trials — of mind or spirit or conviction — to supplement trial by combat or physical prowess — the potential to defend from violence with force — there might have been a suitable alternative to what occurred in this depiction of Wakandan society. A Black Panther, never mind a King or a ruler, needs to be able to reason, and think, to possess empathy and understanding, in addition to being to defend themselves. I can’t help but wonder if this was the result of trying to display how the Counter Revolution we got in the film occurred.

I too was also astounded by the fact that the Wakandan people, with their advancements, their different cultures, and relative freedom, so readily accepted a man — an outsider — who struck down their beloved King whom they’d known for his entire life, who had done nothing but good for them, and before that *killed* Zuri, an old man and sacred priest of one of the primary cultures and the royalty. They let a murderer and a man who then began burning the sacred Heart-Shaped Herbs — the link of the royalty to the ancestral line — basically destroying a major part of their culture to keep himself in power become King and *no one* challenged him. It’s like letting someone who you just found out about come in and burn all your holy texts after killing your priest, and deposing someone who you know and trusted, just because he was good at fighting and killing.

Of course, it’s more insidious than that. There is another reason Erik — also known as N’Jadaka — was able to accomplish all of this. He had help. Wakanda had a basic official non-interference policy with the rest of the world that kept them from going after Klaue after he stole Vibranium in the 1990s, which cost the lives of many citizens including that of W’Kabi’s family. And there were obviously Wakandans that were greatly displeased with that state of affairs. When Erik brought Klaue’s body back to Wakanda — and bear in mind, T’Challa and company wanted to bring *bring Klaue back for trial, which was their stated purpose in tracking in South Korea and failed to do so* — he swayed W’Kabi, as a Council member to support him. Then there was the man who was already on the council with the bowl-lip piercing and his green business suit that asked for the identity of Erik when no one else would acknowledge him. Between earning W’Kabi’s allegiance and the personal interests of other tribes on the Council, Erik was able to get his in and actually get away with changing aspects of the State. It also didn’t help that that trial by combat can be activated at any time, apparently, by members of the royal line: even though technically Erik was illegitimate and the child of a second born Prince … though that last doesn’t seem to be an issue with at least this particular cultural paradigm in Wakanda.

I admit, I was wondering why Wakanda hadn’t become a Republic or a Democracy at this point, or a pure ceremonial ruler who would remain a figurehead or head of council. You’d think that would be best, right? But, then again, look at the histories of most republics and democracies — especially *recent* history in the West, and you get another of resonance altogether.

And I too wondered if there were just *Kings* of Wakanda in the past. I couldn’t see all of the Panther spirits or their humanoid forms aside from T’Chaka, T’Challa’s father. I wondered if there were points if they had Queens when there were no other male heirs. Then again, I’ve wondered if T’Challa’s line had *always* held Wakanda or if between the four tribes coalition, and the trial by combat, if there had been different Kings from different bloodlines and cultures. But aside from possibly the theme of the Wakandan monarchy being inspired by the Pride of Lions, I don’t see why there shouldn’t be a Queen or a female Black Panther: the latter of which definitely exists in the comics and in the form of T’Challa’s sister Shuri herself. With regards to Francesca Terzano, I was wondering why Shuri didn’t have a fail safe or kill switch for the suit that Erik stole: even just built in just in case someone compromised her brother’s suit on the field, or why she didn’t have a weapon that could just neutralize him or a Black Panther if they potentially went berserk. I do think the reason Shuri, as of this film, didn’t get the fruit was she didn’t have the combat skill to match Erik. If you recall, Queen Ramonda offered the last fruit to Nakia, a trained spy and warrior, and she rejected it because she knew she wasn’t up to Erik’s level of elite combat training. I will say, I believe Shuri could have outsmarted him and used her technology to neutralize him without the fruit — especially knowing what the fruit’s strengths and limitations are herself — but that is just not the kind of story that was being told. At least, not yet.

But most fan talk aside, and I am not as familiar with Wakanda or Black Panther as most, there is the matter of Erik’s motivations that I would like to engage with. I interpreted his actions with the fruits very differently. I saw it as consolidating a dictatorship, which is corroborated later by Ross by saying these were standard elite American military and counter-insurgency tactics. He was making himself the sole arbiter and holder of this power. On one level, yes, he is eliminating the constitutional dangers of ritual combat, but he is also eliminating the constitution itself entirely. Further, as King — unless he was planning to create a democracy or republic after him — he would not be able to pass on the power to his heirs and descendants. This could be a problem if he wanted to maintain his proposed world revolution after his death. I mean, the herb probably doesn’t grant immortality or longevity: and especially not invulnerability. T’Chaka still presumably had the herb in his system and he still aged, to the point where his son had to replace him as Black Panther, and then he was even killed by Zemo’s bomb.

