“None of this is actually happening. There is a man. At a typewriter. This is all his twisted imagination.”

Those words were spoken by Deadpool in Christopher Priest’s first issue as the ongoing series writer (*Deadpool #34, 1999). This moment, in which Deadpool addressed the fact that he was but a fictional character bound to the whims of his author, became a running gag during Priest’s brief tenure writing *Deadpool for Marvel.

20 years later in DC Comics’ *Deathstroke #40 (2019), Priest revisited the very same joke via an Arkham Asylum inmate named Devon, who wore a costume suspiciously similar to that of Deadpool. In an attempt to justify his knowledge of an extraterrestrial invasion to Deathstroke, Devon explained, “You see… there is a man… with a typewriter…” In the succeeding panel, Devon’s head was positioned by artist Carlo Pagulayan so that Devon looked directly at the reader: “All right. Let’s admit… it would be freaking ironic if they sued us.”

The term “fourth wall” originated in the theater and is credited to the 18th century French writer Denis Diderot. Diderot wrote: “When you write or act, think no more of the audience than if it had never existed. Imagine a huge wall across the front of the stage, separating you from the audience, and behave exactly as if the curtain had never risen.”

According to *A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory: “’Breaking the fourth wall’ refers to any practice which seeks to dispel the illusion that the audience is watching a slice of ‘real life.’”

The practice of characters within a work of fiction being self-aware or the work itself serving as a piece of metafiction is one that dates far before Diderot and, of course, well before the advent of comic book storytelling.

Within the realm of super-hero comics, perhaps one of the most notable examples of a series which broke the fourth wall were the *Sensational She-Hulk stories written and drawn by John Byrne (1989, 1991-1993). Within these comics, She-Hulk was fully aware that she was a fictional character starring in stories written by John Byrne. She would speak directly to the reader, comment on familiar tropes from the super-hero genre and, in one instance, escaped a villain’s trap by tearing a hole through a page and taking a shortcut across an advertisement. The overt breaking of the fourth wall that occurred in every issue of Byrne’s *Sensational She-Hulk was not enjoyed by all; Slings and Arrows called Byrne’s 1989 stories, “really enjoyable stories,” but of the 1991-1993 stories found “the joke is starting to wear thin.”

Byrne’s treatment of She-Hulk was commented on by other writers. In *Damage Control II #3 (1990) created by Dwayne McDuffie and Ernie Colón during the gap between Byrne’s two *Sensational She-Hulk tenures, She-Hulk behaved much as Byrne had written her. While fighting a pair of villains she complained, addressing editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco: “My old writer never treated me this way. C’mon, DeFalco, please get him to come back.” After She-Hulk’s fight smashed out all four walls of a building, Damage Control’s foreman Lenny Balinger commented, “No matter how many times I tell them, they never learn. If you break the fourth wall, the whole structure falls apart on you.”

After Byrne’s first series of stories on the *Sensational She-Hulk, editor Bobbie Chase told *Amazing Heroes that closing the fourth wall was “a very popular move.” Indeed, when Byrne returned for his second run of stories, he vowed to *Marvel Age magazine that She-Hulk wouldn’t be breaking the fourth wall as often because “that was one thing that used to bother the readers.”

Certainly, readers do not need to be reminded that the characters they read about are fictional people leading fictional lives. The satirical 1974 motion picture *Blazing Saddles indulged in a lengthy climactic fight scene in which the characters spilled out from their own sets to continue the fight in different soundstages, a commissary and finally at Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. But *Blazing Saddles only had to amuse its audience for the span of one film – not as a monthly series set in an interconnected universe that prided itself on continuity. Breaking the fourth wall is perhaps more acceptable to audiences in stand-alone works than in that of an ongoing shared universe.

Christopher Priest’s experience in breaking the fourth wall for humorous effect can be seen in his earliest script credits, stand-alone comic stories preceding Byrne’s *Sensational She-Hulk. For example, in *Crazy Magazine #88 (1982) Priest rewrote portions of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ storyline from *X-Men into the parody “…If She Be’s Dead…! Or Death of a Tough Broad” (Priest was then called Jim Owsley). The script made humorous mention of the impact Neal Adams had on Byrne’s own art style as a character headed towards their temple, “cleverly disguised as a crudely-drawn Neal Adams spaceship!” The scene of Dark Phoenix turning against her allies was accompanied by narration declaring she was “headed for a rendezvous with depravity and filth,” to which Phoenix complained, “Oh poo, Mr. Narrator… you’re just jealous!” Another panel at the end of a page depicted Storm carrying on a conversation with an off-panel Cyclops, with Cyclops declaring, “’Scuse me while I pick my nose off-panel-like.” Storm retorted, “Oh? I’m gonna watch you while they’re turning the page…”

*Crazy Magazine #94 (1983) proved to be the final issue of that series and included Priest rewriting part of Roy Thomas and Neal Adams’ ‘Kree-Skrull War’ storyline from *The Avengers. Notably, Priest mocked a sequence in which Iron Man attempted to battle S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Mandroids by charging at them on his roller skates, with Iron Man remarking: “I’m gonna confuse ‘em by skating around in this silly pose like an idiot! This is much better than trying to sever those ridiculously long and obviously exposed power cables that supply their power!”

