Black Panther #2 // Review
Beisa has seen a growing disparity between those with wealth and those without. Wakanda might not have the kind of poverty of any other major industrialized nation, but it DOES have a great deal of disparity...and that might mean that some are engaging in illegal activity. The hero known as Beisa looks to investigate this in Black Panther #2. Writer Eve L. Ewing continues an exploration into Wakanda with penciler Chris Allen, inker Craig Yeung, and colorist Jesus Aburtov. The complexities of power and politics in Wakanda make for kind of an interesting journey into a corner of the Marvel Universe that still remains underrepresented.
Beisa is looking into the estate of a wealthy mining family. On her way out, Black Panther is there. He thinks she might have been there to steal something. She thinks that he might be impersonating the former king of Wakanda. (Or maybe she’s just saying that much as an insult to make him lose his cool.) They’re both there for similar reasons. They’re both there to make certain that justice is served. They might have different ideas of what justice is, but they WILL find themselves forced to work together in the face of what lies ahead.
There is sophistication in what Ewing is bringing to the page. The contrast between Beisa and Black Panther is an interesting one given T’Challa’s evolving role in the nation of Wakanda. He’s trying to understand how the country is changing and might need an alternative perspective just as much as Beisa does. It’s a fun, dramatic dynamic, but it feels a little bit weird playing out in the middle of active physical confrontation. Ewing does a good job of mixing action with drama. It just feels like the scenes in the issue could be finessed and articulated in a way that might feel more natural.
Allen and Yeung move the action and suspense across the page with a composition that can feel a bit too tangled at times. Some of the angles that they’re framing the action from can feel casually breathtaking, but then things occasionally turn around and the action can feel a bit stiff here and there. Dramatic lighting can hit the page in appealing ways thanks to Aburtov’s colors. A fight between Beisa and Black Panther in the moonlight at night has a distinctive feel of shadow and form that feels immersive. There are very few night fights that make it to the comics page feeling like they’re happening at night. Aburtov does a remarkable job of giving the page a rich nocturnal glow.
The deeper themes of Ewing’s series will have a chance to expand and open up in the issues to come. The initial sketches of a nation in transition seem to hit page and panel a bit unevenly, but Ewing is doing a good job of establishing them with a degree of grace as Black Panther and Beisa get a bit closer in the second issue of the series.