And I was confused as to whether or not Erik was going to ship Wakandan weapons to Wakandan spies for his revolution, as well perhaps some of his own contacts which I assume he also had in place, or if he was sending the ships to unleash the weapons on the major heads of state and governments across the world directly: like mass genocide superweapons. It just felt like the fire he started in the Heart Shaped Fruit gardens was something he wanted to spread across the world, which he would follow up by direct military attack after the initial death tolls. There is nothing stable about Erik. His intentions may be, or may have started as pure, but the violence he lived with and had been done to him living in America and as a warrior has infected him with hatred: his legitimate anger at what happened to him and his people — his idea of all Black people being his people — souring and twisting into a lust for retribution. I certainly saw nothing virtuous about what he did in Wakanda, though I believe *he* believed that he was virtuous, or at least committing violence for the greater good.

And then there is another aspect too. Adam Server wrote an article called ‘Black Panther’: The Tragedy of Erik Killmonger. You can find it here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/02/black-panther-erik-killmonger/553805/?utm_source=twb

Essentially, Server discusses the idea of The Void: of that emptiness left by the destruction of Black identity of all the slaves that were taken from African and other nations back in the slave trade. How racial violence continues to cause these deaths and the destruction and erasure of this cultural heritage: filled only with pain, suffering, and death: “a psychic and cultural wound.” It is pretty telling, when Erik takes the herb and only sees his father — N’Jabu — sitting in their empty apartment where he was murdered, regretting everything he’s done, been done to him, and wondering just what he has left his son. There are no other ancestors there. The ancestors of Erik’s maternal line are all gone. It’s horrific. All that is there is his father, who lost even his links to the royal line because he betrayed it in his attempt to seize Vibranium for Black aid at the cost of Wakandan lives and his family ties.

So, in answer to whether or not Erik will be in that pantheon or council of dead Black Panthers, I don’t know if he will even be there. He has been in the Void for too long. He has embraced its pain, and loss, and its sorrow. But instead of working through it, or building something out of it, or doing anything other than killing, he simply exported it back to Wakanda … and tried to spread it by destroying a part of their heritage through the burning of the Fruits, killing the priest, and unleashing Wakandan weapons on the world. The sad thing is, one interpretation I can see is Erik waiting in a Void with his father alone, in that apartment, for all eternity: his purgatory, his hell. The one he grew in. The one he embraced. The one he felt he could never escape.

Of course, there is another way of looking at this too. Wakanda played its part in the Void. It sat back and did nothing, or so it seems. Perhaps they did influence others indirectly in slowly shaping policy towards Black peoples of different cultures behind the scenes, but we aren’t really told about this one way or another in the film, save that they only seem to care about their own interests. They killed his father and didn’t even take him back for trial, as they said they would, or at the very least take his body back and tell the people what he had done. And they left Erik there, on his own, in a world of racial strife and systematic discrimination: his only heritage billions of dead slaves, and many more murdered and brutalized people … along with a need for vengeance.

Perhaps T’Challa, spiritually, can lay Erik and N’Jabu to rest: with changing the old apartment buildings into an Aid Centre, and perhaps even taking N’Jabu’s body back to Wakanda for proper burial and actual accounting of what went down. Maybe even burying Erik as well — their Prince N’Jadaka — and using him as an example of what they must fight against, and what he could have been. When I think about Erik and the Void, it reminds me of the Holocaust, and also — as you mention Israel and some of its activities — the right of what it is called The Law of Return — where people of acknowledged Jewish ancestry can go and settle in Israel no matter where they come from. However, at least from what I recall, their mother has to be Jewish or they are not considered for this status. And this is also something that occurs culturally, beyond the state. When I look at Erik, I see someone who sees themselves as Wakandan, and in his case all people of his colour as related to one another and who should be supportive as such — but wasn’t acknowledged as legitimate. In a horrible way, his return to Wakanda, in the blood that his people — who died and suffered on one side — and the others that abandoned him and killed his father to cover up their own safety on the other, is his birthright: it is his terrible return. There is a lesson in that, for Wakanda somewhere.

I do hope that T’Challa will provide medical and scientific aid through selective training of others in a cultural exchange, but that he will also have the nation intervene if the worst abuses continue or worsen … Certainly, I also suspect Wakanda will intervene when Thanos comes, but that will be when the entire world is threatened by his quest for the power of the Infinity Gauntlet.

There is one more point of yours that I would like to engage with as well: that of Art. I’m not sure I completely agree with your assessment that nation or government-sponsored work can’t be Art. In ancient times, many governments created Art that we study to this very day. I do think that over time the differences between government and community have become more pronounced, though I am curious as to see if you could trace those differences. I think both forms of art are different from one another, but there are cultural elements in both. The examples you present are fairly distinct from one another, but I wonder if they are the only examples — of government and, as you put it, Black arts out there. I am not as familiar, sadly.