A milder form of ‘breaking’ the fourth wall is that which the website TVtropes called “Leaning on the fourth wall.” They sum up this as “acknowledging aspects of the fiction without quite being aware of it.”

Priest’s *Black Panther stories leaned particularly hard on the fourth wall. The narration provided by Everett K. Ross frequently suggested that Ross was aware he was a fictional character. For example, in *Black Panther #15 (1999), Ross found himself on an elephant hunt that quickly went awry when an angry bull elephant chased him. Ross telephoned his boss Nikki Adams and averred, “I’m gonna trip. All the city-folk trip. It’s in, like, every movie. I’m gonna trip and then he’s gonna eat me-!!” Priest remarked of this scene on the Black Panther Message Board: “Marvel can always point out, ‘Hey, the guy who wrote that is black!’ so, presumably, we get a pass to handle the racial themes in a more real-world way; to have people say and think what they might actually say or think in the ‘real’ world.”

Priest also used Ross to cast shade upon a decidedly unpopular addition to the Falcon’s backstory which asserted the hero had been a pimp prior to serving as Captain America’s sidekick (this retcon was established in 1975’s *Captain America #186 by writer Steve Englehart). When the Falcon visited the pages of *Black Panther #17 (2000), Ross narrated: “’Snap’ Wilson was a racketeer (pronounced ‘pimp’) turned social worker. We’ll pretend not to know a felony record would disqualify him from that job.”

Comparisons between Priest’s take on the Black Panther to that of the DC hero Batman were frequent and Priest was not above referencing them in the comic itself. After the initial painted look presented by artists Mark Texeira (#1-4), Vince Evans (#5) and Joe Jusko (#6-8), Marvel Knights editorial Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti assigned artist Mike Manley as the new regular artist. On his website, Priest described Quesada & Palmiotti as choosing “to change Panther into a more Hoo-Hah Batman Adventures-style book” (referencing the DC comic book series based on Bruce Timm’s animated Batman program). Indeed, Manley had contributed art to an Adventures in the DC Universe Annual in 1997, one of several projects inspired by the contemporaneous DC animated programs. However, Priest hadn’t prepared issues #9-10 (1999) for Manley, writing: “We disagreed at the timing of it because I was already two issues into the very serious ‘Enemy of the State’ arc, and the new art style was at odds with that story.” Priest would prepare issues #11-12 to adapt to Manley’s style, including a sequence in issue #12 where Achebe menaced Ross and T’Challa with a giant gumball machine death-trap that was surely a reference to similar giant props found in the Batman comics of Bill Finger. However, Manley didn’t draw those stories – Mark Bright did instead. “#9 and 10 were written for Texeira and, as many pointed out here, do not gel as well with Manley’s style,” Priest explained on Usenet. “By that time I was aware Manley was the artist on the book and I wrote for him.  So now we have Bright drawing a Manley story…”

Priest’s *Black Panther usually scored well with internet comic book critics but the unexpected art shift from Joe Jusko’s painted work to Mike Manley’s faux-Bruce Timm riff came off poorly. Critic Paul O’Brien wrote: “The search for an appropriate fill-in artist comes up blank, and so enter Mike Manley, who takes a story written for Mark Texeira and draws it in animation style. It will perhaps not surprise you to learn that it doesn’t really work. Meanwhile, Priest adopts a more conventional narrative style, wisely recognising that the story gets really very complicated this issue. Still, that art…”

Likewise, critic Randy Lander commented: “There’s probably going to be a big outcry over the huge change in art style with this issue of *Black Panther. And it’s well-deserved. Mike Manley is talented, and does a very nice job with ‘Adventures’ style books and even some traditional super-heroes. He is also the 100% wrong choice for the unusual writing of Priest, and the story suffers for it. It’s hard to get a feel for the gravity of the situation when everyone looks like they just walked in off a WB Kids toon. Ignoring the art mismatch (not an easy thing, mind you) this is the opening of a very intriguing story, mixing the political story that’s been boiling since day one in with the continuing subplot of T’Challa, Monica and the Dora Milaje. So despite the fact that this doesn’t *look* like the high quality Marvel Knights books we’ve come to expect, at least it still reads like one.”

