Black Panther: Black & White

Christopher Priest's run on Black Panther is the definitive take on the character, balancing character, action, and international politics into one of the smartest hero books to have ever been released. Late in the run, though, Priest started to go a little haywire. He started to bring in all these weird elements from Jack Kirby's insane 70s version of the Black Panther, including time traveling golden frogs, a loquacious dwarf, and a 7 foot tall woman dressed like Galactus. That craziness in itself wasn't necessarily bad, but the continuity Priest had built up over 50 issues on the book was fairly dense, and it was difficult for new readers to jump on board. So he took the book in a new direction with this (uncollected) storyline, in which a New York City policeman finds half a Black Panther costume and decides to use it to fight corrupt cops. It's a terrific crime book, and true to form was canceled basically right after this so thanks Marvel!

RATING: 90%