I think, though, that your assessment of Wakanda bringing state-sponsored aid or ideas to the world as opposed to local community or perhaps culture is a fascinating distinction altogether that bears further discussion. The irony is: while Erik may have grown up in the latter distinction, I do not think he could have brought that sensibility to the world as he focused and was shaped by the Void. T’Challa, by contrast, has been going through the world and is learning: especially by the example of his cousin and where he came from … figuratively and literally. Will T’Challa incorporate this into his reach and research and possibly intervention policies? We will just have to see … Either way, I do hope, after Infinity War, we will get the chance to visit Wakanda once again.

One thing you forgot in your formula is that there are quite a few writers (and artists) who want to work with the “real”, “original” (silver age) heroes. And, as always when dealing with company-owned characters, how much freedom should the writers have?

And legacy heroes really work best when they are unique. Wally trying to be as good as his late, idolized uncle. It works, it sets him apart. Rhodey learning how to be Iron Man, and keeping that change a secret, it works because it was different. A whole universe of legacy heroes, however, sounds more formulatic than exciting.

And finally, can we tell new stories? Or are we going to come up with the First Order? Because Clark’s son fighting Luthor’s son or Damian fighting a Joker wannabe sound really dumb. What’s the point? This is not just about getting rid of Clark or Bruce or Barry, but also getting rid of all the rogues and supporting characters. Should we? Are we done telling Batman vs. Joker stories?

In the sixties or seventies, Peter Bodganovich asked Orson Welles if it was’t harder for a young filmmaker to start then, because everything had already been done. Orson told him that no, that everything had already been done when he started, and that the problem “now” was that everything had been seen. They used to say that every comic book was someone’s first, but now it looks more and more that every comic book is someone’s 600th. Isn’t that the real problem, that we all know that Charles Xavier keeps sitting and standing as if he was in church? How can you survive such an audience?

There are, of course, so many things you’d have to take into account when applying Nevin’s logic to *all* of Superman’s life. Because, let’s say for the sake of argument, that his involuntary bodily functions pack the same punch as his conscious, superpowered ones, right? That his Kryptonian cells, charged with ultra-violet radiation like everything on Earth, would provide the same amount of impact and strength to everything he does. What Nevin should have pondered is: how does Superman even *function* on Earth?

Does he consider, for instance, that Superman eats? And if he eats, presumably, he has to eliminate or deal with other digestive bodily processes. He should also have considered that Superman didn’t always have that Fortress of Solitude that he had to build — with or without the aid of a Jor-EL AI. He also didn’t always have the ability to fly, or even control his power enough to move fast to another location entirely … somewhere safe on this planet — to deal with the waste created by his foreign enzymes and genetics that could affect Earth’s ecosystem in an adverse way.

Of course, when he was younger, he was still developing and his cells may not have processed the sun’s radiation as efficiently as he does as an adult, but even as Superboy he had enough power to do enough damage. It is also made clear at times that Kryptonians are pretty much like humans, or humanoid enough, to have similar needs. What did he do when he had bodily urges? Did he eventually practice the Kryptonian Kama Sutra? :p

I think that the best way to deal with Superman and other superpowered beings of that kind is to borrow some Alan Moore sensibility with regards to Miracleman and state that their strength and what not is generated by a kinetic field made by their cell structure that they can consciously control: that when they don’t, they operate pretty much like normal humans do. Otherwise, Liz Moran would have been crushed and shredded by Mike and there would have been no Winter.

As for your article, I like the idea of a new generation: which has been played with a few times, especially when you consider the Legion that exists in the 30th and 31st centuries as descendants of heroes and villains. I think it always comes back to the fact that DC superheroes are our gods and gods generally cannot be surpassed by their forebears, or their children: with some exceptions should these gods become the next generation of Titans and new gods need to be made … and ignoring the desires of industrial commercialism of course.

I like that Superman has a son. And so does Batman. I like the new stories that can arise. I think there is room for mythological revisionism even now, that Batman and Superman could have their own revisions as myths often do with their own comics, but that another line of comics can be made where their children and descendants continue on. This has been done before, and we do have Elseworlds. I really like the idea of seeing heroes and villains age as time goes on as their next generation moves forward too.

I also really still need to read DC One Million, though I grew up on Batman Beyond. A lot of thoughts here.

To complement a queer reading of 40K, there’s a really interesting homage in the Dark Angels, whose Primarch is Lion El’Jonson, to romantic poet Lionel Johnson and his poem “The Dark Angel.” Subtle, eh? Allegedly, Lionel had a lifelong conflict between his outward heteronormative values as a Catholic and his inner-urges as a homosexual (he had a scandalous affair with Oscar Wilde), and allegedly the Dark Angel Chapter actively suppresses an ancient dabbling with Chaos…

For those interested, also check Lewis’ Sacred and Sequential website (sacredandsequential.org).

I’m fond of this piece:

http://outermode.com/warhammer-40k-queer-darkness-fetish-first-millennium

Thank you Desmond