Priest would later call the Mike Manley period “the most stressful the job has been.” Perhaps the only happy member of the creative team was colorist Chris Sotomayor, who, attempting to play along with Manley’s style, colored Ross’ shirt in *Black Panther #10 (1999) with the same red/yellow pattern familiarly worn by Billy Batson (the Fawcett super-hero Captain Marvel). “This is one of the many liberties I’ve taken in coloring this book,” Sotomayor admitted on Usenet. “I’ve had a lot of fun on this and I’ve managed to ‘slip a few things in’ throughout the book.”

The series found better opportunities for inviting comparisons to Batman during the time of artists Sal Velluto and Bob Almond. In a dream sequence in issue #22 (2000), Ross imagined himself as a thinly disguised version of Robin, working alongside a very Batman-esque Black Panther who drove a panther-themed sportscar (and also referred to Ross as his “old chum,” in the manner of Adam West’s portrayal of Batman). The not-quite-so dynamic duo go so far as to strike a pose familiar to any reader who had seen Carmine Infantino’s pin-up page from Detective Comics #352 (1966). The dream also featured the Panther’s foes Achebe (styled as the Joker) and Nakia (styled as Catwoman). Of course, this scene did not exist simply for the sake of leaning on the fourth wall but as an exploration of Ross and T’Challa’s complicated relationship; as critic Lee Vetten observed, “in this issue [Ross] is literally the Robin to his Batman.”

*Black Panther #36-37 (2001) went even further with a two-part story titled “The Once and Future King.” Set in a future time with an aging T’Challa and Ross, it was knowingly crafted as an homage to Frank Miller’s famed story *The Dark Knight Returns. As Priest admitted on Usenet, “Batman is likely my favorite character, but I’ve never made the cut to get a regular Bat slot. My take on PANTHER is very Batman in a sense, so I thought it would be fun to play with some of the iconography of the Bat legend in ‘the Once and Future King’.”

The references included Velluto and Almond redesigning the aged Ross to physically resemble Batman character Commissioner James Gordon (Ross is introduced standing next to a lit spotlight, referencing the Bat-signal). In another Usenet post, Priest noted that Hunter’s missing arm was a reference to Green Arrow’s missing arm in *The Dark Knight Returns, that a sequence in which T’Challa’s daughter Faida went racing was “’borrowing’ the opening race car sequence from TDKR” as was the slow build to T’Challa coming out of retirement – what Priest called the “make-you-wait-forever-for-him-to-suit-up moment when the hero comes out of retirement.” The references were not lost on critics, as Randy Lander wrote approvingly of the story’s “Batman riff.”

But Priest’s awareness of the fourth wall was perhaps nowhere more playful than when he would satirize his own series. Aware that the non-linear storytelling method used by Ross to narrate the series had been criticized, Priest chose to abandon it entirely after Black Panther #17 (1999). In that issue, Ross’ attempt to tie up the convoluted story he had been telling Nikki Adams since the first issue (where Nikki herself complained Ross’ story was like “watching Pulp Fiction in rewind”) was finally completed by supporting character Queen Divine Justice. Nikki congratulated QDJ, stating “Well, thanks for that. Ross couldn’t tell a story straight to save his life.”

Despite these many instances of Priest’s *Black Panther leaning on the fourth wall, he refrained from breaking it. Perhaps all comic writers took notes at how Byrne’s *Sensational She-Hulk stories had been received. However, as noted above, Priest did not demonstrate this restraint when writing *Deadpool, instead following in the tradition of his predecessor Joe Kelly in using the character to break the fourth wall. Somehow, *Deadpool has continued to thrive and sidestep any of the same criticisms earlier lobbed at Byrne’s *Sensational She-Hulk. Priest would also break restraint on he and Mark Bright’s series *Quantum & Woody, such as a 3-page sequence opening the fourth issue of that series titled “Speckling the Fourth Wall” in which the lead characters spoke directly to the audience about the entanglements caused when the creative team planned to use the ‘n-word’ in text. Priest presented those pages on his website with the comment: “Quantum & Woody kick down the fourth wall.”

To tie Quantum & Woody back to the Black Panther, in the pages of Acclaim’s *Quantum & Woody #20 (2000), Priest and Mark Bright concocted a parody of Priest’s story for *Black Panther #15 using the same layouts drawn by Sal Velluto for the comic book adventures of ‘Dark Kitty.’ Reading the comic, Woody exclaimed: “Lame… lame… seriously lame… although Dark Kitty’s two tall babe sidekicks are a nice touch… and who’s this ‘Russ’ guy…? The story is told all out of order – you can’t follow the damned thing… God, they just let any idiot write this stuff, don’t they—”

Bibliography

“Mondo Marvel Comics.” *Marvel Age, May 1991, Vol. 1, No. 100, pp. 2.

Cadenhead, Rogers. “She-Hulk.” *Amazing Heroes Preview Special, Fall 1990, No. 11, pp. 102.

Cuddon, J. A. *A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.